The Oscars' Big New Rule Change Is Great News For Movies (Even If It's Bad For Netflix)
A new rule for the upcoming 2025 Oscars adds a positive spin on Academy Awards nominations. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has organized the Academy Awards since it was formed in 1926, has implemented several minor rules changes for the 97th Oscars, which are set to take place in early March 2025. While the 2024 Oscars occurred only months ago, a new slate of Oscar contenders has already started to make itself known as the summer 2024 theatrical season edges closer. Some of the most highly anticipated movies of 2024, such as Challengers and Dune: Part Two, have already sparked early Oscar buzz.
The biggest takeaway from the new Oscars rules is that The Academy is making more of a direct effort to drive audiences to see the best films of the year in theaters rather than waiting for their streaming and digital releases. Drive-in movie theaters no longer count towards Oscar eligibility. Feature films can only qualify for Oscar consideration if they have screened for seven consecutive days in one of these six major metropolitan areas: Los Angeles County, New York City, the Bay Area (California), Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas, which replaces Miami. These new terms will be put into effect at the 2025 Academy Awards.
The new Oscars rules that will affect the Best Picture nominations at the 2025 Academy Awards are as follows:
For any feature film to qualify for Best Picture and other awards at the 2025 Oscars, it must have a theoretical run of at least seven consecutive days, even if it is meant to be an original film on a streaming platform. This means, for example, films such as Netflix’s upcoming movie Unfrosted will not qualify for Best Picture consideration. This is a major move for the Academy in order to not only encourage but demand that all movies nominated for Best Picture will be screened in theaters for the bare minimum of one week straight.
The new Oscar rule sets a great precedent for the continued partnership of major movie theater chains such as AMC and Showcase and Hollywood at large. Despite the transition to streaming service domination that has greatly disrupted the entertainment industry over the past decade, the Academy is using its power to leverage more theatrical screen time for the year’s best movies. It essentially means that a lot more movies will be getting more time in theaters and the chance for audiences to see them on the big screen will be moderately increased, which so many excellent Oscar-contending films deserve.
All of the 2024 Best Picture nominations would have qualified under these new rules anyway, but the Academy is setting an important precedent for direct-to-streaming films. The pandemic almost caused the end of the traditional movie theater experience, but the massive 2023 box office was a phenomenal sign that the drive for audiences to fill seats in movie theaters has not gone away whatsoever. Much of Hollywood’s efforts have been to thwart the rapid technological advancements made by streaming services and artificial intelligence by firmly maintaining the theatrical experience as an integral part of the modern film industry.
Last year’s Netflix original films that were Oscar contenders were Maestro and May December, which had very limited theatrical runs before their wide releases exclusively on Netflix. Interestingly, both May December and Maestro ended up with 0 wins at the 2024 Academy Awards. Netflix previously only had very short windows to meet the eligibility criteria for the Oscars and seemed reluctant to do anymore. With this new rule, the Academy will be forcing Netflix and other streaming platforms to play ball with the studios, or else their movies won’t be nominated. It seems unlikely that this new rule will not stop Netflix and others from making original Oscar-contending movies but their hand will certainly be forced when it comes to meeting the new screening requirements.
