Academy tightens Oscar rules on AI, human-authored acting and writing

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences used its new Oscar rulebook to draw a sharper line between technology and authorship, saying generative AI and other digital tools “neither help nor harm” nomination chances while the creative core must remain human. For the 99th Academy Awards, set for Sunday, March 14, 2027, the Academy also made writing eligibility explicit: a screenplay must be human-authored and the screenwriting credit must appear in the film’s legal billing.

The move was more than housekeeping. It signaled that Hollywood’s top awards body is trying to preserve creative legitimacy in an era when AI tools are moving deeper into editing, voice work, visual effects and development. If questions arise about AI use, the Academy said it can ask for more information about both the nature of the technology and the degree of human authorship behind it. In practice, that gives the organization a clearer way to police the gray zone where software assists a performance or script but does not fully replace the artist.

The biggest effect may be behavioral. Studios and filmmakers now have an incentive to document how AI was used, or to limit its role entirely, before submitting films for Oscar consideration. The rules do not ban technology; they insist that the Academy and each branch judge whether a human was at the heart of the creative work. That distinction matters for awards strategists, because it turns AI disclosure from a technical footnote into a potential eligibility issue.

The Academy also changed international feature rules in a way that broadens access while still protecting its national-submission system. A non-English-language film can now qualify either through a country or region’s official submission or by winning a qualifying award at certain festivals, including Berlin, Busan, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto and Venice. The category also keeps the refugee and asylum-status language added in the 2025 rule package, a change meant to make the section more inclusive for filmmakers whose work crosses borders or comes from politically fraught national contexts.

Acting rules were tightened in a different way. Performers may now receive multiple nominations in the same acting category if separate performances land in the top five votes, removing an old restriction that often forced the Academy to choose one role over another. With more than 10,500 members and a voting system that already required members to watch all nominated films in a category before voting in the final round, the Academy is using procedure as policy. The message is clear: technology can assist the movies, but the Oscar stage still belongs to human authorship.