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Oscar ballots were mailed yesterday. When a voter receives his or hers, she or he will be asked to rank 10 picture nominees and (let's say this voter is a member of the writer's branch), five nominees each in the original and adapted screenplay categories.
Now it seems to me that a simple way to tabulate all the votes for best picture would be to award 10 points for each picture voted No. 1 on a ballot, nine points for No. 2, eight for No. 3, and so on down to one point for No. 10. Inthe writing categories, 5 points for No. 1, 4 for No. 2, etc.
But Price Waterhouse Cooper, the accounting firm that will tabulate the ballots, isn't going to do it that way. For some reason, the firm has decided to make this process considerably more complicated.
As I understand it, here's the way it will work. The Academy has 5,777 voting members who will receive ballots that will allow them to vote for best picture. PWC divides that number by 11 (representing the 10 nominees + 1) giving them the magic number 525. The returned ballots are then placed into stacks according to which picture that voter had in the No. 1 position. Any stack containing at least 525 ballots receives an automatic nomination. End of round one.
Let's say, for the sake of this explanation, The Hurt Locker, Avatar and Up in the Air all receive at least 525 votes. They are the best picture nominees from round one. The ballots containing those choices for No. 1 are then cast aside (the argument being those voters have already been heard from). Round two begins by looking at the stack of ballots containing the least number of votes. PWC places them into stacks according to those voters' No. 2 choice. However, if that voters' No. 2 choice was one of three pictures already to receive a nomination from round one, they go to the No. 3 choice or down until it comes to the first picture listed not already nominated. Any stack containing a number of ballots that, if added to the number it received in Round One, totals 525, receives a nomination.
This process continues until PWC has the required 10 nominees. Confused? I still think my 10, 9, 8 ... system works better.
Incidentally, the nominations in all the other categories that are voted upon work the same way except the number of members of that branch are divided by 6 (5 nominees + 1) to get the threshhold figure.
Now it seems to me that a simple way to tabulate all the votes for best picture would be to award 10 points for each picture voted No. 1 on a ballot, nine points for No. 2, eight for No. 3, and so on down to one point for No. 10. Inthe writing categories, 5 points for No. 1, 4 for No. 2, etc.
But Price Waterhouse Cooper, the accounting firm that will tabulate the ballots, isn't going to do it that way. For some reason, the firm has decided to make this process considerably more complicated.
As I understand it, here's the way it will work. The Academy has 5,777 voting members who will receive ballots that will allow them to vote for best picture. PWC divides that number by 11 (representing the 10 nominees + 1) giving them the magic number 525. The returned ballots are then placed into stacks according to which picture that voter had in the No. 1 position. Any stack containing at least 525 ballots receives an automatic nomination. End of round one.
Let's say, for the sake of this explanation, The Hurt Locker, Avatar and Up in the Air all receive at least 525 votes. They are the best picture nominees from round one. The ballots containing those choices for No. 1 are then cast aside (the argument being those voters have already been heard from). Round two begins by looking at the stack of ballots containing the least number of votes. PWC places them into stacks according to those voters' No. 2 choice. However, if that voters' No. 2 choice was one of three pictures already to receive a nomination from round one, they go to the No. 3 choice or down until it comes to the first picture listed not already nominated. Any stack containing a number of ballots that, if added to the number it received in Round One, totals 525, receives a nomination.
This process continues until PWC has the required 10 nominees. Confused? I still think my 10, 9, 8 ... system works better.
Incidentally, the nominations in all the other categories that are voted upon work the same way except the number of members of that branch are divided by 6 (5 nominees + 1) to get the threshhold figure.
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