Corona | Coming Attractions

After today's announcement it's a given that next year's Academy Awards is going to be longer in length than this year's.

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences president Sid Ganis announced this morning that it is expanding the number of nominees for Best Picture from 5 to 10 starting with next year's Oscars. It's actually a return to when the Oscars had 10 Best Picture candidates; the Academy allowed for 10 nominees in the top category back between the years 1931 to 1943.

Ganis explained that the move was designed to allow more diversity for the films being nominated for Best Picture. "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," Ganis said. Such a move could mean that films both popular commercially and critically like The Dark Knight get a nod from Academy members.

That may be the creative spin on the decision but undoubtedly a big reason was the declining ratings for the Oscars broadcast. Since coming off of an all-time low in 2008, the reimagined 2009 Oscars show saw a slight upward tick in its viewing audience but well under the Neilsen highs from years ago. "That was not the purpose but, of course, there is the hope that there'll be even more interest in the Oscars around the world," Ganis explained when asked if expanding the Best Picture candidates was motived by the bottom line. "We have to think about that with the other side of our business. The show is important to us, but we are not going to turn ourselves upside down and backwards to accommodate the ratings."

And how will adding five more Best Picture nominees effect the Best Animated Film or Best Documentary categories when those latter two slots offer outstanding films? Can Disney/Pixar's Up conceivably walk away with both Best Animated Film and Best Picture Oscars? More nominees for Best Picture will mean more screen time that will need to be devoted to showing the roster of candidates. Might it also mean more box office for more films around Oscar season?