Posted by Michelle McCue in Best Picture | 8 comments
New Voting Rules for Oscar Best Picture
First it was the shocking news of the Disney buying Marvel for $4 Billion. And now in a press release from AMPAS, they’ve issued an unbelievable new set of Voting Rule changes in the Best Picture Category:
Preferential Voting Extended to Best Picture on Final Ballot for 2009 Oscars ®
Beverly Hills, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed today that it will be using the preferential voting system to determine which of the 10 contenders for its Best Picture award will receive the 2009 Oscar. The system has long been used in the round of voting which determines the nominees in most categories, but it has not been used on the final ballot for Best Picture since 1945.
In June the Academy’s Board of Governors extended the Best Picture category from five to 10 nominees, which necessitated a change to the voting system for the category. With 10 nominees, the preferential system is one that best allows the collective judgment of all voting members to be most accurately represented.
“Instead of just marking an ‘X’ to indicate which one picture they believe to be the best, members will indicate their second, third and further preferences as well,” Academy President Tom Sherak said. “PricewaterhouseCoopers will then be able to establish the Best Picture recipient with the strongest support of a majority of our electorate.”
In 1934 and 1935, there were 12 nominees for Best Picture and the preferential system was used to determine the winners. From 1936 through 1943, there were 10 nominees for Best Picture and the preferential system was used for final balloting. In 1944 and 1945, the preferential system continued to be used, though there were only five nominees in the category.
This totally changes the way Oscar campaigns will be handled now, making the top 5 picks pivotal. The way Steve Ponds over at “The Odds” explained it, “As a result, a film could be the first choice of the largest number of voters, but find itself nudged out of the top prize by another movie that got fewer number one votes but more twos and threes.” Nothing more than a huge popularity contest. Enough already, AMPAS!
The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center ®, and televised live on ABC.
Only if this happened a year prior then "The Dark Knight" may have had a shot.
I totally agree. Think about the other showdowns. Gladiator vs Traffic, Crash vs Brokeback Mountain.
Part of being a movie fan is knowing what was obvious snubs and talking about them. I guess we will have less debates and our lists of deserving but snubbed will be shorter. And now I guess they will a least consider comedies, which has been shown no love
Here is my list of films that would have been helped by the new rule
Reservoir Dogs, Once Upon a Time in the West, Once Upon a Time in America, Do the right Thing, Malcolm X, Taking Of Pelham 1,2,3, Menace II Society. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Sorcerer.
sorry but the Oscars have always been the ultimate popularity contest. This changes nothing.
How do we explain 1981's Best Picture winner, my favorite, Chariots of Fire…did Reds and On Golden Pond split the vote? All 3 lost out Best Editing, which usually tells who will win Best Picture, to Radiers of the Lost Ark.
These two were HUGE favorites with Academy voting members and appeared to be the most popular
Huh, on the surface, this looks like the Oscars are stealing from WAMG. That's how we do our Top Ten list. THIEVES!!!!!!
Heeeeeeeeey…You're right, they ARE copying us, aren't they?? Fargin Bastages! lol