Oscar race gets even more interesting

Yesterday June 14 it was announced that when Oscar nominations are announced in January there may not be 10 Best Picture nominations. The Academy stated that there could be from 5 to 10 nominees. In other words there could 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 nominees. This all depends on how the film does when voting is done. The new rule states that in order to get a nomination it must receive "5% of first place votes in order to receive a nomination." In 2008 the Academy changed their rules after critics and audiences complained about The Dark Knight not getting a best picture. However in 2009 films like the Blind Side were included in the Best Picture nomination. This made critics and audiences concerned about the legitimacy of the Academy. Were they trying to get an audience or were they trying to recognize the best films. With this new rule precursors and bloggers will have an even harder time at predicting. In addition I have a feeling that even more films that deserve awards will get snubbed. For example this year critically acclaimed films such as The Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris, Jane Eyre and Win Win may get snubbed because of their early release dates. However it is too soon to tell what the Academy will vote upon. 


In the mean time I want to look back at last years batch of Best Pictures. (I will eventually look back at the past decade and see how many best Pictures I would ultimately have put in.) 
   

After having watched all ten and seeing the Oscar nominations I think that both Inception and Black Swan were not particularly loved by voters. Inception because it did not get the director and editing nominations and Black Swan because it got snubbed in every technical category and screenplay after dominating precursors. Winter's Bone probably would not have been in the nominations because of its low gross. The rest of the batch seemed loved especially True Grit and 127 Hours which received surprising nominations. 

In my opinion if I would have been an academy voter I would have taken True Grit, and Winter's Bone out and put The Ghost Writer in. 


I want to hear your opinions and want to know what you think of this new rule.