BAFTA has no plans to expand nominee list

LONDON, July 20 (UPI) -- A spokeswoman for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts said it will not include more nominees on its shortlist for BAFTA best picture next year.

Hollywood's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently announced plans to name 10 best picture Academy Award nominees in 2010. The number is twice as many as competed in the 2009 race for Oscar gold. There have not been 10 Oscar nominees since 1943.

"We decided that we think top five is the right number of films," BAFTA's managing director Amanda Berry told the BBC.

"I think they're just constantly -- as we do at BAFTA -- looking at the event to see that it works within the industry and the television audience. They obviously think that by increasing the best film to 10 they're going to get a larger audience for it," Berry said.

"Now, obviously, you should never say never and, obviously, we continue every year to look at our rules and regulations and the categories and the make-up of the categories, but I can categorically say at the moment we have no plans to increase to 10 films."