The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences clarifies the use of AI in the Oscars

Following the furore ahead of this year's Oscars ceremony that attended the use of AI in The Brutalist, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has detailed what can and can't be done in the future. There's also a surprising new stipulation for the judges and new rules surrounding the crucial craft awards.

We rather unwittingly found ourselves in the middle of an Oscars row earlier this year, when Adrian Pennington's interview with Dávid Jancsó, the editor on The Brutalist, detailed the production's use of AI to clean up some audio and generate some visual content. 

If you missed it, you can read about the fuss it caused here. Suffice to say the Hollywood trades covered it, the mainstream media piled in, and it snowballed to such an extent that The Brutalist director Brady Corbet felt the need to issue a response to Deadline.

Well, he won't need to do that again. New rules from the Academy state that "With regard to Generative Artificial Intelligence and other digital tools used in the making of the film, the tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination. The Academy and each branch will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award.”

So, filmmakers can use them but not rely on them, is our interpretation of that. So maybe there will still be some room for argument after all.

Best cinematography gets shortlist

Also new for 2026, in the Cinematography category there will now be a preliminary round of voting for the award to determine a shortlist of between 10 and 20 films. Voting for this and the other shortlist categories will take place mid-December. That means that the majority of the craft skills categories now go through a shortlist phase, with only production design, costume design, and film editing still being decided via the same nominations route as the overall movies

In theory this is a good thing. As Variety points out, the shortlist will be named by the Cinematographers Branch, which means that we should see a more considered, dare we say, even wider selection perhaps than in previous years.

As for the voting...

Members must now watch the films

Yes, the Academy has gone on the record on this subject. "In a procedural change, Academy members must now watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final round for the Oscar."

What, you say, that wasn't a thing before?

Apparently not. While other major awards such as the Baftas have insisted on members confirming they've watched all the titles in the categories they're voting on, this has never been a stipulation in the Oscars. While you would hope it would never happen, while some members will diligently watch everything before doing something so important as voting, others can theoretically watch nothing and just vote for their mates, or back a title because they got a nice gift through the post.

Details on enforcement are scant at the moment, but presumably the Academy will start to log activity on its dedicated screening platform or ask for members to self-certify where and when they watched a title outside of it. This is already in place for categories such as international feature and short film, so it's beyond time it was rolled out to everything else too.

There's other stuff as well, such as the announcement for a long overdue Achievement in Casting. This will proceed via a shortlist and bake-off system.

All in all, it will be interesting to see what changes, if any, all this will have on next year's ceremony when the 98th Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

tl;dr

• The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has set new guidelines regarding the use of AI in filmmaking, emphasizing that the presence of generative AI tools will neither enhance nor hinder nomination chances, focusing instead on human creative authorship.
• A preliminary voting round will be introduced for the Best Cinematography category to create a shortlist of 10 to 20 films, reflecting a broader selection process compared to previous years.
• Academy members are now required to watch all nominated films in their respective categories before voting in the final round, a change aimed at ensuring informed decision-making and addressing concerns about potential bias.