WTF? Next year's Oscars to have 10 Best Picture nominees

Posted Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 1:11 PM Central

by Tim Briscoe

Great, this will tack on another hour to the already four-hour Oscar telecast

Some say mediocrity rules in Hollywood. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts of Sciences argue the opposite. AMPAS (a.k.a. "The Academy") announced today that the Best Picture category for its 2010 awards will feature 10 nominees.

Here's a quote from Academy president Sid Ganis from a statement:

"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 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."

Typically, five films vie for the top prize at the annual Oscars. The last year to have an expanded list of nominees was 1943 when Casablanca won over nine other candidates. The years 1934 and 1935 each had a dozen Best Picture nominees.

The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Feb. 2.

What do you think? Is the move to 10 Best Picture nominees a good decision, or will it just water-down the field? Will we finally see some "genre films" (action, horror, animation) up for Best Picture? Are there any films from the first half of this year that are cinches for the final set on nominees?