The big news floating around Hollywood is that the Academy Awards of 2010 will expand the Best Picture category to 10 pictures. AWN reports that Sid Ganis, the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, held a press conference to announce the change.
“After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” said Ganis. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same — one Best Picture winner — but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.”
“Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,” commented Ganis. “I can’t wait to see what that list of ten looks like when the nominees are announced in February.”
The trend of having only 5 nominees has caused contention in many circles. Most recently, the Hollywood elite and American audiences thought that the DARK KNIGHT was snubbed by not securing a nomination. Also, the animation industry has lamented at being pigeon-holed into lesser category and not being taken seriously as film-makers.
