Oscar Facelift

The rules of the Best Animated Feature category are going to be changed...

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news today: More people will be able to serve the Animated Feature Film Award Screening Committee. Why is that?

Screeners.

These people will now be able to watch all of the potential nominees for Best Animated Feature thanks to the discs. Ergo, it won't seem like the winner took home the award without a challenge. Prior to this, the committee had to attend the nominees in November, as special screenings were held on Sundays... And did all of them go? Of course not! They are now required to view the screeners, thankfully. Again, with much more voters, we may see some diversity. A big studio might not even take home the award next year!

Now if anything, I see this as a response to the previous animated feature Oscar win...

Brave winning - beating out Wreck-It Ralph and ParaNorman no less! - more than caused a backlash. It seemed likely that Pixar's fairy tale film won because everything was rigged, or because no one in the branch even saw Wreck-It Ralph or ParaNorman. Well, now these people will be able to see those films and we'll see a much more balanced ceremony this coming February. I hope...

As for my Oscar nomination predictions? Well, here's my rough guess for now. (5 slots)

The Croods

Ernest and Celestine

Frozen

Monsters University

The Wind Rises

We should be hearing about the nominees in a couple months... What do you think of this change to the category's rules?