The second biggest day for Hollywood is almost upon us. The 2015 Oscar nominations will be announced live on Thursday, Jan. 15 at the crack of 5:30 a.m. PST.
Sunday night's Golden Globes ceremony gave us a pretty good idea of who will be nominated. Boyhood and Birdman will probably get some Oscar love, and I expect Julianne Moore, Michael Keaton and Eddie Redmayne will snag some noms for their performances this year as well.
For those of us watching at home, it may seem like the Oscar nominations either just fall out of the sky or some omnipotent, amorphous organization determines them. That latter point is close but not exactly.
The Academy Award nominations are determined by the more than 7,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. To become a member of this prestigious organization, you have to be a film artist "working in the production of theatrically-released motion pictures."
If you fall into one of the 17 branches of the Academy, which include everyone from actors to producers to executives, you're eligible to become a member. But before you start filling out your application, you should know that you have to be sponsored by two Academy members from the branch you want to get into for consideration. There's good news for those that have been nominated for an Academy Award. You're automatically considered for membership. The real honor is just to be nominated though.
Though Academy members don't receive their voting ballots until late December, the nominations process unofficially begins in November, as studios, distributors and publicists try to get their films seen by as many members as possible. It's around this time when you may see those "For your consideration" ads for films in trade publications like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. Voters send their ballots to the international accounting firm PricewaterhousCoopers, you know, those people holding the all-important briefcase filled with the winners during the Oscars telecast? This year, voting actually closed just a week before the nominations announcement is set to take place, on Jan. 8.
Just because you're a member of the Academy doesn't mean you're qualified to judge every component of a film. "Members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees in their respective categories — actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc.," according to the Academy's explanation of its voting process on its website. However, all Academy members do get to vote on the Best Picture winners.
After the nominees are announced, the Academy then gets new ballots in late January and votes for the winners. Their picks are due back to PricewaterhouseCoopers the Tuesday before the Academy Awards ceremony, which takes place on Sunday, Feb. 22 this year.
Of course, you've probably heard a lot of criticism of this voting process over the years, from people thinking the Academy only prizes "safe" movies to rumored endless schmoozing to get votes. Well, the voting process may not be perfect, but the Oscar nominations aren't going to cease to amaze us anytime soon.
