The Academy Awards have had a major change introduced that will change the way voters participate in the iconic Oscars ceremony. The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences officially announced that voters are now mandated to watch all of the nominated movies for the Oscars as part of a new rule.
This news of this new rule for the Oscars was announced by the Academy, and shared via APNews, in which they noted “that members will from now on be required to watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final round of Oscar voting.” Interestingly, this wasn’t already a rule.
In fact, the outlet notes that, “up until now, Oscar voters had only been encouraged to watch the nominees, and vote in categories they felt qualified in.” Apparently voters have occasionally confessed on their ballots that they either didn’t manage to watch some notable films or they simply didn’t want to watch any movies they deemed too long.
The new mandate is only one of several changes made by the Academy. They also made regulations regarding the use of AI as well as new stances for refugee filmmakers and a new casting category. As far as regulations for refugee filmmakers go, the following was shared by the Academy:
“The submitting country must confirm that creative control of the film was largely in the hands of citizens, residents, or individuals with refugee or asylum status in the submitting country.”
With the state of film always evolving, these changes certainly make sense, and it’ll be interesting to see how mandating voters to watch all of the movies nominated will impact future ceremonies.
Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional updates regarding the Oscars as we have them in addition to any other Hollywood news updates. In the meantime, fans will have to wait until March 15, 2026 for the next Academy Awards ceremony when the 98th Academy Awards will be held. The event will be hosted by Conan O’Brien.