How nominations work
This is my first year as an Academy member, and my first year voting for awards. As a member of the Writers branch, I’ll be casting ballots for Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.
Since it’s all new to me, I thought I’d walk readers through the process.
A few weeks ago, I got a printed Reminder List — a catalog listing all the films eligible for Best Picture. It’s from this list that I have to pick and rank my top ten films. I’ll hand-write the titles on a form that goes in a green envelope, which must be received by the accounting firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP by 5 p.m. January 23, 2010.
Nominating ten films for Best Picture is a change from previous years, in which there were only five nominations.1 But the system of ranking your choices dates back to 1936. It’s a form of preferential voting designed to more accurately reflect the will of voters.
But man, it’s complicated. It’s easier to explain what it’s not.
It’s not a weighted ballot. You might think that your top pick gets 10 points, while your second pick gets nine points, etc. It’s not that. In fact…
You’re really only voting for one title. Your ballot will only be counted towards one film. That film will be the one you ranked first, unless your number one pick has the smallest number of votes and is thus out of the running. In that case, they count your second pick. If needed, they’ll continue on to your third, fourth or later picks until your ballot is cast for exactly one picture.2
It’s not “wasting your vote” to rank your number-one pick first. You might think your favorite movie is a longshot for a nomination, but that film could get enough second- or third-place votes to put it in the top 10. And if it doesn’t, your vote will go to your next-highest choice. But the rules state that a picture can’t be nominated without at least one number-one vote.
A full ballot doesn’t hurt your top picks. In WGA board elections, I’m always mindful that casting a vote for a candidate I half-heartedly support might knock out the candidates I truly want. So I’ll often cast a short ballot with just my top choices. For Academy Award nominations, that’s not a factor. While it’s unlikely that my tenth-ranked choice would benefit from my vote, it doesn’t hurt to include it.
This year, in a change from previous years, the final voting for Best Picture will also use preferential voting. Instead of picking one film, voters will rank the ten nominees in order.
At the new members reception, Academy leaders stressed the importance of seeing all ten nominees. I’m mostly caught up, but I’ll be sure to watch any ones I’ve missed before final voting.
Nominations for the two writing categories work basically the same as Best Picture. We’re given a list of eligible screenplays, and a form upon which to rank our choices in each category. Only screenwriters vote for the writing awards.
- But there’s certainly historical precedent: in 1934, there were 12 nominees. Widening the field has been controversial, but I’m inclined to wait and see how it turns out. ↩
- You could presumably pick ten movies that no one else does. That’s one challenge of such a wide-open field of choices. ↩
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January 4th, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Interesting. Do you just watch the eligible films you like, or do you read the screenplay as well? Or both.
January 4th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
John,
Thank you for posting this. I was recently talking with someone about this and specifically the benefits of preferential voting, also called Instant Run Off Voting.
The mathematics of voting is much more complex than it may seem and in fact there is no voting system that satisfies the most commonly held criteria of importance (see Arrow’s Paradox ). This was proved by Kenneth Arrow, winner of 1972 Nobel Prize in Economics.
Ben
January 4th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
I’ve often heard that very few people actually read the screenplays when they vote for the best screenplay awards. How much can you really glean from a movie to inform yourself of the screenplay’s quality?
January 4th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
@wcdixon and @Jeremy:
I plan to read all of the scripts nominated. Some are sent by the studio, and most of them are now available on .pdf online.
January 4th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
John, I’m wondering if you think this is actually a good system or not. Wouldn’t a weighted ballot of the kind you describe (10 points for your #1, etc.) be fairer, in that in would insure that every vote for every movie counted while still favoring movies that people were passionate enough to place high up on the ballot?
January 4th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
@Rob:
I don’t know if it’s the best system. In its defense, I’ll say that it seems weighted towards selecting movies that voters truly feel are Best rather than Pretty Good.
On other sites, I’ve seen math showing pros and cons of weighted systems. If you follow Ben’s links, you’ll see why there is genuinely no best way to do it, only a range of options with different goals and outcomes.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:06 pm
John, thanks for posting this. Great!
January 4th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Nice post.
I like the idea – I believe they do this with documentary noms – of requiring voters to have seen every film nominated in a category. Could they do this with all categories, or is this unfeasible?
January 4th, 2010 at 8:05 pm
Were you encouraged to read the scripts as well?
