Oscar Expands Best Picture Nomination to 10 for Next Year’s Awards

“Up” needs to be nominated for best picture and needs to win, and not just for some special animation award. It really is that good.

I think this is a good thing…often films like last year’s WALL-E and Dark Knight (which wasn’t my favorite, but it definitely had plenty of critical and popular buzz) would have a legitimate chance but they get edged out of nominations by more traditional Academy Award fare ala Frost/Nixon. 5 more nominations gives 5 more movies a chance and might make the race less obvious because the academy’s votes would be more spread out.

The only downside is that I have to add 5 more movies to my watch list when Oscar season rolls around and movies are ridiculously expensive these days!

ETA: I agree, Up should definitely be nominated this year!

I am not a fan of this…the 10 nominees for BP hasn’t been regular practice since the 30s and 40s. To me, it lessens the prestige of the nomination and is an obvious ploy for more viewers. Movies like The Dark Knight and Wall-E would’ve been in the running if this were implemented last year, which is fine, but now we have to deal with even more vote splitting. I no liiike, haha.

I like the extension as well. Maybe the voters will look past typical Oscar drama fare and hopefully a comedy or action picture will make the best movie category. Maybe then I’ll start paying attention to the Oscars for themselves instead of the fashion (and Hugh Jackman’s hosting). A few years ago Bourne Ultimatum was on the long shot list by a lot of critics. Only reason it was long shot – because it was an action movie and the critics knew action movies just don’t make the Best Picture list. And it wasn’t. Last year I cared about the Oscars was the year Lord of the Rings Return of the King won (that was a great Oscar night for me).

I suspect last year’s non-nominations of Dark Knight and Wall E for best picture had a lot to do with this change. Both were on every critics best of the year list (whether the critic was big city or small town), both were huge fan favorites, both were big money blockbusters, and neither was nominated for best picture. Dark Knight in particular caused a huge uproar when it was not nominated. I thought it was more than deserving of a nomination, though I wasn’t surprised it wasn’t (again, that whole action movie thing).

Wall E was an uproar but not as loud. It was nominated, and won, for best animation. Dark Knight was only nominated for Heath’s role and some technical things.

Lilbrusc102 you have a point though. I think many fans make a deliberate attempt to see the best picture nominations once they are announced. I know I typically make sure I see the best picture nominations. Though I had no interest in a couple of the movies last year and still haven’t bothered to see them. But Oscar nominations do instantly translate to increased box office for those movies. This could very well be a way of getting more people to those movies.

Don’t get how this has anything to do with American Idol, but then again, I shouldn’t be surprised.

We’ll see how this pans out – though my fear is that, though more worthy movies will get noms, the winner could wind up being totally crazy and undeserving if the votes get split so much.

However, I was majorly disappointed that Dark Knight and Wall-E missed out last year for some of the other noms (though I really liked “Milk”).

holeighannie
but now we have to deal with even more vote splitting.

Ohhh NOOOoooooooo, vote splitting!!!!!!! :wallbash_tb: :tongue1_tb:

LOLWUT
I actually like this. That way at least every film that’s deserving will get a nomination… *cough*Dark Knight*cough*WALL-E*cough*.

LOL, the dreaded vote splitting. People already complain about it re: the Oscars. If they want to pull a real positive, push the date of the ceremony back to where it used to be, later in Spring. That would give ample time to watch everything and form an opinion outside of whatever the prevailing favorites are.

Donà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t get how this has anything to do with American Idol. . .

Well, Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar. And, um, well. . .

From Justin to Kelly didn’t.

The Oscar best movie is like classical music…..Very few people really listen to it but if someone wants to impress they always say they “went to the symphony”. It’s all about seeming “highbrow” and the academy has gone out of its way to vote for movies that are oftentimes depressing as hell and very rarely make it into someones DVD collection.

I’m all for giving some “real” movies an opportunity instead of just the stupid “psuedo intellectual” stuff that is oftentimes crammed down our throats. Bring on some silly blockbusters that get everybodies hearts racing and maybe some academy members will get the corn cobs out from their collective a$$es and vote for a movie that even us little people like (after all its done on a secret ballot and nobody will be the wiser).

By the way I really like it when MJ sparks up the threads by adding some pop culture into the mix. Thanks, MJ. (But Americas Got Talent could be a little over the top).

Oh wonderful, this should tighten up the bloated spectacle of the Academy show quite nicely.

Seriously, if I thought for a second that the Academy would do the right thing and recognize smaller independent and foreign films with prestigious and highly-coveted nomination, then I’d be jumping up and clapping but my best guess is more big mediocre Hollywood films will be rubber stamped “ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEE” because it looks good on a sticker on a DVD slipcase.

Ià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢m all for giving some à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“realà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  movies an opportunity instead of just the stupid à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“psuedo intellectualà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬  stuff that is oftentimes crammed down our throats.

That would be fine, if they actually would. All of the nominees, whether there are 5 or 10, will be the same traditional genres. A couple blockbusters (think TDK) may sneak in, but it’s not going to be a revelation of a decision, I don’t think. And whatever, the Academy’s decisions shouldn’t be the end all be all, they leave deserving movies/performances/etc. every year. But this isn’t going to make a huge difference, the Academy is very traditional…sometimes the movies they pick are lame, but just because they don’t make a ton of money doesn’t mean they aren’t good. It will still be awhile before big budget superhero movies are the norm in the nominations.

This is dumb. Award Shows are supposed to highlight the BEST of the BEST and keep the nominations to a minimum in each category.

“Didn’t make the cut” is supposed to mean something.

Soon it will be like 4-year old sports…. every kid gets a trophy just for participating.

I already know my tastes are very different from most people’s. I thought The Dark Knight was lame – Batman Begins was much better. Wall-E was cute enough, but not worthy of a BP nod IMHO. I actually fell asleep during Up this past weekend… sad, but true. I loved Star Trek though….

It would be nice to see other genres in the race for the big Prize (Foreign films, animation, Documentaries, Comedy) but seriously it’s not like they’ll be losing some prestige, this is the Academy after all, the same people who gave the Oscar to Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction and to Crash over all the other deserving nominees…
But seriously, now there’s NO EXCUSE to leave Pixar out of the main category!

The first thing that comes to my mind, is that, with this announcement, there’s no way they can leave Pixar out of the nominees next year.

IMHO, the fact that Wall-E and The Dark Knight weren’t there this year was truly shameful. Few movies have ranked so high both with the critics and general audiences; movies like “The Reader”, “Frost/Nixon”, or even “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” weren’t as critically acclaimed as Wall-E and TDK, I truly don’t understand what they were thinking when they left those out.

I guess I don’t understand all the complaints about Pixar movies being left out of the Best Picture race…the only animated movie to be nominated for BP was Beauty and The Beast, which was before an award was created especially for animated movies.