Best Picture: Oscar nominees to be ranked in order of preference (Variety)

Voting for the Best Picture Oscar nominees is set for a sweeping shift with voters ranking the 10 films in order of preference, rather than the decades-old practice simply voting for a single nominee.

Monday's announcement by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences came two months after the board's surprise decision to double the category to 10 nominees. AMPAS had not previously disclosed the specifics of how the votes would be tabulated.

Under the new system - which will only be employed in the Best Picture category -- voters will be asked to rank each of the 10 nominees.

The process calls for PricewaterhouseCoopers to first determine if one nominee has more than 50% of the first-place votes and then begin eliminating the films which are ranked first on the fewest number of ballots. When a film is eliminated, the film ranked second on those ballots will be accorded a first-place vote until a single film has over 50%.