ABC announced today during next year's telecast of the Academy Awards on March 7, 2010, for the first time since 1943, the Academy will nominate 10 motion pictures instead of the traditional five.
              “Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going 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,” Academy Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis announced today at a press conference in Beverly Hills.
             The last time 10 motion pictures were nominated came during the 16th Academy Awards, `when ``Casablanca’’ was named Best Picture.
             In 1935, there was a record 12 motion pictures nominated when ``Mutiny on the Bounty’’ came away with the Oscar
             The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010.

         Other significant changes with the Oscar ceremonies include: 

• In the 3rd year of the Academy Awards (November 5, 1930), a new selection criterion for selecting nominees had been established: winners would now be chosen by the full members of the Academy, numbering over 400, instead of a handful of judges. This policy would continue until 1936.

• For the first time, during the 7th year of the Academy Awards (February 27, 1935), the Academy allowed for write-in candidates on the ballot. This was in response to the storm of protest that surrounded the Academy when Bette Davis (Of Human Bondage) and Myrna Lay (Thin Man) failed to earn a nomination.
Despite the option of a write-in, neither Davis nor Lay came away with an award.

• Song and Film Editing were introduced as new categories beginning with the 7th annual Academy Awards (February 27, 1935)

• Beginning with the 13th annual Academy Awards (February 27, 1941), the winners were not made known to anyone in advance, except a select few from the certified public accounting firm of Price Waterhouse & Co, until the envelopes were unsealed on the night of the awards. Thus, the Oscar tradition: ``The envelope please!'' came into being.

• On March 13, 1947, for the first time in the Academy's history, the general public was allowed to buy tickets and attend the awards ceremony, which was held at the Shrine Civic Auditorium in Los Angeles.

• During the 29th annual Academy Awards (February 6, 1957), Foreign Language films competed in a separate category of their own for the first time-- instead of it being presented to honorary recipients

• Make-up artists were recognized in a new category beginning with the 54th annual Academy Awards (March 29, 1982). The first film honored in that category was An American Werewolf in London.

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com

Source: ``70 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards'' By Robert Osborne