How are winners of the Oscars chosen?

Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) decides who performed best in the past years' film production. To win an Oscar it's not enough for a movie to be beautiful, for an interpretation to be masterful, or for the photography to leave you breathless: there are many factors at play... and many rules! Find out what they are.

The Academy is an organization whose voting members are divided into categories corresponding to the distinct branches of the film industry. Among the largest groups of members are actors. They make up more than 20% of the Academy.

The 'Board of Governors', i.e. the Academy's Board of Directors, is the body responsible for choosing its members. There are two ways to enter: either by having won an Oscar in the previous year or with the endorsement of two members of a particular branch who support a candidate in joining that group.

In 2023, the members of the Academy are 9,921, divided over 17 branches. Each member can only belong to one of these sections.

In recent years there has been criticism of the fact that 90% of the Academy's members were Caucasian (white), 80% were men and 60% were over the age of 60 years. In 2016 and 2020, 819 new members were invited to join the Academy, precisely to try to diversify the Academy.

For the 2022 edition of the Oscars, further rules were introduced to ensure greater inclusiveness of the titles taken into consideration for the 'best film' category. In fact, in order to be considered for the award, a movie must include women, people of different ethnicities, and people of different sexual orientations.

Aside from those new rules, in order to receive the nomination for 'best picture,' a US title must have been released during the previous calendar year (i.e. from midnight January 1st to midnight December 31st) and it must have been screened in theaters for at least seven consecutive days. A curious fact is that the film's permanence in theaters is only needed in the county of Los Angeles.

For the category 'best film not in the English language,' the same rules do not apply. Each country will be able to present its candidacy for one of its films, with the only condition that it is subtitled in English. Interested producers fill out an online form on Official Screen Credits, which, if considered valid, becomes part of the 'Reminder List of Eligible Releases,' i.e. a list of films eligible for the Oscars.

First, the nominations of each country are analyzed. Then, a shortlist of 15 films is generated. Once these 15 films have been viewed, 5 are chosen to receive the Oscar nomination.

To be eligible for a nomination, a film must be over 40 minutes long, filmed on 35 or 70 millimeters, and at 24 or 48 frames per second. Exceptions, of course, are candidates in the category 'short films.'

Voting works like this: At the end of December, every member of the Academy (active and eligible to vote) receives a ballot and a copy of the 'Reminder List of Eligible Releases.'

Initially, each branch votes for its own category of competence and belonging, i.e. the actors vote for the actors, the directors for the directors, and so on. They will mark a maximum of 5 preferences.

For the main categories, the voting system is proportional: nominations are chosen based on the highest number of votes obtained in a single transferable vote (STV) system. Each voter can assign more than one preference, up to a maximum of 5 for most categories, and they can do so in order of their preference.

Of the 5 preferences expressed in order of approval, only the first is taken into consideration. However, if that title (or actor, director, etc.) has already been nominated, then we proceed with the second, and so on, until we determine the five that make up the nominations for each category.

In order to be nominated for an Oscar, an actor, film, director, etc. must have reached the 'magic number:': this is a threshold based on the number of potential voters in that branch of the Academy.

The 'magic number' is calculated as follows: the number of voters in that category is divided by the number of candidates, plus one (in almost all cases, 5 + 1 = 6). The result is then rounded up. If the block of voting actors is formed, for example, by 1200 people, the 'magic number' an actor needs to get a nomination will be 200 (1200/6).

For 'minor' categories, such as 'Best animated film,' there is a different procedure, A special committee, made up of a group of members who come from all branches of the Academy, will be in charge of the selection of those nominations.

From the votes of the first phase, the nominations are born. They are usually announced in January. In the second phase, that of choosing the winners, the restrictions of the first phase are lifted and all members have the opportunity to vote for most categories, including Best Film. Whoever gets the most votes in this round, wins the Oscar.

For the final vote, which will lead to the winners of the Oscars, all voting members receive a form in which they can express only one preference for each category. It must be completed by the Tuesday preceding the Oscar awards ceremony.

The sealed envelopes with the winners' names are prepared by a company outside the Academy. It takes care of the various counts in order to make them objective and reliable.

There is one Oscar rule that is a bit peculiar and it concerns the nominations of the 'Best Song' category: every song nominated in this category must be presented with a performance at the Oscar gala. If the songwriter or singer cannot or will not come to the gala, someone else will perform the song there.