The voting lines for the most prestigious of awards – the Oscars, were shut on February 19, 2013. The lines were closed after a big spending campaign by Hollywood Studios and the first online balloting system in the 85-year-old history of the Academy awards.
There are around 24 Oscar categories, for which more than 5,800 movie industry professionals, who are also the members of the Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, were invited to vote. The voting lines opened on February 8, 2013 and ended at 5 pm on Tuesday, February 19, 2013.
Reports said that the results will be tabulated at a secret location by counting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. The firm will be delivering the name of the winner from backstage at the February 24, 2013 ceremony, which will be telecast live from Hollywood.
There is huge competition for the Best Picture, Director, Actress and Supporting Actor awards. Experts have said that it will be a close call and most newspapers, radio, trade publications and movie studios have been busy with the promotions of the nominees. The accounting firm has claimed that there has not been a single security breach during the secret voting process in 79 years. This year the firm faced a new challenge of online voting.
