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Laemmle’s 2026 Oscar Contest: The Results Are In!

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Another Academy Awards night has come and gone, which means it’s time to reveal the winners of Laemmle Theatres’ annual Oscar prediction contest!

Laemmle’s 2026 Oscar Contest: The Results Are In!

As always, our movie-loving patrons proved remarkably prescient, though a few of this year’s categories kept everyone guessing right up until the final envelope.

1st Place: James – $100 Laemmle Gift Card

2nd Place: Joshua – $50 Laemmle Gift Card

3rd Place: Michael – $25 Laemmle Gift Card

Congratulations to our winners! We’ll be reaching out soon about your prizes.

As it turned out, our top contestants were so evenly matched that we had to rely on the tie-breaker question—guessing the total runtime of the Oscars telecast—to determine the final standings. This year’s ceremony clocked in at 235 minutes, which ultimately separated first place from the rest of the pack.

Several of the night’s biggest races also proved surprisingly divisive among Laemmle voters. Best Actor was one of the most hotly contested categories, with about half of participants predicting Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme. In the end, however, the Academy went (perhaps ‘chasséd’) another direction, awarding the Oscar to Michael B. Jordan for Sinners.

Laemmle’s 2026 Oscar Contest: The Results Are In!

The Best Supporting Actor category also split voters, many of whom predicted either Sean Penn for One Battle After Another (who ultimately took home the award) or Stellan Skarsgård for Sentimental Value. Meanwhile, Best Cinematography was another toss-up among our contestants, with many selecting One Battle After Another, though the Oscar ultimately went to Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Sinners—making history as the first woman ever to win the award.

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s contest! Be sure to check out our fancy pie charts and breakdown of how Laemmle patrons voted across all the categories.

And of course, it’s never too early to start thinking about next year’s contenders. See you at the movies—and at next year’s Oscars contest!

Moviegoers, Start Your Guesses! The Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest Is Back!

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The Oscar nominations are out, the debates are raging, and once again it’s time to test your instincts against those of the Academy. Welcome to the Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest, our favorite annual exercise in hope, hubris, and lovingly overthought predictions.

Teyana Taylor in One Battle After Another
One Battle After Another

If last year proved anything, it’s that certainty can be a dangerous commodity. After all, a whopping 66.1% of Laemmle patrons were convinced Demi Moore would win Best Actress for The Substance, while only 10.7% correctly predicted Mikey Madison’s longshot victory for Anora. Consensus, as it turns out, is no guarantee of clairvoyance.

The same pattern emerged across the technical and animated races. In Best Film Editing, 35.6% of Laemmle patrons expected Conclave (edited by Nick Emerson) to prevail, compared with only 20.1% backing Anora and Sean Baker. Meanwhile, nearly half of patrons (49.3%) anticipated The Wild Robot would take Best Animated Feature, outpacing Flow, which drew 32.5% of the vote. In each case, confidence ran high—and accuracy proved elusive.

This year’s lineup looks just as volatile. Several major categories feel genuinely up for grabs, with no outcome that can be declared “locked” without inviting embarrassment. Best Picture, in particular, seems poised to divide even the most seasoned Oscar-watchers. That’s where you come in.

If you, dear cinephile, can accurately predict how the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will vote across all 23 categories (or come impressively close), you’ll win movie passes good at all Laemmle locations(!!) along with the quiet satisfaction of having outguessed the crowd. As always, the contest includes a tie-breaker: your best estimate of the ceremony’s total running time.

Moviegoers, Start Your Guesses! The Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest Is Back!
Sinners

The 98th Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 15, and we’ll announce the winners shortly afterward, complete with our signature snazzy charts and statistical deep-dives.

Want a real edge over the competition? Don’t overlook the short film categories. The animated, live-action, and documentary shorts are often where the widest gaps in knowledge—and therefore opportunity—exist. Seeing these nominees can dramatically improve your odds, and we’ll begin screening all three categories starting February 20th.

Good luck. Argue passionately. Second-guess everything. And remember: the Oscars rarely reward certainty, but they always reward participation.

Happy guessing!

