The vote is over! Millions of viewers around the world will see the Oscars, the great annual gala of cinema, on Sunday, but most do not know how the winners are chosen.
Answer: Almost 9,500 people in the entertainment industry select the honorees. This year’s number is again a record. But who are they and how did they become voters?
Here’s a glimpse of the complex and sometimes confusing process that leads to the winners of the 23 Academy Awards:
Who votes?
The Los Angeles Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which annually hosts the Oscars, currently has 9,487 voting members.
The membership of the Academy is divided into 17 branches (actors, directors, producers, costume designers, etc.) and those who aspire to integrate it must be in activity or have been "distinguished" in the industry.
Candidates must be sponsored by two members of the Academy who represent their branch. Oscar winners and nominees are automatically considered members and do not need sponsors.
Applications are reviewed once a year by the Academy’s Board of Governors, which has the final say on who becomes part of the group.
Members used to have lifetime voting rights, but since 2016 it has been limited to 10 years and is renewable to avoid having voters who are no longer active in the industry.
The right to vote for life is only obtained after three terms of 10 years. Those who are not active become members "emeritus" they cannot vote.
Who are members of the Academy?
For a long time, the Academy did not reveal its list of voters, although nothing prevents a member from saying that he can vote.
With the claim against "too white oscar" in 2015 and 2016, due to a lack of ethnic diversity among the nominees, the Academy revealed that of its 6,000 members, 93% were white and 76% were male. The average age was 63 years.
The Academy then announced that it would double the number of women and minority members by 2020 to foster a more diverse environment.
Last year, the Academy admitted just 395 new members, after years of rapid expansion to meet those goals. This new contingent is 46% women, 39% represent minority groups, and more than half are not from the United States.
How are the nominees chosen?
Members of each of the 17 branches choose nominees in their area of ​​expertise. Actors, the largest group of voters, submit nominations for acting categories, directors submit nominations for best director, and so on.
Nominations for some awards, such as best international film and best animated film, are chosen by special committees.
All members vote to choose the nominees for best film.
How are the winners chosen?
All voting members also choose the winners.
In 22 of 23 categories, the person with the most votes is the winner.
But when it comes to the coveted best picture award, Oscar voters have used a complicated preferential voting system since 2009 in which they rank movies from most favorite to least favorite.
You can choose between five and ten nominees: this year, eight films are up for grabs.
If a movie gets more than 50% of the votes, it automatically wins.
Otherwise, the count proceeds in rounds: the film that received the fewest number of votes for first place is eliminated and its votes are assigned to the voters’ second choice. The elimination process continues until a film with more than 50% of the votes remains.
"The idea of ​​the preferential ballot is to reflect the wishes of the greatest number of voters"explained Ric Robertson, who was the Academy’s chief operating officer in 2009 when the process changed.
"Otherwise, you could end up with a movie that, say, 25% love and the rest can’t stand."he told the Los Angeles Times."So, hopefully, you have a winner that the majority accepts".
New "fan favorite"
This Sunday a new award will be given to the film most voted by fans, either on Twitter or through a web page, but this recognition is not a formal category.
Viewers could vote up to 20 times per day until March 3. They could also choose which had been the "happiest moment" from your favorite movie.
The Academy hopes that these initiatives will mobilize the audience, which may pay tribute to the blockbuster "Spider-Man: No Way Home".