After much vote counting and recounting, we can finally announce that the winners of our Third Annual Costume Contest are Shrek and Fiona in the Adult category, and the Tim Burton Group in the Kids category. Runners-up in the Adult category were the Gargoyle and Alien and Ripley; runners-up in the Kids category were Snoopy and the Toy Soldiers. Thanks very much to all our entrants and finalists for making this a great contest. We had some impressive entries this year, and we can't wait to see what you come up with for next year! Here are pics of the winners and the runners-up (if you want to see all the entrants again, the complete gallery is after the jump):

ADULT WINNER: SHREK AND FIONA



ADULT RUNNER-UP: GARGOYLE



ADULT RUNNER-UP: ALIEN AND RIPLEY



KIDS WINNER: TIM BURTON GROUP:



KIDS RUNNER-UP: SNOOPY



KIDS RUNNER-UP: TOY SOLDIERS



A quick aside: Erik and I would like to request that, even if you don't agree with the results, you please refrain from attacking the winners in the comments. The folks who submitted the Shrek and Fiona entry followed the rules as we set them up; I personally emailed the adult finalists letting them know they'd been selected, so that everyone could have a chance to let their friends and family come and vote for them. We've done it this way the past two years and it's not been an issue; this year there were some hard feelings and ugly comments tossed around in what was intended to just be a fun contest, and so we're going to revisit how we run the contest for next year. We'd like your feedback as to how YOU think the contest should be run, so we can take that into account next year. Please take a moment to respond to the poll questions and let us know your thoughts, and thank you so much for participating and for reading Cinematical.

You'll find the poll questions, and a gallery of all the contest entrants, after the jump. Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Cinematical!

READER POLL: Have your say in how next year's Costume Contest should be run:





GALLERIES OF ALL CONTEST ENTRANTS: