A week ago, the Academy installed a newly enforced policy: members are now obligated to watch every nominated film in a given category before casting their votes — and must submit online documentation indicating when and where they viewed each title.
A Variety report tackles the new Academy rule, and how it is very easy for a voter to “game the system” by pretending to have watched all 10 best picture nominees. Voters are literally gloating about how they do not need to watch the nominees and still end up voting. It’s laughable.
Unofficially dubbed “the ‘Brutalist’ Rule,” the directive seems directly inspired by Brady Corbet’s sprawling 215-minute drama. The A24 production racked up 10 nominations and took home three awards last season, despite reports that some voters either never actually watched it, only partially viewed it, or let it play passively in the background while attending to other tasks like emails or phone calls.
The shift to the Academy’s digital platform began in 2020 with the launch of the “Screening Room,” a secure online platform protected by two-factor authentication, marking the end of the DVD screener era. While the move tightened security and eliminated some long-standing workarounds like sharing login credentials, a few vulnerabilities still remain.
Certain members have now made it clear to Variety that they will just hit play on the Academy’s viewing app to meet the official requirement, even if they mute the sound or navigate to another window. “As long as the app registers that it played, that’s all that matters,” one voter admits. “It has no idea whether you’re actually watching.”
One member confessed to starting the film before heading out for work, letting it run while they were away. Another confessed that he hadn’t even heard about half of this year’s nominees.
My takeaway is quite simple: if you are that adamant at avoiding movie watching then why are you even a voter? The Academy installed the rule more as an honor system, and I commend them for that, but it’s going to be nearly impossible to track down the culprits.
One Executive Branch member offered a more blunt take: “The whole system’s based on trust. And trust in Hollywood? Bullshit.”