2024′s Oscar nominees have just been announced, and the team behind Oppenheimer, Killers Of The Flower Moon and Poor Things all have major cause for celebration.
But how are the picks chosen?
Well, you might have heard winners thank the Academy during their speeches. But you might not have known that The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences they’re referring to boasts “nearly 11,000” members who are divided into 17 branches.
First of all, who are The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences?
They’re a massive group of experts who all work in the film industry across various disciplines. But that doesn’t mean they’re all in creative fields, like set design or acting ― some are executives or PR pros.
As president of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Janet Yang said at the start of the 2024 Oscar nominations, people vote in their area of expertise.
“The Oscar nominees in almost every category were voted upon by peers in the branch,” she explained. “Actors vote for actors; film editors vote for film editors; costume designers for costume designers; and so on.”
“Best Picture nominations, however, are determined by all Academy members,” she added.
Once nominees have been decided, all voting members can cast their ballot on who wins.
How do they vote once nominees have been selected?
The vote takes place online. For most categories, Academy members simply pick one favourite ― and the one with the most votes wins.
Again, though, Best Picture is different.
In this case, a system called preferential voting is used, where Academy members rank every movie on the list ― and if one movie gets over 50% first-place votes in the first round, it wins immediately.
If no movie does this, the movie with the least first-place votes is eliminated ― then the remaining movies get bumped up a spot on the ballots. So, a movie that was someone’s second choice gets moved up to their first.
This keeps happening until a winner reaches the 50% mark. Hey, nobody ever said showbiz was easy...