Oscars 2014: Our play-at-home ballot voters know their stuff

There were few surprises during Sunday’s Academy Awards show, at least according to the thousands of L.A. Times readers who submitted their Oscar picks via our play-at-home ballot.

The average reader got about half of his or her picks correct, with several people getting near-perfect scores.

The winner for best picture, “12 Years a Slave,” received about 55% of the vote -- with the next most popular choice from the nine-film field, “American Hustle,” getting a paltry 14%. Given that most pundits felt the best picture contest was a three-way race among “12 Years a Slave,” “American Hustle” and “Gravity,” the selection of the eventual winner was a respectable showing indeed.

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Still, this was a year of few surprises in general at the Oscars; outside of best picture and one or two other categories, many of the winners Sunday had been sweeping through the season.

“Frozen,” the winner for animated feature and a heavy favorite among awards oddsmakers, received 80% of the vote in that category, while “Despicable Me 2” (10%) came in a distant second.

Alfonso Cuarón, who won an Oscar for directing “Gravity,” received about half the votes from Times readers. Steve McQueen, director of “12 Years a Slave,” came in second with about 22%.

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Jennifer Lawrence, nominated for best supporting actress for her role in “American Hustle,” was one of the most popular incorrect picks with 37% of the vote. She was defeated by Lupita Nyong’o, who got just over 50% of the readers’ vote, for her performance in “12 Years a Slave.”

In the acting categories, winner Matthew McConaughey (“Dallas Buyers Club”) received 57% of the vote for lead actor, winner Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”) got 52% for lead actress, and winner Jared Leto got nearly 64% of the votes for supporting actor for his role in “Dallas Buyers Club.”

When we aggregated all of the answers, L.A. Times readers only got two categories wrong: documentary feature and animated short film.

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“The Act of Killing” was the reader favorite for documentary, receiving about 33% of the vote, but “20 Feet From Stardom” won and was picked by about 24% of Times users.

The animated short film “Get a Horse!” the favorite among many prognosticators given that it is from Disney Animation Studios and was shown in theaters preceding “Frozen,” got about 43% of the vote, but “Mr. Hublot” won and was picked by about 20% of Times readers.