Oscar To Have 10 Best Picture Nominees in 2010

Beverly Hills, CA -- Prior to being placed in the excited hands of Oscar winners at the 78th Academy Awards, this year's crop of coveted Oscar statuettes will be showcased in a public display at the Hollywood & Highland Center¨ beginning on Friday, February 10. The exhibition, "Meet the Oscars: The 50 Golden Statuettes," will be free and open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday on the third level of Hollywood & Highland, overlooking Babylon Court.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that the 2010 Oscar ceremonies will include 10 films in contention for Best Picture.

“After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” said Sid Ganis, president of the academy. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same — one Best Picture winner — but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.”

This at least looks like a reaction to this year’s much-maligned roster, which excluded the most well-received and well-attended film of 2008, “The Dark Knight,” as well as the second most well-received film of that year, “Wall-E.” And, it is Staticblog’s scrupulously founded opinion that those films were excluded because of furious campaigning by The Weinstein Company on behalf of “The Reader.”