A couple of years ago, the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, which hands out the Oscars, decided to up the number of nominees in the Best Picture category from five to 10. This was seen as an effort to increase the number of big studio movies in contention, after grumbling from the major players that their movies were getting shut out, and also the fact that fewer people watch if there aren’t big blockbuster in play.
However the result has led to more criticism, largely because it’s been rumoured some films have snuck into the Best Picture nominees list despite the fact very few people thought they really were the best film of the year. Indeed, technically it’s meant that with such a wide field, a relative handful of votes could secure a Best Picture nomination, something that could be manipulated by studios simply marshalling those with close relationships with them to vote for a particular movie.
So now AMPAS has decided on a few changes, which they refer to as ‘a new twist to the 2011 Best Picture competition, and a new element of surprise’, but which actually is more about ensuring only movies that actually ought to get nominated do. The change means that in order to get a nomination, a movie must secure at least 5% of first choice votes in the first round of balloting, and between five and 10 movies could get a nomination, with the actual number not known until the nominees are announced.
The Academy looked back over the last 10 years to see what would have happened if this system had been in place then, and discovered that the average percentage of first place votes received by the top vote-getting movie was 20.5. They also noted 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. Although they don’t state it in their press release (presumably not wanting to potentially denigrate nominees in the last two years), that presumably means some films for 2009 and 2010 got nominated, even though more than 95% of the voters thought another movie was more deserving, which hardly seems fair.
Now movies will have to get around 325 first round votes or more, when previously you could technically have been nominated with just one vote if there were nine other, stronger movies that commanded all the rest of the votes (admittedly unlikely, but there was nothing to stop it happening).
It’s a change that makes sense.