Before providing the winner's name, which I hope to be able to do on Monday 2/25, I thought I'd provide an aggregate of how participants voted. We'll see how close these come to the actual results. In the case when the top voter got <50% of the total vote, I have provided the second place contestant.

MAJOR CATEGORIES (3 points each):

BEST PICTURE:
Argo (93%)

DIRECTOR:
Steven Spielberg (76%)

LEAD ACTOR:
Daniel Day-Lewis (97%)

LEAD ACTRESS:
Jennifer Lawrence (76%)

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Tommy Lee Jones (46%); second place = Robert De Niro (29%)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Anne Hathaway (99%)

MEDIUM CATEGORIES (2 points each):

ANIMATED FEATURE:
Wreck-It Ralph (71%)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Searching for Sugar Man (90%)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Amour (100%) - the only unanimous vote-getter

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Argo (47%); second place = Lincoln (40%)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Django Unchained (56%)

MINOR CATEGORIES (1 point each):

PRODUCTION DESIGN:
Les Miserables (43%); second place = Anna Karenina (32%)

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Life of Pi (90%)

COSTUME DESIGN:
Anna Karenina (72%)

FILM EDITING:
Argo (83%)

MAKEUP:
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (60%)

MUSIC (SCORE):
Life of Pi (64%)

MUSIC (SONG):
"Skyfall" from "Skyfall" (99%)

SOUND EDITING:
Zero Dark Thirty (56%)

SOUND MIXING:
Les Miserables (81%)

VISUAL EFFECTS:
Life of Pi (92%)

Interestingly, I am only in disagreement with the majority in one category - Best Adapted Screenplay - and, to be perfectly honest, this is one of the two categories in which I am *very* unsure of my accuracy. The other one is Best Supporting Actor. Huge momentum swings since I made my picks have put "Argo" and Christoph Waltz in a strong position to win. If I was picking today, I might not have made the same picks I did a couple weeks ago. But them's the breaks.

Good luck to everyone tonight!

Time for the official results...

First, I scored middle-of-the-pack, so it wasn't exceptionally hard to beat me this year. 15/21 for a total of 26 points.

25 of 72 entrants beat Berardinelli. Congrats to all!

However, FOUR tied for the top position with 33 points (each missed three: one major and two minors):

Alex
Seanzyyap
minnesotachris
Ryan Underdahl

So it comes down to the "time of Best Picture" tie-breaker. The Best Picture winner was officially announced at 11:55 EST.

Here are the times guessed:

Alex - 11:56
Seanzyyap - 11:42
minnesotachris -11:38
Ryan Underdahl - 11:53

Alex and Ryan Underdahl are both about a minute off (we didn't go down to the second hand so it's not clear who was really closer). So I'm going to declare two winners with Alex designated as the "primary winner."

Here's how the prize(s) will be awarded. I'm only giving out a maximum of one free DVD/Blu-Ray.

Alex will get to choose whether he wants a custom review or the DVD/Blu-Ray. Once he has made his decision, it's Ryan Underdahl's turn. If Alex has chosen the custom review, Ryan can choose either a custom review or the DVD/Blu-Ray. If Alex has chosen the DVD/Blu-Ray, Ryan is locked into the custom review.

The winners will be contacted by PM. I'll unlock this topic for comments.

Oh so close! Congrats to the two winners - I look forward to the custom review(s)!

Congratulations Alex and Ryan !

Good job guys. My suggestion for a custom review: 'Once Upon A Time In America'. Would love to read James' take on that. Or a good alternative - 'Miller's Crossing'.

Once Upon A Time In America. Good call. Actually, I would prefer Once Upon A Time In The West, which JB has also not reviewed.

There is one film in particular that I remember being surprised that James had not reviewed, but its name escapes me! Anyway I have already communicated my choice to James so if there are any requests, you must direct them towards Ryan!

Dang it. I thought that I did really well this year.

Congratulations to both winners. That's code for "I'll get you next year!".

You did well enough to beat me.

Another fun fact. Last year's winner, tysonmp, came in near the top this year with 31 points. Maybe I'll have him fill out my ballot next year.

Congrats Ryan and Alex! Tysonmp should become our go-to guy.

FWIW, (probably not much), If I won, my custom review would have been "Daydream Nation", a 2010 movie that really didn't get a lot of reviews, but I thought wasn't half bad.

what did you choose?

Tyrannosaur (2011) - Paddy Considine

In a way, it's a typical gritty, miserable, working class British drama. After seeing it, it stayed in my thoughts for a long time. I was blown away by the performances, particulary Olivia Colman, so I am very interested to read James's review.

Congratulations Alex and Ryan! Any indication as to when the reviews will be available?

And I'm looking forward to next year already

So Berardinelli will be reviewing Tyrannosaur, I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang, and Following. Well played, contest winners, well played.

Two of the three are easy for me to access. TYRANNOSAUR is available via streaming from Netflix. I own a copy of FOLLOWING. I'll have to rend CHAIN GANG. I'll do TYRANNOSAUR first because Netflix streaming availability is variable. What's available today may not be available in a week or two.

Probably looking at mid-March for TYRANNOSAUR, end March for CHAIN GANG, and mid-April for FOLLOWING.

Why are three films being reviewed if there are two winners? I don't understand.

I won the So You Think You Know James? contest last year but only belatedly got around to telling Mr. Berardinelli my movie choice.

I picked I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (32). I remember seeing it in a repertory theater a few years ago and being blown away, especially by the ending. I was also hoping to find a movie for which the possibility existed that Mr. Berardinellli would give it four stars, and since my three movie review books all give it four stars, it has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it is one of the 200 Greatest Films according to http://www.filmsite.org/, I thought it was a good candidate.

Mr. Berardinellil has said that it is actually a film he hasn't seen and he is looking forward to viewing it. So it looks like I still have a chance!

^great choice. some posters here are big fans. its cool to pick something JB hasn't seen. and something from the 30s(he doesn't have many reviews from that decade)

any new ETA's on these?

any idea when these reviews will be up?