Right now, 5,783 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (or their personal assistants) are running out to their mailboxes to retrieve the most valuable and powerful tool in all of Hollywood. The Oscar ballots have been mailed (I don't know about you, but I am picturing Tom Hanks wandering out from his mansion like Tony Soprano wearing slippers, 2 days of stubble, skivvies and a robe as he looks into the mailbox with great anticipation).The Academy is broken up into several branches - Producers, Actors, Directors, Cinematographers, etc. - with each one nominating the best in their category to make up the final 5 nominees in each category (some categories have special rules and a list of movies to choose from, but we'll cover that in 2nd Semester Oscar Rules, right now we are talking Oscars 101 - Introduction to Oscars).
The biggest change this year will be in the Nominees for Best Picture.
Whereas the category has had 10 nominees for the past few years, this year, the number of nominees will be determined by the voting.
We wil have a minimum of 5 nominees no matter what, but, each voter ranks their top movies in order, so any movie among the top ten vote getters will be a nominee if they have at least 5% of the first place votes. This is supposed to make for a stronger field, but it seems a bit weird to me. We are going to do the same handicapping whether we get 5 nominees, 7 nominees or 10 nominees, so why not have 10? It gives fans of 10 movies a reason to watch the Oscars.
Ballots must be returned by Friday, January 13, before the Golden Globes are broadcast, and the nominees will be announced January 24th at 8:30ish AM EST.
