The Academy Announces Huge, Long-Awaited Change to Best International Feature Oscar Eligibility
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced major changes to the Best International Feature Film category for the 99th Oscars, allowing non-English language films to qualify via awards at select international film festivals rather than requiring official country submissions. This shift responds to past controversies, including acclaimed films being excluded due to political or bureaucratic barriers in their home countries. The Academy also updated rules around AI, clarifying that only human-performed and human-authored work is eligible for acting and writing awards.
- ▪The Best International Feature Film no longer requires official submission by a country and can now qualify through winning a top prize at an approved international film festival.
- ▪Qualifying festivals include Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Toronto, and Busan, each with a designated award that grants eligibility.
- ▪Films like 'Anatomy of a Fall' and works by Iranian dissident directors were previously excluded due to national submission politics, prompting the rule change.
- ▪The award will be credited to the film and accepted by the director, with the director's name listed on the Oscar plaque alongside the film title.
- ▪The Academy now requires that performances and screenplays be human-created, with rules explicitly barring AI-generated work from eligibility in acting and writing categories.
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On Friday afternoon, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made its annual announcement of new awards rules and campaign promotional regulations for the upcoming 99th Oscars scheduled for Sunday, March 14, 2027. Those changes impact everything from which films are eligible for Best International Feature, to how many performances an actor can be nominated for in one year, and so on. The change to the Best International Feature Film category is the most major, as it no longer requires nominees to be submitted by a country.
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