Academy Members Must Watch All Nominees to Vote at Oscars
The producers of the Oscars have decided that this year's awards season will require its voting members to actually watch all the Oscar contenders. In an email sent to over 10,000 academy members on October 30, the organization laid out what steps they need to take ahead of the final ballot deadline on March 5.
The new policy means that every nominee in each category must be watched by voters in order to be eligible to vote. The Academy Screening Room (ASR), a streaming service run by the academy, will automatically verify films watched through this platform, while members watching nominees elsewhere, such as at film festivals or private events, need to manually log their viewing on the ASR.
While largely praised for its intent, some academy members have expressed concerns about how difficult it will be to enforce. The email sent to voting members does not provide guidance on what exactly constitutes "watching" a movie and some experts fear that this could lead to abuse of the system.
The new rule comes as an evolution in how Oscar voters watch the nominated films, with the academy now having data on who is - or isn't - watching its nominees. The idea behind the policy is to curb cases where voters vote for their favorite film regardless of whether they've seen all the other contenders.
The policy change marks several changes around the Oscars, including a new award for achievement in casting and an award for stunt design that will be introduced next year.
The producers of the Oscars have decided that this year's awards season will require its voting members to actually watch all the Oscar contenders. In an email sent to over 10,000 academy members on October 30, the organization laid out what steps they need to take ahead of the final ballot deadline on March 5.
The new policy means that every nominee in each category must be watched by voters in order to be eligible to vote. The Academy Screening Room (ASR), a streaming service run by the academy, will automatically verify films watched through this platform, while members watching nominees elsewhere, such as at film festivals or private events, need to manually log their viewing on the ASR.
While largely praised for its intent, some academy members have expressed concerns about how difficult it will be to enforce. The email sent to voting members does not provide guidance on what exactly constitutes "watching" a movie and some experts fear that this could lead to abuse of the system.
The new rule comes as an evolution in how Oscar voters watch the nominated films, with the academy now having data on who is - or isn't - watching its nominees. The idea behind the policy is to curb cases where voters vote for their favorite film regardless of whether they've seen all the other contenders.
The policy change marks several changes around the Oscars, including a new award for achievement in casting and an award for stunt design that will be introduced next year.
. I mean, I get why they want to make sure everyone is watching all the nominees, but can't they just trust people to do their job? It's not like we're gonna be watching movies all day and then voting for our favorite (like I would, btw 
). And what even counts as "watching" a movie anymore? Is it if I'm on Twitter watching tweets about the movie? 
. This just feels like another example of the Oscars trying to control everything, you know? Can't they just let us enjoy the movies in peace? 
Still, I think it's better than just winging it and hoping for the best. The idea is to ensure we're voting for films we've actually seen and appreciated, rather than just defaulting to our favorites because they're familiar. Let's hope this policy leads to some interesting discussions and maybe even some Oscar upsets 
!
10k people cant just be expected to watch every single film theyre nominated for and then manually log it on some platform 
. And yeah i get what the academy is trying to do, but theres got to be a better way to make sure everyone watches all the nominees 
. Im not saying its gonna be easy, but id rather have an incentive system in place that encourages people to actually watch the films and then vote based on that 
. The new awards sound cool tho 
. But on the other hand, I can imagine some people watching like 5 movies in one sesh and just checking 'em off their list. I'm all for making sure everyone sees what they're voting for, but do we really need to be babysitting them this much? 
but idk maybe thats just me. i guess its all about bein fair and makin sure ppl actually see what everyone else is seeing, right? 
! Think about it, we're living in a world where we can watch movies on our phones, laptops, or even just scroll through Instagram, but somehow voters used to magically know what all the other nominees were without actually watching them? 
. And good luck with verifying who actually watched what... it's gonna be a real headache 
. The academy is just trying to keep things fair and all that jazz, but honestly, how are they even gonna make this work? 
... this new rule is like, super fair but also kinda stressful lol imagine having to watch all those movies... it's already overwhelming just thinking about it 
... it makes sense that they wouldn't want people voting for their fave without seeing the rest 
... but yeah, there's gotta be a way to enforce this without making ppl feel like they're being monitored or anything 
... fingers crossed the academy figures it out and makes it work 
at least its all about fairness now tho