– Your fellow cinephiles at Laemmle Theatres

Calling All Laemmle Moviegoers! Submit Your Top 5 Films of 2025

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As another incredible movie year comes to a close, we want to hear from you. What were your five favorite films of 2025?

Critics everywhere are weighing in—from major outlets like Variety, IndieWire, Rolling Stone, TIME, the LA Times, and beyond—but now it’s your turn to have a say. Whether your list leans arthouse, international, documentary, studio spectacle, or something gloriously unclassifiable, we want to know what films moved, thrilled, challenged, and/or stuck with you long after the credits rolled.

Calling All Laemmle Moviegoers! Submit Your Top 5 Films of 2025

Was it Josh Safdie’s ballsy sports dramedy Marty Supreme? Ryan Coogler’s vampiric period piece Sinners? Paul Thomas Anderson’s screwball adventure One Battle After Another? Richard Linklater’s cinephile dream Nouvelle Vague? Or something quieter, stranger, or more under-the-radar that critics missed but you didn’t? Consensus is optional—conviction is not.

A Laemmle gift card

Submit your personal ‘Top 5 Films of 2025’ by clicking here and you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of three $25 Laemmle Gift Cards, perfect for future movie nights, concessions, or merch. One entry per person, open to everyone, and no wrong answers (we promise).

In addition to the contest, all submissions will be tallied and compiled into a Laemmle Patrons’ Top 10 Films of 2025: a collective snapshot of what our audience loved most this year, beyond critics’ lists and awards chatter.

Calling All Laemmle Moviegoers! Submit Your Top 5 Films of 2025

Need inspiration? Feel free to browse the many year-end lists circulating from critics and publications, but don’t feel bound by consensus. This is about your year in movies: the films you championed, revisited, debated, or maybe even defended passionately in the lobby afterward.

We can’t wait to see what rises to the top. Lights down, pens up—Let’s make some lists. 🎬

Explore some sample lists from…

  1. The Hollywood Reporter
  1. Variety
  1. IndieWire
  1. Rolling Stone
  1. RogerEbert.com
  1. Time
  1. NY Post
  1. NPR
  1. LA Times

And finally, from our very own Greg Laemmle.

Oscars 2025: The ANORA director advocates for movie theaters, and the Academy honors Robert Laemmle. Plus: Oscar Contest winners.

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The 2025 Oscars are in the history books. It was a good night, with a funny, skilled host in Conan O’Brien and a fairly equitable distribution of statuettes for some terrific movies. It was also a good night for theatrical exhibition, better known as good, old-fashioned moviegoing. As he did during his speech accepting the Palme d’Or last year in Cannes, Anora filmmaker Sean Baker gave a passionate, trenchant speech in favor of seeing movies as filmmakers have always intended them to be seen, in theaters. After accepting the Oscar for Best Director from filmmaker (and movie theater owner) Quentin Tarantino, Baker said the following to almost 20 million Americans watching live and far more people worldwide:
“I’m going to take this time up here really quick to read something I’m very passionate about…so we’re all here tonight and watching this broadcast because we love movies. Where did we fall in love with the movies? At the movie theater. Watching a film …in the theater with an audience is an experience. We can laugh together, cry together, scream in fright together, perhaps sit in devastated silence together. And in a time in which the world can feel very divided, this is more important than ever. It’s a communal experience you simply don’t get at home, and right now the theatergoing experience is under threat. Movie theaters, especially independently owned theaters, are struggling, and it’s up to us to support them. During the pandemic we lost nearly 1000 screens in the U.S., and we continue to lose them regularly. If we don’t reverse this trend, we’ll be losing a vital part of our culture. This is my battle cry. Filmmakers, keep making films for the big screen. I know I will. Distributors…please focus first and foremost on the theatrical releases of your films. Neon did that for me, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Parents…introduce your children to feature films in movie theaters, and you’ll be molding the next generation of movie lovers and filmmakers. And for all of us, when we can, please watch movies in the theater, and let’s keep the great tradition of the moviegoing experience alive and well.”
The always moving In Memoriam section of the Oscars broadcast was especially powerful this year. This may have been because the losses of huge talents seemed particularly heavy this year. For us at Laemmle Theatres, of course, we are still grieving the loss of Robert Laemmle, our former president and Greg Laemmle’s father. What an honor for Bob to be the first exhibitor included in the in Memoriam montage.
Finally, we are pleased to announce this year’s winners of the Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest.
FIRST PLACE: Stefan with 18 correct answers.
SECOND PLACE: Joel with 18 correct answers.
TIE for THIRD PLACE: Kelly & Cole with 17 correct answers (plus closest run-time to actual runtime broadcast).
Check out our nifty pie charts to see how our savvy customers divined the Academy members’ choices. Last year our winner correctly guessed 21 categories, so this was a tough year. As predicted, the Best Actress category was one of the trickiest; only 10.7% guessed that Mikey Madison would win for her turn in Anora, defying the conventional wisdom that Demi Moore would win for The Substance, and that Fernanda Torres was the true dark horse for her performance in I’m Still Here. Half of our contestants thought The Wild Robot would take the Best Animated Feature prize, but the acclaimed little Latvian film Flow came out on top. Almost 25% of contestants thought Timothée Chalamet would win for Best Actor for A Complete Unknown, no doubt misled by his Screen Actors Guild Awards victory.
Winners, we will be in touch to get you your movie pass prizes. Congratulations!

