The Oscars mandate voters watch all nominated movies, set new rules for AI and refugee filmmakers

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is tightening its rules to ensure greater fairness and engagement in the Oscar voting process. Starting with the next awards season, Oscar voters must watch all the nominated films in a given category to be eligible to vote in that category's final round.

Previously, Academy members were only encouraged to view the nominees and were allowed to vote based on the categories they felt most familiar with. However, the new rule aims to address growing concerns that viewing habits heavily influence which films ultimately win—and that some acclaimed works may be overlooked simply because voters didn't watch them.

The move comes in response to years of criticism, especially after the release of anonymous ballots in which some voters admitted to skipping certain films, particularly longer ones or lesser-known entries.

Broader Reforms Address AI, Refugee Filmmakers, and Casting Alongside the viewing requirement, the Academy unveiled several other important rule changes on Monday.

In a notable shift for the Best International Feature Film category, filmmakers with refugee or asylum status will now be allowed to represent a country that isn't their place of birth or citizenship. The new regulation states that a submitting country must confirm that creative control of the film was primarily in the hands of citizens, residents, or individuals with refugee or asylum status in that country.

This change maintains the traditional structure of country-based submissions but offers greater inclusivity for displaced filmmakers working abroad.

The Academy also outlined new regulations related to the growing role of artificial intelligence in filmmaking, as well as guidelines surrounding the newly introduced Best Casting category, further signaling its intention to evolve with the changing industry landscape.

These updates reflect a broader effort by the Academy to maintain credibility, transparency, and inclusiveness in the ever-evolving world of cinema.

Critics have long called for changes to the nominating process for best international film because it leaves the submission process in the hands of governments, not the academy. That's left dissident filmmakers working under authoritarian or undemocratic regimes with limited pathways to reaching the Oscars.

Last year, for instance, the Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof fled Iran before he was to be flogged and imprisoned for eight years in order to release his film "The Seed of the Sacred Fig." Germany, where Rasoulof settled, submitted it for the Oscars and it was nominated. But other filmmakers, including Rasoulof's friend and countryman Jafar Panahi, have released films without a mechanism for submission.

The rule change notably won't alter the Oscar prospects for filmmakers who haven't fled their home countries or change anything for films passed over by their nation's selection committees