How do they decide what/who gets nominated at the Oscars?

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I watched Zero Dark Thirty last night and I have to say, I didn't expect the movie to be nominated as one of best pictures of 2012. Some of the flicks I was expecting were,

  • The Hobbit
  • Django Unchained (nominated)
  • Cloud Atlas (I'm quite disappointed it's not nominated)
  • Hunger Games

So, how do they decide who gets nominated or not? Because, I can't seem to understand some of the choices since there were better movies available for the choice.



Best Answer

From the official website:

Nomination ballots are mailed to the Academy’s active members in late December and are due back to PricewaterhouseCoopers, an international accounting firm, in January.

Regular awards are presented for outstanding individual or collective film achievements in up to 25 categories.

Members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees in their respective categories – actors nominate actors, film editors nominated film editors, etc.

However within the Animated Feature Film and Foreign Language Film categories, nominations are selected by vote of multi-branch screening committees.

All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees.


Who are the members?

They are the more than 6,000 artists and professionals who bring the magic of the movies to life.

Here is a short list of individuals from each branch.


Becoming a member

  • You must be a film artist or craftsperson working in one or more of the art form’s key creative areas. And your work must represent an unusually high level of quality and distinction.

  • If you are a writer, producer, or director, you should have at least two screen credits on films that reflect the Academy’s highest standards.

    If you are an actor, you should have performed scripted roles in at least three such films.

  • Some branches (including Art Directors, Executives, Public Relations, Visual Effects and others) also expect new members to have worked in their fields for a certain number of years.

Most candidates begin their journey to membership by finding current members to sponsor them.

If you win the support of two or more sponsors in your (prospective) branch, your proposal will be taken up by the appropriate committees. If approved, it would then be given a final evaluation by the Board of Governors.

Also, you will automatically be considered for membership if you were nominated for an Academy Award for the previous year. (Or even better, if you won one.)


Here is a list of the 176 people that got invited to be a member this year (2012).

  • Category 'Actors':

    Actors




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How does something get nominated for an Oscar?

Most categories are nominated by the members of the corresponding branch\u2013actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc. However, certain categories such as International Feature Film and Animated Feature Film have special voting rules which can be viewed at our Rules & Eligibility page.

Who decides who gets invited to the Oscars?

It's a question asked often: just who gets to determine the winners of the Academy Awards? They are members of the Motion Picture Academy, invited to join by their peers and there are fewer than 10,000 Oscar voters.

How does the academy decide who wins an Oscar?

Also called instant-runoff voting and ranked-choice voting, the preferential ballot is an electoral system used in places around the world \u2014 including in New York City \u2014 for elections with more than two candidates. Each voter ranks his or her choices, rather than choosing only one to be the winner.

How are actors nominated for Oscars?

Currently, nominees are determined by single transferable vote within the actors branch of AMPAS; winners are selected by a plurality vote from the entire eligible voting members of the Academy. In the first three years of the awards, actors were nominated as the best in their categories.



How Do Oscar Nominations Work? - Collider Crash Course




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