"So they voted without watching the movies?" — Internet reacts to new rule about Oscar voters having to watch all nominated films

Oscar voters now need to "watch all nominated films in each category to be eligible to vote in the final round for the Oscars." It's part of the newly approved awards rules and campaign regulations by The Academy ahead of the 98th Oscars, which is set for March 15, 2026.

On Monday, April 21, 2025, the Board of Governors for The Academy released a list of newly approved rules, and one of the new procedural demands is that all Oscar voters are required to watch all the nominees in a category before casting their votes. Having the rule laid out like this shocked netizens, opening discussions and speculations about how they were voting blindly all these years.

"Wait, so they voted without watching the movies?," an X user commented.

More netizens took to social media to share how boggled they felt that watching the movies before voting for an Oscar wasn't required before. One commenter called it "crazy," while another one alleged that it was "reckless" for The Academy not to have the rule in the first place.

"So this wasn't a rule during all these years that's literally crazy," a user on X said.

"What the h*ll? They weren't watching the films all these years?????," another user on X commented.

"How reckless that the Academy didn't already require this! Some of the past winners were not deserving & won based on incompetence," an X user added.

Among other commenters is someone saying that "finally," The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made the rule that should have been there in the first place. Meanwhile, another one implied that it's too late since they only made the rule after 97 seasons in 2025.

"Finally, Oscar voters are being forced to do the one thing they should've done all along: watch the d*mn movies," an X user commented.

"Introducing such a basic rule after 97 editions is absolutely crazy work. Wdym people have been basically blindly voting for almost a century," another X user said.

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The Academy will track Oscar voters' viewing via the members-only Academy Screening Room

In line with the new mandate that Oscar voters won't be eligible to cast their votes unless they've watched all nominated films in a category, the Academy shared that they have a way to track a member's viewing. While it wasn't spelled out in the AMPAS release, an Academy representative told Entertainment Weekly on April 21, 2025, how they planned to track whether Oscar voters have watched all films.

There is reportedly a members-only Academy Screening Room, an internal service provided to Oscar voters where they can screen titles. The proof of views is reportedly being tracked using the same streaming app. The Academy representative further said:

"If you haven't viewed a title, it will still appear on your ballot, but it will be greyed out. For specialty categories, we will still require viewing in prelims and noms as usual. For this year, we will now require viewing in finals voting for all categories and all voting members."

The Academy also released key dates for the awards season, with the preliminary voting starting on December 8, 2025, and the announcement of nominees on January 22, 2026.

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The 98th Oscars will be airing live on ABC on March 15, 2026, at 7:00 pm Eastern Standard Time.