Academy Alters Producer Rules

You knew this was going to happen eventually. Each year, some producer who actually worked on the movie gets shoved aside after his film is nominated for Best Picture because the old Oscar rule was that only three producers could be nominated (last year, this happened with Little Miss Sunshine). It usually gets all ugly and then there's a lot of name calling and finger pointing and it makes the whole process look bad. But now the Academy has announced that it will allow for more than three producers to be honored "in a rare and extraordinary circumstance."

"The committee and the governors believe strongly that it's very important to have a limit on the number of producers who can be nominated and potentially receive an Oscar statuette," said Academy president Sid Ganis. "But we also recognize that a truly unique situation could arise, and we want to have just enough flexibility to allow for that rare occurrence."

Oscar easing up on producer rules [Variety]
Academy tweaks Oscar rules [The Hollywood Reporter]
Oscar Rules Regarding Producing Are Relaxed [NYT]