The Oscars Selection Process. How Does One Win?
4. 1st round voting: Voting for nominations
In late December, the Academy releases the list of eligible candidates in terms of films, actors, directors, etc to the members. The member will vote for ‘nominees’ in their own respective categories. To make it clear, the acting branch will vote for the acting awards, the directing branch will vote for the directing awards and so on, except for some special categories. Are you wondering what happens to categories like ‘Foreign Films’, ‘Documentary’, etc? The nominees for these categories are selected by special ‘screening committees’ which are made up of members from all branches.
5. 2nd round voting: Voting for winners
As exhaustive as it sounds, the members vote for a second time for the winners. Mind you, this is after the nominees are shortlisted – so the members can only vote for the final nominees. Generally, all members are allowed to vote in all the categories in the 2nd round.
6. Counting
Have you heard of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)? Yep, they are one of the largest accounting and auditing firms in the world. PwC has been certifying the voting of the Oscar awards since the last 73 editions. Who ever thought PwC was involved with the Academy awards? Phew!
There you have it, all you need to know about how the Oscar winners are selected. So next time you are watching the Oscars, you should have more insight. And who knows, you might even end up charming colleagues at your office with all this dope on how Oscar winners are selected!
