And The Oscar Goes To......

[Deleted]

I think it's a great idea, hopefully this means more comedies and animated movies will have more serious consideration.

[Ripley]

I wonder how much of a box office bump a movie gets by getting a Best Picture nomination. Does it mean more ticket and DVD sales?

[Deleted]

Occasionally it does. If a movie is still in theaters when Oscar noms are announced there's usually at least a little bump, and often they get a wider release as a result as well. Million Dollar Baby was only playing in art houses around here until it started getting award nominations, then it was playing everywhere. Ditto with Slumdog Millionaire.

[Deleted]

Oh wow. Exciting news though I'm not sure yet what to make of this. It seems a lot like giving in to everyone who was all "Dark Knight wuz robbed!!1!" and of course like another way to get more celebs attend the ceremony.
So all other categories will still have just five nominees? With ten Best Pic noms we'll probably won't have ONE film dominating all categories with lots of nominations anymore.
*heads off to oscarwatch*


ETA: Best Director is going to be a lot more interesting if they have ten BP nominees but "only" five nominated directors....

[alpierce]

I have often wondered if film makers and actors even care about the award.

[may2]

I think this is dumb. They don't make 10 worthy films most years. Neither Frost/Nxon nor Milk was helped by a Best Picture nom last year.

Why don't they restore 2 nominees in the Best Song Category? It had always been 5 before last year.

[chitowngirl]

I think there were only 3 Best Song nominations because there are some very weird rules about how they nominate songs and how the final cut is made.

[Spinderella]

I'm thrilled with the change. Maybe this will allow for a happy balance between mainstream and indie flicks?

[aibohphobia]

Jun 24, 2009 14:08:01 GMT -4 alpierce said:

Academy voting is conducted like political campaigns from what I have heard. I have often wondered why big movies like spiderman don't get more awards. I would think that Iron man would rate something, I'd consider it watchable for anyone, not just overgrown comic book fans.

eta: The studio financing these blockbusters certainly have the money to mount a big campaign to get some awards for these films but they don't. I guess all they really care about is ticket and dvd sales.

Yes, at Gold Derby, a knowledgeable poster there made a good point that studios were taken aback by this big change because they already spend so much money on certain movies trying to chase the Oscar that now they have to spend more money which is an even more frightening prospect for them, and they have to decide which movies to push now that there are five more spaces. So while it may make some movies more money if they are nominated for Best Picture as roisin54 mentioned, recently a lot of movies seem to lose more money than they make because of all the advertising that they do everyday during Oscar season.

While the Oscars have never been pure, I dislike this idea based on the fact that there will be even more advertisements and will probably make the voters even lazier since they'll have more pushed at them for consideration for Best Picture, and they'll just go with what they normally seem to do and parrot all the other top ten lists with maybe one or two surprises in there just to show they're different.

I also dislike the idea because as I agree with may2 that this isn't a Golden Age of Cinema unlike with television where it makes sense for the Emmies to increase all the categories by one because there are so many great choices, and unfortunately with the various voting systems that they've tried, they've all failed to nominate all of the right people. So at least with six spots, there's now a better chance that a newcomer can break into the category. It's still flawed, but compared to what the Oscars are trying to do, I think it's a better idea since with movies, many times it feels like there's not ten or even five worthy nominees. Plus, it just reeks of giving Pixar and some blockbuster movie like The Dark Knight last year a pity spot that doesn't mean anything since they won't have any chance to win anyways because of what kind of films those are and because without a Best Director nomination those films have very little chance of winning.

[Baby Fish Mouth]

I think 10 nominees is a little much. Even if they start including more comedies and indies, I doubt those films will have much of a chance against the usual sweeping historical epics and Clint Eastwood dramas.

Start actually giving the Oscar to some different types of films, and that will be something to celebrate.