Tuneless Oscars? Academy Toughens Best-Song Rules

Academy Awards organizers say they will give out no Oscar for best song next year if none of the tunes is considered good enough.

Rules for the 82nd Oscar show next March will require that at least one song must achieve a minimum score of 8.25 on a scale of 6 to 10 in voting by members of the academy's music branch.

If no song scores that well, there will be no best-song Oscar awarded. If only one song reaches that score, then it and the tune with the next-highest score will be the category's two nominees. The number of nominees in the category can range from two to five depending on how many hit the minimum score.

The academy also is moving its honorary Oscar awards to a separate presentation in November.

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