I wasn’t planning on resuscitating this blog until September, but with news this huge, I’ll gladly make an exception. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that it will name 10 Best Picture nominees next year instead of five. Yes, that’s right: TEN Best Picture nominees! “After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” said AMPAS president Sid Ganis. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same—one Best Picture winner—but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.” In the ’30s and ’40s the Academy recognized between 8 and 12 Best Picture nominees each year.
Several groups, like the Broadcast Film Critics Association, National Board of Review, and the American Film Institute, have already been listing 10 best films of the year instead of five. And with the Oscars now doing the same, I’d say this could really help the chances of some more commercially popular films, which are often edged out of the running by typical “Academy films” like The Reader or Frost/Nixon. Certainly The Dark Knight and WALL•E would have made a top 10 Academy list this year—will we now see Up and Star Trek on the Oscar ballot?
I think this is pretty darn AMAZING, Dave. I just saw this break myself, and wow, it just changes a lot of the dynamics of the race. Though LORD, I usually make one themed dessert for each of the Best Picture Nominees. This will break me!
I like this change … obviously done to fit in some more popular (but still high-quality) films, or at least make the race more interesting. I look forward to the Oscars every year, but hopefully this doesn’t mean a 5-hour telecast. The show will require a serious reboot.
They still need a best ensemble award.
If only they had done this last year, we would have seen The Dark Knight up there. Same with WALL-E.
Dave, is there any thought of eliminating the Best Animated Feature category then? It would seem superfluous to continue having it.
The Oscars just got really interesting again!
Wow – this is huge news! I echo what someone below said: will this eliminate the Best Animated Film category? I’ve always hated that category anyway……
It’s hard enough for me, with a young child, to see the 5 best picture noms every year – seeing 10 is going to kill me! But I’ll do it, all in the name of the Oscars.
I hate this. Expanding the field makes the nomination itself less meaningful. Here’s a radical idea — rather than widening the field to pander for PR and greater mass appeal, why not just remove the pole from the stodgy collective rear end of the overall Academy and nominate better films in the first place.
Good move!
They had to do something different as the Oscars are downright boring. The “five” films the past few years have been things no one saw, or even wanted to see. Good for them on the change!
This is not going to help.
They just need to bite the bullet and have two separate best picture categories: one for drama, and one for everything else (the types of films that don’t stand a chance against the typical best picture winner, i.e. animated, comedies, etc.)
This is surprising. I guess I didn’t know my Hollywood history in terms of the Oscar’s. I didn’t know the early age of Oscar had more than 5 nominees. This could be good for some films. Giving more films the chance to possibily win. Dark Knight (even though I didn’t think it was worthy) would definately have been nominated until this new system. I am not sure Wall-E. Frost/Nixon definately deserved to be nominated… Could be a interesting race.
Whether Star Trek and Up have a chance. But I do know some of the films that open up earlier in the year like in the past; Zodiac would have had a better chance since they would be looking for more than the usuaal five candidates.
This could be very good for Oscar. But then hopefully there is 10 quality films out and they don’t just get nominated because they did well at the box office.
But I approve of this.
As soon as I heard about this I thought, “I wonder what Dave Karger has to say about this.” Thanks for posting for the first time in months. Can’t wait for Oscar Watch 2010!
Too bad “Beauty & the Beast” might not have the previlage of being the only animated film to be nominated for Best Picture anymore, but “Up” is a terrific film.
Wow, this is the first piece of Oscar news in ages I’ve cared about. Not only will this help really good commercial films get in the race (Dark Knight, etc.), it will help great comedies too, which are almost always excluded, and leave room for a few more indie and offbeat choices too. This is really what the awards biz needed!