New Rules Set For The Academy Awards
Academy Awards
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has approved new rules around awards and campaigns ahead of the 98th Academy Awards ceremony, coming next year.
Most notably, the Academy has updated its voting requirements, only now mandating that Academy members must see all nominations within a category in order to be eligible for voting in that category. While this had been a rule previously in certain categories, such as for international features, animated features, and short films, this is the first time in the Academy Awards 96-year history that this has in fact been mandated for all categories.
This decision comes after increased debate over recent decades about the continuing relevance of the Oscars and a perceived disparity between winners of the Academy Awards and the films that the public actually go to see.
Members will now only be able to access final round ballots for categories in which they can confirm they have seen all nominated films, verifying this either through the members-only Academy Screening Room or through a form confirming when and where they watched the film in question.
Amongst the other changes to the voting process is a new rule stating that all nominees in each category must be named in full on the final ballot – as opposed to previous years, where only the film in question had to be named. The Academy will also be introducing an award for Achievement in Casting in order to recognize the contributions made by casting directors in putting together the cast of the films in question, as well as adding the Award for Best Cinematography to the shortlist process.
The Academy has also attempted to address growing concerns within the film industry about the use of AI, clarifying that the use of generative AI should not help or hinder a films chances at success and that nominees should be judged by “taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship.”
Additional rules have been introduced to allow for filmmakers with refugee or asylum status to be eligible for consideration for International Feature Films, while submission dates have been brought forward to Wednesday, October 15, 2025, for Original Song nominations, and to Monday, November 3, 2025, for Original Score. Best Picture nominees must be submitted by Wednesday, September 10, 2025, for films released between January 1 and June 30, 2025, and by Thursday, November 13, 2025, for films released between July 1 and December 31, 2025.
Final nominations for the Oscars are expected to be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2026, with the ceremony itself scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 15, 2026. The separate Scientific and Technical Awards are slated for Tuesday, April 28, 2026.
Among some of the films expected to perform well at next year’s ceremony are the latest take on Frankenstein, from noted Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, and Chloé Zhao’s upcoming adaptation of the novel Hamnet.
