Wednesday, June 15, 2011 at 8:18PM Academy Awards Makes Changes To Best Picture Nominees
Was anyone truly expecting these new changes to make a difference? Not really. At least we can now feel a little better about ourselves in knowing that we don't have too much filler for a mandated 10 nominees list for Best Picture next year. It was only two years a go that the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences made the changes to double the nominations list from 5 contenders to a total of 10. Such a massive change allowed hidden gems from the year to make the list even though it never really had a chance to win the tops prize (I’m looking at you The Blind Side, The Kids Are All Right and District 9).
This was done to attract a broader audience from television, including big hits like Avatar, because films like The King’s Speech ad all but monopolized the category and took away from mainstream hits. Now, that logic hasn’t exactly served the academy well and all its done is (possibly) dilute the prestige and value of the category to include crowd pleasers instead of just masterpieces from this past year. Film Junk makes a note of the most obvious motivation behind this change: “The Academy snub of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight was supposedly one of the big reasons for the change, and indeed, Nolan’s next film Inception ended up getting a nod this year as a result.”
The Academy has since decided to change some of the rules where the nominees can be variable, somewhere between 5 to 10 nominees depending on whether the film meets the critieria of receiving at least 5% first-place votes to qualify for the Best Picture race. It’s said of these changes: “[would] be adding some surprise and suspense to the announcement of the nominees in January. It means that the Best Picture race can and will be very different every year, but it also ensures that all of the movies receiving a nomination actually deserve it (in the eyes of Academy members, that is).”
There were some other changes made to the animation, Visual Effect and Documentary categories as well. Here’s the press release:
Beverly Hills, CA — The governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted on Tuesday (6/14) to add a new twist to the 2011 Best Picture competition, and a new element of surprise to its annual nominations announcement. The Board voted to institute a system that will now produce anywhere between five and 10 nominees in the category. That number won’t be announced until the Best Picture nominees themselves are revealed at the January nominations announcement.
“With the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers, we’ve been looking not just at what happened over the past two years, but at what would have happened if we had been selecting 10 nominees for the past 10 years,” explained Academy President Tom Sherak, who noted that it was retiring Academy executive director Bruce Davis who recommended the change first to Sherak and incoming CEO Dawn Hudson and then to the governors.
During the period studied, the average percentage of first place votes received by the top vote-getting movie was 20.5. After much analysis by Academy officials, it was determined that 5% of first place votes should be the minimum in order to receive a nomination, resulting in a slate of anywhere from five to 10 movies.
“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.
The final round of voting for Best Picture will continue to employ the preferential system, regardless of the number of nominees, to ensure that the winning picture has the endorsement of more than half of the voters.
Other rules changes approved by the Board include:
In the animated feature film category, the need for the Board to vote to “activate” the category each year was eliminated, though a minimum number of eligible releases - eight - is still required for a competitive category. Additionally, the short films and feature animation branch recommended, and the Board approved refinements to the number of possible nominees in the Animated Feature category. In any year in which eight to 12 animated features are released, either two or three of them may be nominated. When 13 to 15 films are released, a maximum of four may be nominated, and when 16 or more animated features are released, a maximum of five may be nominated.
In the visual effects category, the “bakeoff” at which the nominees are determined will expand from seven to 10 contenders. The increase in the number of participants is related to a change made last year in which the number of films nominated in the visual effects category was increased from three to five.
Previously, the Board approved changes to the documentary feature and documentary short category rules that now put those categories’ eligibility periods in line with the calendar year and thus with most other awards categories. The change means that for the 84th Awards cycle only, the eligibility period is more than 12 months; it is from September 1, 2010 to December 31, 2011.
Other modifications of the 84th Academy Awards rules include normal date changes and minor “housekeeping” changes.
Rules are reviewed annually by individual branch and category committees. The Awards Rules Committee then reviews all proposed changes before presenting its recommendations to the Academy’s Board of Governors for approval.
The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.
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