“Oscars’ best picture race: 10 in 2010”

I’m sorry, but I can’t see this move as anything but an attempt to stem a slide in TV ratings:

There will be 10, count ’em 10, nominees for best picture when the nominations for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards are announced Feb. 2.

In a move designed to let more movies share in the limelight that surrounds the contenders for the Academy’s top award, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors approved a rule change Tuesday night that ups the ante by doubling the number of movies that will be welcomed into the best picture category.

Oh, the Academy tried to frame their decision with a reach back into history:

Academy president Sid Ganis characterized the move as a “return to the past” when the Academy regularly spread its largesse out among 10 — and sometimes even more — best picture nominees.

Speaking to the media at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Ganis on Wednesday was flanked by posters listing the 10 nominees for 1939 — widely regarded as the high-water mark for quality studio releases. That year, the lineup ranged from Westerns (“Stagecoach”) to sophisticated comedies (“Ninotchka”) to melodrama (“Dark Victory”) to all-time classics like “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” “The Wizard of Oz” and eventual winner “Gone With the Wind.”

“Suppose you had to narrow that field down to five nominees? Which of these films would you keep? Whichever five movies you selected, you’d be losing five extraordinary films,” Ganis asked rhetorically.

Yes, but that was 1939, a rarity that everyone will acknowledge was created only because God reached down from Heaven and sprinkled fairy dust on Hwood. There’s never been another year in movies like 1939 and God, as we know, moved off into blessing other ventures including sports (’69 Mets) and commerce (Google).

Here’s an idea: Don’t set a limit — minimum or maximum — for nominations. If the Academy voters overwhelmingly like 7 movies, nominate 7 movies. If they only like 3 movies, nominate 3 movies. But arbitrarily expanding the slate of nominees to 10? Not only a grab for bigger TV ratings, but also increase movie box office (more buzz about the additional 5 nominees), more ad revenue for the trades (the studios distributing those 5 other nominees now need to run print campaigns to pimp them), blah blah blah.

Am I just being too cynical here? What are your thoughts?

For more analysis, go here for THR’s Steve Zeitchik’s take: “The Dark Side of Oscar’s Move to 10”.

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