How the Oscars Work

As we are nearing the end of awards season with the Oscar’s approaching I am still seeing just so much wrong information being given out and I hate it. So I am going to clarify a few things here. It seems the general public has 0 idea how film eligibility for awards works (which would be harmless and fine if everyone didn’t act like they knew everything). This information that I am about to distill comes directly from the very free and accessible academy rules available on their website, so there should be no debate or question.

Let’s start with why awards are important; I understand that it is very easy to dismiss awards as privileged and unimportant. It can seem like they have no bearing on your life…this thought process is wrong. Awards, especially big ones like the Oscars are a direct dictation of the movies and media we the public get to see. Investors, and other people with power in the industry look at a filmmaker's track record in order to determine whose stories they are going to fund. Look at A24, before the Everything Everywhere All At Once sweep last year the company was considered smaller and they focused their energy on 5-10 movies a year. After their wins last year they produced 18 that were released in 2023 and another 3 releasing early this year. Awards are where money comes from and it absolutely matters who wins them.

Okay let's talk eligibility. It's really simple but some people seem confused so here we go. In order for a feature film to be eligible for Oscar nominations it really only needs 3 things; 1) it has to run for a week for the public in a major market (LA, NYC, Chicago, the bay area, Atlanta). 2) It must premiere in the year it's nominated for from January 1 to Dec. 31. 3) It must be submitted to the academy before the deadline which this year was on November 15th. Read that list again, and then again slower this time. That means that EVERY MOVIE RELEASED IN THE YEAR OF 2023 was eligible for a nomination. I’ve seen people say Iron Claw, Songbirds and Snakes and Origin weren’t eligible but this is factually untrue. Now I beg you to do some general research before speaking like you are an expert of any kind.

Last but not least, who votes? There are around 10,000 academy members. It is very important to me that you understand that not all academy members vote on every category. They literally are not allowed to. The academy is made up of writers, actors, directors, musicians, and producers. They only vote in their qualified category. Taylor Swift is not voting on best actor. Keke Palmer is not voting on best director. You are only allowed to vote for the role you were invited for. Everyone stays in their separate branch. That said, of those 10,000 people only 33% are women and only 19% are people of color. So the people voting on who made good movies are still overwhelmingly white men. Which would explain this year's nominations.

Outrage about this year's Oscar nominations is completely justified but as we complain and try to change things I would really love it if those complaints were educated and people would stop talking out of their asses. It's pretty easy to understand but people really are TikTok experts and they are taking all the dumb people down with them. All of this information is easily verifiable on the Academy website, google is free and takes 30 seconds. Read before you speak.