Some big news hit this morning, ladies and gentlemen. The Oscars are making some changes! During a board meeting yesterday, the powers that be at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (or AMPAS, of course) came up with an initiative for increased diversity, inclusion, and representation. Not only that, but in addition to this necessary first step, there’s a big change coming to the Best Picture race. Yes, we no longer have a sliding scale of nominees. Starting after the upcoming (assuming it happens) ceremony, there will be ten Best Picture nominees, once again. Read on for more about this news… According to The Hollywood Reporter, Oscar is planning all of this, which you can see below, for the 94th Academy Awards ceremony, giving them a year to implement these new rules. Obviously, the diversity and representation requirements for Oscar inclusion is the overall bigger deal, but having ten nominees in Best Picture again is going to be nice (considering I always just predict ten, anyway). Hopefully this leads to some interesting new nominees in the future! Here’s what the Academy has announced, officially: Oscars The Academy will encourage equitable hiring practices and representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the film community. To ensure more diverse representation, and in collaboration with the Producers Guild of America (PGA), the Academy will create a task force of industry leaders, appointed by David Rubin and that will include governor and A2020 Committee chair DeVon Franklin, to develop and implement new representation and inclusion standards for Oscars eligibility by July 31, 2020. Eligibility for films in consideration for the 93rd Academy Awards® (2020) will not be impacted. Beginning with the 94th Academy Awards (2021), the best picture category will be set at 10 nominees, rather than a fluctuating number of nominations from year to year. The Academy will also implement a quarterly viewing process through the Academy Screening Room, the streaming site for Academy members, also starting with the 94th Academy Awards. By making it possible for members to view films released year-round, the Academy will broaden each film’s exposure, level the playing field and ensure all eligible films can be seen by voting members. Governance and Membership This past January, the current board of governors participated in unconscious bias training. Moving forward, this training will be mandatory for all Academy governors, branch executive committee […]