Every year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces new rules for the upcoming Oscar season. Sometimes they’re minor, sometimes they’re major. This year, the Academy announced two new rules that were not only unexpected but could affect major categories for years to come.
The change that will get the most attention affects the acting categories. For the first time, actors can now be nominated for multiple performances in one category. For example, if this rule were in effect in 2009, Kate Winslet could have been nominated for Best Actress for both “The Reader” and “Revolutionary Road.” Instead, she found herself attempting to “category fraud” one of the roles and only getting one nomination. That was partially because, before this change, actors could only be nominated for the one role in each category that received the most votes. The other performance would be discarded.
This hasn’t been an issue in other branches, however. For example, in 2001, Stephen Soderbergh was nominated for both “Erin Brockovich” and “Traffic” in the Best Director category. To be fair, talent rarely campaigns for two projects in the same year in the same category. Whether it actually affects any upcoming races remains to be seen. It’s a massive gamble unless the field is relatively weak in a given year.
Additionally, the Academy threw down the gauntlet on any potential future A.I. controversy by recognizing that only performances “demonstrably performed by humans with their consent will be considered eligible.” A role also must be credited in the film’s legal billing, so a surprise cameo is essentially ineligible (although we can’t remember any such role even getting minor awards season traction).
Most substantial, and perhaps a rule that could have affected Oscar winners over the past two decades, is the change in the International Film category. Previously, a film could only be considered if it was submitted by a specific country. Over the past few years, films such as “It Was Just An Accident,” an Iranian-French co-production, but essentially an “Iranian” film by all accounts, were submitted as France’s submission. One reason wasn’t just because it qualified as a French submission, but because it won the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or. Another Cannes contender, “Nouvelle Vague,” with a completely French cast and French producers (and, yes, an American director) was passed over. Not being selected as France’s entry essentially scuttled U.S. distributor Netflix’s plans to campaign it across the board. For the 2025 Oscars, Germany submitted another Iranian co-production, Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which is also essentially an Iranian-set film.
Two years ago, Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” was also passed over by France in favor of a more traditional French film, the period drama “The Taste of Things.” That backfired on France as “Anatomy” earned five nominations, including Best Picture, saw Justin Triet and Arthur Harari win Original Screenplay, all while “Taste” got snubbed. That sort of outcome is rare and far between for non-English language films fighting for recognition during awards season.
There has been significant talk of creating “wildcard” entries to be chosen by the International Film committee or a separate select committee, but few veterans on the committee for this category thought that would end well. Instead, and quite smartly, the Academy is going to allow the winners of six film festivals’ international or top prize to automatically qualify to submit. Those festivals are: Berlin International Film Festival (Golden Bear for Best Film), Busan International Film Festival (Busan Award – Best Film Award), Cannes Film Festival (Palme d’Or), Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Grand Jury Prize), Toronto International Film Festival (Platform Award), and Venice International Film Festival (Golden Lion).
The Berlin Film Festival has already awarded the 2026 Golden Bear to İlker Çatak’s “Yellow Letters.” It’s unclear if this politically themed film would have been submitted by Turkey’s committee. The Sundance Film Festival’s 2026 World Cinema Grand Jury Prize went to Visar Morina’s “Shame and Money.” It is also unclear if Kosovo would submit it. To be clear, however, winning these awards does not mean host nations will not select these films as their submission. It is a good safety valve to make sure more top-tier international films make the cut or aren’t submitted by territories that only financed the work. In theory, at least.
Also, in a much-needed modification, the winner will be officially credited as the nominee rather than the country or region (a technicality, as the media, public and members of the Academy rarely mentioned the nation first), and the award will be accepted by the director on behalf of the film’s creative team. The director’s name will be listed on the statuette plaque after the film title and, if applicable, the country or region. That’s good news. The question now is, will the Academy let all the directors of the previous winners note it as their Oscar win and/or let them receive a statue? Probably not, but maybe someone will put up a stink (Pedro Almodovar, this is your moment).
The other interesting changes were somewhat comical, to say the least. The Makeup and Hairstyling branch wants to make sure its members show up to at least two meetings before voting (read into that what you will). The Visual Effects branch wants to make sure that all members watched before and after videos in the bake-off (shortlisted films) before geting a final vote (makes you wonder if some of the board members of that branch were frustrated by last year’s nominees), and last but not least, the music branch has clarified that an original song can qualify if it’s an end credits title song only if it’s over at least 15 seconds of the end of the movie before the credits begin to roll. Again, somewhat hilarious considering that the music branch has ignored tons of great “end credit” songs over the past decade or so.
Additionally, the Governors’ Awards have their own rule change. All three of the honorary Oscar recipients must reflect multiple disciplines, meaning you cannot have three actors, or two directors, et cetera. A smart move also sounds as though members were not in love with some of the recent selections.
The Academy’s breakdown of the awards rules changes is as follows:
- In the Acting category, 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 category, 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. Qualifying festivals for the 99th Oscars® are the Berlin International Film Festival (Golden Bear for Best Film), Busan International Film Festival (Busan Award – Best Film Award), Cannes Film Festival (Palme d’Or), Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Grand Jury Prize), Toronto International Film Festival (Platform Award) and Venice International Film Festival (Golden Lion).
- Additionally, in the International Feature Film category, the film will be credited as the nominee rather than the country or region, and the award will be accepted by the director on behalf of the film’s creative team. The director’s name will be listed on the statuette plaque after the film title and, if applicable, the country or region.
- In the Makeup and Hairstyling category, Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch members must attend at least one of the two final branch meetings (roundtables) to be eligible to vote in the preliminary round.
- In the Original Song category, the rules clarify a song’s eligibility when based on its placement in the end credits. For songs submitted as the first new music cue once the end credits begin, the video clip must include the last 15 seconds of the film before the credits begin.
- In the Visual Effects category, all Academy members must view the three-minute Before and After reels from the Visual Effects Bake-Off to be eligible to vote in the final round.
- In the Writing categories, the rules codify that screenplays must be human-authored to be eligible.
- For Governors Awards recipients, a minimum of three disciplines must be represented in a given Awards year.
- Under Eligibility (Rule Two) regarding Generative Artificial Intelligence, the Academy reserves the right to request more information about the nature of the use and human authorship.
The complete document of rules for the 99th Academy Awards is available here.
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