The Oscar vote counters

Rick Rosas and Greg Garrison may just be the most nervous men in Hollywood. Who? They're the guys who counted the votes. "I'm a tax accountant," claims Rosas. "I don't mean to sound Jimmy Stewart-like, but I'm just a simple tax accountant who finds himself in an extraordinary circumstance."

Since the ballots closed on Wednesday, Rosas and Garrison, accountants of the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, have been locked in a room with their staff sorting and authenticating ballots from the Academy's 5700 voting members.

Only Rosas and Garrison know the final vote counts and each must memorise all the winners in case an envelope goes missing or one of the two fails to show at the ceremony.

nzherald.co.nz/oscars

Oscar nominees (full list)