Winning the Oscar for best picture means the film has secured an esteemed place in history.
Aside from the industry influence and cultural impact the film will generate like ripples in a pond of screens, the financial windfall is substantial as box office revenue surges — leading to further profitable opportunities, such as increased salaries for future projects for people involved in the film.
While even a nomination is beneficial, winning best picture is striking gold. With so many benefits attached to the film industry's most coveted prize, how does the voting process work and who exactly gets to vote?
What is the voting process in the Academy?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, simply known as the Academy, hosts the Oscars event, which was established in 1929.
The Academy has more than 10,500 members of the film industry, who are categorized into 18 branches including actors, cinematographers, producers, writers and more. There are currently 24 categories for the Oscars — best picture, best director, best cinematography, etc.
For nominations, each branch of the Academy votes for its corresponding category. Members of the animation branch will nominate a film for best animated short film, as an example.
After nominations are announced, all active members of the Academy can vote online in a simple majority system. That process applies to all categories except best picture.
Best Picture voting: What is preferential balloting?
All Academy members can vote for best picture. All votes are put in a preferential system, which is similar to ranked-choice voting in U.S. elections.
Since 2009, there have been a maximum of 10 best picture nominees each year. When Academy members vote for best picture, they create a list of the 10 films and rank each film from their most favorite at #1 to their least favorite at #10.
Whichever film receives 50% or more of the votes wins. If a movie doesn't receive 50% immediately, the film with the least votes is eliminated. The members who voted for the now-eliminated film as their top choice will have their votes for their second-favorite film redirected to the best picture in a recalculation.
If it's a competitive year, the process will repeat until a film receives 50% or more of votes to win best picture.
How do people become members of the Academy?
For someone to become a member of the Academy, two existing members must sponsor the candidate. The Academy members can only sponsor a candidate for their respective branch — meaning two members of the casting directors branch can't nominate someone for the costume designers branch, for example.
Membership to the Academy is done through sponsorship and is limited to film artists who work in producing films that are theatrically released. The membership review process occurs each spring.
What movies are nominated for Best Picture this year?
The Academy nominated the maximum number of 10 films for its top prize. The 2025 Academy Awards "Best Picture" nominees are:
- A Complete Unknown
- Anora
- A Real Pain
- Conclave
- Dune: Part II
- Emilia Pérez
- I'm Still Here
- Nickel Boys
- The Brutalist
- The Substance
- Wicked
"Emilia Pérez" and its 13 nominations would usually be the clear front-runner but this year there are as many as six films that could win the top prize given the way voting proceeds in the best picture category.
The Bob Dylan biopic "A Complete Unknown" could benefit from the preferential balloting as it is generally billed as a crowd-pleaser with a recognizable star at the center of the story in an Academy Award-nominated performance.
A trio of early Oscar favorites — "Anora," "Conclave" and "The Brutalist" — are also very much in contention. The dark horse that cannot be ruled out, of course, is "Wicked."
Director Jon M. Chu's musical fantasy film has 10 nominations across a diverse group of categories, and is generally thought to be a crowd-pleaser that delivered the goods at the box office during its broad 2024 holiday release.
