The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will require voting members to watch every nominated film in a category before casting their ballot, the organization announced alongside updated rules for AI-assisted productions and refugee filmmakers.

The viewing mandate is the most operationally significant change. The Academy has long encouraged — but never enforced — full viewing of nominees, and awards campaigns have been built around that flexibility. Members will now need to confirm they have screened every contender in a category before submitting final votes.

What does the viewing mandate change?

The rule applies to every voting branch. Under the previous framework, members could vote in categories where they had seen only a portion of the nominees. Studios and "For Your Consideration" strategists routinely exploited that flexibility, since a member's viewing record rarely surfaced before ballots were cast.

The mandate also reshapes campaign spending. Voter-access screenings, hosted events, and platform availability will all factor more heavily, since members can no longer cast informed votes on partial viewing.

How will AI productions be treated?

The Academy has published new standards for films that use generative AI tools. The framework introduces a disclosure requirement and separates AI used as a production tool from AI used as a primary creative element.

That distinction will govern competition in craft categories such as visual effects, cinematography, and screenplay. It will also influence how AI-driven work is credited for nominations in those fields.

The Academy framed the AI rules as part of a broader effort to keep pace with production tools that have rapidly moved into mainstream filmmaking since the previous rule book was finalized.

What changes for refugee filmmakers?

A separate provision adjusts eligibility for filmmakers displaced from their home countries. The rule addresses cases where directors or producers lost residence-based or nationality-based qualification after fleeing conflict or persecution, conditions that previously shut them out of the international feature film race.

The Academy framed the change as a response to cases where displacement severed access to standard national-film-fund certification pathways.

What's still unclear?

The full text of the updated rule book has not been published. Open questions include the enforcement mechanism for the viewing mandate, the appeals process for AI classification disputes, and the documentary standard refugee filmmakers must meet.

The three changes were announced by Academy leadership ahead of the next voting cycle. The Academy has not yet signaled how the new rules will interact with branches that already operate on consensus-driven voting, such as documentary and short film categories, or how the AI disclosure threshold will affect films using multiple generative tools across different production stages.