In an effort to move with the times the Academy of Motion Pictures just announced that the 2010 Oscars ceremony will feature 10 nominees in the Best Picture category. To read the whole press release from the Academy visit their website.
The Oscars have watched themselves become less popular year by year. I would not be surprised if this is the first of many announcements about ways the Academy will try to make themselves relevant to the movie-going masses again.
I loved the changes made to the 2009 Oscars, and I can only hope the rest of the changes will be as positive. I still hold that if I were a nominee and I had five Oscar winning greats talking about me, I’d be crying.
7 comments:
First I ever heard of this. As long as there's more variety among the nominees then I can only see it as a good thing, in my opinion.
GREAT DECISION! Hopefully this means stuff like THE DARK KNIGHT and dare I say it... even a few comedies will get nominated. It just means that those of us that make it their mission to see every Best Picture nominee will have their work cut out for them.
I just heard. Not too thrilled . . .
Why not too thrilled Adam?
This move is extremely political. It really devalues what it means to have a Best Picture nomination. From a personal standpoint, I'm not really interested in having a 10 Best list as the foundation for the nominations. In addition, this move will make it nearly impossible to predict a winner. Now, if they'd added a sixth slot? That I would have been ok with. It really just seems like a lame-brained PR move. Part of the beauty of the Oscars is that certain films get nominated and certain films get snubbed. This takes all the fun out of it. It also creates quite a problem in that a film with a very small percentage of support can squeek through with a win. I read a comment in which someone made a point that a movie could win 10% of the vote and end up with the prize. Think about that, there could a film that 90% of voters disliked, and it could win.
I feel that this is also an excuse to boost ratings by nominating more comedic films and more big budget blockbuster films. At the end of the day, I don't think that pandering to the masses is the answer.
Think of this, what does a Best Picture nomination really mean now? I don't think it means as much as it used to.
After looking at the discussions already taking place at the New York Times and Los Angeles Times boards, I found that the clear majority of the comments posted so far were opposed/strongly opposed to the change. There were even a few Academy members who expressed their frustration.
I don't have a problem with it. Thousands of films come out each year, picking the 10 best is still such a tiny number. I will be interested to see the kind of films that get nominated though. I think the Academy and the public is just not used to the Oscars changing things up. I would have liked them to perhaps just do what the globes and SAGS do and have 2 best pic categories (comedy & drama) but this is what they did...so it'll be fun to see.
Hm, too close to the golden globes for me. I always appreciated the elite nature of the oscars and how there were only 5 slots. (even when it meant a worthy movie I loved didn't get nominated) Guess we'll see how it plays out, but I'm not very happy about the decision. Of course, they didn't ask me!
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