Other years that deserved 10 Best Picture nominees...

Village Voice critic Aaron Hillis has a great article that goes over all the years in his opinion that deserved 10 nominees for Best Picture. The whole article can be found here, but these are the years he came up with:
1951
1969
1975
1992
1999
Personally, I think that it all depends on what movies get nominated, as 10 nominees could be good or bad for any given year, but that's just me.
-What years would you have liked to have seen 10 nominees?

My take on the Best Picture Nomination Field expanding to 10 films...

Right now, I am as shocked as everyone else is about this announcement, as we really didn't see it coming (much as we might have been hoping for some kind of reform, to some degree) or expect this big a change. The question now is the quality of the change. I for one think it could go either way. It's the proverbial double edged sword.

-On the one hand, the Academy now has the opportunity to recognize and nominate (and potentially award) films that are far more diverse, daring, and frankly...better. The days of mediocre dramas that fit the bill of being Best Picture nominees but aren't actually good enough getting nominated might be over. We could see action films, comedies, cartoon, documentaries, and any other out of the norm film grab a nomination.

-On the other hand though, there are no promises that this will happen. The Academy only has the opportunity to make better choices. We don't know that they will. They could pick 10 mediocre movies instead of 5 just as easily as they could shake things up.

-Look at it this way, if last year we had 10 nominees, the extra five could have been:

The Dark Knight

WALL-E

The Wrestler

Iron Man

Rachel Getting Married

-However, the other five could have easily been:

Changeling

Gran Torino

Doubt

The Dutchess

Defiance

-One equals change, one doesn't. This makes for a very interesting Oscar year, but we won't know yet if it's a better one or not. What do you think?

Ranking Woody Allen's Films

In honor of Woody Allen directing his 40th film in Whatever Works (which I will have a review for soon), Entertainment Weekly ranked all of his films from best to worst, with the result being this list:

1. Manhattan (1979)

2. Annie Hall (1977)

3. Bananas (1971)

4. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

5. Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)

6. Match Point (2005)

7. What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)

8. Zelig (1983)

9. Sleeper (1973)

10. The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)

11. Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)

12. Love and Death (1975)

13. Take the Money and Run (1969)

14. Stardust Memories (1980)

15. Small Time Crooks (2000)

16. Deconstructing Harry (1997)

17. Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

18. Sweet and Lowdown (1999)

19. Mighty Aphrodite (1995)

20. Cassandra’s Dream (2007)

21. Husbands and Wives (1992)

22. Broadway Danny Rose (1984)

23. Interiors (1978)

24. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008)

25. Oedipus Wrecks from New York Stories (1989)

26. A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982)

27. Radio Days (1987)

28. Whatever Works (2009)

29. Everyone Says I Love You (1996)

30. Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)

31. Scoop (2006)

32. Alice (1990)

33. The Curse of the Jade Scorpion (2001)

34. Another Woman (1988)

35. Melinda and Melinda (2004)

36. Shadows and Fog (1991)

37. Hollywood Ending (2002)

38. Celebrity (1998)

39. Anything Else (2003)

40. September (1987)

-I think it's a pretty good list overall, though I'd definitely move the list around a lot (and will put my own ranking in the blog at some point in the next day or so, depending on if I can see the last Woody Allen movie or two I still need to see)...what would your top 10 Woody Allen movies be?