With this expansion, the academy now has decided to change the voting formula, probably in an attempt to cover up their flaws. So what does it do? It adds even more controversy and confusion. Now, instead of academy members voting for one movie, members will rank each of the 10 nominees from one to 10. I’ll try to explain.

Under the new rules, once a movie receives a simple majority of ballot votes it is declared the winner. So, if there are 100 academy voters, a film receiving 51 ballots choosing it as No. 1 wins. But, if after all of the voting, none of the films have the coveted 51 ballots, it gets very, very complicated. In this situation, the film with the least amount of No. 1 votes is reallocated and whatever the No. 2 film is on those ballots is counted. This process continues until one film receives 51 ballots. Theoretically, a film receiving the largest number of first-place votes could very easily lose to a film that received a lot of No. 2 and No. 3 votes. This is flawed.

I predict that some of the academy voters won’t understand the new system — I don’t fully grasp it yet — and ballot mistakes will increase. The academy has gotten it wrong numerous times, but it hasn’t been a reflection of a faulty system but of the balloters themselves. “Chicago” over “The Pianist” in 2003, “The English Patient” over “Fargo” in 1997, and “Driving Miss Daisy” over “Dead Poet’s Society” in 1990 immediately come to mind for me. The changes will turn the Academy Awards into a three-ring circus with hanging chads and recounts aplenty. Simply put, have the members vote for their favorite movie of the year — one movie — and then see who has the most votes in the end.