“Two people. This is gold. Two more people. He would’ve given me two for it. At least one. One more.” – Oskar Schindler  (Schindler’s List)

Every year, there is a recurrent debate on which film, actor, actress, supporting cast, original score etc. gets the Oscar (or perhaps any Global Award for that matter) among film buffs. In essence one can never generically say with confidence that one particular film or performance was THE BEST as tastes differ from one person to another. While one person would feel that an uncomplicated, In-Your-Face film like Whiplash should be honoured as the Best, another would feel that the poetically created world of The Grand Budapest Hotel should pip that to glory, and another would say a film should have multiple layers challenging us technically and thematically thereby christening Birdman as the Best of all, while another would look at the painstaking effort, commitment, vision of the people behind Boyhood as the Best ever. It is a thankless, himalayan and an almost impossible task to satisfy everyone.With all due respect, the Oscar Jury are a tough lot to predict and defend, but I feel one of the best decisions they made was on 25th June 2009 when they decided to name 10 films among the Best Picture nominees rather than the usual 5 existing till then. This meant, in the coming years, films like A Serious Man (2009), District 9 (2009), An Education (2009), The Kids are All Right (2010), True Grit (2010), Winter’s Bone (2010), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011), Amour (2012), Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), Les Miserables (2012), Captain Phillips (2013), Nebraska (2013), Philomena (2013) which would have certainly not made it if Best Picture nominees had been capped at 5, got nominated. In the same vein, there is always the question of How much is too much?! This year, a sizeable number of 8 movies were nominated under the Best Picture category. But were films like Nightcrawler, Two Days One Night, Force Majeure, Snowpiercer not so much worthy of a nomination?

Thinking of it, the other categories are still capped at 5 nominations. It would be better if the cap for other categories too be raised to, say, 7. Just think about the kind of nominees we can get. When the performance of Marion Cotillard in Two Days, One Night & the Cinematography of Ida are able to mix it with their illustrious well lobbied counterparts from U.S.A. & U.K., think about how many good performances from across the world can be fitted in if two more places per category were to open up.  The prime reason for this kind of request is the kind of reception & anticipation, the tag, ‘Oscar Nominated’ Film or Role gives. This is used as a factor from television to theatre distribution. A good parallel I can draw to this would be the English Premier League finally relenting in 2008-09 season, to allow 7 people on the Substitutes bench rather than just 5, even though the number of substitutions per game still remained at 3.

Of course, there are blatant negatives that can be associated with a call for increasing the cap on nominations. The Academy are adamant in their rule which stipulates the number of films nominated to be between 5 and 10 and that nominated films must earn either 5% of first-place rankings or 5% after an abbreviated variation of the single transferable vote nominating process used for nominations in other major categories.

They believe that a Best Picture nomination should indicate extraordinary merit and not just make up the numbers which is one of the reasons why you would seldom see a movie nominated by the Academy in Best Picture category alone. This aspect certainly needs relaxation for our wish to come true and it would lead to films which are not particularly extraordinary in other aspects be recognized as a Best Picture nominee.

Another negative aspect is that such an increase in number of nominees would mean a longer Oscar ceremony. Think of Neil Patrick Harris & the audiences having to undergo that mutual nonplussed feeling for more time than usual! The hypothesis that the show has steadily been getting boring is corroborated with statistical evidence that shows the TV audience numbers dwindling year-after-year. The Academy would also be forced to look at Animation films, Superhero films, Fanstasy films and Foreign Language films as contenders for nominees across categories which would rob a bit of shine from the nonpareil status associated with them presently. While the Academy may look at this as a step down in terms of status, it is certainly a step up for the Cinema of all kinds.

While we certainly know that this call for increase in nominees is wishful thinking, we would like to counter by saying that we can hope that this reasoning reaches the Oscars for Hope is the best of things. And I hope next year the Oscars can get their act right by naming 10 films for Best Picture. More importantly, instead of choosing to rant and debate over which film received the final going, it is better if film-buffs take their time to watch all the nominated films to appreciate the variety & magic of cinema.