I watched the 85th Academy Awards presentation tonight. I don’t know if this will cement my status in the ultimate goober category, but I printed out a list of the nominees and made my predictions in all 24 categories. I am somewhat proud to announce that I got 10 right, and about half of those were lucky guesses.

I fared better with the categories I actually knew something about, getting 4 of the 5 major categories and only missing the Best Actor in a Supporting Role, which I’m okay with since I haven’t seen any of the movies represented in that category.

My goal for the rest of 2013 is to watch every one of the movies nominated for Best Picture (the total so far is 1 down, 8 to go), and maybe one or two of the documentaries nominated. Possibly if I’m feeling brave enough I might even watch one or two of the films nominated for Best Foreign Film. But no promises on that.

Obviously, I am not an actor, producer, or directer. I have very little knowledge of the technical side of film-making. I just know what I like and usually what I gravitate toward are movies about people I can relate to, as long as they’re not incredibly depressing. I don’t mind sad movies, as long as they’re not morbidly sad with no redeeming qualities.

I saw most of the awards ceremony at a friend’s house with some of the people from my Sunday School class. It was a fun, low-key night that made the ceremony better, even if I did strike out on most of the categories.

Hopefully, next year I will have seen more of the nominated movies and can have more to base my decisions on than eeney-meeney-miney-moe or blind guesses. Maybe I’ll go back and watch some of the older Oscar-winning movies that I’ve missed.