Dumbest Idea Ever Dept: 10 Nominees for Best Picture

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AndyDursin
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Dumbest Idea Ever Dept: 10 Nominees for Best Picture

#1 Post by AndyDursin »

Most of the time now they're having issues finding 5 decent movies to nominate...and now this?

Talk about watering down the "strength of field"...most of their mistakes are in the selection department (say, THE READER and THE WRESTLER over GRAN TORINO), not in the quantity area. I could barely find 5 movies I really liked last year, never mind 10!

At any rate, getting an Oscar nom for Best Picture now means a lot less than it used to.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just announced in a small blurb the Oscars this year will be bumping their Best Picture nominees from five to ten beginning with the upcoming 2010 Oscars President Sid Ganis announced today at a press conference in Beverly Hills.

"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. "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."

The move is an obvious response to the recent discussion concerning The Dark Knight's absence from the nominees for more art house style films such as The Reader and I would expect we can now look at Up as a serious contender for a Best Picture nominee when previous Pixar favorites Ratatouille and Wall-e were left in the cold.

"Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize," commented Ganis. "I can't wait to see what that list of ten looks like when the nominees are announced in February."


http://www.imdb.com/news/ni0848928/
Last edited by AndyDursin on Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

JSWalsh
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#2 Post by JSWalsh »

So more movies will be recognized as nominees to pump up some box office during the post-announcement period, and the winning movie will win with that many fewer votes, thus being even less popular than the winners usually are. Great idea! :shock:

Show the vote tallies!
John

Eric Paddon
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#3 Post by Eric Paddon »

If I remember right, weren't there more than five Best Picture nominees back in the 30s for a time?

Historical precedent or not, in today's filmmaking environment it's absurd to think that ten movies are worthy of a Best Picture nomination (especially since the five that don't get nominated for Best Director are hardly going to stand a chance of winning!)

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Monterey Jack
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Re: Dumbest Idea Ever Dept: 10 Nominees for Best Picture

#4 Post by Monterey Jack »

AndyDursin wrote:Most of the time now they're having issues finding 5 decent movies to nominate...and now this?
Precisely. Pretty much every year has at least one or two "how did that get in there?" nominees, so doubling the BP count to ten is just going to allow a lot more mediocre material a chance at the big prize (plus, will there now be ten Best Director nominees? :?). If they allowed animated features a chance, I'd be all for this (the "Best Animated Feature" award is such a crock...Up and Coraline are teo of the best-reviewed films of 2009, period, so they should be allowed a chance at BP), but you know there will be twice as many shameless, award-whoring "prestige" movies like The Reader up for BP next year. :cry: Plus, this'll add another HOUR to the Oscar broadcast, mark my words.

Kill this idea before it spreads.

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