82nd Academy Awards - Ceremony Information

Ceremony Information

Because of the declining viewership of recent Academy Awards ceremonies, the Academy sought ideas to revamp the show while renewing interest with the nominated films. After the previous year's telecast, which saw a 13% increase in viewership, many within the Motion Picture Academy proposed new ways to give the awards a more populist appeal. AMPAS then-president Sid Ganis announced that the ceremony would feature ten Best Picture nominees, rather than traditional five. The expansion was a throwback to the Academy's early years in the 1930s and 1940s, when eight to twelve films were nominated. "Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going to allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize," Sid Ganis said in a press conference. "I can't wait to see what that list of ten looks like when the nominees are announced in February." Ganis also said that became difficult to get a clear winner. A cause of this was required a change in the voting system from first-past-the-post to alternative vote.

Choreographer Adam Shankman and Bill Mechanic were hired as producers for the ceremony. Shankman revealed in an interview on National Public Radio's Fresh Air that he and Mechanic had originally chosen Sacha Baron Cohen as the host, but the Academy rejected this proposal because Cohen was "too much of a wild card."

Many of the previous year's well-received elements returned. Five actors with a personal connection with each of the nominees presented the Best Actor and Best Actress awards. Shankman and Mechanic announced their intention to make the running time of the telecast shorter. Most presenters this year introduced each winner with the phrase "And the winner is ..." rather than "And the Oscar goes to..." for the first time since 1988. The Academy gave no reason for the change to a phrase which it had once felt humiliating to the other nominees; but apparently acquiesced in Shankman and Mechanic's decision to return to the older phrase.