Academy plans to add more festivals as a path into the international Oscar race
Academy CEO Bill Kramer said at the Tokyo International Film Festival that the list of festivals whose top prize qualifies a film directly for the international feature Oscar will grow.
Photo: Sarran Hamilton / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
Video: YouTube · Oscars · youtube.com
Starting with the 99th Oscars, non-English-language films can enter the international feature category without their country's selection by winning the top prize at one of six festivals: the Palme d'Or (Cannes), the Golden Lion (Venice), the Golden Bear (Berlin), Busan's best film award, Sundance's World Cinema Grand Jury Prize or Toronto's Platform Award. That list will grow, Academy CEO Bill Kramer said Oct. 28 during a panel at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival. "Our plan is to expand the number of festivals," he told Deadline. He did not say which festivals would be added or when.
Tokyo is not on the list so far, and audience members asked about it twice. "Stay tuned, we're just beginning," Kramer replied, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He said the share of Academy members living outside the U.S. has risen from about 5% a decade ago to 25%. From 2029, YouTube will stream the Oscars free worldwide; Kramer cited a potential audience of 2.5 billion people in more than 30 languages.
Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor told Variety the Oscars will always reward "human excellence" in the age of AI. An executive committee reviews the international feature rules every year, added Meredith Shea, chief membership, impact and industry officer. The 99th Academy Awards will be held March 14, 2027; the most recent international feature winner was "Sentimental Value."