Transformers 2 guaranteed to get Best Picture nom...

[Joe Molotov]

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – The Academy Awards will have 10 best-picture nominees instead of the usual five starting next year, improving the odds for films such as "The Dark Knight," a fan and critic favorite that was snubbed last time.

Doubling the field for Hollywood's top prize will make room for more worthy films and potentially give a jolt to the Oscar TV ratings, Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said Wednesday.

The change takes effect with the 82nd Oscar show March 7.

The academy board of governors decided there were more than five films last year that deserved best-picture consideration, Ganis said.

Among those that "were part of the conversation" were the Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight," along with fellow superhero flick "Iron Man," the animated "WALL-E" and the comedy "Tropic Thunder," Ganis said.

All were huge box-office successes but the sort of movies that rarely make the best-picture cut.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090624/ap_en_mo/us_oscars

Surely with 10 slots, there's no way the Academy could snub Michael Bay's magnum opiate of the masses. And now five more movies get to slap "Best Picture Nominee" on the DVD cover. Cha-ching! I'm hoping next year they expand the categories to included much need awards like Best Kiss and Awesomest Fight Scene. Can you say "desperate to maintain relevance"?

[ManaByte]

As long as they have Skidz and Mudflap accept the award.

[Ellrick]

Great, now 4 more deserving flicks will lose to someones "body of work" every year.

[Robo]

With the exception of Wall-E, if that's the kind of shit that's going to round out the 10, please keep it at 5.

edit: not that The Reader or Benjamin Button were worth a shit either.

[Diunx]

Watch the internet rage in harmony if UP doesn't get a nomination.

[ch1nchilla]

Tropic Thunder deserves an Oscar nomination? 

[ch1nchilla]

ok was Tropic Thunder actually good?  I heard some people who said it was absolutely terrible but other people really liked it.

It was absolutely terrible. I laughed maybe twice.

[brawndolicious]

Tropic Thunder was fun.  I mean, Iron Man is a lot weirder movie to consider giving an Oscar to.  Getting an Oscar doesn't mean anything at all these days (wrt sales or praise).

[muckhole]

I found it pretty light on jokes, overall. I'd expected something much funnier with all the people they had in it.

And I still (and will always) laugh at pee, poo and fart jokes. Nothing is beneath me.

[brawndolicious]

Tropic Thunder was more of a novelty movie than a regular comedy.  I'd imagine that it would actually be bad for a movie like that to get nominated (considering the story is sort of anti-hollywood stereotypes).

But really, Iron Man?