We all know how prestigious it is for an actor or director to win an Oscar - even to receive a nomination for the award is a huge honour. But who decides who the winners are?
When an actor gets up on stage blurry-eyed and full of gratitude, one of the 'people' they always thank is 'The Academy'. But who is The Academy? Who is it that decides the fate of the hopefuls? Let's take a look.
Who is 'The Academy'?..
The Academy is made up of what is described as almost 400 of 'global film industry artists and leaders'.
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The people included The Academy are make up of a plethora of different areas in film, from makeup artists to writers to costume designers.
The Academy is a collection of the best of the best in their own field, and is basically a Board of Governors in terms of talent who 'direct The Academy’s strategic vision'.
While controversy often casts a shadow over The Oscars in regard to the race and gender of winners, The Academy are said to be making a conscious effort to 'expand their membership' per their website.
How do you become a member of The Academy?
As it's the best artists in their field, it seems to be pretty difficult to become a member of The Academy, which makes sense.
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To become part of The Academy you can apply, and hope to be accepted as part of the elite group, but often The Academy will send out invitations to people who they believe should be involved. Industry members who have gained high success will usually be offered to join.
In 2022, Taylor Swift and The Weeknd were invited to join The Academy after they both produced songs that year specially for the Oscars, and they were quickly added to its Music Category.
Last year alone, almost 400 people who are currently within the industry were invited to join, including actors such as Selma Blair, Austin Butler, Paul Mescal, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu and Keke Palmer, who will now cast a vote on the awards going forward.
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Industry insiders can also be 'sponsored' to join if another academy member thinks they deserve the privilege of voting.
However, The Board of Governors makes the final decision on whether a sponsor gets an invitation for membership.
How are the Oscar winners decided?
With more than 10,500 industry workers to weigh in, those in the Academy vote in turn for who they think gave the most impressive performance in the relevant category of that year.
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The winners are decided through a series of rounds.
In the first round, all votes are made by 'secret ballot box' which creates a shortlist of 15 nominees, and then the pool will be narrowed down to five nominees. However, one of the requirements for the industry workers who are included in The Academy is that they must have seen each individual film before voting takes place.
Each member is also only able to judge in their own specialist field, for example, designer, writer, etc.
The final winner of each award is the outcome of the percentage of the final voting process, with the winning picture receiving more than 50% of the votes from the academy members.
Topics: Oscars, Academy Awards, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd