June 26, 2009

By By Ann Donahue, L.A.

The governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Friday announced a rules change for the 82nd Academy Awards that will impact the selection of nominees in the Original Song Category.

The Music Branch Executive Committee recommended a change in the nominations voting process, which requires a song to receive an average score of 8.25 in order to be nominated for an Oscar. If no songs meet this threshold, there will be no original song category; if one song meets this mark, the song with the next highest score will be the nominee.

This is a change from current rules, which order that no more than five but no less than three songs be nominated in the category, and an aggregate score of 8.5 was required to be reached to be nominated.

Members of the music branch currently are asked to rate songs on a scale of 6-10 after viewing several minute-longs clips of songs as they were featured in the film. (This is a controversial practice, which has led some to argue that songs that play over end credits -- like Bruce Springsteen's title track for "The Wrestler" in 2008 -- are going to be unfairly overlooked.)

The winner of best original song last year was A.R. Rahman and Gulzar's "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire."

The Academy Awards will air on ABC on March 7, 2010.

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