To ensure more fairness in determining the year’s biggest movie award winners, the Oscars are tinkering with their voting rules for the 2025 season. Academy members must now watch all nominated films in a category before they can cast their final ballot, as per new regulations that were released this week. 

Media reports suggest that this procedural change will be enforced by tracking members’ viewing history on the Academy Screening Room, a closed-access app for streaming the nominated films. Members who watch them in a different setting (e.g. at a festival or in a theater) will reportedly need to submit those details through a dedicated form before voting.

It’s a shift from a more lenient system in which watching all of the final contenders in a category was strongly encouraged, but not strictly required for voting. (However, exceptions seem to exist in categories such as those for short films and documentary features—where voters have been required to provide details of how they watched each shortlisted entry.)

This required viewing rule should be a welcome change in the industry, albeit a long overdue one. Some may see this as an antidote to the troubling trend illustrated in the anonymous Oscar ballots that are submitted every year by members who admit to not watching all of the nominees. For instance, in this 2023 ballot published by The Hollywood Reporter, an anonymous voter states that they did not see Marcel the Shell With Shoes On or The Sea Beast before casting their vote for Best Animated Feature.

The 98th edition of the Oscars will air on March 15, 2026 on ABC.

Featured image: Flow, which was this year’s Oscar winner for Best Animated Feature (Courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films)