Wednesday, June 15, 2011

AMPAS' Fantastic New Oscar Rules

I'm not used to hearing logic and reason from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, so when they actually make a good and intriguing decision then it makes a big difference. The AMPAS has just released a plethora of new rules and regulations regarding this coming Oscar season, many of the small, but one of them being a major game changer. As far as nominations go, next year there could be anywhere between 5 and 10 nominees for Best Picture. It all depends on how many films exceed 5% of the number one votes on the ballots. I, for one, am absolutely for this new rule, as it adds more difficulty to the game of prediction, and a bit of mystery as to how things unfold on the morning nominations are announced.

Personally, I'm not at all a fan of placing predictions, because quite often the Academy overlooks the more deserving films in each year, instead deciding to play things on the safe side. I won't start placing bets until late September at the earliest, and I don't feel confident placing much stock in films I haven't had the opportunity to see myself. So that's all I'll say as far as my Oscar predictions for the Summer, in that they will not happen. I learned this past year not to care about who wins and who does not.

As far as the other rules go, they're pretty basic. In the animated feature race, if there are 13 to 15 films that qualify, there will be four nominees. Anything higher goes to 5, and anything lower goes to 3, so there's a solid middle ground. They've also expanded the list of finalists for visual effects from 7 to 10, making it a tad more difficult to make predictions. And the documentary branch has adjusted its dates for qualification. All proper changes to make the nominations make more sense.

No comments:

Post a Comment