I say 5. I think it makes them more special. It's also more fun in terms of Oscar day snubs, Dune would've missed this year and made people mad.

10 was a good idea at first. The 2010 and 2011 Best Picture lineups have a ton of variance with action, animation, etc...

It went downhill very quickly though, even before the streamers got into the game. Now it is just ten versions of the same movie and thus pointless. CODA probably wouldn't have even been nominated, but now it is probably gonna win. Is this good or bad? Better than Power of the Dog, but there's gotta be a better solution out there. I think eight picture nominations with six in direction would be the right amount.

Definitely 5. It's not really working in including a variety of films, with several nominees just being, as Flava'd said, sort of the same type of film. Many better reviewed/received films are still being excluded.

I'd be in support of another category, like Best Audience Reception (or something) though to include more films.

Definitely 5. More Gravitas.