Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Hasn't the Academy in recent years relaxed some of those minutea rules you reference, regarding co-productions and languages (I'm positive they aren't as strict on the language of the country of origin as they used to be)? You might take a look over the rules entire and see if perhaps some of the prior years' changes might not have made it a bit easier for those types of submissions.

“We have noted that the reference to ‘Foreign’ is outdated within the global filmmaking community,” commented Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann, co-chairs of the International Feature Film Committee. “We believe that International Feature Film better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking, and the art of film as a universal experience.”

The category name change does not change any existing category rules, the submission process, or eligibility requirements. An international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States of America with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.

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So... the word "Foreign" is "outdated", and that (and only that) justifies the name change? A little bit absurd to me. The name changing would have made sense if now International co-productions among different countries, like The Motorcycle Diaries, were to be elegible regardless of submission by a specific country, or if the spoken language wouldn't matter at all.

The increasing of nominees for Make-up & Hairstyling makes a lot of sense since this has been a sort of a rule for other previously limited to 3 nominees categories (Sound Effects Editing, now Sound Editing and even Visual Effects), but it also may be a reaction to both Black Panther and Bohemian Rhapsody being left out this year.

Big Magilla wrote:I still don't like the way they do Best Picture. Either go back to 5 or nominate the top ten vote-getters instead of going with this mathematical mumbo-jumbo that results in 8 or 9 every year. And go back to giving the award to the film that gets the most first place votes, period!

I agree. So ridiculous this new method of calculation. What's with this nonsense of coming up with 8 or 9 nominees? Stick to a full 10 or better yet go back to just 5 without the insane method of counting votes to reach best picture.

Thanks Uri & Magilla. Thank goodness for that.

I read everything in a rush as I had to do housekeeping because we have having visitors for dinner on Friday night. Whilst I am happy to live in squalor and cat hair (and worse around the house) my partner likes to present a more 'pleasant' appearance for guests.

Correct. It's the "short list" from which the final five are chosen that is expanding to ten.

I'm not short that "expanding" the list from 9 to 10 is much of a change. Every year there are two or three expected nominees that fail to make the list. Expanding to 12 might have made a difference, but oh, well.

I still don't like the way they do Best Picture. Either go back to 5 or nominate the top ten vote-getters instead of going with this mathematical mumbo-jumbo that results in 8 or 9 every year. And go back to giving the award to the film that gets the most first place votes, period!

Precious Doll wrote:But increasing the field to 10 is ridiculous.

It's not about increasing the number of actual nominees from five to ten but adding one more "finalist" to the nine we had in recent years.

Name change fine. But increasing the field to 10 is ridiculous.

Might be a good year to seriously consider stop being a 'Oscar completist'. I'm getting sick of most contemporary cinema anyway as well.

New 2020 Oscar rules.

- Makeup & Hairstyling will now officially have five nominees.

- Foreign Language Film will now be known as "International Feature Film" and the final list is now expanded to 10.