Shocking Academy Awards News

It looks like The Academy is trying to atone for their sins, especially after last years debacle when both The Dark Knight and Wall-E, two audience and critical favorites, failed to be nominated for best picture.  It has just been announced that starting this coming Oscars there will be 10 nominees in the Best Picture category.  Yep you read that right, 10!  Basically what this comes down to is that the Academy is desperately trying to appeal to the current generation of film goers and I'm guessing it hopes that by having ten best pic nominees, we will end up with more box office hits in the mix.  So does this mean that something like Star Trek could make it into the mix?  Or better yet could Pixar finally receive a best picture nomination for their deserving Up?  The answer is... well maybe.  I can see that this decision by the Academy could go one of two ways.  We could end up with more films that people genuinely like and actually go see... or we could end up with more "prestige" pictures that Academy voters already like, but aren't quite good enough in their eyes to merit Best Pic consideration.  That means last year films like Doubt and possibly even Australia could have made it in for a Best Pic nomination.  That is a very scary thought.  I don't think this will do anything for the independent market as if the film is really well loved it will make it in the final five.  I don't think The Wrestler or Rachel Getting Married had nearly enough votes last year to get any where near the final five, let alone the final 10.  And as for Blockbuster, I'm assuming this may only really help one or two a year.  I think possibly The Dark Knight would have made it in last year had we had this 10 nominees rule in place then... but even that seems iffy.  The Academy simply can't be trusted to nominate the films that deserve recognition because they go for the same types of movies over and over again.  And god forbid a Foreign film end up in the final 10, all hell may just break loose.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out come years end.  I think we will either end up with what will equate to a very interesting top 10 list, or a glorified prestige picture list that no one will really care about.  If the Academy truly uses this opportunity to shake things up and make the race more interesting than I am all for it.  But part of me is very scared of what the outcome will be.

So now I'm going to make a prediction and we shall see how close I am come years end.  I'm going to be optimistic about it for now and my predictions shall reflect that.  THIS YEARS BEST PICTURE NOMINEES WILL BE -

 

AVATAR

BRIGHT STAR

INVICTUS

THE HURT LOCKER

THE LOVELY BONES

NINE

PRECIOUS

SHUTTER ISLAND

STAR TREK

UP

Keep in mind nobody knows anything and this is both an optimistic and safe set of predictions.  We shall just have to see how the year pans out.  Click Here to read the press release.  One thing is for sure - The Oscar race just got really interesting.