Top Ten contest results!

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Our movie-loving customers have votes for their favorite films of 2024! The top ten customer-chosen films are, in order from 1 to 10:
  1. Anora
  2. Conclave
  3. The Brutalist
  4. Dune: Part Two
  5. A Complete Unknown
  6. Emilia Pérez
  7. Wicked
  8. A Real Pain
  9. Challengers
  10. The Substance
The lucky randomly chosen winners for free passes (soon to be mailed) are:
1) Jeff W.
2) Mia S.
3) Riley K.
Congratulations to our winners and thanks to everyone for playing!

Moviegoers, start your guesses! The Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest has begun.

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The Oscar nominations are out and it was another excellent cinematic year. As always, some categories will be more unpredictable than others. Last year, most contestants 59.5% thought Lily Gladstone would win Best Actress for Killers of the Flower Moon, while only 29.7% correctly divined that Emma Stone would win for Poor Things. This year, Best Picture may be the most challenging category; there are at least six real possibilities. That’s where you come in because it’s time for our Umpteenth Annual Laemmle Oscar Contest! If you, dear cinephile, can accurately predict how the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences will vote in all 23 categories, (or close to it), all while coping with the fact that Marianne Jean-Baptiste was snubbed for her stupendous turn in Hard Truths, you will win movie passes good at all Laemmle venues! These contests are always close so we have a tie-breaker question: try to guess the running time! The 97th Academy Awards ceremony takes place on Sunday, March 2 and we’ll announce the winners (with snazzy charts) soon afterwards.

A very entertaining way to improve your odds is to watch the Oscar-nominated shorts. We’ll start screening all of them — the animated, live action, and documentary — beginning February 14.

Good luck!

Enter our Top Five Films of 2024 contest! Bonus: Read Greg Laemmle’s list.

