Oscar producer rules altered

After controversies the last two years because of a limit on how many producers may be nominated for a best picture Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Wednesday that it had modified the rules to allow for more than three nominees.

The academy said that in most cases it would continue to enforce the rule that no more than three producers of a film may qualify as nominees if the movie is selected as a finalist for best picture. The limitation had been set after complaints that producer credits were mushrooming, with six or eight or more on a film, often given to people who didn’t truly perform “producing functions.”

But now the rule has been amended so that the executive committee of the academy’s producers branch can, in “rare and extraordinary circumstances,” nominate as many additional producers as it deems qualified.