The people behind the Oscars: what is the Academy?

Board members can serve up to two three-year terms. Following at least a two-year hiatus, they can then serve two further three-year terms.

The most recent additions to the board include producers Donna Gigliotti, who won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love; David Linde, who got an Oscar nomination for Arrival; and DeVon Franklin and Jennifer Todd.

Members of the actors branch of the governors includes Laura Dern, Whoopi Goldberg and Rita Wilson. 

In addition to the board of governors and thousands of members, more than 400 members of staff conduct the Academy’s day-to-day business, overseen by CEO Dawn Hudson.

Where is Oscars HQ?

The Academy is headquartered at 8949 Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills in California. The Oscars HQ is also home to the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre, a 1,000-seat cinema where blockbuster films including Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Moulin Rouge! and 127 Hours have premiered. 

For the last two decades, the Oscars ceremony has usually been held at the 3,300-seat Dolby Theatre, located in an enormous shopping and entertainment complex in central Hollywood.

How does the voting process work?

Each member only votes on their branch’s categories at the nomination stage  – so for example, “editors nominate editors, actors nominate for the four acting categories”, explained Variety’s awards editor Tim Gray. But “everyone gets to nominate Best Picture” and “for the final voting of the winner, all branches vote for everything”.

For the highly coveted Best Picture prize, the Academy uses a “preferential voting” system, where voters put their choices in order of preference, rather than just selecting their favourite. Some critics have slated this system, on the basis that a film could end up winning because it is overwhelmingly popular as a second, rather than first, choice. 

A few weeks after the nominations are announced, all members can cast votes in any category, although they’re discouraged from voting in categories about which they have little knowledge. Again, the preferential voting system is used. 

The winners are kept secret right up until their names are read out by the ceremony presenters on the big night. And only two people know who all the gongs are going to in advance.

Two accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers are tasked each year with tallying up all the votes. But the system can go wrong.

In 2017, then Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs vowed never to work with that year’s accounting duo again, after a mix-up led to La La Land incorrectly being named as the Best Picture winner rather than the real victor, Moonlight. 

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/arts-life/culture/film/956248/what-is-the-academy-people-oscars