The Board of Governors at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to give testimonial awards its own place and time.

Recipients for the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and the Honorary Award will be presented in a new annual event. Honorees will be announced in September and presented their awards in November. They will also be acknowledged at the Academy Awards ceremony.

The Board will hold a special meeting in September for selecting the year's honorees. There will not be more than one Hersholt nor more than one Thalberg award voted in a year. Also, no more than four testimonial awards will be given in a single year.

President Sid Ganis said in a statement, "For some years now, the Board has struggled to balance the desire to truly honor worthy individuals with the time limitations that the Oscar telecast imposes on these honors."

"By creating a separate event for recognizing these outstanding people in the movie industry, we're ensuring that each honoree will be given his or her full due, without compromise."

Also, Oscars have toughened up the criteria for its Best Song category. According to another new rule, the prestigious award-giving organization will not allow a song unless it scored a minimum o 8.25 on a scale of 6 to 10 when voted for by the Academy's music members.

Composer Bruce Broughton told BBC that the new rule would make entries as good as possible, saying, "We're trying to improve the quality."

"There's been a lot of talk about the songs in films, the lack of memorability compared to songs in the past, the almost forgettability of some of them."

The music branch of the Academy has around 230 members who rate each of the song entries.