The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has reportedly just made some of the most significant rule and eligibility changes to the Oscars in its near century-long history.
One of the biggest is in the acting categories, both lead and supporting. Under the new rules, actors can be nominated for more than one performance in those individual categories if those performances place in the top five votes.
Essentially, that means if an actor delivers two great lead performances in the same year, he can now be nominated for both for Best Actor. Same is true for actresses and for both in supporting categories.
Previously, if an actor had movies that gained two or even three of the top five votes, only the performance that got the most votes would be eligible.
Also impacted is the Best International Film category. Previously, a film could only be nominated if it was the ‘official selection’ chosen by a country or region. Now, non-English-language movies can be nominated by winning a ‘qualifying award’ at an international film festival.
Finally, the Academy has also made it impossible for AI to win any acting or writing awards. Under the new rules, only performances “demonstrably performed by humans” and “human-authored screenplays” are eligible to be nominated.
Source: Deadline
