Dear Academy member,
Final voting will soon open, and with it comes the annual Oscar rite of passage: Doing your civic duty for cinema, making tough artistic choices and trying desperately to remember who won last year.
Now, the Academy introduced real updates meant to make voting cleaner, fairer and less confusing. The headline change is simple: Members are now formally required to demonstrate they’ve watched a film before voting for it in that category. That’s always been the expectation. What’s new is the technology enforcing it, plus a few ballot tweaks that will change how voting feels in practice.
Only 50 films are recognized across all categories, matching last year and marking the lowest total since 2008. It was a profoundly top-heavy year. Whether that reflects shrinking viewing habits, an oversaturated landscape or simply an unusually dominant crop of contenders remains to be seen. Watching 50 movies is, and should always be, enjoyable, even if you’re not a fan by the end credits.
Below is the plain-English guide to what’s new, what counts, what doesn’t, how best picture works (because it still confuses some of us who are bad at math) and how to be a top-of-your-game voter without turning the living room into a screening committee.
Consider this your cheat sheet, or your Oscar voting “tech support” — with a gentle attempt to ensure you actually contact the official Academy tech support (which, yes, is open seven days a week), because I honestly cannot help you during the week.
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FAQ’s for Final Oscar Voting
Q: Is watching all the movies a brand-new rule?
Not exactly. The Academy has always encouraged and asked members to vote only in categories where they’ve watched the nominees. What’s new for the 98th Oscars is that final voting now requires you to certify through the Academy Screening Room (ASR) that you’ve viewed the nominated films in that category before you’re eligible to vote. Same expectation, new “proof you did the homework” button.
Q: Where do I have to watch them?
Pretty much anywhere you’d normally watch during the season: theatrical releases, festivals, FYC screenings, guild screenings, or on ASR. The Academy isn’t grading your venue. It’s grading whether you marked it.
Q: What do I have to watch to be eligible to vote in a category, and
The simple version: watch all nominated films in that category — typically all five (and all 10 best picture nominees) to vote in those specific categories. But if you don’t watch one of the movies in your category, you can’t vote. So do your homework!
Q: How do I get credit for watching a film?
No ticket stubs required, no receipts needed and you don’t have to be an AMC Stubs member. It’s still the honor system, just with a checkbox and accountability.
Ultimately, there are two ways it records your viewing:
- Automatic: Watch the film in full on ASR and it can record automatically.
- Manual: If you watched it anywhere else, you’ll need to MARK WATCHED on ASR (or the member site or Academy Members app).
Q: OK, but how do I MARK WATCHED? Where is it?
You can MARK WATCHED in three main places:
- On the film’s detail page in ASR, the member site, or the Academy Members app.
- By selecting the Eligibility button inside a category in ASR/member site/app, it shows what you still need and lets you mark films you’ve already seen elsewhere.
- During voting on the voting site: if you’re locked out, select View Eligibility and you’ll be routed to the same Eligibility Notice to fix what’s missing.
Q: I watched it, but the ballot won’t let me vote. Now what?
Stop spiraling, dude! This is usually a logging issue, not a personal assault against you. Try these:
- Click View Eligibility (or the category’s Eligibility button).
- Use the Eligibility Notice to see what the system thinks is missing.
- If you watched it elsewhere, MARK WATCHED.
- Return to the ballot and try again.
Also, reminder emails leading up to voting often include direct links to each category’s Eligibility Notice — the Academy is basically preemptively saying, “You don’t have to call tech support if you just look at your e-mails.”
Q: Do clips, Bake Off videos or craft explainers count as watching?
Nice try, but no. Helpful isn’t the same as watched. Bake-offs and explainer content are there to inform your vote, not replace the actual films. You still need to watch the nominated films in full to be eligible — yes, even for best original song, where the clip is extremely tempting as a shortcut.
Q: So what are the Bake-offs for, then?
Knowledge is power! They’re your cheat codes for context — especially in casting, makeup and hairstyling, sound and visual effects. You can see the in-person presentations that took place in Los Angeles, New York and London. You can watch virtually and find excerpts with interviews with the artists from the shortlisted films. Great for understanding craft. Not a substitute for watching.
Q: What other resources can help me vote smarter?
A few genuinely useful ones:
- “Academy in Brief” explainer videos on voting and final eligibility requirements.
- Scene at the Academy (behind-the-scenes content on contenders)
- Peer-to-peer nominee interviews (notably for Production Design)
- The Academy Reading Room (where all nominated screenplays are available)
Think of these as your study guides for your final exam.
Q: Do AMPAS membership screenings count toward my record?
Not automatically. If you watched outside ASR — including membership screenings — the safest move is still to MARK WATCHED manually. Certain official voting events tied to required processes may be recorded, but if you don’t want surprises on ballot day, treat manual marking like flossing: annoying, but it prevents pain later.
Q: What’s new about the ballot itself?
Two noticeable changes:
- All designated nominees’ names now appear directly on the ballot (craft teams included — as they should).
- Name order follows legal billing/credit submissions, so don’t expect alphabetical order for people. Films, however, are listed alphabetically.
Q: How does best picture voting work?
Well, Variety put together a beautiful explainer video that puts it in the simplest terms we can (watch above). Best picture uses preferential voting (ranked choice):
- Rank the best picture nominees in order.
- If a film gets 50% plus one of first-place votes, it wins.
- If not, the film with the fewest first-place votes is eliminated.
- Those ballots move to the next highest-ranked choice still in contention.
- Repeat until someone crosses the threshold.
Rank all the movies, folks — and definitely more than one or two. Ranking additional titles does not weaken your No. 1. It keeps your ballot active in later rounds if your favorite is eliminated early.
Q: How do the other categories work?
The other 23 categories are plurality: Most votes wins. It’s the Academy’s version of, “Whoever has the biggest pile at the end takes it.”
Q: Who counts the votes?
PricewaterhouseCoopers tabulates the ballots, as it has for decades. The Academy does not count its own votes.
Q: What does all this mean for winners?
If members actually watch broadly, the ballot gets stronger and the outcomes get more informed. If members watch narrowly, the new eligibility rules can reshape who’s even voting in certain categories — which can lead to fewer steamrolls and more chaos.
The best-case scenario: More viewing = better winners.
The most entertaining scenario: The upsets = very fun TV.
The honest answer is that both are possible. The best-case scenario is that more members see more films, strengthening the ballot. The slightly more fun scenario is that it also strengthens the Oscars’ favorite genre: The upset.
Q: When does voting close?
Final voting closes at 5 p.m. PT on March 5. Set a reminder if you must — though the Academy is sending out e-mails and texts every day until you vote.
Q: So how do I stop all the e-mails and texts?
Send in your ballot, silly.
Q: Fine. How can I earn the respect of cinephiles and journalists everywhere?
If you want the simplest route to honor and respect, be an excellent voter. How do you become an excellent voter? Follow these five steps.
- Watch all the movies. It’s the job.
- Don’t skip the shorts. That is where some extraordinary filmmakers are doing extraordinary work.
- Rank best picture like you mean it.
- In everything else, pick your winner. Plurality rules.
- If you haven’t seen the movie, skip it. Leave it to the people who did their homework.
Cinema thanks you. The Academy thanks you. Take it seriously. We’re depending on you. Also, don’t hit “Reply All.”
Sincerely,
Cinephiles.
