How Academy Awards Are Determined

On February 25^th the most important awards in motion pictures are presented amid a flood of paparazzi, canned jokes and bleached smiles. While this is the moment all Tinseltown has been waiting for, the actual work to decide who gets the coveted awards has been going on quietly behind the scenes since December when the nomination ballots were sent to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The ballots have already been returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the nominees have already been picked. While all the focus is on the awards ceremony, the real story lies behind the scenes. The process of choosing the Academy Awards® is steeped in tradition and determines who walks up on stage, and who just walks.

Members Only...

Voting for Academy Award® winners is reserved exclusively for members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Members are drawn from film industry veterans who must be nominated for inclusion into the Academy. Directors, editors, screenwriters, film composers, producers and other film professionals comprise the Academy's approximately 6,000 members. The active members alone determine which films and individuals receive Oscars.

Each member votes for awards in their occupational category only with the exception of Best Picture. So the Best Actor award is determined by actors; Best Screenplay by screenwriters and so forth.

Pardon Me, Your Chad is Dangling...

Academy members are given ballots numbered one through five. Members may then rank their choices from one to five, so that if his or her first choice is eliminated, the vote moves to the second choice and on down the line. Nominees are determined by proportional voting. If a candidate for nomination receives 20% of the vote, the candidate becomes one of the five nominees, although in reality this percentage is a bit smaller due to how the Academy calculates the lowest number of votes needed to get nominated. This system is used so that Academy members won't feel their vote will be wasted by voting on dark horse candidates.