Instead of five nominees for the Best Picture of the Year, there will now be ten.

This is not new.  In the 1930's and 1940's, the Academy often nominated 10 pictures. 

But then again, they had good reason to.  Consider the Best Picture nominees from 1939: "Gone With the Wind," which won, "The Wizard of Oz," "Stagecoach," "Wuthering Heights," "Love Affair," "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Of Mice and Men," "Dark Victory" and "Ninotchka."  All of them are classics today.

Oddly, the Academy came to this decision after looking at last year's films:

[Academy President Sid] Ganis said the board looked at last year's slate of films and decided there was room for more in the top category. "We nominated five, but there were many other great films last year," he said.

Really?  Last year's movies for the most part sucked, with the exception of the five nominees.

I think the Academy is trying to get a larger TV audience for its awards, so it is going to throw out bones to popular movies (like Batman: The Dark Knight) which won't ever win but which will draw audiences to the Oscar telecast.

The new rules start this coming year.