By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – Movie theaters in Lewiston, Auburn and Oxford plan to give away movies for a year to their best guesser.

All three Flagship Cinemas have erected tables in their lobbies with stacks of ballots, listing the nominees for the 78th Annual Academy Awards.

Until 5 p.m. on March 4, the day before the Oscars, the theaters will collect the ballots. The morning after the awards, the theaters will choose winners based on the best predictions.

Winners will be presented with an “Admiral’s Pass,” a ticket that gives the holder free admission at any Flagship cinema for a year.

In Oxford, the ballot box popped up last Friday, manager Kevin Frost said. Few folks have noticed it yet.

Then again, the Oscar race has yet to heat up.

The small-town cinema has shown only one of the five Best Picture nominees, “Crash.” Frost said he was unfamiliar with the others, even stumbling when he tried to pronounce the biopic “Capote.”

“We tend to lean towards family films here,” Frost said.

In Lewiston, several of the nominees have played, including “Brokeback Mountain” and “Munich.”

Both were well-received by local audiences, said James Grover, manager of the Lewiston theater.

His Boston-based chain tries to make sure that all of the nominated films get to Maine, he said, even if they do not get to every theater. That’s especially true in Lewiston-Auburn, where both theaters fall under the Flagship banner, he said.

The 11-year-old theater chain operates 11 movie cinemas with 98 screens in four states. Each cinema is holding the contest.

And one need not even see a movie to play.

“You can come in and fill out the form,” Grover said. “You don’t have to buy a ticket.”

The Academy Awards are scheduled for Sunday evening, March 5.