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How are the Academy Award Winners Decided? |
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This is a great question. Every year we watch the Academy Awards and wonder how in the world a certain film got nominated or won an Oscar. For example, Good Night and Good Luck received a nomination for Best Cinematography. Anyone who watched that movie was probably scratching their heads over it even being considered for a Best Cinematography nomination. And many people were also shocked that Crash won Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain. So, how exactly do we get from the nominations to the winners? Here’s the process:
In order to be eligible for a nomination, a movie must have been released in the previous year. The film must also play in Los Angeles and be 40 minutes or longer, except for the categories for short films.
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences has different branches and an overall membership base of around 6,000 people (actors, directors, etc.) who have been invited to join the academy based on a membership nomination and vote by the Academy’s Board of Governors.
Movie studios submit movies to categories for which they believe their film is eligible. Different branches of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences then determine which of those submitted films receive a nomination. Although rare, it has happened in the past where a studio didn’t get a film submitted to a category in time and therefore wasn’t considered for a nomination even if it was the best in its category.
After the nominations, ballots are sent out to all members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences. The returned ballots are calculated and the results are audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. The winning results are sealed in an envelop and on the night of the Academy Awards the envelopes are opened onstage and the winner is presented with an Oscar, the official name of the award.
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