How does a film or performance get nominated for an Academy Award?
A. Awards are presented for outstanding individual or collective efforts of the year in up to 24 categories. Up to five nominations are made in most categories, with balloting for these nominations restricted to members of the Academy branch concerned. Directors, for instance, are the only nominators for Achievement in Directing. Nominations for awards in the Foreign Language, Short Film and Short Documentary categories are made by large committees of members drawn from all branches. Feature documentaries are selected in a first round of voting by a committee of Academy-member documentarians and a second round where all members of the Academy in New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are invited to see the films and participate in the final determination of the nominees. Best Picture nominations and final winners in most categories are determined by vote of the entire voting membership of approximately 5,700 individual filmmakers.
