Oscars: Academy announces new rules: preliminary voting for Sound, Song submission limits and more; Original Score content requirement drops

The Academy’s Board of Governors has approved rules and campaign regulations for the 94th Academy Awards.

As previously announced, the eligibility period for Academy Awards consideration will return to the standard December 31 deadline: a feature film must have a qualifying release date between March 1, 2021, and December 31, 2021.  With theatrical exhibition still impacted by the pandemic this year, eligibility requirements for the 94th Academy Awards will be consistent with the addendums made for the 93rd Awards season and can be found here.  For films that open in theaters, the six qualifying U.S. metropolitan areas are Los Angeles County; the City of New York; the Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia, and apply to General Entry categories as well as the Documentary and Short Film categories.  Following this year, the Academy intends to expand the qualifying requirements for the 95th Awards.

Additionally, beginning with the 94th Academy Awards, the Best Picture category will be set at 10 nominees, rather than a fluctuating number of nominations from year to year.  This was previously announced in June 2020.  

In the International Feature Film category, key rule amendments made in the preliminary round of voting for the 93rd Awards and approved in January 2021 remain unchanged.  This includes an expanded shortlist of 15 films and members from all Academy branches being invited to opt in and participate in the preliminary and nominations rounds of voting.  Members must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.

The Board of Governors approved other rules changes for the 94th Awards including:

• In the Sound category, there will now be a preliminary round of voting for the Sound award to determine a shortlist of 10 films.  Prior to nominations voting, Sound Branch members will be invited to a presentation of the shortlisted achievements, similar to the process in the Visual Effects and Makeup & Hairstyling categories.  The entire Sound Branch will vote to select the shortlist as well as nominations.
• In the Music (Original Score) category, for a score to be eligible, it must comprise a minimum of 35% of the total music in the film, lowered from 60%.
• In the Music (Original Song) category, no more than five songs from any one film may be submitted.
• In the Documentary Short Subject, Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film categories, the shortlist will expand from 10 to 15 films.

Submission deadlines are as follows:

Documentary Short Subject – Friday, October 15, 2021
Animated Short Film – Friday, October 15, 2021
Live Action Short Film – Friday, October 15, 2021
Animated Feature Film – Monday, November 1, 2021
Documentary Feature – Monday, November 1, 2021
International Feature Film – Monday, November 1, 2021
Original Score – Monday, November 1, 2021
Original Song – Monday, November 1, 2021
General Entry categories – Monday, November 15, 2021

Campaign regulations, which specify how companies and individuals may market to Academy members any movies and achievements eligible for the 94th Academy Awards, were also updated.  As a reminder, the mailings of DVDs, CDs and physical screenplays are discontinued starting this year.  Access to the Academy Screening Room will continue to be made available for all eligible releases.  Digital links to materials will be permitted.

For the complete 94th Academy Awards rules, visit oscars.org/rules.

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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