More Academy members will take part in choosing the nominees for the best animated feature Oscar under a new rule, which was announced Friday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. And the immediate reaction among Oscar watchers was that it would boost widely seen studio films at the expense of smaller indie fare, the type of films New York-based indie distributor GKIDS Films has very successfully secured nominations for in recent years.
...
As the implications of the new rule set in, some sources in the animation community pointed out that not all Academy members, though they will be invited to participate in the nominating process, will step forward and opt in. And those who do will need to put in the time to see a required majority of contenders in order to cast their nomination vote.
For some, the new rule change was a long time coming. It's believed that fewer than 200 of the Academy's 7,000 members, mostly from the animation and shorts branch, have been involved in selecting the nominees in the animated feature category. This change, allowing more to participate, brings the process closer to the way BAFTA picks its animation nominees. It also reflect's the Academy's moves to expand the voting base for other categories such as foreign-language film.
Within the animation community itself, there also are competing camps. One has quietly acknowledged it has nominated hand-drawn 2D films to keep them in the public eye. And that has provoked complaints from others in the field. How that tension will play out under the new rule may depend on how many Academy members sign up to participate in the nomination-selection process.
scars way of handling criticism 
