Pick a winner

This just might be the year the goodfellas over at the Academy reward Martin Scorsese.

Finally. Coming into 2005, Scorsese, arguably the best living American film director, had earned five previous Best Director nominations (including in 1991 for “Goodfellas”).

His win total: zilch.

But this year, Scorsese’s “The Aviator” – a large, spendy and thoroughly Hollywood look at the life of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes – has given the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences the chance finally to do what’s right.

(Some of us are still struggling to understand what they did in 1981, which was to give the Oscar to Robert Redford for the utterly forgettable “Ordinary People” instead of to Scorsese for “Raging Bull,” a film that will be studied in film school long after we’re all dead. But then who’s bitter?)

Still, as those who have participated over the years in The Spokesman-Review’s annual Oscar contest know, no one has the ability to perfectly channel the minds of the 6,000-odd Academy members. Neither Scorsese nor any of the favored acting nominees – Jamie Foxx (Best Actor, “Ray”), Hilary Swank (Best Actress, “Million Dollar Baby”), Cate Blanchett (Supporting Actress, “The Aviator”) or Morgan Freeman (Supporting Actor, “Million Dollar Baby”) – is a sure thing.

Yet that never stops S-R readers from trying to pick the winners. By the time ABC announces the results, in a television broadcast that begins at 5 p.m. PDT on Feb. 27, readers will already have had their say. And when the night is over, one will have emerged as this year’s winner of the top prize: $100 in movie passes. Second- and third-place winners will claim, respectively, $50 and $25 movie-pass prizes.

Here’s how to enter: Use the official newspaper ballot (sorry, no photocopies will be accepted) and mark your choices. Send them to the address listed below postmarked no later than Feb. 21.

To enter the contest online, go to www.spokesmanreview.com and follow the instructions.

However you choose to enter, remember to do so. We thank you and Martin Scorsese does, too.

We’re all goodfellas at heart.