Progressive New Oscar Rules Prohibit More Than Two Losing Songs Per Movie
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hopes you enjoyed the Enchanted three-fer nominated for last year's Best Song Oscar, because that was the last time a single film will receive more than two song nods in any given season — even if they're virtually guaranteed to lose against upstart Irish indies and/or pimp anthems. A rule change implemented Tuesday night says "there is no limit to the number of songs that may be submitted from a given film," but only two will get the dog-and-pony-show treatment on the Oscar telecast, thus saving the likes Amy Adams the indignity of going "stage commando" during their production numbers.
The outcry over Best Foreign-Language Film nominees appears to have subsided for the time being, however, with the honorary 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days Rule apparently ceding more control to the category's Executive Committee:
The foreign language film nominations have long been a point of major contention among cineastes, as many of the most lauded titles from the annual film festival circuit are overlooked at Oscar nomination-time in favor of less challenging, more easygoing fare. ...
The new rules will allow the 20-member Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee to determine three of the nine films on the shortlist. The other six titles will be determined by the voting of the "Phase 1 committee," any voting member who views a minimum number of eligible films. The executive committee will make their selections after the Phase 1 committee's voting has been tallied, presumably to avoid leaving out certain titles.
Alas, the Academy still has yet to develop a method to account for taste in the vote for the Final Five. Wake us up when Nuri Bilge Ceylan or Apichatpong Weerasethakul win something, will you?
