How the Best Picture Preferential Ballot Works, and Why It Rewards Admiration
Since the field expanded, the Academy's ranked-choice count has favored the film fewest voters dislike — a different contest from most votes.
Awards
The full awards run: fall festival launches, campaign spending, guild precursors, branch voting rules and the arithmetic of a preferential final ballot.
Producers Guild Awards: Why the Producers Guild Uses Preferential Ballots Too, and What Its Rare Best Picture Tie Means
The PGA votes the way the Academy does, and when its top two finish dead even, the season's Best Picture race is officially a split field.
Major Acting Awards Explained: Who Votes, Who's Eligible and What Each Trophy Means for a Career
The Oscar, the Emmy, the SAG Award and the rest are decided by very different voting bodies, and the differences shape which wins move careers.
Lynette Howell Taylor Academy President: Lynette Howell Taylor Re-Elected Academy President by Board of Governors
The Oscar-nominated producer keeps the top job at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after a vote of the Board of Governors.
How Festival Premieres Launch Awards Campaigns Long Before Oscar Season Starts
How the Academy's Preferential Ballot Actually Picks the Best Picture Winner
A ranked-choice system, not a simple vote count, decides who wins Best Picture -- here is the mechanism the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences actually runs.