News just broke that the Oscars Best Picture race, which has already been expanded to include 10 films, will change their voting rules. They are now using the system that they use for nominating films - putting your fave films in order and then having some equation tally up the points. The problem with this, of course, is that now people can basically vote AGAINST films. In the past, you voted for one film and the film with the most votes won. Now, you can love a film and vote for it but if there's a film that you don't care about, you can put it at ten and almost cancel out a first place vote. This all but spells doom for controversial films because mixed reviews will likely bring the film down while a movie that is a steady top 3 or 4 on the list could ultimately be called the winner.

The nomination process for the Oscars was always screwed up and moving that process to the winner just makes the award show all the more of a sham. I stopped caring about the Oscars a few years ago but this move just makes matters worse. Let's be honest, the Oscars have become more of a fashion show than an actual celebration of the best of that year in film. Especially this decade when foreign films, documentaries, and Pixar should have run away with the awards.

If they finally give Pixar credit, "Up" should get nominated and it might just be able to be near the top of enough lists (and avoid the botton of most) to win the trophy. I also wouldn't be surprised if a well-liked but not loved trifle like "Star Trek" got a boost because of this (if it can get nominated). A film like "Inglorious Basterds" which has a very divided reaction, probably just lost any hope of winning.