Fewer Eligible Best Picture Nominees in 2009

There are a few movies that have risen to the top of the heap for awards consideration - Up in the Air, The Hurt Locker, and now Avatar seem to be the strongest candidates - and one reason it could seem like a foregone conclusion in some of the major categories is that there are fewer movies for voters to choose from. Atomic Popcorn has discovered that a total of 274 movies were eligible for this year's Best Picture honor, about 10% less than we had in 2006 and 2007, although just a few below last year's 281. The all-time record for eligible films was 2005's 311 movies. The site lays out the specifics for eligibility:

"A movie is classified as a feature film only if its run time is longer than 40 minutes, and it has been shown theatrically on 35mm film, 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format. Films that fall within those parameters must open in a commercial cinema in L.A. County by midnight on December 31st, with the opening being the start of a run of at least seven days."

The rules are different for documentaries and foreign language films. For example, in order to be eligible for Best Foreign Language Film, a movie only has to play in its country of origin by September 30th. To then be up for the top prize, it then has to play for a week in Los Angeles by the end of the year. Though it hardly matters because the percentage is still so small, a movie released in 2009 has well over two times as much chance of being nominated for Best Picture than its 2005 counterpart. I mean, it's just a 3% chance, but still.

Comments

[J.Bradley]

It always was at the end of the year you had this or that critic's top ten for the year, now you'll have the Oscar's top ten.