Stats: The puzzle page was loaded 342 times. 54 visitors had a go at it. 44 solvers completed both the puzzle and bonus form. The remaining solved it partly. 31 solvers got the full score.
All the Best<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
BONUS QUESTIONS:
Q1: What is the theme as indicated by the title?
ANS: Best Picture Oscar winners
Q2-17: 1 to 16 of 16 “best” entries
ANS: Going My Way, Casablanca, Rebecca, Rain Man, Argo, Rocky, Gigi, Grand Hotel, Coda, My Fair Lady, Hamlet, Wings, Cavalcade, The Artist, Oliver, Crash
Annotations
| Ref. | Clue | Solution | Annotation |
| 6A | Gong Yi and Amy Winehouse’s first animated musical (5, 2, 3) | GOING MY WAY | GONG YI AMY W* |
| 8A | Mischievous piece of witchcraft’s about (4) | ARCH | Hidden in reverse (definition: mischievous) |
| 10A | Taxi crosses a small canal off port city (10) | CASABLANCA | C(AS)AB + CANAL* |
| 11A | See 23A | ||
| 12A | All-male feature infinitely boring in the end (4) | STAG | STA(–r) + G (feature = star) |
| 14A | Old Maldivian president or new American schoolmaster? (5) | NASIR | N A SIR |
| 15A | A little tipsy, the Phantom’s creator fails to start lecture (4) | TALK | T + (–f)ALK |
| 16A | Hitchcock film about bishop stealing money from holy city (7) | REBECCA | RE + B stealing M in MECCA |
| 17A | Millions entertained by exotic Narnia movie with Tom Cruise (4, 3) | RAIN MAN | M in NARNIA* |
| 19A | Run after a river vessel hunting for gold (4) | ARGO | GO after A R |
| 21A | Unsteady start to career in New York (5) | ROCKY | C in YORK* |
| 23A | & 11A Horror film ‘The Evil Eye’ moves out of Globe Theatre finally (4, 4) | THEY LIVE | THEEVILEYE* – EE |
| 24A | Musical going oddly insipid in the middle (4) | GIGI | G_I_G + ___I___ |
| 25A | Glad Theron remade Garbo’s classic (5, 5) | GRAND HOTEL | GLAD THERON* |
| 28A | Amnesty evidently has a complaint (4) | STYE | Hidden in plain sight |
| 29A | One in pain and not one sound? That’s possible (10) | ACHIEVABLE | ACH(I)E + V(–i)ABLE |
| 1D | Taking student out, chill with a piece of music (4) | CODA | CO(–l)D + A |
| 2D | Involve gentleman in action after sending maiden away (8) | ENTANGLE | GENTLEMAN* – M |
| 3D | Zatopek perhaps cycling some distance (4) | EMIL | Cycling MILE |
| 4D | Friday may finally signal changes for old Indian cosmetics brand (2, 4, 4) | MY FAIR LADY | FRIDAY MAY (___L___)* |
| 5D | Shakespearean character, not a male, wearing a fedora perhaps? (6) | HAMLET | M(–a)LE in HAT |
| 7D | Flies triumph against depleted gnats (5) | WINGS | WIN + G(___)S |
| 9D | Train actor Kilmer takes initially stuck in rush (9) | CAVALCADE | VAL takes S in CASCADE (rush) |
| 13D | Charlie avoids fancy theatrics with tense silent film (3, 6) | THE ARTIST | THEATRICS* – C + T |
| 14D | Iguana fights with an exhausted cougar from somewhere in the Americas (10) | NICARAGUAN | IGUANA AN C(____)R* |
| 18D | Visionary article overwhelms old citizen (8) | NATIONAL | A overwhelms O in NOTIONAL (visionary) |
| 20D | School I’ve recommended accommodates Dickens’s child (6) | OLIVER | Hidden in plain sight |
| 22D | Notes about Hitler’s ultimate downfall (5) | CRASH | C(R)ASH |
| 26D | Tip from umpire in key contest? (4) | DUEL | D(U)EL |
| 27D | International magazine’s articles in two languages (4) | ELLE | EL + LE |
Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)
Out of 44 solvers, 31 got the full score. Each of the following scored 157 points (Grid Score – 140, Bonus – 17).
Al Sanders
Anantakrishnan N.
