New Oscars Rule: If You Don’t See All the Nominated Films, You Can’t Vote

Oscar voters will no longer be able to cast ballots in categories in which they haven’t seen all of the nominees, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Monday.

The new rule is the most significant in a group of regulations approved by the AMPAS Board of Governors for the 98th Academy Awards, which will take place in March 2026.

In the past, Oscar voters had been on the honor system; they were encouraged to see every nominee before voting, but the Academy did not make it a requirement in most categories. The biggest exception was in the Best Foreign-Language Film (now Best International Feature Film) and Best Documentary Feature categories, where for years the only members who could cast votes were those who could show that they had seen all five films in a theater.

In the years in which that rule was in existence, those categories included some significant upsets, such as “The Lives of Others” beating “Pan’s Labyrinth.” Theoretically, expanding the rule to apply in all categories could lead to more upsets and surprise wins, although it might also reduce the number of Oscar voters.  

The new rule applies on a category-by-category basis, so voters can vote in the categories where they have seen all the nominees and abstain in categories where they haven’t.

In a normal year, around 40 feature films and 15 shorts receive Oscar nominations. With all the nominees available on the members-only Academy Screening Room, it will presumably be both easier for members to see everything and easier for the Academy to verify that they have done so.

Other significant rule changes include the addition of “all designated nominees” on the final ballot. In the past, the acting categories were the only ones in which the names of the nominees were included on the ballot; in all other categories, only the name of the film was included.

The Academy also announced that the new Achievement in Casting Oscar, which will be introduced for this year’s Oscars, will have a preliminary round of voting to determine a 10-film shortlist, followed by “bake-off” presentations (which include Q&As with the casting directors) and a second round of voting to select the nominees. The cinematography category will also institute a shortlist of between 10 and 20 films before the final nomination voting.

The Academy also released a statement that was recommended by the Academy’s Science in Technology Council to clarify the Oscars’ position on AI after an awards season in which films like “The Brutalist” were criticized for the use of the technique.

“With regard to Generative Artificial Intelligence and other digital tools used in the making of the film, the tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination,” the statement read. “The Academy and each branch will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award.”

Campaign regulations for this year’s Oscars were also clarified and updated, with the most significant change sharpening the language surrounding prohibited social media posts (as well as “reposts, shares and comments”:

“Public communications (including any social media posts, reposts, shares and comments) may not disparage the techniques used in or subject matter of any motion picture. Any Academy member, motion picture company or individual directly associated with an eligible motion picture found to be in violation will be subject to penalization.”

The complete list of new rules and regulations is available at oscars.org/rules.

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