Oscars Double Best-Picture Nominees, to 10

Benjamin Button, Slumdog lead the pack

(NEWSER) - Exactly a year after his death, Heath Ledger has been nominated for an Academy Award, AP reports. Ledger's Supporting Actor nod was the only nom for The Dark Knight, while The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire rose to the top with 13 and 10 nominations respectively. Other nominees:

• Best Picture: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire
• Best Director: David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon; Gus Van Sant, Milk; Stephen Daldry, The Reader; Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

After 10 years, an opportunity to fix mistakes: Lowen Liu

(NEWSER) - Slate wants to fix the Oscars—"Academy Awards ceremonies are laughable, even to those of us who love them," the site declares —so it's asking writers and editors to offer up their proposals in advance of the Feb. 26 ceremony. Lowen Liu's idea : Allow for a re-vote on the major categories 10 years later. That would mean that this year, Academy voters could finally make up for the travesty that occurred when A Beautiful Mind won over such "diverse and dazzling" films as English manners mystery Gosford Park and the theatrical Moulin Rouge! More»

Anywhere from 5 to 10 nominees in category now OK

(AP) - Wild and crazy changes coming to the Oscars: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has approved a tweak in the nominations process that will allow ... anywhere from five to 10 Best Picture nominees. "If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honor in a given year, we shouldn't feel an obligation to round out the number," says the academy's outgoing director. Ten Best-Picture nominations were announced for this year's and last year's Oscars; in previous years it was five. The number of nominees won't be announced until the Best Picture nominees are announced in January. More»

The Academy picks 'heart over head,' writes Richard Corliss

(NEWSER) - Spoiler alert: The Oscars are over, and The King’s Speech has won Best Picture. Why? Because "in Oscar voting, as in old Hollywood weepies, sentiment trumps sense," writes Richard Corliss in Time . Critics may have loved The Social Network, but not a single one of them is a voting member of the Academy—but plenty of Hollywood guild members are. And in the last two weeks, the Producers Guild, Screen Actors Guild, and Directors Guild all gave The King’s Speech their top award. The first two have prefigured the Best Picture Oscar about 50% of the time in recent years; the DGA has done so 82% of the time in the last 61 years. More»

Nominees told to deliver thank-yous off the telecast

(NEWSER) - Even an Oscar producer admits the long-winded thank-you speeches are “the single most hated thing on the show,” and this year organizers think they've come up with a brilliant way to avoid them. Nominees were instructed at yesterday’s luncheon to prepare two speeches: The one for the audience should be, you know, interesting (“Share your passion on what the Oscar means to you,” said a producer). The other one—with all the names—will be given backstage to a “Thank You Cam.” More»