A New Requirement for Oscar Voters: They Must Actually Watch the Films

It has not always been necessary to read the book in order to write a book report, as many a devious middle schooler familiar with CliffsNotes or A.I. can attest. And it turns out that Oscar voters have not always had to watch all the films they passed judgment on.

But now the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is trying to change that.

The academy announced a new rule this week that most filmgoers could be forgiven for assuming was already in place: From now on, members of the academy will be required to actually watch all the nominated films in each category they vote in.

Cue the collective side eye.

“Like ‘Casablanca,’ I am shocked, shocked to discover that there are academy members who don’t watch all the movies,” said Bruce Vilanch, a comedian who has written for 25 Oscar shows, who added that the new rule was “kind of hysterical.”

Skyler Higley, a comedy writer who was on Conan O’Brien’s writing team when he hosted the Oscars last month, called the new requirement “un-American.”

“What we do in this country is we sort of vote based on vibes and preferences and biases,” he said. “So to suddenly require that these guys know what they’re talking about when they’re voting, it’s just not what we do in this nation.”

Doug Benson, a stand-up comedian and host of the podcast “Doug Loves Movies,” said the rule was “crazy” because most voters were too busy making movies to watch them. “This sucks for academy members,” he said. “But the upside for moviegoers? Maybe award-bait movies will start clocking in at a more reasonable 88 minutes. If they implemented the rule this year, ‘The Brutalist’ would have won squat.”