Who Votes for the Oscar Nominees?
When Oscar winners go up on the stage to accept their awards, they thank a lot of people for helping them make it that far, but it’s neither their families nor their costars nor the little people nor even God who votes for them to win. It’s “the Academy,” as in, “I’d like to thank the Academy” and “the Academy Awards.”
The winners of each Academy Award are decided through a secret ballot voting process. The nearly 6,000 members of AMPAS do the nominating and the voting for the Oscars. In late December each year, members receive a nomination ballot, which they return in January to PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm that counts the votes.
The 15 branches of AMPAS each nominate individuals and ensembles for outstanding achievements in their own field. That is, actors nominate actors, directors nominate directors, makeup artists/hairstylists nominate makeup artists/hairstylists, and so on. All voting Academy members, including members at large, are allowed to nominate films for Best Picture.
The nominees are announced in January, and then voting Academy members are mailed their ballots. All voting members are allowed to vote in all categories, although there are five categories for which voters must attest that they have seen all the nominated films before they can vote. Those categories are:
- Animated Short Film
- Live Action Short Film
- Documentary Feature
- Documentary Short Subject
- Foreign Language Film
All ballots must be returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers by the Tuesday preceding Oscar Sunday if they are to be counted. Once the final tallies have been made, only two people – PricewaterhouseCoopers partners – know the results until the envelopes are opened onstage at the ceremony.
Even though you sort of know who votes for the Oscar nominees, there’s still one secret: Who are the members of the Academy? AMPAS never publishes a complete list of its members, so the general public doesn’t really know. What we do know is that this is an organization that is serious about rewarding quality work in the motion picture industry.
What Is the Academy?
The Academy is the nickname for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The Academy consists of people from all film-making professions. They generally fall under one particular category or branch of the Academy, although those whose work does not fall under one category can be part of the “Members at Large” group. These folks are not represented on the Board of Governors, but otherwise, they have all the same rights and privileges of branch members. The 15 AMPAS branches are:
- Actors
- Art Directors
- Cinematographers
- Directors
- Documentary
- Executives
- Film Editors
- Makeup Artists and Hairstylists
- Music
- Producers
- Public Relations
- Short Films and Feature Animation
- Sound
- Visual Effects
- Writers
Eligibility for membership can be granted in one of two ways. A film professional can either win a competitive Academy Award or be nominated by an existing member based on some significant contribution he/she has made in the arts and sciences of motion pictures. All candidates must be sponsored by at least two Academy members in their particular branch. The board then invites those they choose. Membership is by invitation only, and not all eligible candidates will be invited to become members of the Academy.
When Did the Academy Awards Start?
When AMPAS began in 1927, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was elected as its first president. One of the first things he proposed was a merit award “for distinctive achievement.” In 1929, the Academy hosted its first awards banquet. It took place in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and the guests paid $5 per ticket. From there, the ceremony has grown and changed into the massive television production we watch with bated breath each year as envelopes are opened and voting results are announced with a suspenseful, “And the Oscar goes to...”