January 4th, 2010 at 8:08 pm
John,
Will you be judging ‘Adapted Screenplay’ purely on its merits as a screenplay or will its having carried over well the essence of the work being adapted also play a role?
January 4th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
As someone who’s actually pretty good at math, the Academy’s methods are notoriously complicated to figure out. But John hit it on the head when he said “it seems weighted towards selecting movies that voters truly feel are Best rather than Pretty Good.”
That’s the goal, anyway. The thing about voting theory is that there’s no “right” way to do it.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
@Blitzen:
At the reception, they didn’t specifically say to read the screenplays. But nor did they tell sound editors they had to see nominees in THX theaters.
@JM:
I’m basing my vote on which screenplays are best. If a lot of what makes a certain adapted screenplay great is the source material, I’m not going to hold that against it.
January 4th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Arrow’s Paradox begs the question: “who votes on what is ‘fair’?”
January 4th, 2010 at 10:43 pm
John,
You commented above: “I plan to read all of the scripts nominated. Some are sent by the studio, and most of them are now available on .pdf online.”
In light of the recent Scriptshadow debate, I’m wondering where online will you get the nominated scripts? Is there a special download site just for Academy members? Or is there an official site that the public can access? Also, when you read the scripts, will you be reading the final shooting draft or another draft?
January 4th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
Hi John,
Out of curiousity – do you know how films get on the short list in the first place?
What’s the process to make the list?
Cheers, Jo
January 5th, 2010 at 1:28 am
Do you have any opinion on which version of the screenplay the studio sends to voters? Most of them seem to send a pretty accurate transcription of what ended up on screen. Do you feel like you should/want to look at a writer’s or production draft?
I guess I’m asking if you’re looking at the work the writer did, the story and words that ended up on the screen, or some combo of the two.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:52 am
This is somewhat similar to the Australian Preferential Voting system we have for picking politicians, although we end up with just the one in the end (first to an overall majority, I believe). Not a perfect system, but so far we’ve avoided any issues with hanging chads.
January 5th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Here’s the list to eligible films of 2009
http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/rules/reminderlist2009.pdf
January 5th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Hey John!
I am from Chile and many times I spend some minutes or hours searching your website. It is my first post.
The system looks pretty much fare but, at least from my point of view, experience show us how much importance has the money earned for a certain film.
Ten years ago was Titanic and now it is Avatar, bad storie, worse told and terrible acted but yet an economical succes which guaranties awards despite the fare rules of the Academy.
I didnt mean to be rude is just that I saw Avatar and it was like been watching Dance with Wolves but a lot worse.
Best regards.
January 5th, 2010 at 10:22 am
@januaryfire:
As you’ll recall, I’m 100% in favor of reading and reviewing screenplays for released films. My concern continues to be when unproduced screenplays are publicly reviewed.
The studios send out many screenplays, either printed or (in WB’s case) on a flash drive. But they also put them up on their awards sites for anyone to read. For example, here’s the site for Warner Bros:
http://warnerbros2009.warnerbros.com/
It’s reasonable to assume that whichever draft is provided is more-or-less the shooting script, and the one the writer wishes to be read.
@Jo:
There’s no “short list,” really: more than 200 films are eligible. Every film that meets the requirements (running time, theatrical release window, etc) is a possible Best Picture. Jeh at #18 has a link.
January 5th, 2010 at 10:42 am
Just to clarify for others: As you note John each branch votes for their own specialty for nominees. Sound and visual effects people have groups that initially weed the list down and then a portion of these is projected at a special Academy screening event. (usually 7 films, 15 minutes limit of edited footage). Members of those specific branches then vote at the end using the standard Academy voting method. So the list of nominations for categories is based on voting by related branch members. Best picture nominees are created by votes from all Academy members. All Academy members then vote on selecting the best from the nominees. That means actors, producers, etc will be selecting the winner of best Sound Editing, Costume Design, etc.
January 5th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Are you allowed to say who you’re voting for? Or encourage/advise other members?
January 5th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Tough one. I remember reading screenplays AFTER watching the film which I think influenced my opinion of the script. Sometimes better, but most of the time worse. It became hard to form an opinion of just the script and what was on the page compared to what was the final version of the film.
January 5th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
hey I want to say congrats here too. john is gonna do an awesome job.
