Oscar's expand

On dhd its being reported that the Best Picture category for the next Acadamy awards and beyond has officially been expanded to 10 films. I think thats ridiculous and cheapens the nomination although maybe this will allow them to finally recognize other genres such as comedy or animation. Up's chances of a nomination have just doubled.

Just make a good movie and it will be nominated. Nothing special.

Damn, 10? That's a bit of excessive, but I can see why they did it. There are always movies that were overlooked and more slots means that most of the movies that deserve it will be nominated. I don't think they should do it for acting nods though, maybe 7 but not 10.

Here's the official release:

BEVERLY HILLS, California -- The best-picture lineup at the Academy Awards is doubling from five films to 10, a move organizers said Wednesday will open the field to more worthy movies and possibly boost the ceremony's TV ratings.

The change, which was approved Tuesday night by the board of governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, takes effect at next year's Oscars on March 7.

The plan is a return to Oscar traditions of the 1930s and '40s, when a best-picture field of 10 or more films was common.

Academy President Sid Ganis said the board looked at last year's slate of films and decided there was room for more in the top category. "We nominated five, but there were many other great films last year," Ganis said.

Among last year's most acclaimed movies was the Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight," which wound up snubbed. Another was "WALL-E," which won the Oscar for feature-length animation but was not among best-picture nominees.

Ganis said the broader field might make room for documentaries, foreign-language films, animated movies and even comedies, which typically do not fare well for best-picture nominations.

"Everybody says the academy will never nominate a comedy," Ganis said. "Well, maybe we will."

The Oscars have separate categories for animated, foreign-language and documentary films. A best-picture nomination would not preclude films from competing in those categories, as well.

With extra movies competing for the top honor, the Oscar show might draw a bigger TV audience as more fans tune to see how their favorite films fare, Ganis said.

The ratings for last February's Oscars were up solidly, but that followed a ceremony a year earlier that drew the lowest ratings ever. Along with other awards shows, the Oscars generally have been losing viewers over the past couple of decades.

Having 10 or more was common in Hollywood's golden age some 70 years ago. Ganis noted that 1939's 10 best-picture nominees were "Gone with the Wind," which won, "The Wizard of Oz," ''Stagecoach," ''Wuthering Heights," ''Love Affair," ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips," ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," ''Of Mice and Men," ''Dark Victory" and "Ninotchka."

All are generally considered classics today.

The last time there were 10 nominees was the Oscar ceremony for 1943, when "Casablanca" won best picture. There have been only five nominees each year since then.

more proof that the Oscars are just as much a sham as any other awards show.. the one thing they had going for them was their stubborn refusal to adapt to the times.. their set-in-their-ways attitude was almost mistakable for integrity..

instead of expanding the nominees to 10, why don't they just try harder to pick the actual best five movies each year.. god knows they have plenty room for improvement in that regard

Oh God, they're going to make the show go six hours.

Also, expect them to nominate more crap that was made solely for Oscars rather than movies that were actually good (I'm looking at you, Harvey Weinstein).

I kind of like the idea, and I'm glad they're expanding this one category only. God knows, if this had happened last year, we would have seen Gran Torino, The Dark Knight and possibly Wall-E nominated.

Being a Best Picture nominee is a great thing, and it only helps a movie's business. Though perhaps you're right, an expansion to seven or eight may have been a little less extravagant.

Seriously? 10?

I can understand it as an advertising ploy to get more money for nominated films, but i can't honestly think of a single reason other than that.

At the end of the day there will only be one winner anyway, but to nominate 10 movies is way too excessive.

Here's an idea. Get an independant panel of judges and DO NOT ALLOW advertising for your movie to be the winner. Judge the movie on it's own credentials and not on some multi million dollar ad campaign.

Just a thought.

This is really dumb. I agree with NSpan just do a better job of actually picking the films then expanding the field.

My early predictions for the Best Picture nominees:

Up
crappy Weinstein movie
Invictus
crappy Weinstein movie
crappy Weinstein movie
crappy Weinstein movie
some movie no one will ever see
crappy Weinstein movie
The Lovely Bones (simply because it's directed by a Best Director winner)
crappy Weinstein movie no one will ever see

i dont think the weinstein's are even releasing that many movies this year

lol undead that is true.

Now, Pixar will have a Best Picture nod every year, but they'll still never win.

SO true Banks.

I was half-joking guys. I really wouldn't expect them to nominate seven films from The Weinstein Company, but I believe that they will be the only people who will benefit from this decision. The Academy has been obviously feeing sympathy for them due to their lack of success without Disney. First nominating The Reader over several better and more deserving films (such as Wall-E, The Dark Knight, Gran Torino and The Wrestler) and now this.

Come January, expect Nine to emerge as an Oscar favorite solely because there are ten nominees and not because the film is any good. In fact, I see Nine as a pointless remake of 8 1/2 and a film that will get trumped by the "other" 9. A lot of people are also suggesting that The Road will also get a Best Picture nomination. I can't see it happening though since the Academy rarely likes widely released horror or sci-fi (unless it's ghosts or serial killers).

I think this will be a good opportunity for the academy to offend even more filmmakers by giving them the ability to find more less deserving ones.

I don't know what you guys are talking about, you really don't think that there is 10 great films released every year? Every year, film critics and fans talk about snubs and this is the only way to try and recognize more great movies.

Just look at a list of movies that people considered snubbed for Best Picture last year:

Gran Torino
Wendy & Lucy
The Dark Knight
WALL-E
Che
Happy-Go-Lucky
Revolutionary Road
Rachel Getting Married

etc

Man On Wire. You forgot Man On Wire.

Far better than Rachel Getting Married (or Jonathan Demme Gets Pretentious).

Well, Man On Wire was a doc and was and would be regelated to it's appropriate catergory.

Documentaries are like foreign films. They can be eligible for one category but still be eligible for the other.

Meanwhile when I first read this, I was hoping that it meant that they would finally do things that NEEDED to be done. Such as having Best Visual Effects and Best Animated Feature Film always feature five nominees rather than three and include that Best Stuntwork category that's been rumored for some time.

There is a problem with nominating documentaries. Outside of Michael Moore docs, NOBODY EVER SEES THEM. If including more films was about ratings, that would defeat the purpose.

What about March Of The Penguins? $75 million at the box office and an Academy Award winner. Also, it was the best movie to come out that summer.

I agree Boosh. The Reader getting nominated over The Wrestler and Gran Torino blows my mind. The Reader was complete trash.

I agree The Reader wasn't as good as The Wrestler, but did you really think it was that much worse than Slumdog "boring and predictable as shit" Millionaire?

I personally thought it was the best of the 5 nominees with Milk being a close second.