Academy changes Oscar shortlist selection process due to pandemic
January 17, 2021 08:52
Due to concerns about their ability to protect the security of the process through which the best international feature Oscar shortlist is determined, given the pandemic forcing deliberations to take place online, the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to change that process for just this year.
In years past, the international feature preliminary committee -- a group of volunteers from across the Academy's branches who screen the films submitted from around the world at the Academy's headquarters in Beverly Hills or its Linwood Dunn Theatre in Hollywood -- pick seven of the 10 films that ultimately appear on the shortlist.
Those selections are then confidentially shared by the accounting firm PwC with the international feature executive committee, which, in turn, adds three other titles to the seven, producing a shortlist of 10.
The public is never told which seven are committee choices and which three are "saves," so as not to influence the subsequent selection of the five nominees and eventual winner.
This year, however, the process will be different. The Academy decided several months ago to invite all of its Academy members -- not just those based in the Los Angeles area near the Academy's screening sites -- to weigh in during the first phase of the selection process if they wish, since the pandemic had forced all screenings to take place via the Academy's online streaming service.
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