Oscars Will Nominate Ten Films for Best Picture of 2009

This is an interesting development.

If one is familiar with the history of the Academy Awards one will know that this is how it was done during Oscar's early years. Between 1932 and 1943, the Academy nominated ten movies for the Academy's top prize.

There are several ways to read this change.

First, are there actually ten good movies out there?

Second, there will be twice as many Hollywood liberal movies to honor.

Third, the Academy Award ceremonies will be twice as long.

But their may be a silver lining. Motion Picture Academy Sid Ganis said, "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."

This tells me the Best Picture category will probably include foreign films as well as animated features.

In which case, Up could ascend to new heights.

Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards will be announced in Los Angeles on February 2, 2010.