You might already have seen the press release that explains some rule changes recently made by the Academy, the most notable of which is the decision to have anywhere between five and ten Best Picture nominees. In order to be eligible for a nomination, a movie must now accrue at least 5% of the first place vote on the preferential ballot.
While it may make predicting the nominees with 100% accuracy a little more tricky this year, I think it's a smart move. Not every year is going to have ten films so outstanding that they merit a Best Picture berth, but there are often more than just five who deserve the honour. This will also give us a better idea of what the Academy really likes, without having to second guess which films just squeezed in to help fill out ten slots.
A couple of additional minor rule changes include the concession to nominate as many as four films for Best Animated Feature in a year which has between 13 and 15 eligible entries (a reasonable rule that unfortunately came a year too late, after the wonderful Tangled got edged out of a field of three), and the adjustment of the Visual Effects bake-off to include ten finalists instead of just seven (I'm not sure why they still need a bake-off if they're nominating five films).
