Michael Cieply
For the record, Hollywood is thrilled that everyone has a better shot at an Oscar, as the field of best picture nominees doubles to 10, from five.
?Change is always exciting,? said Jasmine Madatian, a senior vice-president for publicity at Walt Disney Studios. ?If it means more opportunity for animated films, that would be gratifying.?
Off the record, things get more complicated. Some big players in the Oscar game are privately voicing wariness at a surprise plan by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to expand the number of best picture nominees beginning with the awards to be handed out next March.
The step was announced recently by the academy?s president, Sidney Ganis. Among other things, Ganis described it as a bid to connect the awards more closely with crowd-pleasers such as Disney?s Wall-E or Warner Brothers? The Dark Knight? neither of which made the list of five nominees earlier this year ?and to enhance the appeal of the annual Oscar broadcast on ABC, which has struggled in the ratings in recent years. But some of those who are attuned to the intricacies of the awards game who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid compromising their own Oscar prospects.
Those include a belief that the advertising value of a nomination for best picture will be diluted as they become more common, and a widespread fear that a larger number of filmmakers will be pressing for Oscar campaigns at a time when strapped companies have been trying to curtail them.
Assuming that companies in a financially -weakened Hollywood can find the cash for campaigns, the widened field would certainly be a boon for the industry?s trade papers, which depend heavily on awards advertising.