The street to an Oscar winds by means of an extended awards season, which lastly culminates Sunday on the Academy Awards. We take you thru the method of getting that golden statuette right into a winner’s hand — that is how Oscar voting works:

Who votes on the Oscars?

The Academy of Movement Image Arts and Sciences boasts some 10,000-plus members, divided amongst 17 branches. All academy members need to be concerned within the film enterprise in some capability, however membership isn’t restricted to creatives — there are branches for executives and advertising and marketing and public relations professionals, as properly.

Whereas nominations are principally determined by members of the related department (administrators nominate administrators, as an illustration), all voting members can nominate movies for finest image. As soon as nominees are determined, all voting members are eligible to solid their ballots in any class.

In recent times, the academy has taken steps to diversify its membership, particularly after receiving criticism for a spate of all-white appearing nominees. It provides new members annually.

When does Oscar voting happen?

Voting takes place over a number of days not too lengthy earlier than the ceremony — in 2023, voting opened March 2 and ended March 7, 5 days earlier than the large evening.

How are votes solid?

Whereas the ultimate outcomes can generally be controversial, there’s no threat of hanging chads — voting takes place totally on-line.

Tabulation for many classes is easy — the nominee that will get probably the most votes wins.

Greatest image, alternatively, employs ranked-choice voting (also called preferential voting). Voters order the nominees by choice; if one film comes away with greater than 50% of the first-place votes within the first spherical, that’s the winner. But when no film meets that threshold, then the one with the fewest first-place votes is eradicated — individuals who had ranked that movie first can have their votes transferred to their second decisions. And so forth it goes till some film wins a majority.

It sounds difficult, we all know, however proponents of ranked-choice voting argue that it’s extra consultant, particularly in a big discipline of nominees.

Who is aware of the winners earlier than they’re introduced?

In accordance with the academy web site, simply two PricewaterhouseCoopers companions know the outcomes beforehand. PwC is the accounting agency that tabulates the votes. Every companion is stationed within the Dolby Theatre’s wings throughout the ceremony with a full set of winners’ envelopes. They’re charged with handing the sealed envelope to the winner.

Infamously, in 2017, a PwC accountant handed Warren Beaty and Faye Dunaway the mistaken envelope, ensuing within the “La La Land”/“Moonlight” finest image fiasco.