MUMBAI: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has added a new twist to its best picture category. In the next year‘s 84th Academy Awards, there may not be 10 movies nominated for best picture. Instead, new voting rules could result in nominations in the category ranging anywhere from five to 10 nominees.

Though two years ago, the best picture Oscar race was expanded from five to ten films, the board of governors of the Academy voted Tuesday night to introduce a new procedure which according to them would add a new element of surprise, because the number of films that make the cut won‘t be revealed until the best picture nominees are revealed at the nominations announcement on 24 January. 

In order to ensure a nomination, a picture will have to collect enough first-place votes on the nomination ballots to amount to five per cent of the ballots cast.

The move is sure to throw a further complication into the awards process, since studios and awards consultants will now have to decide how hard to push for movies the chances of which may look more marginal if the field doesn‘t expand to ten.

This move could wreck a certain amount of havoc in the years to come when Oscar historians try to compare races from different years.

The Academy also adopted several other rule changes affecting the animation category and the visual effects "bake-off" and confirmed previous changes in the eligibility period in the documentary categories.

"With the help of PricewaterhouseCoopers, we‘ve been looking not just at what happened over the past two years, but at what would have happened if we had been selecting 10 nominees for the past 10 years," said Academy president Tom Sherak.

The 84th Academy Awards will take place on 26 February next year at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland.