Newsweek‘s current issue features its annual pre-nominations “Oscar roundtable”–and either it’ll look dated when nominations are announced tomorrow, or we need to adjust our predictions! The panelists are likely nominees George Clooney and Viola Davis (the working-it pair both recently appeared together on an Entertainment Weekly cover, too), as well as Christopher Plummer, Tilda Swinton, Michael Fassbender, and Charlize Theron.
How good is Newsweek at choosing panelists who will be Oscar-nominated? Some years are great–last year’s panel featured six eventual nominees and both the Best Actor and Best Actress–and others less predictive. In the past ten Oscar panels (discounting the two panels speaking to five directors apiece, of whose number eight ended up nominated), 48 actors have been interviewed about their Oscar hopeful performances, with eight missing the mark. These “losers” include Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Naomi Watts, so their inclusion isn’t exactly surprising.
The rate of an Oscar roundtabler getting an Oscar nomination, 40 of 48, is exactly a 5/6 probability–so one of the current panelists (sorry, Charlize! We really loved Young Adult) will probably have talked about the Oscars a bit presumptively.
