The Oscars Expand Best Picture Nominations to Ten!

[LolaSvelt]

There will be 10 best picture nominees starting with the 82nd Oscar ceremony, skedded for March 7, at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.


The announcement was made Wednesday morning at AMPAS headquarters in BevHills by Acad prez Sid Ganis.

Oscar noms will be unveiled Feb. 2.

variety

Pros -
More variety
It was an old tradition (before they changed it to five nominees)

Cons -
Any old oscar-begging film that usually misses the cut can now get in (thanks to the greedy Harvey Weinstein...I bet he's happy now).

 

[b9409]

Wow that is huge news!!!

Let's see: it is good, because this way, maybe not one movie will get all the votes (hence awards) left and right in every category. It is bad, because the most covetable 'Oscar Best Picture Nominee' title will be given to more, so will lose some credibility in the long run.

Interesting...

 

[LolaSvelt]

Yeah, it would lose credibility with many films having "Nominated for _ Oscars including Best Picture!"

 

[ChloeFrancoise]

I don't know if I think that's a good thing.

 

[Erin]

I wasn't happy with this news when I found it in my inbox.

Money, money, money, I tell ya.

 

[designerleather]

I hate the idea in the end because of dillution. Maybe they will have to split the Academy Awards into a multi-night event now...

 

[LUXXX]

I love it, more movies deserve to to be noticed! Hopefully this eliminates the snob factor...

 

[b9409]

^ yeah... it won't.

There will still be one or two movies getting everything under the sun, but who cares right? No one is making good movies nowadays. Hollywood is a joke, because the audiences expectations are so pedestrian. People say that Transformers 2 will be the biggest movie opening ever maybe, and critics say that it is on of the top 10 worst movies ever made.

What does that tell you about the relevance of Oscars and critical acclaim at this point?

 

[Flashbang]

For me, Oscar has lost their credibility since Halle Berry won. I only look up at SAG and GG.

 

[Susanna-Cole]

I'm mixed on this, in some ways I think it's good, and in other ways, bad. But overall, I actually don't care too much. None of the films I really like ever get nominated, because the films I like are often independent films that are often very non-commercial, the opposite of your Hollywood blockbuster types.

All Oscar nominated films have to have done well enough with audiences, and made enough money, to have the budget to submit their films for consideration for such awards as the Oscars.

I have a friend who is an actress, and for one of her roles, many people were saying she should get an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. However, talking to her, and her mother, they were telling me how the film hadn't done well enough, and didn't have the budget to submit for major awards like the Academy Awards. I asked what the submission fee was (which only means the film will be considered, and doesn't even guarantee a single nomination) and they said it's often around $15,000.

No one wonder few of the little gems of films, I sometimes find, ever get nominated for any major awards. They're simply not commercial enough to bring in enough cash to be able to even submit for award consideration.

 

[Chaky]

Usually outside the five Best Pic nominees there's another one or two that I think could have made the cut. The problem with expanding the list is that it dilutes the prestige of getting into that club.

Even more worrying is the thought that it might drag the Oscar ceremony out even further.

I assume the reasoning behind this is another attempt at increasing audience numbers for the ceremony. I guess if everyone's favourite film is in the Best Picture category they might be more tempted to watch and see if it wins. But in a weak year we could end up with a list where four or five movies really don't deserve to be there, especially in comparison to earlier years.

 

[Iloveyoutoo]

For me, Oscar has lost their credibility since Halle Berry won. I only look up at SAG and GG.

Im pretty sure she won the SAG and the GG for the same role she won the Oscar for.

I guess this is a response to complaint that certain movies, like comedies or action movies get ignored.

I know a lot of people thought that The Dark Knight deserved some recognition last year.

 

[Flashbang]

^No, she didn't won GG. I still can't believe she won Oscar and SAG . What in the world.

Back to topic, I wonder what's the official reason from AMPAS.

 

[LolaSvelt]

^The sad thing is that it was a great year, too. Whoopi Goldberg would've been a worthy winner for The Colour Purple, but I loved Geraldine Page, too (who won that year).

 

[Scott]

you guys have to remember too they are bringing this back from a time when so many good films were being made and released--when it was about quality rather than quantity and not what drew in the profit. for me this does take away the hype element from one or two particular films and might actually include some fab films that aren't exactly shown to a wide audience.

 

[Spiral1532]

The Oscars should be done away with altogether. It's widely known that they're just a publicity stunt for movies. And the very idea of pitting movies (and performances) up against one another is a bit silly. After all, it's subjective to consider something the "best" of the year.

 

[b9409]

^ I kind of agree with that, and kind of don't.

Oscars are still an establishment, but yes, they suffer in terms of credibility and reputation. I must say I tie that whole situation to what Hollywood has turned into today: quality-wise. Young actors are not expected to deliver a performance on screen, but rather at the box office. That is the mentality. Of course, Oscars are a fluke.

 

[Flashbang]

More news.

Oscar tweaks best song standards

No Academy Award will be presented for best song at next year's ceremony if none of the tunes is considered good enough, Oscar organizers said Friday.

Rules for the 82nd Oscar show next March will require that at least one song must achieve a minimum score of 8.25 on a scale of 6 to 10 in voting by members of the academy's music branch.

"We're trying to improve the quality," said composer Bruce Broughton, who heads the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "There's been a lot of talk about the songs in films, the lack of memorability compared to songs in the past, the almost forgetability of some of them. ... This is an attempt to really make the songs as good as possible."

In another significant change for next year's show, the academy is moving its honorary Oscars out of the Academy Awards ceremony itself and presenting them at a separate event.

The two changes come days after the academy made its most drastic Oscar change in decades, doubling the number of best-picture nominees from five to 10.

The music branch has about 230 members, who rate songs after viewing them in a marathon screening or on a DVD compilation of the tunes as they appear in the films.

If no song achieves the minimum score, there will be no best-song Oscar awarded. If only one song scores that well, then it and the tune with the next-highest score will be the category's two nominees. The number of nominees in the category can range from two to five depending on how many hit the minimum score.

Broughton said while the change sets minimum standards songs must meet, he doubted that there would be a year when the category would be scrapped because no tunes rated highly enough.

Starting this awards season, honorary Oscars for career achievement will be presented at a black-tie dinner in November, along with the academy's Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award and Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Academy overseers said that will allow more time to pay proper tribute to recipients without crowding those awards into the Oscar ceremony, which often draws criticism for a running time that has topped four hours some years.

The academy board of governors "noticed that subtracting the honoraries from the broadcast would help reduce its length, but that really wasn't the motivation that was driving the change," said Bruce Davis, the academy's executive director.

Sid Ganis, academy president, said creating a separate event will insure "that each honoree will be given his or her full due."

hollywoodreporter