How Do the Nominees and Winners Become Nominees and Winners?
There are just over 6,000 members of the Academy. There are several branches within, and folks with a certain background can only vote on their area of expertise. For example, directors can only vote on the Best Directing award. Screenwriters only vote on screenwriting awards, etc. EVERY member gets a say on the Best Picture, however.
When it comes to determining the nominees, the Academy uses what is known as the “preferential voting system.” It is a complicated system that requires quite a bit of concentration, and maybe an abacus. It basically involves voters ranking their top 5 choices for nominees. A certain percentage of first-place votes must be given to a person/film for him/it to receive a nomination. It is possible that 2, 3, 4, or all 5 nominees in a given category can be determined solely by first-place votes – meaning that all of the #2 through #5 choices get ignored. For example, when the nominees for 2006’s Best Picture were being tabulated, it is entirely conceivable that enough #1 votes were cast for The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, Babel, Letters From Iwo Jima, and The Queen to determine those the nominees. If all 6000 people picked Dreamgirls as their #2, it doesn’t matter – the slots were filled.
After the nominees are determined, the ballots are re-sent to the Academy members for final voting. Again, members only vote in their own category, with everyone getting a vote for Best Picture. This is a much simpler voting procedure, as a simple “majority rule” wins.
In 2009, tradition reared its ugly head, and the Academy decided to return to having 10 nominees for Best Picture for the first time since 1943. This caused some concern in the vote tabulation, as “majority rule” would mean that 11% of the vote determines the winner. To counter this, the Academy decided to use the “preferential voting system” to determine the outcome of the Best Picture race.
On the final voting ballot, the 10 nominated films are listed. Each voter ranks those 10 films in the order of their preference. The vote counters start by separating the ballots into piles, based on voters’ #1 choice. If any one of the films gets 51% of the vote at this point, it is declared the winner. If a majority is not determined here, the officials pick up the pile that has the least number of ballots in it, and they then redistribute those ballots into the existing piles, based on the #2 choice listed. Again, they look for a 51% majority. If there is still no winner, the pile with the next fewest number of ballots in it is picked up and redistributed based on the #3 choices. This process continues until a 51% majority is reached, and that film is declared the Best Picture of the year.
-Steve
12.6.2010
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