The Academy Awards 2021 will take place on April 26 this month at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California. Every year, concerns are raised on Oscar selections, with problems like lack of diversity while choosing for important categories, less women director nominees and choice of nominations made on other-language films. 

Time and again, the Academy Awards organisation has tried to improve and expand its selection panel to address issues related to such concerns. But, maximum people don’t know who chooses the Oscars Award winners and what is the procedure behind handing out the most prestigious award in the world of entertainment. 

Here’s the process behind how Oscar nomination voting works:

According to reports, Oscar voters increased to a new high last year, consisting of 9,427 eligible voters, compared to 2015 when it was just 6,261 voters who chose the Oscar winners. All the voters belong to a particular branch. In all there are 17 branches and all those branches select the nominees for its own category only. 

For example, a director nominates director, likewise, editors nominate editors and actors nominate for the four acting categories. Only for best picture, all the Oscar voters can nominate. For the final voting, all Oscar voters cast their vote for all the awards. 

One can be a member of the Oscar voting committee if they have feature film credits, all you have to do is apply and the executive of that particular branch in which you are eligible will approve and you can become an Oscar voter too.