Oscars 2025: How 97th Academy Award Winners Are Selected; Here's A Look At Voting Process

Photo Credit: The Academy Instagram

The Academy Instagram

As the 97th Academy Awards ceremony draws closer, set to captivate movie enthusiasts on March 2, 2025, the buzz around how the Oscar winners are chosen grows louder. The Academy, boasting over ten thousand members across 19 distinct branches, engages in a comprehensive yet secretive voting procedure. This multi-step process kicks off with nominations five days before the awards, allowing each member a vote in their specific field, besides a collective vote for the Best Picture category. Studios and production companies submit their films for consideration, ensuring they meet the Academy's eligibility criteria, including a necessary theatrical release.

The process of selecting Oscar winners involves an initial nomination phase where Academy members cast their votes, leading to the announcement of nominees based on the highest number of votes. Following this, the final round of voting takes place, determining the winners in all categories. This crucial counting task is entrusted to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), who then deliver the results in sealed envelopes to the awards ceremony, maintaining the suspense until the very moment the winners are revealed on stage. The voting for these prestigious awards is conducted online, preceding the actual event.

The Oscars employ a simple majority vote for most categories, where the nominee with the most votes claims the prize. However, the Best Picture category stands out with its ranked-choice voting system. Here, voters order the nominees by preference. If no film secures over 50% of the first-choice votes initially, the least popular movie is eliminated, and its votes are redistributed to the remaining films. This process continues until a movie emerges with a majority, ensuring a winner is chosen fairly. The Academy describes the voting mechanism on their official site, highlighting the involvement of all eligible members in the Best Picture nominations, while other categories are determined by branch-specific members or those meeting certain criteria. The entire voting process is conducted through a confidential online ballot managed by PwC.

In recent years, the Academy has made significant strides towards diversifying its membership in response to critiques over lack of representation. Each year, new members are inducted to broaden the perspectives influencing Oscar decisions. Notable figures such as Idris Elba, America Ferrera, Ryan Coogler, Lily Gladstone, and Teo Yoo have joined the ranks, contributing to the selection process. This year, the Spanish musical "Emilia Pérez" leads the nomination chart with thirteen nods, closely followed by "The Brutalist" and "Wicked" with ten each, promising a fiercely competitive battle for the Oscars.

The meticulous selection process and the Academy's efforts to include a diverse range of voices in the voting committee underscore the Oscars' commitment to fairness and inclusivity. As the film industry's biggest night approaches, anticipation builds for which movies will take home the coveted awards, marking another chapter in Hollywood's illustrious history.