The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continues to shuffle around their traditional approach to the Oscars after the society’s interesting choice to expand the Best Picture category to (up to) 10 nominees. Now, according to Vulture, The Academy is set to debut their 2012 nominees for January 10, three days before the Golden Globes awards ceremony.
The apparent reasoning behind this decision is to allow more time for voters to catch up on nominated fare, though the fact that nominations will arrive just a hair before the Globes certainly raises suspicion as to (at least partially) an ulterior motive.
Regardless of the true reason, this marks another huge setback for the Golden Globes which in the last five-plus years has been hit with a great deal of scrutiny regarding their nominees, ranging from everything from back-room bribery to the simple overarching fact that mediocre films often appear in slots that should have been saved for superior efforts (I’m looking at you The Tourist).
With the Oscar nods now arriving before the Golden Globes, their exclusions and oversights will appear all the more glaring. At least as was previously the case, they could write off their omissions due to the simple fact that a number of “prestige” films had not yet debuted at the time of the ceremony. In lieu of this news, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association may have to rethink their voting practices.
The Golden Globe awards will premier on January 13 and the Oscars on February 26.
