Oscar alters foreign-language, song rules

June 19, 2008 A couple of new rules governing the 81st Academy Awards could result in the foreign-language film category becoming more inclusive and the original song category becoming more competitive. In the wake of the 2007 nominations that saw such critically applauded features as "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" and "Persepolis" left off the shortlist of nine films, the foreign-language committee has made a subtle, but potentially critical, change in its voting procedures that will allow the exec committee to rectify any glaring omissions on the way to the nominations. Calling the change in the foreign-language nominating process formidable, foreign-language committee chair Mark Johnson said: It will ensure that the oversight that we had this past year would not have happened.

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