Oscars to allow five to ten 'Best Picture' nominees

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has voted to change the nominations process for the 'Best Picture' category.

Starting next year, the 'Best Picture' Oscar will be contested between as few as five and as many as ten movies. The move comes two years after the Academy expanded the 'Best Picture' category from five to ten nominees and reintroduced a preferential voting system.

AMPAS president Tom Sherak said in a statement: ''With the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers, we've been looking not just at what happened over the past two years, but at what would have happened if we had been selecting ten nominees for the past ten years."

'Best Picture' nominees will now need to receive at least 5% of first-place votes from AMPAS members to make the cut, meaning between five and ten movies will be nominated.

Retiring Academy executive Bruce Davis, who recommended the revamp, said: ''In studying the data, what stood out was that Academy members had regularly shown a strong admiration for more than five movies.

''A 'Best Picture' nomination should be an indication of extraordinary merit. If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honour in a given year, we shouldn't feel an obligation to round out the number.''

The 'Best Picture' Oscar will continue to be voted for with the preferential system. This year saw The King's Speech take the top prize, while Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker emerged with the accolade in 2010.