VFX, Documentary, Animation Rules Also Tweaked

Just two years into a new policy that expanded the number of Best Picture nominees from five to 10, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has decided that eight is enough. Or six. Or maybe nine or 10, depending on the year.
The Academy voted in some other rule changes this year. The visual-effects bakeoff has been expanded to include 10 contenders instead of just seven, a welcome move that will allow more VFX supervisors to make the case for their films before the committee that will whittle down their numbers to just five. (This was expanded from three nominees last year.) And the eligibility period for documentary features and shorts is being changed to bring it into alignment with most of the other categories meaning that, for this year only, the eligibility period will actually be 16 months (September 2010 to December 2011). The number of possible nominations for animated films was tweaked as well. See the AMPAS press release for more details.

But the Best Picture change is the only one that’s truly high-profile, and may make more casual viewers scratch their heads. Starting with the announcement of the Academy Award nominations next January 24, the biggest surprise for Oscar-watchers may not be which films are nominated for the highest AMPAS honor, but how many of them. During the nomination process, the Academy will be looking not just at how many members voted to nominate a given film, but at the percentage of first-place votes each individual film received. Instead of selecting the top five or 10 vote-getters in the category, the Academy will instead cite all of the films that received at least 5 percent of the first-place votes. (On average, the top vote-getter receives 20.5 percent of the first-place votes.)

This will result in a slate of between five and 10 nominees each year, the Academy said. “In studying the data, what stood out was that Academy members had regularly shown a strong admiration for more than five movies,” said retiring Academy Executive Director Bruce Davis in a prepared statement. “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.”

Fair enough, but the Oscars are fast getting a reputation for making it up as they go along. From 1944 to 2008, the number of Best Picture nominees has been a constant on the Oscar scene. Limiting the list to five nominees meant it truly was an honor just to be nominated. The jump to 10 nominees in 2009 was a dramatic move, though not without precedent, and it did add some variety and maybe some popular appeal to the annual Oscars telecast, the ratings of which are crucial to the health of the Academy.

But drawing back on that expansion so soon after it was enacted makes it look like the august Motion Picture Academy is waffling. (Other categories, including documentaries, animated films, and foreign films have been the subject of some behind-the-scenes maneuvering, as well, but none with such a high-profile outcome.) Further, if the rules were changed again because – as seems the most likely explanation – the Academy was vaguely embarrassed by some of the films that made the cut under the looser rules, it raises the question of which films they find unworthy.

Which titles from 2009 and 2010 would the Academy like to forget ever had the right to promote themselves as Best Picture nominees? Are they movies from outside the major studio system, like Precious and Winter’s Bone? Are they genre films that look the good fortune to be directed by James Cameron, like District 9 and Inception? The Pixar cartoons? The Sandra Bullock movie? Is the Academy making a pre-emptive strike against a scenario where a well-reviewed comic-book inspired film like X-Men: First Class or Thor squeaks into the top 10?

Whatever, AMPAS. I’ll still enjoy watching your big show every year. But maybe you’re taking the question of these nominations a little too seriously. Honoring films for artistic merit is a very subjective endeavor. In any year, there are great movies that don’t stand a chance of making your list, and there have been plenty of mediocre movies that got the nod. It’s not as if the movie that comes in tenth in a field of 10 really stands a chance of winning the little golden man, anyway, so why fret so much? If you change the Best Picture rules again in 2013, it’s going to start looking like you’re not sure exactly what you’re doing.