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Now 10 Films will Compete for Oscars Best Picture Category
Slumdog won Best Picture for 2008 (AP)
Big announcement from the academy today. No longer are days of five competing movies for Best Picture, but ten. “After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” said Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same - one Best Picture winner - but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.”
Film Industry news site The Wrap takes notes that "the Academy has been under pressure to get better ratings for its telecast, at a time when all awards shows have been struggling to compete with diminishing audiences."
Ganis has a different take: “Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,” commented Ganis. “I can’t wait to see what that list of ten looks like when the nominees are announced in February.”
Nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, February 2.
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