The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has changed its rules for the 2027 Oscars: countries may now submit more than one film for the International Feature Film category, ending the long-standing one-entry-per-country limit that has defined the race for decades.

The announcement lands as one of the most consequential structural revisions to the category in recent memory. Since the competitive category's modern framework took hold, each country's submitting body — typically a national film commission or industry panel — has been forced to pick a single title. That single choice routinely became the story of the season, with high-profile snubs and controversial selection processes overshadowing the films themselves.

What does the new rule actually change?

Under the previous system, the one-film cap put enormous weight on each national selection committee. A country with two or three strong contenders in a given year had to choose, and the losing films were shut out of the category entirely regardless of their quality, festival reception, or awards momentum.

The 2027 rule change removes that bottleneck. Multiple entries per country will now be possible, which reshapes both the submission calculus and the overall field:

• National selection bodies no longer face a winner-takes-all decision among their own titles.
• The overall pool of eligible submissions can grow, potentially increasing the number of films the Academy's screening committees must evaluate.
• Films from countries with deep production output — India, France, Spain, Japan, and South Korea among them — gain a materially better shot at representation, since a single contested national choice no longer eliminates a second worthy candidate.
• Campaign dynamics shift: distributors backing a title that would previously have lost a national bake-off can now carry it into the race anyway.

For countries that historically produce far more than one awards-caliber film per year, the change is arguably the most significant. India's selection process alone has generated recurring controversy precisely because the committee could forward only one film, leaving commercially and critically successful titles on the sidelines. Similar debates have played out in France, where the CNC-chaired committee's single pick is scrutinized annually, and in Spain and Italy, where contested shortlists regularly fuel press coverage ahead of the submission deadline.

Why does the one-film limit matter historically?

The single-entry structure has shaped the category since its earliest days, when it operated as an honorary award before becoming a competitive one in 1957. The cap meant the category's composition each year reflected not just which films existed, but which films national committees chose — a political and industrial decision as much as an artistic one.

That filter produced recurring flashpoints: celebrated directors left out because a committee preferred another film, years in which a country's strongest title never reached Academy voters at all, and campaigns that began not in Los Angeles but in national capitals, lobbying selection committees months before Oscar season proper. By allowing multiple entries, the Academy effectively reduces the power of that national gatekeeping step and widens the aperture into the category itself.

How does this affect the 2027 race?

The immediate practical effect is arithmetic. More eligible submissions mean a larger field from which the Academy shortlist and the final five nominees are drawn. That raises the ceiling for countries with multiple strong titles and changes how international distributors plan their fall campaigns — a film no longer needs to win its own country's internal contest to stay alive.

The change also alters the strategic picture for streamers and specialty labels. Under the one-film rule, a distributor's awards hopes in this category could die with a single national committee vote in September. With multiple entries permitted, those same companies can push several international titles simultaneously, spreading campaign resources across a broader slate.

There are open questions the Academy's rules will need to clarify as the cycle proceeds: whether national committees retain discretion over how many films they submit, whether any cap exists at all under the new language, and how the shortlisting process absorbs a potentially larger pool. Those mechanics will determine whether the change produces a modest expansion or a genuinely transformed category.

What is already clear is the direction. The Academy has spent recent years widening access across its categories, and the International Feature race — long constrained by a structural bottleneck outside the Academy's own control — now follows that pattern. For national cinemas that produce more awards-worthy work than one slot could ever hold, the 2027 Oscars will offer something the category has rarely provided: a second chance.