The Academy switched to a new nomination system for Best Picture. They expanded the field of Best Picture to ten contenders, and I think this is ridiculous.
The primary reason the Academy has for making this change is to allow popular movies that are not high grade to contend for Best Picture. The number one snub in recent memory is The Dark Knight. The root of the issue is not with the number of nominees, but the type of nominees. There is nothing wrong with the system of five nominees for Best Picture. If the Academy wants to appeal to a mass audience then they should nominate differently.
This all started because The Dark Knight was not nominated for Best Picture last year. The field consisted of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, and winner Slumdog Millionaire. This field is not necessarily a bad field, its just not very well known. There are no heavyweights. Audiences did not support these movies very much. I personally would take out The Reader or Frost/Nixon in favor of The Dark Knight. I would have still expected to see Slumdog Millionaire win the award, but at least fans of The Dark Knight would have been appeased and the artsy crowd would still have their win and the bulk of the nominees.
The problem arose when the Academy strode away from a formula among the five nominees that can at least cover all of their bases. In each Award season there will be at least one or two solid front-runners, and they will automatically receive nominations. In this year’s instance those two front-runners would be Avatar and The Hurt Locker. Then the next two or three should be big-budget movies that are good or smaller-budget movies without much audience attention but a lot of critical acclaim. This year I would put Inglorious Basterds and Up in the Air into those spots. Finally, the last spot should be reserved for a dark horse pick. This could mean many things. Maybe the movie is a blockbuster phenom, has some redeeming qualities, but wasn’t a critical darling across the board; like The Dark Knight. Maybe it is an audience sweetheart that garnered some attention, made some positive buzz, but was not revolutionary or groundbreaking; like Up or Little Miss Sunshine. Then there is the last kind. A truly independent film, an underdog in every sense of the word. One with a gripping and emotional story but no really big names or big effects. This year that would be Precious.
Expanding the field to ten movies I expect was meant to keep the popularists from making too much noise, but they still are. You can’t please everyone all the time, it’s just not going to happen. There are Star Trek fans who are complaining now. There is also probably an underlying marketing motivation. To afford ten movies the opportunity to put “Best Picture Nominee” on their covers until they fade into obscurity means that over time these movies will sell more copies. There is some silver lining here.
Even though expanding the field gives The Blind Side a nomination, which I find ridiculous, it also gives some small glimmer of hope to movies like District 9 and A Serious Man. Movies that in other years with a smaller field or less imposing front-runners may have had a chance for a nomination under the old system. Even though The Blind Side would never get a Best Picture nomination under the old system, no matter what the field.
In the end, I think expanding the field to ten is very unnecessary but not entirely ridiculous. There are a good number of reasons that make sense. I would still argue fiercely to keep the Best Picture field at five movies, just alter the nominees a little.
Best Picture Nominees (This Year)
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
Best Picture Nominees (Old System)*
Avatar – Front-runner
The Hurt Locker – Front-runner
Inglorious Basterds – Middle-tier
Up in the Air – Middle-tier
Precious or Up – Dark horse
* These are my predicted picks for what would get nominated under the old system. I would say that Precious has the edge over Up in the dark horse category. Even though both are quality movies that get over looked because of Precious’ undersized released or the fact that Up is an animated movie.
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