ARTICLE: OSCARS EXPAND FROM 5 TO 10 BEST PICTURE NONIMEES

In case you missed the details..

by Damian Dovarganes, USA Today

The Oscars have decided to double down on the best-picture race. Academy Award organizers announced Wednesday that the field for Hollywood’s top film prize would increase in size to 10 contenders from the usual five. It’s the biggest change to the ceremony in nearly six decades, and is part of the Academy of

Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ ongoing effort to enliven the 82-year-old ceremony. The surprise announcement spread rapidly through the industry as filmmakers, actors and studio executives began considering what the change could mean.Academy president Sid Ganis hopes it means more excitement for moviegoers and Oscar watchers, saying it will "heighten the competitive atmosphere of the night."

The race has been dominated in recent years by studio art-house divisions, and Ganis said doubling the number of competitors for the top prize could open the door to such well-made crowd-pleasers as The Dark Knight, which fell just short this year, and smaller movies with limited promotional budgets, which often have fervent supporters among the academy’s approximately 5,800 voters."This is a good, solid, positive change," Ganis says. "It’s inviting more people to the party, inviting more people to compete," he said after the announcement at the academy’s Beverly Hills headquarters.

One perpetual problem with the annual telecast is its three-hour-plus running time, and Ganis acknowledged that efforts to reduce the length will be a little tougher with five more movies to showcase. No other categories will change."It might get a little longer, but who knows? We don’t have our creative guys in place yet," Ganis said. However, he hopes that adding this to the show will be adding more of what the audience wants to see. He also said it’s important for the ceremony to at least try something different, to keep the audience interested. "Tradition is great until the public says ‘(Yawn!) I’ve seen that’ " Ganis said, stretching his arms in mock sleepiness.

The ratings for February’s broadcast — in which Hugh Jackman was host and Slumdog Millionaire won best picture — were up slightly with an average 36.3 million viewers, though the numbers have generally declined in recent years.The change is a break from tradition, but it’s not without precedent. In 1943, the year Casablanca won best picture, there were 10 nominees, though ever since, the academy has put up only five. For more than an decade before that, the number of nominated films fluctuated from between eight and 12.
Nominees for the next Oscars will be announced Feb. 2, and the awards will be presented March 7.