New Rules!

I just read that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, which governs how the Oscars are handed out, has once again revised the rules for the Best Picture nominations.

From The Film Experience:

Just when we were getting acclimated to the new system of ten best picture nominees, Oscar is changing up their rules again. Deadline reports that after carefully studying their voting data, the Academy's governing board has decided that that Ten Best Picture Nominees thing was perhaps a little too generous. 'Shouldn't there be some threshold of passion for a film to win that coveted "best picture" title' they asked themselves.

Their answer was "yes".

How much passion will be required exactly? The magic number is 5%. In short, a film will have to win at least 5% of #1 votes in the nomination balloting in order to join the Best Picture Lineup. There'll be no less than 5 Best Picture nominees in any given year and no more than 10. So one could say they're splitting the difference between the old system and the new.

[…]

“In studying the data, what stood out was that Academy members had regularly shown a strong admiration for more than five movies,” said Davis. “A Best Picture nomination should be an indication of extraordinary merit. 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.”

If this system had been in effect from 2001 to 2008 (before the expansion to a slate of 10), there would have been years that yielded 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 nominees.

Can’t say I disagree with not feeling obligated to rounding out the number, but I fear it might still let average titles in (like say An Education or Winter’s Bone).  On the other hand, I don’t know how happy I’ll be in seeing a different number of Best Picture nominees every year.

There’s also this, which I’m not crazy about:

The number of Animated Features nominated will be more flexible too. Previously it was 3 or 5. Now it'll be 2 to 5 depending on the number of films released that are eligible and number of votes those films received.

Animated movies are so numerous nowadays, why only 2 nominees?  And, can it possibly be that there were years when they had to round the number to 3 and let a less deserving title in?!