In a move to revive the flagging Hollywood motion picture industry Oscar organizers have returned to their beginnings by expanding the list of nominated films in the best film category from the current five, to 10.

Between 1932 and 1943, this Oscar categories usually spanned 10 films, but then switched to just five for the year covering movies released in 1944 and onwards.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Sid Ganis said, “in 1931 to 32, there were eight nominees and in 1934 and 1935 there were 12 contenders.

“After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year.

“Having 10 best picture nominees is going [to] allow academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,” Ganis added.

Attempting to cast the net wider to include people with a wider range of tastes is also an excellent way of stimulating the American Film Industry and very beneficial to the organizers as well.

More nominations means a longer awards ceremony attracting a larger audience and hence demanding a large telecast payment fee and more and larger spending advertisers.

Enabling more films to be nominated and voted on will hopefully encourage more people to visit cinemas and attract people with a wide range of interests in genre’s as well as actors.

To cater to a wider audience the cinema’s will require more fresh and varied content, hopefully generating more work for actors and technical crews.

The move will also bring the Oscars in line with other organizations which produce a top ten list including the National Board of Review, Critics Choice Awards and the American Film Institute.

The Oscars are also following the lead of the Emmys, which announced earlier this year that the number of nominees for many categories will expand to six from the usual five.

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