News
Oscar's weird voting system
By Robert Marich
Feb. 6, 2009 – The voting procedure for Best Picture Oscar comes under criticism in a Wall Street Journal article that explains the short comings of the “instant run-off” scoring system that is employed. It’s little understood that the Academy Awards doesn’t use a simple vote tally but rather the instant run-off that puts extra weight on first place votes.
One fall-out from this weighting is that, if a given film is ranked as number two by all the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters, that film would not be among the top five Best Pictures nominees. The reason? It received no first place votes. Instant run-off emphasizes votes with strong feelings—those first place votes. Also, any film that ranks number one with 20% of the voting base would be a Best Picture finalist, even if it received no other votes.
The WSJ article by Carl Bialik quotes a New York University professor who believes that Rocky won the Best Picture Oscar over films such as Network and Taxi Driver because of instant run-off system. In a simplier vote, the breadth of support for the other two films would have put them ahead of Rocky, the professor believes.
However, that’s just speculation because AMPAS doesn’t release the exact tally for films—it only announces winners. The voting system has been in place since 1936 and is reviewed every 15 years—with AMPAS opting at each review to retain instant run-off.
Because of the heavy weight given to first place votes, voters can manipulate the outcome by giving first-place to a favored film and making the rest of their selections films with no chance of being among the top five.
The WSJ article is fascinating but doesn’t explain well why AMPAS likes the instant run-off procedure. The Oscar vote for Best Picture received a lot of criticism this year for passing over The Dark Knight and choosing a lot of edgy indie-fare with weak box office.
Marketing to Moviegoers details the elaborate marketing campaigns that movie producers mount to secure Oscar and other award nominations, and wins. Those drives aim to marshall first place votes. A big part of Oscar campaigns – which AMPAS officially discourages – is to line up kudos at the numerous non-Oscar film awards.
For full text, click link below:
online.wsj.com/article/SB123388752673155403.html
www.marketingmovies.net/news/serious-fare-to-chill-oscar-telecast/