The Oscars have been on a tear rolling out changes. In February 2024, they announced a new category for Best Casting Director, which will go into effect for the 2026 show. Then earlier this month, the Academy revealed another new category, Best Stunt Design, which won’t go live until 2028, the 100th ceremony. Both of those categories have had long, passionate campaigns behind them. I feel like it’s all coming together in such a rush now as Oscar gears up for its centennial festivities. But then this week, the Academy’s Board of Governors passed a set of radical changes to the voting rules that I truly was not expecting. Starting this year, members will actually have to watch the nominated movies, in order to cast their votes. I know, it’s shocking! Guess the august Hollywood club of clubs finally felt embarrassed by anonymous voters annually broadcasting how few movies they’d managed to see that year.

In a significant change to its pre-voting standards, the Academy will now require members to “watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final round for the Oscars,” according to a press release.

Tightening its rules, the Academy previously did not require voters in all branches to have seen all films ahead of voting, though some viewing standards applied to specific categories such as the Documentary and Short brackets.

When reached for comment, an Academy representative tells Entertainment Weekly in a statement that proof of views are currently tracked on Academy Screening Room, an internal service where voting members can screen titles.

“There is also a ‘seen elsewhere’ form that members will need to submit before finals voting,” the statement continues. “If you have not viewed a title, the award category will be inaccessible (greyed). For the specialty categories, we will still require viewing in prelims and noms as usual. For this year, we will now require viewing in finals voting for all categories and all voting members.”

Many Academy members have long been open about not having seen multiple films heading into the final round of voting — including several voters who spoke with EW anonymously ahead of the 2025 ceremony.

“I’m bummed becauseI haven’t seen The Substance or I’m Still Here yet. 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,” one director told us, while a casting director added: “I haven’t seen The Brutalist yet. I’m planning to see it, and from what little I saw [already], it’s similar to The Pianist, and [Adrien Brody] already got his Oscar for that. So, maybe someone else deserves a chance [for Best Actor].”

Other changes to the Academy’s rules and eligibility requirements include category rules for the new Achievement in Casting category.

The new category will proceed with a “preliminary round of voting to determine a shortlist of 10 films, and prior to nominations voting, Casting Directors Branch members will be invited to view a ‘bake-off’ presentation of the shortlisted achievements, including a Q&A with the designated nominees.”

Another notable alteration includes an indication that generative AI used in the making of any film will “neither help nor harm” the chances of achieving a nomination, though “each branch will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award.”

[From Entertainment Weekly]

This seems like a no brainer to me! Especially given that all the viewing and voting is run through a digital system, the Academy Screening Room. I hope there’s also a tracker ensuring that the film is watched all the way through in order to grant access to voting in a category. The nerd in me is excited to see the impact this change will have. If a huge swath of the voting body can’t fulfill the viewing requirement — which I’m sure will happen — then dedicated, underdog voters will get to play a pivotal role. This has the potential to really shake up the awards, and I’m here for the revolution! (Even if I’m completely flummoxed by this “bake-off” oddity for the casting directors; are they baking British confections, getting high, or both? And what does it have to do with the search and selection of actors?!) Overall, though, a much-needed step in the right direction. Next up: figuring out how to make voters realize there are ways to fact check if someone has already won an Oscar or not.

Photos credit: Avalon.red