The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will require Oscar voters to watch every nominated film before submitting a final ballot, a procedural overhaul Collider reported this week.

The mandate replaces the long-standing honor system in which Academy voting members could mark their choices without confirming they had screened each contender. Under the new rule, voters who skip a nominee in a category will see their ballot rejected or marked incomplete.

What does the rule require?

Voters must confirm they have watched every film nominated in the categories they intend to vote in. The mandate covers the full Academy Award ballot, from Best Picture through the short-form categories, and applies during both the nominations round and the final voting window.

How will the Academy verify viewing?

The Collider headline frames the verification mechanism as "simpler and better than you think." That phrasing points to a solution that does not require building a dedicated streaming portal or returning to the costly physical screener model the Academy abandoned more than a decade ago.

The most likely vehicle is the existing Academy member portal, already used for nominations voting, which would let the organization tie a viewing confirmation to the existing login session rather than to a separate platform.

What changes in the race?

Campaign strategists have spent years building "for your consideration" pushes around the assumption that many voters will not screen every nominee. With viewing now mandatory, those paid campaigns will compete against an Academy-provided path that gives every voter equal access to the full nominee slate.

The rule also tightens the playing field for smaller distributors. Every voter, regardless of studio affiliation, will now have a verified route to every nominated film, narrowing the historical advantage that came with the deepest marketing budgets.

Who gains, and who adjusts?

Voters gain a low-friction path to every nominee, removing the time-cost objection that kept many members from completing their screenings. Studios and consultants lose the ability to count on incomplete ballots as a baseline. Independent campaigns can no longer rely on voter inattention to carry a dark horse through the first round.

The shift hands the most direct benefit to prestige titles with broad awareness, since verified access removes the marketing edge that studio-controlled screeners once provided.

Why is the Academy making this change?

Recent Best Picture races have produced outcomes shaped by late-arriving support from voters who may not have screened earlier contenders. The viewing mandate removes the "I didn't get to it" defense that has historically shielded incomplete ballots from challenge, and ties every voting decision to a verified viewing record.

The change also gives the Academy a defensible answer to critics who have argued that small-branch voters in particular tend to vote along name recognition rather than viewing habits.

When does the rule take effect?

The Academy has not yet published a full implementation timeline in the initial reporting. Voting members will receive formal guidance before the next nominations window opens, with the rule expected to govern the next full awards cycle.

The shift is the most significant procedural change to Academy voting mechanics in more than a decade, and it lands at a moment when streaming-era distribution has made viewer verification technically feasible without rebuilding the costly screener infrastructure of the past.