(“DOES THIS HAVE CHOCOLATE IN IT?”)

Back in June, the Academy announced that the Best Picture Oscar category would expand to 10 nominees, in order to rob five more films when Slumdog Millionaire wins. Now they say they’re also switching to a “preferential voting” system.  It’s sort of complicated, but basically it’s like a sorority rush without “circle the fat.”

Voters will be asked to rank their preference from 1 to 10, with 1 being best. It’s the same preferential voting system that the Academy uses in its nominating process, but it hasn’t been used in best picture voting since 1945.
The Academy has opted to use the preferential system in the best picture race because with a field of 10 nominees, a winner could emerge with just slightly more than 580 votes out of the potential voting pool of 5,800 members.
…ballots are first separated according to first-place choices. If one film wins a majority among all first-place votes, it’s the winner.  If not, the film with the fewest number of first-place votes is eliminated and the No. 2 choices on those ballots are redistributed among the remaining films. The process continues until one film has picked up a majority of votes. [THR]

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(“I wish this had chocolate in it.”)

At a press conference this morning in Beverly Hills, Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science president Sid Ganis (pronounced “gay anus”) announced that the Best Picture category will expand to include 10 nominees.

It’s a dramatic change that is sure to roil future Oscar contests, beginning with the upcoming one set for March 7 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Actually, though, this is a return to the way the Oscars were run in its earliest years [they switched from 10 to five nominees in 1944 -Ed.]. The change effects only the one Oscar category. [NYTimes]

I’m not sure what this means for an organization that awards best picture to movies like Crash and Slumdog Millionaire, and nominates The Reader while totally shafting The Wrestler.  Will more nominees make them love retarded people and the holocaust any less?  I doubt it.  Retards and the holocaust are like the Beach Boys and lab puppies to the academy. I guess what I’m saying is, this could be your year, Britney Spears time-traveling Holocaust movie.