The New York Times Media Decoder reports that the Oscars have made a change to the original song category. A song can only be nominated to the original song category if it scores high enough - an 8.25 on the Oscar's scoring chart. If no songs score high enough than there will be original songs nominees. Up to five songs can be nominated.
In an announcement on Friday, the academy said it would have no nominees and award no Oscar in the best original song category if no one song hits a high enough mark, that being 8.25, in its scoring system for song nominations.
If only one song hits the mark, then it will be nominated along with the next-highest-ranking song. If two or more songs hit the number, they will all be nominees, up to a maximum of five. Under the old system, there were a maximum of five and a minimum of three nominees. All the Oscar rules, old and new, are available here.
Yesterday, it was reported that the Best Picture category had been increased from five nominees to ten. You can see all the rules here.