Arun Hiregange
Arvind Ramaswamy
Ashit Hegde
Debasmita Basu
Deepak Gopinath (Col.)
Harish Kamath
Ian VanderSchee
Lakshmi Prakash
Lakshmi Vaidyanathan
Madhup Tewari
Max Jackson
Melissa McSeismal
Mona Sogal
Nagendra Prasad R.
Narayana Swamy D
Narayanan R
Nilesh Parmar
Prakash Arumugam
Priya Shyam
Ramki Krishnan
Ratna Rao
Rengaswamy N.
Samit Kallianpur
Steve Gunter
Supriya Mithal
Tulika Das
Veena Venkataraman
Venkatesan P.
Venkatraghavan S
Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got an excellent rating of 8.68. It got 12 perfect 10s (27% of those who rated). The lowest rating was 5.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
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- Hitchcock film about bishop stealing money from holy city (7)<) – 17 votes
- Unsteady start to career in New York (5) – 16 votes
- Taxi crosses a small canal off port city (10) – 13 votes
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Another feast for movie buffs from Aquifer. He makes getting 16 themed entries into a grid seem effortless and he does it every time. Lovely clues, each painstakingly crafted over several days and true to the theme. Great work Aquifer. Keep ’em coming. Learnt about many of these movies, after solving the grid.
Here’s what our solvers said..
| Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| Debasmita Basu | Fitting in 16 theme words isn’t easy. But Aquifer does it over and over again with ease. Searching for 16 theme words was fun. Enjoyed solving. |
| Ian VanderSchee | Nice challenging clues! A pleasant solve on a Sunday morning. |
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | An artistic creation of the topmost calibre. |
| Lakshmi Prakash | Really enjoyable grid and theme |
| Mona Sogal | Absolutely amazing grid fill- I have said it before, always wonder-struck as to how many theme words get into the puzzle! Loved it! |
| Mukundala Balasubramanyam | Entertaining grid! |
| Rathnakumar V | Stupendous thematic Grid, certainly deserves an Award |
| Satyavrat Bondre | Loved the puzzle! |
| Veena Venkataraman | A very interesting and entertaining puzzle. Lovely smooth clues |
| Veera Raghavan | Excellent grid. Real feat accommodating so many movies in one grid. Nice clues, favourite being 29A |
| Al Sanders | Fun theme, lots of theme content |
| Anantakrishnan N. | Lovely theme, great clues |
| Ashit Hegde | To manage to fit so many Oscar winning movies and to provide so many great clues for them, tremendous effort. Real fun grid. |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | Nice puzzle with lot of theme words. |
| Madhup Tewari | Very enjoyable puzzle with beautiful clues. |
| Nagendra Prasad R. | MANY LOVELY CLUES |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | Neat clues! |
| Sparsh Sinha | Lovely theme and clues |
| Venkatesan P. | Nice Grid. All the best! |
| Venkatraghavan S | As always, love Aquifer puzzles and his ability to gridfill with the thematic elements. |
| Arun Hiregange | Being a movie buff, loved the theme! :)Also loved the clue which used the fact that Iguana comes within the letters for Nicaragua. Quite amazing. |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | Lovely themed grid. Had great fun solving! Thanks Aquifer |
| Harish Kamath | Good grid. Interesting theme. Had to lookup many of the titles to confirm. |
| Narayanan R | easy and interesting grid |
| Prakash Arumugam | Very entertaining puzzle. Amazing feat by the setter to get so many Oscar-winning movies fit within a grid |
| Priya Shyam | Entertaining grid!! Loved the theme |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | Fabulous to set a grid with so many lovely theme entries and top it with bonus questions. Lovely recall of some great movies. Hats off to the setter. |
| Ramki Krishnan | Very nice themed puzzle. Good clues with smooth surfaces. Could add a few more movies to my watch-list! |
| Samit Kallianpur | Nice grid with a good theme and some smooth clues! |
| Steve Gunter | 16 theme answers is outstanding! Thank you for an easy puzzle. |
| Koteswar Rao | GOOD |
| Max Jackson | Theme soon became clear, but I learnt of a number of films I hadn’t known.3dn could equally be MILE. |
| Narayana Swamy D | Nice construction of grid with Oscar winners for best picture |
| Raja Venkatasubramanian | Slightly easier |