RRR, Chhello Show among Indian films shortlisted at Oscars: Voting and eligibility process for Academy Awards, explained

Chhello Show‘s selection as India’s official submission over the more popular RRR raised a few eyebrows, but it’s worth noting that it’s rare for Indian features to progress to the shortlist stage at all. This is an achievement. The last Indian film to secure a nomination in the category was Lagaan, in 2001. The category was then called Best Foreign Language Film.

A maximum of five films can be nominated in the Best International Feature category, and Chhello Show will have to compete with acclaimed films by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Park Chan-wook, and even Pakistan’s Joyland. Somewhat unusually, Chhello Show didn’t play at the big festivals in the run up to its release, although it was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Here’s a breakdown of how the Academy conducts its voting process, which involves thousands of members and individual branches.

ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible for contention, all films must complete a theatrical qualifying run between January 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022 in designated US territories. This doesn’t include the Best International Feature category.

VOTING

According to the Academy’s official website, “Voting for nominations and awards shall be by secret ballot. Ballots shall be made available by the Academy, and completed ballots shall be received and tabulated by a firm of certified public accountants designated by the Academy President.”

Individual Academy branches will vote to select the nominees in their respective categories. All active and life Academy members will vote to select the winners among the final nominees, provided they’ve watched the films.

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

The Academy website describes an international film ‘as a feature-length motion picture (over 40 minutes) produced outside the United States of America and its territories with a predominantly (more than 50%) non-English dialogue track.’

Only one film is accepted from each country as the official selection.

International Feature Film nominations are determined in two rounds of voting:

A. The International Feature Film Preliminary Committee will view the eligible submissions in the category and vote by secret ballot to produce a shortlist of 15 films. These are the movies that were announced today.

B. The International Feature Film Nominating Committee must view the 15 shortlisted films and vote by secret ballot to determine the category’s 5 nominees.

C. Final voting for the International Feature Film award shall be restricted to active and life Academy members who have viewed all 5 nominated films.

4. The Academy statuette (Oscar) will be awarded to the film and accepted by the director on behalf of the film’s creative talents. For Academy Awards purposes, the country will be credited as the nominee. The director’s name will be listed on the statuette plaque after the country and film title.

MUSIC AND SCORE

According to the Academy, “Films eligible for Original Score and film clips of eligible Original Songs shall be viewed by all members of the Music Branch who will use a preferential voting system to produce a shortlist of 15 titles in each category. Five nominees for Original Song and five nominees for Original Score will then be chosen by a second round of balloting, again using a preferential voting system.”

KEY DATES:

General entry categories submission deadline – Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Governors Awards – Saturday, November 19, 2022
Preliminary voting begins 9 a.m. PT Monday, December 12, 2022
Preliminary voting ends 5 p.m. PT Thursday, December 15, 2022
Oscar Shortlists Announcement Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Eligibility period ends – Saturday, December 31, 2022
Nominations voting begins 9 a.m. PT Thursday, January 12, 2023
Nominations voting ends 5 p.m. PT Tuesday, January 17, 2023
Oscar Nominations Announcement – Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Oscar Nominees Luncheon – Monday, February 13, 2023
Finals voting begins 9 a.m. PT – Thursday, March 2, 2023
Finals voting ends 5 p.m. PT – Tuesday, March 7, 2023
95th Oscars – Sunday, March 12, 2023