New Academy Rules: We Now Have 10 Best Picture Nominees

This year, the Academy decided to increase the number of Best Picture nominees from five to ten, presumably to allow more quality films to be recognized (and, in some cases, to be exhibited in states other than New York, California, and Illinois). While I can understand that reasoning, I do not see this as a particularly effective move. 

The nomination of ten, rather than five, features spreads votes out too thinly. With the Best Picture prize coveted above all others, it seems unfair that the winner need so few votes to walk home with it. Because nobody will ever know how many votes the nine losers received, there is no way to know if the Best Picture of the year is only the best by a tiny margin or if it really impressed a large percentage of the Academy. 

This new practice would make more sense if films were ranked, like Olympics medalists, so that the actual percentage of votes became more of a factor in the end. 

[NOTE: I later found out that the Academy revised the voting process for Best Picture so that members ranked all 10 nominees, and the selection was based on top rankings rather than a single vote. I wholly approve of this process. Not only does it guarantee that the Best Picture is appreciated by a higher percentage of Academy members, it also makes it easier to predict the winner.]