The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just made rule and eligibility changes in the Acting and International Film categories at the Oscars, many of which place themselves among the most significant in its almost 100-year history.
From this moment on, in the acting categories, both lead and supporting actors can be nominated for more than one performance in those individual categories if those performances place in the top five votes. In other words, if an actor has two great lead performances in the same year, he can now be nominated for both for Best Actor. The same would apply if he also had multiple supporting performances.
Previously, unlike every other category, if an actor had movies that gained two or even three of the top five votes, only the performance that got the most votes would be eligible. The Academy’s Board of Governors now has rectified that to match the way other categories always have operated. In 2000, for example, Steven Soderbergh was nominated for Best Director for Erin Brockovich and Traffic, winning for the latter. The same thing now can happen in acting categories.
Another long-overdue change is coming to the International Film category (formerly Foreign Language Film), where there now are two ways to submit a movie for consideration. Previously a film had to be the official selection chosen by the country or region, but now a non-English-language film can be submitted if it has won a qualifying award at an international film festival. The festivals and specific awards qualifying this year will be Berlin (Golden Bear), Busan (Best Film Award), Cannes (Palme d’Or), Sundance (World Cinema Grand Jury Prize), Toronto (Platform Award) and Venice (Golden Lion).
Another feature in the International Feature Film category that has been introduced is that a film will be credited as the nominee rather than country or region, as always has been the case. The award will continue to be accepted by the director on behalf of the whole creative team, but the director’s name now will be on the statuette plaque.
AMPAS has also jumped into the AI conversation in an official way, clearly stating that only performances “demonstrably performed by humans” will be eligible in acting categories. The same goes in writing categories, which have been codified to say only human-authored screenplays are eligible.
To sum up, awards rules changes include:
In the acting categories, actors may be nominated for multiple performances in the same category if those performances place in the top five votes, which aligns with achievements in other award categories.
Additionally, in the acting categories, only roles credited in the film’s legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent will be considered eligible.
In the casting category, the number of statuettes awarded will increase from a maximum of two to a maximum of three statuettes.
In the cinematography category, the preliminary voting round will produce a shortlist of 20 films rather than 10-20.
In the International Feature Film category, there are now two ways to submit a film for consideration. In addition to a film being submitted as an official selection by a country or region via the Academy-approved Selection Committees, a non-English language film can now be submitted for consideration by winning a qualifying award at an international film festival as specified in the International Feature Film Award Qualifying Festival List.
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