Let the backlash begin.
Like some of the most polarizing best picture winners -- "Shakespeare in Love," "Crash," "No Country for Old Men" -- the rules change made Wednesday to the Academy Awards' top category is splitting Oscar voters. The growing chorus of dissenters says the new inclusion of 10 best picture nominees will diminish the award's value, encourage bloc voting for obscure titles and possibly yield a best picture that wins with less than 11% of the total votes cast.
"I think it undermines the integrity of the Academy Awards," said marketing consultant Dennis Rice, a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' public relations branch. "I have trouble most years finding five movies to nominate."
Said Robert Solo, an academy member for more than 35 years and the producer of 1978's "Invasion of the Body Snatchers": "It just eviscerates the whole value of the award. They did this because they're not getting the television ratings. Is this what the academy is about? They're worried the program would be canceled, but that's not why the academy was created. This is merchandising. This is not award giving."
The organization said Wednesday that it was doubling the number of best picture nominees from five to 10, starting with next year's awards (the ceremony is scheduled for March 7). Ratings for the annual Oscar broadcast have been plummeting, and even though this year's broadcast attracted more viewers -- 36.3 million -- than recent shows, the academy has been looking for ways to give the ceremony a more populist appeal.
"There will still only be one winner, but we have to change with the times," said producer Hawk Koch, an academy vice president and member of its board of governors, who strongly supports the rule change. "We are not only an organization of small independent films."
Koch did say, however, that because there will be 10 finalists for the top trophy, the academy will discuss at its next board meeting whether to amend its voting procedures. The film with the most votes -- no matter how small the total -- takes the statuette. All of the academy's roughly 5,800 members are eligible to vote for the nominees and winner.
"We want to make sure 11% doesn't get best picture," said Koch, a producer of "Untraceable."
The academy is expected to make another announcement Monday aimed at streamlining the show. Koch and other board members declined to say what it would be.
