Is Oscar voting tilted against Avatar?

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has adopted a new voting system for the 2010 race, and an article in this week's New Yorker argues that it's likely to harm Avatar's chances. (Hat tip: Kare Anderson)

Instead of a simple ballot system where the movie with the most votes wins, the Academy is using a what is known as an instant-runoff system. It works like this: Voters rank the ten nominees in order of preference from 1 to 10. If no movie gets a majority of first place votes...