AceShowbiz -

Academy Awards has changed the rules for Best Picture race once more. After expanding the category to 10 nominees in 2009, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made it official on late Tuesday night that it has made new rules which would result in anywhere from five to ten nominees in the category.

The final round of voting for Best Picture will continue to employ the preferential system, regardless of the number of nominees. This move is taken to ensure that the winning picture has won more than half of the voters.

Retiring Academy executive director Bruce Davis stated that the revision is necessary. "In studying the data, what stood out was that Academy members had regularly shown a strong admiration for more than five movies," so he said. "A best picture nomination should be an indication of extraordinary merit. If there are only eight pictures that truly earn that honor in a given year, we shouldn't feel an obligation to round out the number."

The nomination of the 84th annual Academy Awards will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 5:30 A.M. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Meanwhile, the ceremony itself will take place on February 26, 2012 at the Kodak Theater at Hollywood.