The internet has been baffled by the addition of a new rule to the Oscars voting process — one that viewers had assumed was already a requirement.
In a Monday press release, the Oscars’ governing body announced “Academy members must now watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final round for the Oscars.”
The major change was among a handful of new rules and regulations approved by the Academy’s Board of Governors.
Other substantive awards rule changes include an indication that generative artificial intelligence used in the making of a project will “neither help nor harm” a submission, as well as an update in the language used in the International Feature Film category to now include “filmmakers with refugee or asylum status.”
Yet, it was the update on voting eligibility that sparked an outcry on social media, with several X users wondering how Oscars voters hadn’t already been required to watch all of the nominated movies.
“The fact that this isn’t already the standard is INSANE,” one person wrote, with a second laughing: “No way this wasn’t already a rule before.”
A third argued that while the change is “great,” it’s long overdue. “About damn time,” a fourth agreed.
“You’re telling me all this time people could just watch one movie and be like ‘yeah that should win all the awards,’” another added in disbelief.
Others went as far as to call for a revote for previous Oscar winners under the new rule, with some declaring that past Best Picture winners would not have triumphed if the rule had existed beforehand.
“The Wild Robot deserves justice,” one said of last year’s animated feature nominee that went on to lose the category to the Latvian indie film, Flow.
In previous years, anonymous Oscars voters have admitted to not having watched all of the Best Picture contenders before the final round of voting.
“I’m bummed because I haven’t seen The Substance or I’m Still Here yet,” one told Entertainment Weekly ahead of the most recent ceremony. “The first Dune, I couldn’t get through; I’m not rushing for another three hours of Dune. There’s still time to re-evaluate, but I really struggled.”
The Academy’s voting body is made up of fewer than 10,000 industry professionals who are a part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Preliminary voting for the 2026 Oscars will take place this December from the 8th to the 11th, followed by nominations voting from January 12th-16th, 2026.
Then, nominations will be announced shortly thereafter on January 22, before the final voting period opens on February 26 and closes on March 5.
The 2026 ceremony, which will welcome back former late-night host and comedian Conan O’Brien as the emcee, will take place on March 15.
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