Find Out the "Surprise" New Twist to Oscars Race

Entertainment June 15, 2011 AT 10:34AM
Find Out the "Surprise" New Twist to Oscars Race Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

What will James Franco have to say about this?

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is changing up the Oscar nomination system. For decades the group had nominated 5 films for best picture, but for the past two years they upped that number to 10. 

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Tuesday night, the Academy announced that moving forward, it will use a variable system in nominating films for best picture. The number of nominees can range from 5 to 10 in any year. According to the New York Times, the change was first recommended by Bruce Davis, who is retiring as the academy's director.

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Ratings for the Oscars on ABC dropped slightly in 2011 with Franco and Anne Hathaway hosting the awards. A New York Times critic sniped that the duo had a complete "absence of chemistry" and said: "Mr. Franco looked a little distracted and even blase -- not surprisingly for a multiplatform performer-writer who is working on an English doctorate at Yale." 

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Tell Us: What do you think of the Oscars' shakeup?

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  • June 15, 2011 - 11:20am Courtney Puzzo

    Oh Pleasethat's a minor shake up compaired to who they get as special guests/surprise presenters. at least they didn't move the show forward to January like they wanted to. like for exmple this past oscars they had Kirk Douglas as a surprise presenter

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