Doubling Best-Pic Nominations a Winning Move

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»

Some execs remain opposed to expanded Best Picture nominee list

(NEWSER) - The point of doubling the number of Academy Award best picture nominees this year was to draw more viewers to the show. The pitfall: Hardly anything Oscar worthy has emerged, writes Kim Masters for the Daily Beast. And while most nominees hit theaters later in the year, 30% fewer films will come out this year than during that time in 2008. More»

It'll give more films a chance: Academy

(NEWSER) - Next year’s Academy Awards will feature 10 contenders for Best Picture, up from five, the Los Angeles Times reports, a return to how the show ran in 1932-43. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences “is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award,” its academy president says. More»

(NEWSER) - The Reader is an “incoherent, exculpatory film” that offers false redemption for "ordinary Germans" involved in the Holocaust through a tired trope and far too much nudity, Ron Rosenbaum writes in Slate. The industry has already erred deeply by nominating the film and Kate Winslet’s performance for Academy Awards. “Please, Hollywood, don't compound the error by giving the Oscar to The Reader.” More»