Oscar Expands Best Picture Noms to 10

June 24, 2009 by Nick

According to Variety. Whoa.

Will they do it for any other categories? Foreign, for example?

Posted in Oscars | 15 Comments

15 Responses

on June 24, 2009 at 12:46 pm Jeanine

Oh God. Now EVERYTHING will be able to claim “Nominated for Best Picture”. Or maybe that title will lose it’s meaning now that there are twice as many.
on June 24, 2009 at 12:49 pm Joe Webb

i guess they can now accomodate that infamous 6th director who always ends up edging out one of the top 5.

why am i posting on an Oscar thread?
on June 24, 2009 at 12:50 pm Nick

I was wondering the same thing, Jeanine. Either it will make more shit float to the top or give movies without an insane amount of studio backing, geared all year round towards a nom, a shot. I think much of it depends on what films get nominated this year, so a precedent is set for the studios to follow.

As long as they don’t do it for the acting categories.
on June 24, 2009 at 1:26 pm Jeanine

At the same time if something gets snubbed, I’ll be much more suspicious.
on June 24, 2009 at 10:33 pm Brian

I would have gone in the other direction. Who needs five? They really only need three. I’m serious.

Still, I’ll reserve judgment on the expansion. Maybe it will lead to worthy things being nominated more often, which will in turn cause the studios to take a few more chances.

Or maybe things will remain just as they are now, only more so.
on June 25, 2009 at 7:25 am Nick

What if they had like rounds? First ten, then three out of those ten. That would make things more fair and slighly more open.

Ultimately, I like this move, even if I think that it will make whatever film wins out of those ten even more debated, it still allows for smaller and less (more?) niche films to be seen. Although the main beneficiaries of this won’t just be the filmmakers, but marketers and prognosticators (read: Oscar bloggers). They must be wringing their hands right now.

Anyway: The Hangover, ftw!
on June 25, 2009 at 9:05 am Jackrabbit Slim

I don’t like this move at all. I sense that it’s the producers trying to get popcorn movies nominated, and is probably the result of The Dark Knight getting snubbed (no reflection on the merits of that picture). Bad, bad move.
on June 27, 2009 at 4:15 pm Jackrabbit Slim

More rule changes, including a possible eventual phasing out of Best Song category.
on June 28, 2009 at 4:01 pm Nick

I sense that it’s the producers trying to get popcorn movies nominated, and is probably the result of The Dark Knight getting snubbed (no reflection on the merits of that picture).

But more popcorn films should be nominated. And not just blockbuster films, but foreign and comedies. Just because the studios may have been pushing for this doesn’t mean it was a bad move.

Every year there’s a complaint that films are left out and that those included rarely reflect the best of the year. I’m not saying they should eventually go for a top 20 or 40, but ten allows for a larger spectrum of (what I gather will be mostly) American films released in that year and will probably lead to more quality being included among the nominations than five does.

I would have gone in the other direction. Who needs five? They really only need three. I’m serious.

Some people, when summarizing the year, would just have three films, others would pick ten. It’s like when Jackrabbit asked us to pick three of the best films per decade. Heartbreaking stuff, because it didn’t really summarize the decade at all, nor say much about what kind of films we liked. You can often tell more about a person if you asked him/her what they consider the worst films of all time.

I’m for this because it allows for more diversity in the nomination pool. There have been too many Auschwitz dramas and musicals nominated over the years. Of course, this might just lead to the nominee list being dominated by them :)
on June 28, 2009 at 4:31 pm Jackrabbit Slim

But popcorn films should only be nominated if they’re good enough, and they seldom are. Are you pulling for a Star Trek nomination? And comedies are nominated all the time–we’ve had Little Miss Sunshine and Juno in the past three years.
on June 28, 2009 at 4:56 pm Nick

Of course they should be nominated if they’re good enough, and most of them aren’t. But some of them are. I’m not pulling for a Star Trek nomination, but I am pulling for one for Hurt Locker (which y’all should go see) which would have had no shot if there were only five available nominations.

So two comedies from the last three years? A comedy having a shot at getting an Oscar is anomalous at best and you know it. Was Some Like It Hot nominated for Best Picture? Do the Right Thing? Groundhog Day? No. I can go on. Would they have been if there had been ten nominee spots? Probably. Will they have a better shot at winning now? A little. What they will mainly receive is some recognition, sorely lacking for the art of a good comedic film.
on June 28, 2009 at 5:24 pm Jackrabbit Slim

Do the Right Thing was a comedy?

I’ll give you Some Like It Hot, but Groundhog Day didn’t deserve a nomination.

Look, I’m all for the best films actually getting nominated, but expanding the field may not solve the problem, as you say it may only double it, with ten late-year prestige releases getting nominated instead of five. Why should it be ten and not the other categories? Or, why not make it 15? 20? 50? Then everybody would be happy, as their personal favorite would make it.
on June 28, 2009 at 5:39 pm Nick

Do the Right Thing was a comedy?

It wasn’t? That movie was funny, yo.

Groundhog Day didn’t deserve a nomination.

You just ripped the wings of some tiny drunk angel somewhere, man.

Why should it be ten and not the other categories?

There are lot more films released these days than fifty years ago and I’d argue tastes are wildly more diverse than they were when the five film rule was implemented. Like I said before, 15 and 20 is too wide, but ten is better. I think five is too narrow considering how much is released every year. Having ten in the other categoies would lead to confusion, on the other hand. Best Picture is the whole all the other categories strive for and it’s happened more than once that a film has half-a-dozen nominations in all the other categories but none in the Best Picture category. This will probably eliminate that to a large extent.

Even you must agree that every year there are films left out of the Best Picture nominations list that deserved to be there?

And there’s only ever going to be one winner, anyhow.
on June 28, 2009 at 7:48 pm Brian

… Groundhog Day didn’t deserve a nomination.

Maybe, maybe not, but it was better than The Fugitive, at least, which was nominated that year. I think I prefer it to In the Name of the Father, also, though it’s been so long since I saw that movie that I can’t say for sure. I didn’t see The Remains of the Day, so it’s possible that it is better than that too.

Even you must agree that every year there are films left out of the Best Picture nominations list that deserved to be there?

Well, I usually think there are a few films that “deserve” to be there (whatever that really means), but typically it’s instead of a few of the movies that were nominated, not in addition to them.

Here’s a thought. The Baseball Hall of Fame (as one example) lets in all players who gain 75% of the vote. This means that some years there are several players who are voted in, but some year there are none.

I like this concept, and I think maybe the best solution would be if the number of Best Picture nominations was variable. So say that every voting member gets to nominate 10 (or whatever) movies, and then set a threshold that any movies that get a certain number of nominations gets a nod. You’d have to set the threshold low enough that you’d be certain you always had at least 3, I would think, just for practical reasons. But in really high quality years, you’d have more movies that are nominated. And in crap years, there would be fewer.
on June 29, 2009 at 7:02 am Jackrabbit Slim

In the Name of the Father was my favorite film of that year.

Do the Right Thing may have had some funny lines, but it’s not a comedy. How many comedies have characters killed by the police, and full-scale riots that are depicted very seriously? It wasn’t nominated because it was a comedy, it was out of disdain for Spike Lee.