Rule Five
Balloting and Nominations

1. Voting on all achievements shall be restricted to active and life Academy members.

2. All eligible films will be listed in the Academy’s annual “Reminder List of Eligible Releases.” Before the Academy distributes the Reminder List to voters, releasing companies may be required to check the galleys for their productions as they will appear in the List and assume full responsibility for errors and omissions.

3. Individual reminder lists from which the nominations are voted shall refer only to the motion picture in which the achievement was made, and not to any individual responsible, except in the case of nominations for acting which name both the individual and the one picture wherein the achievement occurred.

4. Voting for nominations and awards shall be by secret ballot. Printed forms and ballots shall be supplied by the Academy and shall be returned unsigned. Ballots shall be opened and counted by a firm of certified public accountants designated by the Academy president.

5. In the nominations voting, the marking and tabulation of all ballots shall be according to the preferential or weighted average system. Votes for achievements in pictures not on the Reminder List will not be counted in the nominations balloting. Tabulation of final ballots shall be according to the plurality system. No “write-in” votes shall be counted on the final ballot.

6. Not more than five nominations shall be made for each award. In all cases nominations shall be announced and placed on the final ballot in alphabetical order.

7. In the event a nominated achievement is declared ineligible by the Academy, it shall not be replaced and the category will remain with one less nomination.

8. In the event that an achievement voted an award was done in collaboration, each of the collaborators shall receive an award trophy (unless the number of awards is specifically limited by a category’s special rules). In the event of a tie for first place in the final balloting, awards shall be given for both achievements.

9. The Board of Governors shall provide for such screenings or special meetings as may be desirable to insure a full and fair consideration of the merits of all eligible achievements.

10. Each branch or other designated committee shall be permitted to formulate its own special rules, provided the final ballot presents not more than five achievements and that nominations and final voting in each category are restricted to active and life Academy members. All rules shall be presented to the Board of Governors for approval before implementation.

11. Exceptions to the above listing in the Reminder List and nominations voting system appear in the Special Rules for the Animated Feature Film Award (see Rule Seven), the Documentary Awards (see Rule Twelve), the Foreign Language Film Award (see Rule Fourteen), and the Short Films Awards (see Rule Nineteen).