Bosses at Oscars have changed the voting rules for the Best Picture Academy Award category in order to make the polling more accurate. The members of the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will now be asked to rate the ten nominees in order of preference, rather than picking one outright winner, The Wrap reported.

As a result, a film could be the first choice of majority of voters but find itself pushed out of the top prize by another movie that got more votes even though it is a second or third preference.

The news comes after Academy executives extended the final shortlist from five to ten movies, starting with the 2010 ceremony.

The new preferential voting system has been brought in place to help the organisation to recognise "the picture that has the most support from the entire membership."

"There are certain mathematical dangers with more nominees. You could really get a fragmentation to the point where a picture with 18 or 20 per cent of the vote could win, and the board didn't want that to happen," Academy executive director Bruce Davis said.