The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is set to clamp down on shirkers within the voting body for the Oscars. The most headline-grabbing of recently announced new regulations concerns a requirement for members to have seen every film nominated in any category for which they wish to vote.
There has been some shock on social media that this has not always been the case. But anonymous interviews with voters over the years revealed that many made little effort to see every relevant title. “I did not bother to see Maestro,” one said of Bradley Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein biopic in 2024. “Two people I trust in the industry told me very strongly, ‘Don’t waste your time,’ so I didn’t.” In the same year, another voter managed only the opening act of Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things. “I couldn’t sit through it. We went to see it in a theatre and left after 40 minutes,” they said.
To be fair, some 50 films were nominated for the 2025 Oscars and, though all members are industry professionals, free time must be cleared for their electoral duties at Oscar season. Even the most diligent voter will fail to see every title in every category. Irish film-maker Lenny Abrahamson, nominated as best director for Room in 2016, is one member who takes his franchise seriously.
“It’s up to your own conscience,” Abrahamson told The Irish Times. “I watch all the films in a category if I’m voting. Because that seems like the right thing to do. And I think probably most people feel the same. But it’s very difficult to enforce. Good luck, I suppose.”
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Some areas of enforcement will be more straightforward than others. Voting members have access to an online portal called the Academy Screening Room that offers all nominated titles. Any film watched on that system will be automatically logged. Movies watched at festivals, academy events or in public screenings must be registered via an online form. So, if, this year, Saoirse Ronan sees Wicked: For Good in her local North London Odeon she will have to say as much to the computer before voting for it or for any film nominated against it. The Academy will not be demanding a ticket stub from her.
“Apart from the things that I see in cinema or at festivals – which I might have been to earlier in the year – most of the stuff I watch on the portal,” Abrahamson said.
Will it make any difference to the results? There has been speculation that this is good news for low-budget titles and those in a language other than English – films that less adventurous voters shun – but Bafta, which has had comparable rules in place for some time, delivers remarkably similar results to their American counterparts. In 2024, best film, director, and all four acting prizes matched. This year, among those prizes, four of the six doubled up with the British and US awards. So expect no seismic shift.
The rules will be in place for next year’s ceremony when, for the first time, the Academy will present a new award for best casting. A stunt design prize arrives for the centenary 100th awards in 2028.
