Moviegoings

The Academy has rewound the clock in what may be the most significant Oscar rule change in recent memory. Ever since the 1945 ceremony, five nominees have been chosen each year as candidates for the top award. Beginning with the next ceremony, the Academy will be returning to the early years by selecting 10 nominees for the Best Picture category. This is pretty huge, actually, and it almost seems like an act of desperation as television audiences have continued to drop for the show’s annual broadcast. The change will almost guarantee that more popular films like The Dark Knight, or even WALL-E would have a strong shot at the nomination.

Overall, this seems like an overwhelmingly positive change to me, for a number of reasons. At worst, it isn’t likely to decrease the quality of the films chosen by the institution that awarded its highest honor to [insert favorite Oscar gaffe here]. It opens up the field to allow all sorts of films to be considered, even if they aren’t obvious Oscar-bait. That can only mean good things, both for the average, “populist” moviegoer and for the more picky folks (like me). Just imagine what the ballot might have looked like, even during the past 2 or 3 years, if the field had been opened up before.

I’m also interested to see what effect this will have on the sorts of films that actually get the award (although that may take several years to judge). Perhaps even more interesting will be the effect it will have on how and when awards-season films are marketed and released, and on the massive annual prediction game that consumes the weeks leading up to the nomination announcements and the ceremony itself. I have no speculations about this at all, and it’s really far too early to be talking about the Oscars. This news was just too massive to pass up.

~ by Jared on June 25, 2009.

Posted in Oscar, Referrals