Oscars to expand Best Picture category
Story by Jack Foley
A TOTAL of 10 films will now be shortlisted for the Best Picture Oscar at next year’s Academy Awards.
The decision is intended to make the awards “more interesting and less cloistered,” according to Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences at a press conference on Wednesday. He added that it could also include “more populist movies”.
The longer list could enable films such a documentary, a foreign language film, animated feature or comedy to contest the Best Picture prize – although the separate categories for best doc, best animated feature and best foreign language film will not be affected.
The decision marks the first time since 1943 that 10 films will be in the running and has been called “a return to the past” by observers.
It’s also viewed as a direct – and belated – response to the exlusion of audience and critical favourites such as the latest Batman epic, The Dark Knight, or Pixar’s Wall-E – both of which featured prominently in countless year-end best of lists, but which failed to make an impact against the more worthy subject matter on last year’s Oscars shortlist.
Ganis denied that the Batman movie had “come up” during the discussions about expanding the category – but it’s also believed that expanding the best picture category to include more box office hits would inevitably yield more television viewers.
This year’s big winners did, however, include an audience favourite in Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (pictured), as well as the likes of Milk and Doubt.
Variety reports that, as yet, no further categories – such as Best Director – will be expanded to 10 nominees, although they quote an Academy source as predicting that it’s “just the first” change in Oscar’s world.
The idea of splitting the 10 films into dramas and comedies – in a move similar to the Golden Globes – has been rejected though.
Next year’s Oscar nominees will be announced on February 2, 2010. Read about this year’s winners
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Even though the media is keen to point out that this is commercially motivated: I think it will ultimately led to underrated films getting the attention they deserve.
Rosa Jun 29 #