Self Absorbed

The Oscars Change Voting Rules,

In an effort to recognize “the picture that has the most support from the entire membership,” the Academy Awards are altering their voting procedure for “Best Picture” this year.

In the past, members have been asked to choose 1 nominee on the final ballot. This year ,they are being asked to put the 10 “Best Picture” nominees in order of preference, an unprecedented move in Oscar history.

The preferential system has been used before for the nomination process, but never for the final ballot. So why change now?

“There are certain mathematical dangers with more nominees,” says the Academy’s executive director, Bruce Davis. “You could really get a fragmentation to the point where a picture with 18 or 20 percent of the vote could win, and the board didn’t want that to happen.”

So naturally if a film has more than 50% of the first rank, they would win the award. That’s pretty rare, though, so this new system is designed to be as accurate as possible, factoring the other rankings when choosing the winner.

Now, the nominated films will be striving to be in the top 5 to have a better chance at winning the coveted “Best Picture” Oscar.

This news has not yet been formally announced to the Academy members.

“I know people have been wondering about it, and even worrying about it,” says Davis. “At some point we’ll do a mailing, probably in the fall membership quarterly, to make it clear what’s coming up.”

Surprise!

What do U think about the new way to vote?

Seems fair to us!

[Image via WENN.]

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