Some years, picking the Oscar winners practically requires a degree in psychology.

You’ve got to try to figure out Oscar voters’ choices based on track records, sentimentality or the fact that some actor is simply “due” to win some hardware.

And some years it’s just obvious to everyone who the best actors are and which films tower above the rest.

This was one of those years. And the results of our annual Readers Pick the Oscars contest prove it.

Out of the 444 people who took our poll this year — online or on printed ballots — a whopping 49 got every answer correct.

We asked people to pick the winners in the six major Oscar categories — best film, actor, actress, supporting actor, supporting actress and director.

“I saw all the major films and thought this was a very predictable year,” said Karen Austen, a yoga instructor and massage therapist from Freeport who went six for six in our poll. “I saw the Screen Actors Guild Awards and it went about the same (as the Oscars), and I agreed.”

The winners in the major categories were: best picture, “The King’s Speech”; best actor, Colin Firth for “The King’s Speech”; best actress, Natalie Portman for “Black Swan”; supporting actor, Christian Bale for “The Fighter”; supporting actress, Melissa Leo for “The Fighter”; and director, Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech.”

The fact that “The King’s Speech” was full of critically acclaimed actors certainly helped it. Plus, most critics picked it to win a slew of awards months ago.

Austen points out that many people, including herself, thought Firth should have won the Oscar last year for “A Single Man.” So coming close one year probably helped him this year.

But it seems this was one of those years when the Oscar voters and movie-going public pretty much agreed on who the best performers were.

“My husband and I go to the movies every week, and so I just picked the ones I thought were the best,” said Austen.

Some years, Mainers have an extra incentive to root for Oscar nominees if a Maine actor or film is in the running. Last year, Mainer Anna Kendrick was nominated for best supporting actress for “Up in the Air.” But this year, there was no such rooting interest for Mainers.

To entice people to vote in our poll, we offered pairs of movie tickets to people picked at random from those who got the most answers correct.

So our three movie ticket winners are: Austen, Rita Duffy of South Portland and Edward Bridle of Kittery.

Staff Writer Ray Routhier can be contacted at 791-6454 or at:

rrouthier@pressherald.com

 

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