Cineastes have already spent the week debating the merits of the recent decision by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to widen the Best Picture category from five nominees to ten. If you somehow missed out on that regression to 1930s populism, check out our Movies forum discussion for general venting purposes.

The Academy hasn’t stopped there. Entertainment Weekly now reports additional changes are in store, albeit far less expansive. Announced so far:

* The prestigious “noncompetitive” Oscars will no longer be televised. Just as they do each year with the sci/tech awards for oustanding acheivement in the field of obscure equipment upgrades, future winners of the Irving Thalberg Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and the random Honorary Oscar for Decades of Academy Oversight will now be doled out in a months-in-advance dinner presentation far from indifferent TV viewers.

* The nomination process for Best Original Song has had its standards raised, based on a rating system applicable to all potential nominees; if none of the wannabes rates better than extra-mediocre, the Best Original Song award will be belayed altogether that year. If at least one song rules, then the category will go on with three to five nominees, even if all but one are baseline mediocre.

Presumably the Academy is dogged by the necessary evil of TV-viewer relevance, while at the same time attempting to forestall a six-hour telecast. Are these two areas the best fat to trim from the annual itinerary? Is this too much change all at once? Should we applaud the Academy’s ongoing attempts at real quality control? Wouldn’t it be simpler and more time-effective to eliminate the nomination process and just hand the Best Picture trophy to the year’s highest-grossing blockbuster machine? Share your thoughts and superior ideas in our Movies forum today!

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