The Motion Picture Academy announced Wednesday that for the first time in more than 65 years, the field of best picture nominees will be expanded to 10 contenders for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.Yeah, me neither, since I don't think I've seen a single film worth nominating for Best Alternative to Spending Two Hours Doing Laundry so far this year.
"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," said Acad prexy Sid Ganis in announcing the shift. "I can't wait to see what that list of 10 looks like when the nominees are announced in February."
This move would have made more sense to me if they'd taken a page from the Golden Globes and 86'ed Best Picture, instead allocating five slots to Best Drama and five to Best Comedy. Sometimes the lines between the two are a wee bit fuzzy, which makes categorizing quirky films a little harder, but that makes more sense than merely expanding the Best Picture category, which doesn't guarantee that superior comedies (and musicals) won't continue to be overlooked in favor of Very Serious Dramas That Don't Justify Their Hype, at least three of which take up 60% of the nominees every year.
So: Best Picture x 10. Yay or nay?
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