Oscar Voters Must Now Watch the Films: Why the New Rule Matters

For decades, the Academy Awards operated under a rule so absurd that most filmgoers assumed it couldn’t possibly be true: Oscar voters weren’t actually required to watch the nominated films. You could vote for Best Picture without seeing every nominee. You could vote for Best Actor without watching every performance.

And many did exactly that. A 2015 study showed that about 6% of Academy voters openly admitted they hadn’t viewed all the Best Picture contenders – a number that should have triggered a crisis of credibility, but instead was quietly ignored. I raised this issue in my article Unpopular Opinion: Why the Oscars Don’t Matter, published in October 2024.

Now, decades later, the Academy is finally doing the bare minimum: requiring voters to actually watch the films before casting a ballot.

The Academy’s New Rule: No Movie, No Vote

Well, it looks like the Academy is finally fixing that. From now on, it will monitor which films members watch through its private streaming platform, the Academy Screening Room. If someone watches a movie elsewhere – like at a festival or a private event – they’ll have to submit a simple form saying when and where they saw it. This verification process, which was already used in a few categories like international films and short films, will now apply to all categories.

In short: no movie, no vote.

It’s a small change, but it could make the Oscars a little more credible, or at least a little less random.

But let’s be real: this rule should have been in place decades ago. The idea that someone could vote for Best Picture without actually seeing all the nominees always felt like a bad joke — and not the funny kind.

Imagine awarding Olympic gold to the athlete with the flashiest uniform, or the most famous name, without even running the race. That’s what the Oscars have been doing for years – mistaking visibility for excellence, and familiarity for merit.

Will this new rule magically fix everything? Probably not. Biases, personal tastes and politics aren’t going anywhere, but at least now, voters will have to put in the bare minimum effort: watching the films they’re judging. And honestly, that’s a step toward making the awards mean something again — even if just a little.

No movie, no vote: why it actually matters

On the surface, it might seem like a small fix, the kind of bureaucratic housekeeping that doesn’t get much attention. But for many, the Oscars have started to feel increasingly disconnected – a celebration that rewards familiarity more than discovery, visibility more than merit. Watching the ceremonies over the past few years, it’s hard to shake the sense that the industry has been congratulating itself without fully engaging with the art it claims to honour. It has become more of a fashion show than a celebration of game-changing films and the people who make them. With Oscar ratings hitting record lows, and repeated controversies like #OscarsSoWhite, the gap between Hollywood and its audience has only grown.

A step forward – even if it took too long

The Academy’s new rule isn’t revolutionary. It’s not going to fix every problem the Oscars have after years of “blind voting,” industry politics and misplaced priorities. But it does something important: it acknowledges that the bare minimum matters. That watching the films before judging them shouldn’t be a radical idea – it should be the foundation.

Maybe it’s too late to fully rebuild the Oscars’ cultural power. Maybe the world has moved on, and award shows will never mean what they once did. But if there’s going to be a future where the Oscars still matter — even just a little — it has to start here: with respect for the work itself.

Finally, after decades of spectacle over substance, someone decided that watching the movies might actually be the point.