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Can you name your five favorite films released last year? Enter our contest here, use our handy-dandy drop-down menus to quickly choose five, and you’ll automatically be entered into a raffle to win a gift card! Also, we’ll create an overall customer top ten list from all the entries.  In case you need your memory jogged, Greg Laemmle composed the following:
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“I’m actually kind of glad that we are only asking for everyone’s five favorite films this year.  Yes, we will compile all the submissions and ultimately turn it into a Laemmle Patron Top 10 list, so maybe that’s a cheat. But as I sit here looking at my top films from 2024, it’s actually kind of helpful to try to distinguish between the films that are merely really good, and the ones that are most memorable.
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“First, I need to confess that even though I am the person responsible for selecting which films we are going to exhibit, I admit that there are films we are playing (or have played) that I did not see myself. I try to see everything, but it’s not always possible. Also, I have this “thing” about seeing films in a movie theatre and not at home, which makes it doubly hard to see everything. So if you don’t see THE BRUTALIST, EMILIA PÉREZ or THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (among others) on my list, it’s not because I didn’t care for these critical and awards favorites. It’s because I still need to catch up with them at an actual screening.
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“If I could submit a Top 10 list, it would likely include ANORA, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, CONCLAVE, DIDI, DUNE: PART TWO, THELMA or VERMIGLIO. These, and others, are all really good. And on another day or in another situation, they might even crack the Top 5. But as I sit here typing at this moment in time, I believe the following are the five movies from 2024 that will most stick with me.
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“#5 – HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS – Without a doubt, the film that had me laughing the most in 2024. Yes, it is perhaps a bit overstuffed with gags. But hey, they didn’t exactly have a budget for test screenings. Whatever the filmmakers of this indie gem lacked in dollars, though, was more than made up by their ingenuity and verve. I’m worried about what could happen to filmmakers like Mike Cheslik and Ryland Tews if they are not supported in the studio system. But also really excited to see what kind of energy they could pump into a Marvel-type film. So go ahead, Hollywood. Give them the keys to the hot rod and see what happens. Whatever it is, it won’t be cookie-cutter boring.
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“#4 – PARADISE IS BURNING – This little gem deserved a lot more attention, and it is hard to understand why it was basically ignored when released at the tail end of summer. Director Mika Gustafson was awarded the Best Director prize at the Venice Film Festival when the film premiered in 2023, along with Best First Film prize at the subsequent London Film Festival. But when released stateside, it was ignored by both the New York Times and the local rag. That’s a real shame, because this tale of three sisters growing up in quasi-feral conditions in Sweden is the real deal, with a trio of young performers who will knock your socks off.
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“#3 – GAUCHO GAUCHO. Co-directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s previous film was the Oscar-nominated film THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS, which was one of the first films we showed on reopening the theaters in April 2021. And what a great film that was. But GAUCHO GAUCHO is even more beautiful to look at. It is incredibly frustrating that the film was barely available in theatres. Hopefully there will be more opportunities to see it on the big screen down the road. In the meantime, you should be able to find it on the new Jolt streaming service. It’s relatively short, so just hide your phone, lock away your remote after hitting play, and allow yourself to be immersed in this beautiful documentary. You won’t be sorry.
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“#2 – HARD TRUTHS. This isn’t necessarily an easy film. Director Mike Leigh drops us into this film about family dynamics mid story and maybe leaves us without a typical ending too. But he has clearly worked with his cast to create such an extensive backstory for each and every actor, that it just doesn’t matter. Or at least, it didn’t matter to me. If there is any justice in the world, Marianne Jean-Baptiste will be rewarded with an Oscar nomination for her work in this film.
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“#1 – I’M STILL HERE. Fernanda Torres may have been a surprise winner of the Best Actress in a Drama prize at the Golden Globes. But after seeing this film, you will understand why the Globe voters went with her over better-known nominees. She delivers the truest, most lived-in performance of any screen performer this year, and she is superbly aided in this by director Walter Salles, working from a screenplay by Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega. At this point, it would be a shock if the film is not nominated for the Best International Feature prize.  But if it were up to me, it would be competing for Best Film.”

Laemmle Oscar Contest Results!

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1st Place: Paola Lainez with 21 correct answers + the tie breaker question about the show’s running time.
2nd Place: Tami Lefko with 21 correct answers.
3rd Place: Kelly Kilmer with 20 correct answers.
Winners, we will soon be in touch with your movie pass prizes. Check out our snazzy pie charts for the full breakdown of how everyone voted.
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We had two people correctly guess 21 out of 23 categories! The top spot was ultimately decided by the customer that came closest to guessing the telecast run-time of 203 minutes! Best Actress Winner Emma Stone for Poor Things (still in theaters for at least one more week) was only chosen to win by 30% of our Laemmle patrons, who may have thought Lily Gladstone’s SAG win made her the favorite; nearly 60% of the vote tallied for Ms. Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon. Best Adapted Screenplay was also another changeling category, with votes close between Barbie, Oppenheimer, and eventual winner American Fiction.
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Thanks for playing! No time like the present to start thinking about 2025 Oscar favorites.
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