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

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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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FULL COVERAGE: Oscars 2014 | Complete list of winners

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.

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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.”

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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.

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