Oscars doubling best-picture nominees to 10 (AP) (merged threads)

[AidensDaddy]

Oscars doubling best-picture nominees to 10 (AP) - Yahoo! Movies


Saw this on Yahoo! today, and it looks interesting. I posted this thread because the article mentions Wall*E.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - 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.

[Radiobarry]

From mediadecoder.com:

The Oscars just got a whole lot bigger.
In a surprise announcement, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Wednesday that it would double the number of best picture nominees to 10 from 5, returning to a practice it used more than a half-century ago, when the number of films released was much larger.
The change is the most radical revision of the Oscar ritual in recent memory. “We will be casting our net wide,” Sidney Ganis, the academy’s president, said in announcing the change at a morning press conference at the group’s headquarters in Beverly Hills.
In a question-and-answer session that followed the announcement, Mr. Ganis said: “I would not be telling you the truth if I said the words ‘Dark Knight’ did not come up.” Earlier this year, “The Dark Knight,” a critically acclaimed blockbuster fantasy, was excluded from a list of nominees that included “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “The Reader” and the winner, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

Full story here, indicating among other things that they will not go the "Golden Globes" route and have a separate category for dramas and comedies.

It does appear that they are trying to be at least a little more cognizant of films that people have actually paid money to see, and are hoping as a result of that to see an increase in ratings for the OSCAR show.

Thoughts?

[sir clinksalot]

I still think they should take a page from the Golden Globes and have 1 category for Drama and one for Action/Comedy.

It's still going to be the overrated "film of the moment" that wins.

[Radiobarry]

Originally Posted by sir clinksalot

I still think they should take a page from the Golden Globes and have 1 category for Drama and one for Action/Comedy.

It's still going to be the overrated "film of the moment" that wins.

Agreed.

Comedies rarely have gotten the respect they've deserved in this category.

[Wendygirl]

I think they should separate the two also.

Frankly, I am not much of a movie watcher (unless its animated and Disney or Pixar) anymore. I just do not like the quality of films in these times. I would be hard pressed to come up with 10 that I thought worthy of an award. But that's just me ... a conservative fuddy duddy.

[Coheteboy]

I read about this earlier this morning and wondered how voting goes, if it's changed at all. Is it not more possible now for a higher chance of a tie?

[Angie_Duke]

I wouldn't be surprised if this was done to increase ratings by throwing in random "popular" movies that'll still never have a chance at winning.

I wish for separate categories too. That would make this hyped apple and oranges contest a little bit fairer.

[Radiobarry]

Originally Posted by Angie_Duke

I wouldn't be surprised if this was done to increase ratings by throwing in random "popular" movies that'll still never have a chance at winning.

It will also allow five more movies to use "best picture nominee" in their hype and advertising, which historically gives a bit of a bump at the box office.

[planetbogg]

I would think this significantly increases the chance of Up being nominated for Best Movie.

[Rex Dopey24]

that sounds great and it should be very interesting. besides hollywood needs to go back to its old routes.

[Radiobarry]

Here's a link to a thread posted in the "Movies" forum earlier this week, same subject, with several responses.

[Retrocool]

Hopefully, this will mean that now Hollywood has a reason to produce at least 10 superb movies every year.

[Mac Daddy]

Originally Posted by Retrocool

Hopefully, this will mean that now Hollywood has a reason to produce at least 10 superb movies every year.

This is what I was thinking. ARE there going to be 10 oscar worthy films? Doubling the amount seems like a bit much all at one time. Had they gone to 7, I think that might have been a good step, but 10...in any given year, they HAVE to have 10? Ten movies with a SOLID shot at winning best picture? Maybe they'll get 10 easy, but it just seems like it cheapens the nomination a bit as they do this.

[Radiobarry]

As AliasD pointed out in one of the other multiple threads on this subject...it's all about increasing TV ratings, and theadditional box office and DVD sales they feel they get from more films being able to advertise that they were nominated.

The same kind of movies will likely win, but theoretically more people will tune in if at least two or three movies that were actually popular are part of the mix.

[Retrocool]

Originally Posted by Mac Daddy

This is what I was thinking. ARE there going to be 10 oscar worthy films? Doubling the amount seems like a bit much all at one time. Had they gone to 7, I think that might have been a good step, but 10...in any given year, they HAVE to have 10? Ten movies with a SOLID shot at winning best picture? Maybe they'll get 10 easy, but it just seems like it cheapens the nomination a bit as they do this.

I don't understand this line of reasoning. It's like being upset that too many people might pass the SAT this year. Don't we need more quality films? So 10 get nominated instead of five. Only one still wins.