Eagle Oscar Contest winner’s coworkers all want to go to the movies

It wasn’t exactly an easy year to predict the winners of the Academy Awards. If you watched the broadcast on Feb. 26 and saw the colossal blunder when the wrong film was announced as the Best Picture winner, you know that even the people in charge struggled.

And even the best guessers in our annual contest weren’t able to get a perfect score.

We had two separate age categories in the Warren Theatre/Wichita Eagle contest, which asked people to predict the winners on an online ballot. Adult competitors had to predict the winners in 24 categories. Entrants ages 13 to 17 had to guess only 12 categories.

The adult winner, who pocketed $350 in Warren Theatre gift certificates, was Sheldon Stevens, a movie fan who works as an accountant at Koch Industries. He guessed 19 categories correctly.

Stevens said he has entered the contest every year for the past several years and always researches what critics and bloggers are saying when making his choices. He saw most of the nominated movies this year, he said, and his favorite was “La La Land.”

“When I walked out of the theater, I thought, ‘That was a really fun movie,’ ” he said.

Stevens said he was actually surprised that no one outguessed him, but he’s not complaining. And neither are his coworkers at Koch, many of whom have already suggested he treat them to a movie date.

The second-place winner in the adult category was Matthew Linnabary, who won $200 in gift certificates. Third place and $100 in gift certificates went to Lyndi Schnelle.

In the contest for ages 13-17, the winner was Tucker Benson, 16, from Derby, who guessed nine of 12 categories correctly. He wins $150 in gift certificates. Benson also won the contest in 2014.

Second place and $100 in gift certificates went to Casey Loving, 15, of Wichita, and third and $50 in gift certificates went to Olivia Worsham, 15, of Medicine Lodge.

This story was originally published March 10, 2017 at 4:34 PM with the headline "Eagle Oscar Contest winner’s coworkers all want to go to the movies."