Oscars expanding to 10 best picture nominees

posted by Al Alvarez on June 26, 2009 at 10:40 am

The Motion Picture Academy has decided to return to their old system of ten Best Picture nominees instead of five. There will still be only one winner.

The mind boggles as to how they will find ten worthy nominees when even five was often pushing it.

Decades ago, the Oscars had up to 10 best picture nominees for several years. “Gone With the Wind” famously beat a number of great films for best picture in 1939, including “Stagecoach,” “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” “Ninotchka,” “The Wizard of Oz” and “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

But in the mid-1940s, the system changed to its present five films, and five films it’s been ever since. That’s led to any number of crowd-pleasing but not “Oscar-worthy” (as the Academy believes) films not making the cut. Just last year, there were howls of protest for the failure of “The Dark Knight” to crack the Academy’s top five.

Read more at CNN Blogs.

Comments (1)

bruceanthony
bruceanthony on June 29, 2009 at 11:35 am

I think its a good idea to expand back to 10 nominated films. I think it will bring attention to a wider Variety of films. I think the Academy should stop Broadcasting categories the audience has no interest in and do it off camera. The highest rated Oscar telecast was back in 1970 with Bob Hope as its host and lots of real movie stars in attendance. brucec

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