Question – There are 10 films nominated for Best Picture, up from five. Can you give us a little background as to why that change occurred and also what that means for the category?

Tom Sherak – It was first suggested by Larry Mark and Bill Condon, who produced our show last year. At the end of listening to Larry and Bill tell us about the show, which we at the Academy thought was a really good beginning to a whole new

era of Academy shows, they came up with the idea of saying to us ‘you guys

should broaden out the category and do 10 movies rather than five’.

And as a committee, we were a little shocked to hear that and then we were told by our

CEO, Bruce Davis, that the Academy had done that before. And not only had

they given out 10 nominees; one year they had 12, one year they had eight,

and from 1936 to 1943 it was many more than five.

So we listened and they you know our biggest concern, we asked the one

question at is yes, but what adding five more films would do to the show’s time.

They believed it was possible without adding more time.

And we talked about what it would mean. The fact that we had done it before

sort of made it a little bit easier; not for a long time, but it had been done before.

Some people said ‘well why do we have to do 10? We’ve done eight before;

Let’s expand to eight rather than 10′. And then somebody else on the committee said well hey, there are 350 critics around the world. Have you ever seen a best eight up for the end of the year? Everybody has a best 10. Why don’t we stay with that? And we fettered it out and brought it to the board and the board agreed to go to 10 movies.

Question – Could you tell us a little about the voting process, and how you can make sure that everyone voting has seen all the movies?

Tom Sherak – We – the Academy – actually have very little to do

with the counting organization of Price Waterhouse. This is so secretive it

would make the CIA proud. We see nothing. We get a ballot if we’re a member. we fill that ballot out, and we send it in.

We don’t know anything else until that night when those winners are

announced. We know nothing. No one does. I’m the President. They won’t

tell me.

As far as how the voting works, each year I speak before new members and

say “We want you to see the movies the way they were meant to be seen,

on the big screen.”

And if you haven’t seen it, don’t vote for it. Vote for what you believe and if you can’t see all 10 movies, pick what you’ve seen and what you’ve liked.

As far as the other categories, each category has a branch that has members. Those members in that branch nominate the five nominees in that category. The whole Academy does not vote on the five nominees for actors. That’s done by the actors’ branch. Cinematography, same thing; it’s done by that branch.

And then what happens is, they go on a ballot for the Academy Award and every single person in the Academy – all 5,077 of them – vote, and that’s how the winner is picked.

Question – Traditionally, the Academy has sided in favor of films, regardless of their message, that have made a considerable dent in the box office. Can you comment on the chances of say, “The Hurt Locker”?

Tom Sherak – It’s very interesting to me that I think Hurt Locker has as good a chance to

win this year as any other movie. The thing that (the general public) cant feel is the underlying heat that these movies have out here, where most of the Academy voters are.

You know they vote in New York and in London and some other places,

but the majority of the voting comes from (Los Angeles).

I guess the best way to explain it to you – last year there was an overwhelming feeling

that Slum Dog Millionaire had the backing to become best picture.

And it happened – it happened late, but everybody sort of believed. It became

the frontrunner like out of nowhere. Well this year, I don’t know that you

could say that. I don’t know that Avatar, even though it’s such a populist

movie and such a huge box office growth, I don’t think that it has that feeling.

I don’t think it’s a one-picture show this year, and I think that’s going to be good for the show.

Question – Why did you choose Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin to host the show this year?

Tom Sherak– Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are very good friends

and the idea that the two of them together playing off each other will give the

show that sense of “what’s going to happen next?”. And their goal and ours – we have a (one-sheet) now of the two of them sitting on the Oscar and the line is “expect the unexpected.” We want this to be a different kind of Oscar for you. We want to make you inclusive in what we’re doing, to stay with us so that you watch our show.

Question – What is your number one goal on Oscar night?

Tom Sherak – I want everybody to have a really good time. When we hired the

Producers, I gave them one bit of advice. I said to them just promise me you’ll have fun, because I believe if they have fun, the audience will have fun. And my feeling is I want to – by the way, I have not told anybody this – I will not be speaking that night. I will be sitting in my seat watching people’s faces.

Question – Who would you like to see play you in a movie?

Tom Sherak – Joe Pesci. He’s a good guy and a good golfer too.