New Oscars Rule Lets Actors Compete Twice In One Category
LOS ANGELES, CA -The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has approved a new framework for upcoming editions of the awards ceremony.
The Academy has cleared a substantive slate of new and updated rules for the 99th Oscars, scheduled for 2027, reflecting evolving standards around eligibility, authorship, and global inclusion, according to a report by entertainment publication Variety.
Headlining the updates is a significant change in the acting categories. Performers may now receive multiple nominations in the same category if their performances rank among the top five vote-getters, aligning acting races with the rest of the ballot.
The change is expected to address concerns around “category fraud,” where campaign teams strategically place performances in different categories to avoid vote splits when an actor has multiple roles in contention in the same year.
As per Variety, one of the most notable examples was British actress Kate Winslet’s 2008 awards run, when she campaigned in the lead category for ‘Revolutionary Road’ and in the supporting category for ‘The Reader’, winning Golden Globes for both. By the time Oscar nominations were announced, ‘The Reader’ had been moved to the lead category, while ‘Revolutionary Road’ did not receive a nomination. Winslet ultimately won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Under the previous rules, if a performer secured two top-five placements in the same category, only the higher vote-getting performance would be nominated, while the other would be excluded. It is widely assumed that both of Winslet’s performances ranked among the top five in that year.
The acting nomination mechanism dates back to the early years of the Academy Awards. The last major change to acting rules came at the 17th Academy Awards in 1945, when Irish actor Barry Fitzgerald received nominations in both the lead and supporting actor categories for the same role, Father Fitzgibbon, in ‘Going My Way’. The Academy subsequently revised the rules to limit each performance to a single nomination. (IANS)
