The Oscars will move back to a guaranteed 10 Best Picture nominees, starting with the 2022 ceremony. The awards have highlighted the best films of each year for nearly a century with Best Picture the top prize. After a push for better representation among the Best Picture nominees and the #OscarsSoWhite backlash in 2016, it was Bong Joon-ho's Parasite that surprised many by winning the Best Picture Oscar in 2020.
But, the immediate future of the Oscars has become uncertain after coronavirus shut down movie theaters and productions for several months. The Oscars have been busy working to find solutions and announced that the requirement of a theatrical release has been removed for the time being. While many hope that element is gone for good, the Academy is also working to create the best and more diverse ceremonies in the future. Not only are they trying to find ways to make all categories more inclusive, but they've now announced changes to how many Best Picture nominees there will be each year.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today (via THR) that there will be ten guaranteed Best Picture nominees moving forward. This rule change will go into effect with the 2022 Oscars, which highlight 2021 releases, and is tied to the Academy's push for better diversity among the films that are nominated. The announcement came in conjunction with other inclusive changes, such as an online screening room for voters to see qualified movies year-round and the development of a task force to "implement new representation and inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility."
Ten guaranteed Best Picture nominees is how the Academy operated early on. For years, the Oscars were limited to five nominees in the category, but the rule was amended to include anywhere between five and ten movies after The Dark Knight was not nominated at the 2008 Academy Awards. Only the ceremonies honoring 2009 and 2010 releases maxed out with ten nominations, though. Instead, nine nominees has been the most common outcome recently, with only eight named in 2014, 2015, and 2018. Although this was the result of the Academy's complex voting system and mathematics that made it nearly impossible for ten nominees, that will no longer be an issue.
It's also worth noting that just because all ten Best Picture slots will be filled in the future does not mean that snubs will not happen. Just looking at 2019, one more film being nominated for Best Picture would've meant movies like Dolemite Is My Name, Avengers: Endgame, The Two Popes, and so on would've fought for the final slot, and most still wouldn't receive the nomination. With the new rule not being implemented for another year, it is way too early to tell which films will benefit from the guaranteed tenth slot in 2022.
While the new Best Picture rules will surely spark conversation about what films would've been nominated if this rule was in effect earlier, there still will be one more year without a guaranteed ten nominations right now. This announcement makes it clear that the 2021 Oscars will not mandate ten Best Picture nominees. It isn't known why that decision was made, but it might be because of the limited amount of 2020 movies that will be released or the possibility that the 2021 Oscars will be delayed altogether. In any case, the Best Picture race will be a bit more crowded than usual starting with the 2022 Oscars now.
Source: THR