How a Film Actually Gets Nominated for An Oscar

How complicated is the process really? 

We saw some pretty big moments from the Oscars this year like Timothée Chalamet’s lack of wins despite a long list of nominations, Michael B Jordan’s win for Sinners and the first time a K-Pop song has won an Oscar with Best Original Song going to Golden from KPop Demon Hunters. 

 

 

 

 

 

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From angry fans saying an actor or movie was snubbed, to Academy members not watching or even understanding the genres they’re voting for – it’s no doubt The Oscars are still an amazing spectacle of all the best films have had to offer in the past year. 

Only since this year’s Oscar’s, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) (or the Academy) requires members to certify they have watched all nominated films in a category to be eligible to vote in that category?  

As in before this people were voting for films they didn’t even watch. 

There are other substantive award rule changes like taking into account AI and ensuring that members must view all 15 shortlisted films in the Animated Short Film category to be eligible to vote. 

With that in mind, how exactly do films get nominated for an Oscar?  

The preliminary voting round. 

Not all Oscar categories have a preliminary voting round.  

Categories that get a lot of submissions like Best International Feature or Cinematography use preliminary shortlists to narrow it down in December while others go directly to the nomination ballot in January. 

There are 20 Academy branches ranging from actors and animation to music and producers. 

In other categories like Best Sound or Best Visual Effects, the nominations are determined by members of a specific branch or voters who meet eligibility requirements. 

The shortlisted films are announced via an Academy press release in December of the year before. 

Next, the nominations voting process. 

All 24 award categories are voted on in the nominations voting round.  

Members are only allowed to nominate titles within their own field with the exception for Best Picture, Best Animated Short Film and Best International Feature Film. 

All of the votes are cast through secret online ballots with the results revealed during a live nomination announcement ahead of the actual ceremony. 

This poll is open in mid-January for four days and the nominees are announced live after the voting closes. 

If you want to get the nitty gritty details, you can look at the rules and procedures outlined in the Rules & Eligibility page. 

And all Academy voting members are allowed to vote in all categories for the Oscars winners. 

Best Picture uses preferential ranking. 

This is likely why you think your favourite actor was robbed.  

Members rank the nominated films in a vote and if no film gets more than half of the first-choice votes, the film with the fewest votes is eliminated.  

The votes for that film are then reassigned to each voter’s next preferred choice. This process repeats until one film has over 50% of the votes. 

Other categories are decided by a simple popular vote. Speaking of which remember when Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were not nominated for an Oscar in 2024? 

Votes are then tallied. 

The votes are then counted by the independent accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). 

Despite their infamous 2017 mix-up with Moonlight and La La Land, they are still in charge of counting the votes. 

Only a very select few people (hired by the Academy to tally the votes) know the winners.  

They pack them into an envelope and deliver them in briefcases, standing on the outskirts of the stage waiting to hand them out. 

Who’s on the board? 

Getting on the Academy board (the Board of Governors) or becoming a voting member isn’t based on submitting an application. 

You have to be invited and candidates normally need sponsorship from two existing members within their specific filmmaking branch. 

However, winning or being nominated for an Oscar automatically qualifies someone for membership without sponsorship. 

Recent Oscar winners Kieran Culkin and Mikey Madison, as well as Ariana Grande, Fernanda Torres, Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong, are among the 534 distinguished artists and executives invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

The board currently includes many high-profile producers like Jason Blum (CEO of Blumhouse Productions) and Jason Reitman. 

Learning about the voting process (and the fact that only up until recently did Academy members actually need to watch the films they’re voting on) makes you realise that the Oscars are great, but also just an Awards Show. 

While they still recognise the incredible talents of the film industry, you can still enjoy any recent movies you watched and boast about how good they are – no Academy membership required.