AMPAS expands Best Picture Category to 10

[Liverpool]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 2:06pm

So uh. yeah. not much to add.

The 82nd Academy Awards will have 10 feature films competing in the Best Picture category, Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis announced Wednesday.



?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 Ganis.
Acadamy Grasps at straws to increase ratings

[DayDreamer]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 2:10pm

Strange - considering some years it's difficult to find 5 worthy films.

[shh282]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 2:11pm

I like the idea-


[ : crossing fingers that the soloist is recognized this year then?:]

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 2:11pm

Yeah. We don't need better movies- just more nominees.

[TheActr97J]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 3:26pm

This is the worst idea. Possibly ever.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 3:47pm

I think it's a bold move and a GOOD idea. Hopefully this will allow for more COMEDIES, summer releases, and other underdogs to get recognized as Best Picture material (Borat, Waitress, Happy Go Lucky, Lars and the Real Girl all come to mind). It will also make the category harder to predict, generally speaking.

Hopefully people won't deem a nomination to be less worthy, now. That's a risk, we'll have to see how it plays out.

[defyingravity07]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 4:17pm

Comedies always get the shaft. Musical Comedies get a bigger one.

[tazber]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 4:26pm

The Academy used to nominate 10 films every year in the 30s.

The impetus behind this is to allow room for at least one blockbuster (like The Dark Knight) and attract a wider audience.

Last year the nominees probably would have included Wall-E, TDK, and maybe even something like Frozen River.

The one advantage to 10 nominees is that it will definitely add an element of surprise. I don't think we're going to have a runaway winner a month before the ceremony like we have been.
More variables now.

[fflagg]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 4:37pm

will bloat the boring show to an even longer length. . .

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 5:10pm

I can't wait until "A Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian" gets a Best Picture nomination.

[I<3bway]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 6:21pm

I don't know about the category being expanded to 10. Really? Why not 6 or 7?


But this can be good in the way. If they plan on expanding it, then I hope they include the animated category for best overall movie. UP has been my favorite movie so far and I think it should be nominated for Best Picture. There are more animated films coming out this year that look great such as 9 and The Princess and the Frog. Also, James Cameron's Avatar is keeping me anticipated.
Updated On: 6/24/09 at 06:21 PM

[StageManager2]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 7:33pm

Hey, besty! I enjoyed that movie.

Not sure how I really feel about this. As someone else said, it would make the race tighter with no clear winner so there'd be some suspense. Also, more blockbusters would be nominated to appease fans and thus increase viewership. But at the same time, I think it diminishes the prestige of the award in a way.

[Marquise]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 7:51pm

They could add another 10 nominees and I still wouldn't care.

[CapnHook]

Posted: 6/24/09 at 9:19pm

If 'UP' gets a Best Picture nod, then this idea of theirs FAILS. Of all the Pixar movies...UP is not even my third choice for a Best Pic nod.

[tazber]

Posted: 6/25/09 at 5:36am

I think they should get rod of the Pixar award, I mean Best Animated Film award, entirely now.

[madbrian]

Posted: 6/25/09 at 7:59am

While I give them credit for changing things up, I think I'd prefer if they decided to go with 'up to ten nominees'. This way depending on the depth of quality films in a given year, there could anywhere from five to ten nominees for Best Picture.

[PiraguaGuy2]

Posted: 6/25/09 at 8:04am

taz, I see what you mean, but it's important to remember that there have been 3 out of 8 non-Pixar winners, two of which beat out a Pixar movie.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 6/25/09 at 11:51am

I would like to know why they shaved it down to 5 nominees in the first place. After 65 years, they suddenly say, "You know, this just isn't working"? They only had more than five (official) nominees in the category from 1932 to 1944.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/26/09 at 4:35am

They increased the number of nominees, because the Hollywood studio system was in its heyday in the 1930s. MGM alone was releasing a movie per week back then. Up to 52 films in a single year. The other major studios weren't that far behind. A well-oiled machine. Quality AND quantity. The likes of which we will never see again.

During World War II, production slowed down greatly. The number of films decreased. They eventually realized the boom was over. And in 1944, toward the end of the war, they brought the number of nominees back down to five again. And it stayed there ... until 2009.

As far as I can tell, we're not in any "heyday" now. Studios aren't releasing 52 movies per year, each. Not even remotely.

This latest change is about lowering the bar to (hopefully) let some blockbusters in. It's all about the Nielsen ratings, not about celebrating excellence in movies.

Hey, at least they didn't increase the number of categories to 800, like the Grammys and the Emmys have done. Sure, they've still got five nominees, but they're such micro-categories!

If the Oscars were to ever follow suit, we'd have categories like Best Foreign Independent Comedy, Best Actor in a Comedic Singing Role With No Spoken Dialogue, Best Jazz Song Played During End Credits Written Previously for Another Medium ...

[StageManager2]

Posted: 6/26/09 at 8:55am

At least the Grammys just got rid of that useless polka category.

[best12bars]

Posted: 6/26/09 at 9:52am

Yeah ... to make room for Best Ska Disco/Funk or Tejano Big Band Rap Song By a Duo or Group, probably.

Every time a record label struggles to release something "fresh" they come up with a variation of something that already exists and slap a new marketing label on it. And if three or more groups do the same thing, they add a new Grammy category, citing that "a new genre in music has been established!" According to the Grammys, there are now 8,000 styles of music in the world.

At least Polka WAS an actual style, not a temporary folder name in a CD store. RIP

Emmys are just as bad. Everything is so separated out, I'm surprised they don't start giving awards for individual days of the week. Best Friday Prime-Time Comedy, Best Saturday Morning Cartoon, Best Tuesday Night Drama With An Ensemble Cast ...

[ray-andallthatjazz86]

Posted: 6/26/09 at 4:32pm

I would be okay if they expanded it so they can nominate up to 10 movies, but really as people have said, some years they struggle to find five movies worth of being nominated, can you imagine ten? I mean, this year alone I can't think of any movie I have seen that should get a Best Picture nod and that is including UP (which I was a fan of by the way).
Ridiculous rule and I hope it's nixed after '09.