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Oscars

Oscars fails: when things go wrong

It's a seamlessly run annual event, but the Oscars does see the occasional blooper. We take a look at some of the more memorable whoopsies from the esteemed awards.

It is rare for two genuinely creative movies to be vying so closely to win best picture at the Academy Awards. With two 'B' movies - Birdman and Boyhood - this is one such year.

So Birdman, a movie about an actor in a theatre, is competing at an awards hosted by an actor in a theatre. And Boyhood, which was shot over 12 years, features at a ceremony that will seem like it lasts 12 years.

Michael Keaton in Birdman. Photo: New Regency Pictures

But, as always, the Oscars will be required viewing on Monday. Here are 10 things that we confidently predict will happen:

1. With a background in musical theatre, host Neil Patrick Harris will sing and dance. He may not be as talented, handsome or dapper as Hugh Jackman but hopefully he has some Fifty Shades of Grey jokes that are better than Fifty Shades of Grey.

2. Once the awards start being handed out, there are a number of take-it-to-the-bank certainties. One is that JK Simmons will win best supporting actor for playing a music teacher who bullies, threatens and intimidates his students in Whiplash. Let's see the orchestra try to cut off that speech!

3. Something will go deliciously wrong. Last year it was John Travolta introducing "the one and only, Adele Dazeem" to sing Let It Go instead of Idina Menzel. Hopefully he will be back playing the same fondly remembered role, Crazy Uncle, in future years.

4. Another certainty: Julianne Moore will win best actress for playing a brilliant college professor with early onset Alzheimer's disease in Still Alice. It will be the first win for an actor who once spent three years playing half-sisters on a daytime soap (As The World Turns from 1985-88). (And just to get in before the pedants: Daniel Day-Lewis only played half-sisters on a daytime soap for TWO years).

5. It will not be Australia's finest result at an Oscars. But fingers crossed for two nominees – David Lee for sound mixing on Unbroken and Tim Crosbie for visual effects on X-Men: Days of Future Past. Nicole Kidman is also presenting an award.

6. When actor Ansel Elgort(Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars) presents, Scrabble and crossword puzzle fans will wonder about the anagram possibilities of his name. Correct answers include "General Lost", "Legal Stoner" and, of course, "Adele Dazeem".