If only they'd gone to 11, then Spinal Tap could've been the featured band!
via press release:
THE 82ND ACADEMY AWARDS® TO FEATURE 10 BEST PICTURE NOMINEES
The 82nd Annual Academy Awards Will Be Broadcast Live on
the ABC Television Network, Sunday, March 7, 2010
The 82nd Academy Awards, which will be presented on March 7, 2010, will have 10 feature films vying in the Best Picture category, Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis announced today (June 24) 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.”
For more than a decade during the Academy’s earlier years, the Best Picture category welcomed more than five films; for nine years there were 10 nominees. The 16th Academy Awards (1943) was the last year to include a field of that size; “Casablanca” was named Best Picture. In 1931/32 there were eight nominees and in 1934 and 1935 there were 12 nominees.
“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 10 looks like when the nominees are announced in February.”
The Oscar ceremony honoring films for 2009 will again take place at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network.
The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010. The Oscar ceremony will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, live at 8:30 p.m., ET on the ABC Television Network. The ceremony will once again take place at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood.
About the Academy
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the world’s preeminent movie-related organization, with a membership of more than 6,000 of the most accomplished men and women working in cinema. In addition to the annual Academy Awards – in which the members vote to select the nominees and winners – the Academy presents a diverse year-round slate of public programs, exhibitions and events; provides financial support to a wide range of other movie-related organizations and endeavors; acts as a neutral advocate in the advancement of motion picture technology; and, through its Margaret Herrick Library and Academy Film Archive, collects, preserves, restores and provides access to movies and items related to their history. Through these and other activities the Academy serves students, historians, the entertainment industry and people everywhere who love movies.
i’m sure this has nothing to do with sagging ratings
too little too late for The Dark Knight
This is just so more films can trumpet the nomination in advertising. Not that the awards were not already and always a promotional tool more than anything else, but this watering down of the brand will likely not prove useful at all in the long run. Hell, maybe not even the short run. I can only imagine some of the shitty films that will get noms now. Crap already gets nominated (and wins), so now the crap may end up dominating. For every one great film that would have been overlooked that slides in, four pieces of junk are now going to make the cut.
And I bet they still don’t nominte UP or any other animated film.
Ahh, the dumbing down of America. It never stops.
Blegh!
The Pixar loonies will finally get their nomination, no way Up gets left out now. The Lovely Bone’s is a lock
^They have a ‘Best Animated Picture’ category for a reason
Up will still end up in BP if there are 10, Cool
I don’t think so, it’s the same history every year with a Pixar movie.
Right, and that reason is because it was so embarrassing that the best pictures in any given year were not getting nominated. It was so ridiculous that neither Toy Story nor The Lion King received a nomination that they Academy, to their credit, realized they had to do something. They were looking ridiculous, and would have even looked more insane if pics such as Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Wall-E had been snubbed entirely due to a lack of a category.
Still, Best Picture is Best Picture, and there is no doubt that Wall-E was one of the five best pictures of 2008. It’s crazy that it could not get nominated. Just goes to show that the majority of voters don’t actually like movies very much.
I’m not sure if there’s anything in particular you can point to as a tipping point, but since Titanic it seems that commercial success has disqualified a movie from Best Picture consideration. After doubling the number of nominees, it probably won’t disqualify one from being nominated, but still probably winning.
And the Nominees are:
1. Drag Me to Hell
2. Star Trek
3. Up
4. Amelia
5. Julie & Julia
6. Avatar
7. The Princess and the Frog
8. Nine
9. The Lovely Bones
10. New York, I Love You
Yeah, I see the list of nominees now expanding to 5 serious films that have any real* chance of winning, 2 additional runner-up serious films (that have no chance of winning, a Woody Allen slot, and then two “popular” entries. Last year it would be films like Dark Knight & Iron Man, this year it would be Up.
*Of course, no guarantee things work out like the Academy plans. Nearly every year it seems there is some actor/actress shocker (think Marisa Tomei), and it wouldn’t surprise me if one of those throwaway popular pics wins some year. Probably not in the short term though – the change is too new for Up to win, and Pixar’s lineup is relatively weak in the next couple years (Sequels to Cars & Toy Story).
Bill –
The Departed in ’06 wasn’t really a flop, and Return of The King in ’03 was clearly not one either.
Though I agree with you that the couple popular films that get in the extended list are intended to do so for viewership, not for serious consideration.
I think it’s more recent than Titanic, Bill. Saving Private Ryan (#1 BO for the year) was nominated in 1998, The Sixth Sense (#2 BO for the year) was nominated in 1999, Gladiator (#4) was nominated and won in 2000, LOTR:FOTR (#2) in 2001, LOTR:TT (#2) in 2002, LOTR:ROTK (#1) was nominated and won in 2003, etc. I agree that the past few years there have not been any big blockbuster hits in the BP race, but Titanic was not the last one.
Are you saying that Lord of the Rings: Return of the King was a small grossing art film? it made $377 Million at the US box office.
The Academy Awards show is already 3 and a half hours long, so in my estimation with the five additional movies in the Best Picture category, the show should now run approximately 6 hours 47 minutes.
Julia, others, I was indeed mixed up,
Titanic was the last *win* for a commercial blockbuster.Edit: Or not.
Other than Gladiator and LOTR:ROFK.
Any remaining credibility the Oscar has is going out the window with this……………..wait they gave Titanic and Crash wins ok the credibility was already gone.
Too late for Wall-E, The Dark Knight and The Wrestler.