I got 16 out of 24. I’d have gotten a few more if I’d just picked LOTR for every category it was nominated for, but I had a feeling that some of the awards like art direction or costume might go to other films since LOTR’s costumes and art direction and effects had been seen before. My best indicator for the documentary categories (“Is it about Nazis?”) failed me as none of the documentaries were about Nazis, but I still got the short subject right. I didn’t know a thing about the short features, live or animated, so I picked two pretty much at random and nailed them both. I got all the acting awards right along with director, original screenplay and picture.
I kinda cheated: I didn’t count the ones I had no idea about–shorts, etc.–or the ones that were totally up for grabs; that seemed like a tie to me–like Best Actor. With those cheats in mind, I was 13 for 15. Missed Editing and Cinematography.
–oh and many of my picks were not who I wanted to win, just who I cynically expected to win.
My choices would have been
Lost in Translation
Fernando Meirelles
Bill Murray
Keisha Castle-Hughes
Tim Robbins
Shohreh Aghdashloo
Triplets of Bellevue
Cinematography: Girl/Pearl
Editing: City of God
Makeup: Monster, even though it wasn’t nominated
Score: Howard Shore
Song: Triplets of B
I got 15 out of 24. I got all the acting right, but blew it in costumes, score, cinematography, both documentaries, foreign language film, adapted writing, sound mixing and live short film.
20 out of 24. Missed the shorts and cinematography (because I over-thought it.)
All the obvious signs pointed to Penn/Theron/Robbins/Zellweger/ROTK for everything else, and this time the obvious signs were right. 
14/24. I went with some choices that I knew weren’t probably the best, but was hoping for them (Coppola for director, Murray for actor, etc)
Oh well. Another Oscar pool lost.
20/24. I messed up on Cinematography (Girl With a Pearl Earring instead of Master and Commander), Original Song (“Belleville Rendezvous” instead of “Into the West”), Animated Short Film (Destino instead of Harvie Krumpet), and Live Action Short Film (The Red Jacket instead of Two Soldiers). I ended up tying for first place in my Oscar pool, which netted me $15 bucks and another $5 from my sister as she favored Johnny Depp for Best Actor.
19, although I just picked the favorites in the foreign-language and short categories, not having seen any of them.
On the other hand, I probably would have done better if I hadn’t let my heart rule my head in adapted screenplay (“American Splendor”) and actor (Bill Murray).
I did very badly. I really did believe that the Academy would blow off LOTR outside of the technical categories (but I am happy to be wrong).
What do the nominees get besides the expensive gift bag?
Do they get a certificate to frame or something official looking?