How many votes does a movie need to get a Best Picture Oscar nomination?

For most of its existence, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has maintained a illustrious aura surrounding its highest award, Oscar for best film. There have certainly been glaring missteps in the category (like How Green Was My Valley vs. Citizen Kane in 1941, Driving Miss Daisy vs. the not-even-nominated Do the Right Thing in 1989, and “Green book” is the most to hit the screen in theaters in 2018), but for the most part, Academy voters end up zeroing in on a worthy winner; this movie may not be your favorite of the year, but you can at least live it up with the top prize.

One of the reasons the Best Picture Oscar is so coveted is that all AMPAS members, from actors to publicists, are involved in the nomination process. While nominees in other categories tend to be decided by members of each industry, Best Picture is a free-for-all, making it the most accurate reflection of how the industry feels about the state of motion pictures (and, to some extent, society ) this year. Sometimes a film hits hard in the moment (“The Best Years of Our Lives” may be the best example of this), while other times a film clearly becomes a timeless classic upon release (as “Silence of the Lambs”).

So how does a film beat the vast majority of its competition to become a Best Picture nominee? There is an actual number of votes that will allow a film to pass the threshold, and it varies from year to year.

For most of the Academy Awards’ existence (ie, from 1944 to 2008), the Best Picture category has dwindled to five nominees each year. That changed in 2009 when AMPAS widened the field, responding to criticism that popular blockbusters such as The Dark Knight were not included in the final five. Initially, the size of this expansion will be determined each year based on the total number of votes; the field could be as large as 10 or as small as five. The Academy has finally moved to a fixed field of 10 nominees, which is probably good news for the box office smash like “Wicked” and it is possible Gladiator II (if only because last year’s Best Director winner Christopher Nolan doesn’t feel sorry for him).

AMPAS has added 108 members over the past year, bringing the total number of voting members to 9,905 (in case you’re wondering, the acting branch is still the largest with 1,258 members, but the directing branch, which now has 758 members, is growing every year – what is there no an excellent commentary on the artistic values ​​of AMPAS). That means the magic number needed to lock in a Best Picture nomination in 2024 is 901 first-place votes. This total is calculated by a ranked vote, in which each participant submits a list of their best films of the year between five and 10.

When these votes are counted, the first place election is determined first. The lowest-rated films are then eliminated, after which the second-place votes are tallied, and so on. And so the Academy will arrive at its final 10 Best Picture nominees, to be announced on January 17, 2025. I was told that Madame Web has already been shut down.