How Does Oscars Voting Work? This Is How Winners Are Decided

Voting takes place over just a few days not too lengthy earlier than the ceremony — in 2023, voting opened March 2 and ended March 7, 5 days earlier than the large evening.

How Does Oscars Voting Work? This Is How Winners Are Decided

Los Angeles: The highway to an Oscar winds via an extended awards season, which lastly culminates Sunday on the Academy Awards. We take you thru the method of getting that golden statuette right into a winner’s hand — that is how Oscar voting works:

WHO VOTES ON THE OSCARS?

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences boasts some 10,000-plus members, divided amongst 17 branches. All academy members should be concerned within the film enterprise in some capability, however membership isn’t restricted to creatives — there are branches for executives and advertising and public relations professionals, as properly.

While nominations are principally determined by members of the related department (administrators nominate administrators, as an illustration), all voting members can nominate movies for finest image. Once nominees are determined, all voting members are eligible to solid their ballots in any class.

In current years, the academy has taken steps to diversify its membership, particularly after receiving criticism for a spate of all-white performing nominees.. It provides new members yearly.

WHEN DOES OSCAR VOTING TAKE PLACE?

Voting takes place over just a few days not too lengthy earlier than the ceremony — in 2023, voting opened March 2 and ended March 7, 5 days earlier than the large evening.

HOW ARE VOTES CAST?

While the ultimate outcomes can generally be controversial, there’s no danger of hanging chads — voting takes place fully on-line.

Tabulation for many classes is straightforward — the nominee that will get essentially the most votes wins.

Best image, then again, employs ranked-choice voting (often known as preferential voting). Voters order the nominees by choice; if one film comes away with greater than 50% of the first-place votes within the first spherical, that’s the winner. But if no film meets that threshold, then the one with the fewest first-place votes is eradicated — individuals who had ranked that movie first may have their votes transferred to their second decisions. And so on it goes till some film wins a majority.

It sounds difficult, we all know, however proponents of ranked-choice voting argue that it’s extra consultant, particularly in a big subject of nominees.

WHO KNOWS THE WINNERS BEFORE THEY’RE ANNOUNCED?

According to the academy web site, simply two PricewaterhouseCoopers companions know the outcomes beforehand. PwC is the accounting agency that tabulates the votes. Each associate is stationed within the Dolby Theatre’s wings in the course of the ceremony with a full set of winners’ envelopes. They’re charged with handing the sealed envelope to the winner.

Infamously, in 2017, a PwC accountant handed Warren Beaty and Faye Dunaway the improper envelope, ensuing within the “La La Land”/“Moonlight” finest image fiasco.

Published Date: March 13, 2023 1:31 AM IST