When it was announced a couple years ago that the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would be expanding their Oscar nominations for the Best Picture category from five to 10 films, I had mixed feelings about it. The knee-jerk reaction was it incorporated too many movies and the field no longer consisted of the cream of the crop, but at the same time it was nice to see a throwback to the beginnings of the Academy Awards when a lot of nominations was the norm at each Oscar ceremony. Beginning with the 5th Academy Awards, the Best Picture category allowed eight movies or more to be nominated and it wasn’t until the 17th Academy Awards that it went back to five nominees, like the second, third, and fourth year ceremonies had been. The inaugural ceremony only included three nominees for Outstanding Picture or Production and three nominees for Unique and Artistic Production. Those were combined the following year to become Best Picture.
After two years of seeing what it is like to have 10 movies nominated for the Best Picture category I have to say I completely support it, and my reasons are twofold. The first, and foremost, reason is it brings to the attention of moviegoers films that normally have been critically praised but publicly overlooked. Take for example last year’s nominees. Obviously everyone had heard of Avatar, The Hurt Locker, The Blind Side, Inglourious Basterds, Up, and Up in the Air. But the less popular films that would not have been as well publicized had it not been for the nomination included District 9, An Education, Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, and A Serious Man. I like that less popular films come to the forefront of everyone’s minds once the nominations are announced and those movies get some extra buzz, even if there is a miniscule chance they are going to win the award.
The second reason for liking the increase in nominations is it allows me the chance to see more movies at the special screenings prior to the ceremony where certain theaters show all of the Best Picture nominees. With 10 movies nominated, the theaters break the event up into two days and show five movies each day. Last year I was only able to get to one day of the event and I saw for the first time The Hurt Locker, The Blind Side, An Education, and Up in the Air. I also watched Inglourious Basterds, but that was a repeat for me.
This year’s nominees are Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The King’s Speech, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, and Winter’s Bone. I have already seen Inception (twice), The Social Network, and Toy Story 3 (own it on DVD), but watching these movies again will not be a bore. I had every interest in seeing Black Swan and True Grit when they were first released, but by the time I would have gotten around to seeing them I decided I could just wait until this special screening since I was confident they would be included in the list of 10. Others of the 10 I am looking forward to watching include The Fighter, The King’s Speech, 127 Hours, and Winter’s Bone. The only one I am sort of dreading is The Kids Are All Right, but I did not want to see Atonement a few years ago when my wife and I did this and that turned out to definitely be worth the two hours.
I am saddened a bit that The Town got no love from the Academy for any sort of nomination in any category of significance. I was hoping that would be among the 10 nominees since I had missed out on its initial release.
It is interesting to speculate what would have been left out had the nominees been limited to five. My guess is Inception, 127 Hours, Toy Story 3, and Winter’s Bone would certainly not have made it and the fifth nomination would have been between The Fighter and The Kids Are All Right.
We’ll find out the winners on February 27, so until then enjoy the movies.
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