Oscars tighten voting rules for 2026 Academy Awards: Watch all mominees or lose the vote

Oscar statuettes
| Photo Credit: AP

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled new rules for the 98th Academy Awards, including a major shift in voting procedures: members must now watch all nominated films in a category to vote for its winner. The change is aimed at reducing uninformed or “coattail” voting and ensuring more thoughtful choices from Academy members.

Voting will now be restricted through the Academy Screening Room, the organisation’s official platform. Members will only access ballots for categories where they’ve verified they’ve seen every nominee. For viewings outside the platform — such as at festivals or private screenings — members must submit a form documenting when and where the film was watched. This policy, previously limited to categories like international feature and short films, now applies across the board.

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Another landmark update is the addition of a new competitive category: Achievement in Casting. For the first time, casting directors will be officially recognised for their work assembling a film’s ensemble. The Casting Directors Branch will shortlist up to ten films, which will then go through a “Bake-Off” screening and Q&A process. Five nominees will be selected, and the entire Academy will vote on the winner.

Additional rules announced include earlier submission deadlines for original song and score categories, broader eligibility for international films from directors with refugee or asylum status, and formal guidelines for the use of generative AI in filmmaking. The Academy emphasized that AI tools will “neither help nor harm” a film’s chances, with the focus remaining on human creative authorship.

The Best Cinematography category will now also include a shortlist phase, joining a dozen artisan categories already using this format.

The Oscars are scheduled for March 15, 2026, with nominations voting beginning January 12. Final ballots will close March 5.