SHORT TAKES : Oscar Eligibility List: 217 Films

A total of 217 feature-length films meet the eligibility requirements for 1989 Academy Award consideration--nearly 25% fewer than the year before, it was announced today.

Karl Malden, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said the eligible features will be listed in the Academy’s “reminder list” pamphlet to be mailed to members next week, along with nomination ballots.

Last year, there were 270 films in contention for Academy Awards, Malden said.

Eligibility is established by the rules of the Academy, which will award Oscars for distinguished film making achievements in at least 20 categories at the annual Academy Awards presentation March 26 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Feature-length films in English or with English subtitles, regardless of country of origin, are eligible if they were publicly exhibited in 35 millimeter or 70mm in a theater in the Los Angeles area during the 1989 calendar year. The commercial run must have encompassed at least seven consecutive days, after an opening prior to midnight on Dec. 31.