January 5th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Taking all of this into account I would not vote the same after learning of the process. Not that it really matters considering I don’t have a vote, but…
Had you seen any of the films prior to reading the script? Did this give any unfair advantage to a certain script?
January 5th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
John -
Thanks for this. Interesting stuff.
And thanks for the link to the WB site… Have other studios set up similar sites, and if so, could you link them as well? For example, I’d love to get a peek at the “District 9″ script from Sony.
Cheers.
January 5th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Once the nominations are announced, what next? Is it true that you’ll get to vote on the entire ballot – for sound effects editing, costumes and other categories not in your field of expertise? I always have this horrible vision of a producer trying to pick the Best Original Score…
January 5th, 2010 at 6:32 pm
Most of the scripts for the movie being pushed for the Oscars can be found here: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/new-oscar-scripts-basterds-nine-the-road-and-a-single-man
January 6th, 2010 at 12:21 am
I believe that as well as special theatre showings, DVD screeners are sent to Academy members. Have you been flooded with these through the post?
January 6th, 2010 at 1:38 am
Hey John. It’s been awhile since I read one of your posts, and was quite intrigued by this one. This whole process has always kind of baffled me, but I recall hearing about the process before the 10-film Best Picture field. I believe it was at the actual Oscar nom ceremony in the wee hours of the morning and one of the analysts was talking about the process and why a film that was thought to be a Best Picture contender (Dreamgirls, I believe it was) wasn’t nominated for Best Picture.
You said before that in years past, voters would pick one film, essentially, for Best Picture and the analyst basically explained that Dreamgirls’ exclusion was likely because not enough people had ranked it their top pick and it likely had a lot of #2 votes and so on, but not enough #1 votes to qualify for the Best Pic. On this new system, you said that a film with enough second or third place votes could squeak into the top 10 and that it only needed one first place vote to be eligible.
Is it just me, or does that not seem too weighted between what voters, “truly feel are Best rather than Pretty Good”? It seems that second and third place votes didn’t really come into factor too much on the old system, and they do here. Or, am I looking too much into this…
Regardless, keep up the great work and happy voting.
January 6th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Have to put my 2 cents worth in. The voting procedure seems way too complicated and makes me wonder why the rules are the way they are. In any case returning to the pre 1944 practice of 10 Nominees for best picture is a cynical and purely monetary move, having very little to do with quality films. If someone is seriously going to vote for adapted screenplay shouldn’t one read the source material as well as the screenplay?
January 6th, 2010 at 5:51 pm
@John A:
For this past year, that would mean reading three books (one short, granted):
Q&A (Slumdog Millionaire) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Reader
Along with two plays, both of which were adapted by their writers:
Doubt Frost/Nixon
How can you compare the work involved? “Well, the playwright did a great job omitting this scene that wouldn’t have really worked for the movie.”
The still-difficult but fair comparison is the final product: which screenplay is best?
January 7th, 2010 at 2:39 pm
With 250 or so films to choose from I presume none of the voters are going to be able to watch all the films, infact i’d be impressed if anyone could watch a quarter of these films. Surely with this in mind the ‘best picture’ award is not actually the film that is the best but the film that is most popular through distribution and advertisement?
Obviously you pick your ‘best’ from the ones you see but there seems an unfair advantage to the films that have the money to force there film upon you. Do you feel it is a false claim to call a film ‘best’ when all films havn’t been given equal opportunity to be assessed?
Unless a voter has seen all the films eligable then it is impossible to pick your ‘best’ film, you will simply only be able to pick the best film from the ones you have seen which is not a fair assessment.
Do you have any thoughts on this?
January 9th, 2010 at 5:34 am
John, If there is no actual script for Borat, do you have any idea what the Academy members might have looked at when they nominated it for Best Adapted Screenplay?
January 9th, 2010 at 10:54 am
30+ Downloadable (is that a word?) Oscar Scripts here:
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/oscar-scripts-were-up-to-30-with-hurt-locker-crazy-heart-fantastic-fox-and-more
February 2nd, 2010 at 11:30 am
Close, but no cigar, John. The topic is How Nominations Work, but you’ve answered how the VOTING works. What I’m interested in is how a film gets on the coveted Reminder List in the first place? For example – who submits a film to be considered; the studio, the producer, the director? And on a related note – how does a screenplay get on it’s Reminder List?
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:27 pm
@Dave Rawlings:
See #20. Answered in detail.