By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
78th Academy Awards® Rules Voted by AMPAS Governors
Beverly Hills, CA — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continues to clamp down on the numbers of Oscar® statuettes that can be handed out, further tightening restrictions on recipients in the Best Picture category this year and establishing a cap for the first time in the Original Song category.
The 78th Annual Academy Awards rules were approved Tuesday night (6/21) by the Academy’s Board of Governors.
In the Best Picture category, the Board ruled that the Producers Branch Executive Committee will “designate the qualifying producer nominees for each of the nominated pictures.” This means the committee, rather than the producers of the films themselves, will decide who goes home with a statuette.
“What we’re doing,” said Academy President Frank Pierson, “is further reducing the possibility of someone receiving one of our highest awards without really having done the job of a producer.”
Under the prior rules, the Academy’s Producers Branch only took a hard look at who had performed the producing functions when a picture had four or more credited producers, and they couldn’t agree among themselves which three of them would stand as the potential Oscar nominees. Under the 2005 rules, the “producer” credits of all contending pictures with more than one producer listed will be vetted for legitimacy.
Academy executive director Bruce Davis explained that the Academy will rely on the process recently instituted by the Producers Guild of America for validating producer credits. “Just as we have long relied on the decisions of the Writers Guild of America in determining the appropriate screenwriting credits on nominated films, we’ll now be relying on the PGA’s decisions on producer credits,” Davis said.
In the Original Song category the Academy capped the number of song writers who can receive a statuette at three. The new rule specifies that “no more than two statuettes will normally be given,” but makes a provision for a third statuette “when there are three essentially equal contributors to a song.”
The Music Branch also modified its procedures for selecting its Song nominees, moving to a format in which branch members will attend special theatrical screenings at which clips of all eligible songs will be screened, with the nominations balloting taking place at the theater.
The branch also upped the trigger point for qualifying submissions in any music category to nine. If fewer than nine qualifying submissions are received in a category, the executive committee may recommend to the board that no award be given that year in that category. In previous years, that number was four.
Other modifications of the rules include normal date changes and minor “housekeeping” changes.
Rules are reviewed annually by branch and category committees. The Awards Rules Committee then reviews all proposed changes before presenting its recommendations to the Academy’s Board of Governors.
Academy Award® nominations will be announced in January at the Academy. The 78th Annual Academy Awards Presentation will be telecast live from the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland by the ABC Television Network at 5 p.m., Sunday, March 5, 2006, preceded by a half-hour arrivals segment.
