The 2025 Oscars will include new rules that require judges to watch all official nominees before voting

File this story under the “It didn’t work that way before?” category, as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced new rules for the 2025 Academy Awards season that will require judges to watch all nominees in a given category before making their vote for the winner.

The fact that Academy members haven’t been tasked with watching every officially nominated film in each category has long been a contentious aspect of Oscar judging. In years past, judges could cast a vote for Best Picture, for example, without having actually seen all the films.

In what is sure to be a decision that raises eyebrows, both among those who are for and those who are against the decision, that’s now going to be different – though the Academy’s press release, which outlines the new rule, doesn’t give any indication how a voter might prove that they’ve seen all the films (or whether they’ll even be asked to prove it).

Also of note in the release is a bit about how the Academy will treat films that use generative AI, saying in somewhat oblique terms that using it in the creation of a film will “neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination,” and that “the Academy and each branch will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award.”

These are the biggest changes to the rules for the upcoming ceremony.

The previous Oscars were held on March 2, with dark horse independent film Anora winning five awards including Best Picture and Best Actress for its star Mikey Madison.

The ceremonies for the 2025 Oscar season will take place on March 15, 2026. For more awards fun, check out our guides to the best Oscar-winning movies and the biggest Oscar snubs.

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