Rant: Is Expanding the Best Picture Category a Good Thing?

A few months ago when I first heard that next year’s Academy Awards was expanding the ‘Best Picture’ category from five nominees to 10 nominees there’s been one question lingering in my head ever since. Why? The obvious explanation is that a majority of the Academy for Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (or whichever association oversees the Oscars) got together and voted near unanimously in deciding to change the long-standing category. However, as a movie patron and a member of the viewing public this still doesn’t sit right with me.

Then I started to think of it from a different perspective. I questioned whether or not expanding the best picture category would allow the inclusion of more science fiction and fantasy films into the higher echelons of Oscar nominations. Again, I’m torn. But for a few exceptions (Lord of the Rings, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, etc.), science fiction and fantasy are two genres that are continuously snubbed for the best picture category. Children of Men is probably the best example of this in recent years. And while the film managed to gain three nominations, including best adapted screenplay, it failed to go any higher within that realm of cinematic excellence, despite being, in my opinion, one of the best science fiction films of all time.

But putting science fiction aside for a moment, let’s get real. Why are they expanding it in the first place? Isn’t the purpose of having a category with only five nominations instead of ten make being nominated that much better (and a win that much sweeter)? I mean ten is a big number. Six, maybe; seven, acceptable; but when you let ten separate pictures vying for the top spot, doesn’t that take away much of the significance of that award (keeping in mind that no other category got expanded)?

Movies haven’t been that great this year anyway. I’ve only enjoyed Star Trek, District 9, and Inglorious Basterds. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see District 9 or a Tarantino flick on the ballot as much as the next person, but if it comes at the cost of expanding a category just so it can be done, let me just say, don’t bother.