More changes to the Academy Awards

June 29, 10:59 PMHartford Movie Reviews ExaminerPete Clark

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences dropped major news on moviegoers last week when they announced that they would increase the playing field for Best Picture nominees from 5 to 10. Apparently, the Academy was not satisfied with only one change. In addition to the increase in Best Picture nominees, two more changes have been announced.

First, there are significant changes being made to the category of Best Original Song. These new rules will judge song entries according to a scale of 6 to 10. Potential nominees must get a minimum score of 8.25 in order to be entered into the running. If no song is able to reach this score, there will be no award given. According to Bruce Broughton, a composer and the head of the music branch of the Academy, the goal is to "improve the quality" of song nominees. The voting scale will be based on quality of music as well as on the use of the song in the context of the film. Ideally, this will improve songs being nominated for the Oscar. However, an Academy Award for Best Song is sometimes a major career boost, as seen with "Falling Slowly" from the film Once. Hopefully this change will not prevent songs such as "Falling Slowly" from achieving this recognition.

Another change is that the Academy is moving its honorary Oscars out of the main ceremony and presenting them at a special ceremony. The idea is that a special ceremony will truly give the recipient the recognition he or she deserves. The first of these ceremonies will take place in November. This will also shorten the Academy Awards ceremony for the future, which will be needed with twice as many Best Picture nominees.

After a week of changes and news from the Academy, one cannot help but wonder how many more changes will be coming in the near future.

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, file (Oscar nomination ceremony 2009)