The Academy Announces Huge, Long-Awaited Change to Best International Feature Oscar Eligibility

The Academy has made several big rule changes, ranging from no longer requiring a Best International Feature contender to be submitted by a country, to safeguarding the Acting and Writing categories from AI usage, and more.

On Friday afternoon, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences made its annual announcement of new awards rules and campaign promotional regulations for the upcoming 99th Oscars scheduled for Sunday, March 14, 2027. Those changes impact everything from which films are eligible for Best International Feature, to how many performances an actor can be nominated for in one year, and so on.

The change to the Best International Feature Film category is the most major, as it no longer requires nominees to be submitted by a country. While countries/regions around the world will still be able to make submissions for the category via the Academy-approved Selection Committees, a non-English language film can now be submitted for consideration by winning a qualifying award at an international film festival as specified in the International Feature Film Award Qualifying Festival List. 

Qualifying festivals for the 99th Oscars are the Berlin International Film Festival (Golden Bear for Best Film), Busan International Film Festival (Busan Award – Best Film Award), Cannes Film Festival (Palme d’Or), Sundance Film Festival (World Cinema Grand Jury Prize), Toronto International Film Festival (Platform Award) and Venice International Film Festival (Golden Lion).

This rule change reflects a larger debate over Best International Feature Film submissions, ranging from frustration over 2023 Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” not being eligible for the category, having not been submitted by France, to the trend of recent nominees like “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and “It Was Just an Accident” only making it into the International Feature category by being European co-productions, despite both being set in Iran.

Mohammad Rasoulof and Jafar Panahi, the directors of the latter two films, are both Iranian dissidents, therefore making it incredibly unlikely for Iran to have ever submitted their films for Academy Awards-consideration, given government influence over the country’s official Oscar submission.

Additionally, the film will be now credited as the nominee rather than the country or region, and the award will be accepted by the director on behalf of the film’s creative team. The director’s name will be listed on the statuette plaque after the film title and, if applicable, the country or region. However, film festivals will not receive a statuette should one of their winners win Best International Feature Film, having been submitted via a festival award win.

Elsewhere, the Academy has changed the language to some category rules to account for AI use. For example, in the Acting categories, only roles credited in the film’s legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent will be considered eligible. And in the Writing categories, the rules codify that screenplays must be human-authored to be eligible.

Overall, under existing eligibility rules regarding Generative Artificial Intelligence, the Academy reserves the right to request more information about the nature of the use and human authorship. Though, the way in which the Academy will analyze a script for AI usage has not been announced.

While those changes concerning AI address modern dilemmas, the Academy also just tossed out a long-held rule that an actor could not receive multiple nominations in the same acting category in a single year. Now, for example, if “The Drama” stars Robert Pattinson and Zendaya were to receive enough votes for their upcoming performances in “The Odyssey” and “Dune: Part Three” to place in the top five of the Supporting categories, they would be allowed to take up two nomination slots each.

Another example from history would be that Kate Winslet would now be allowed to be nominated twice in Best Actress for her performances in “Revolutionary Road” and “The Reader,” rather than what happened in 2008, where she submitted each performance for a different category, and voters ultimately determined the best fit was that “The Reader” was the actual lead performance that she’d go on to win Best Actress for.

The Best Original Song category also got an update addressing the controversial debate over whether submissions that play over the end credits are eligible. The new rule clarifies that for songs submitted as the first new music cue once the end credits begin, the video clip must include the last 15 seconds of the film before the credits begin.

As for rule changes that are more administrative, the Best Casting category has increased the maximum number of statuettes it awards from two to three, the Best Cinematography shortlist will now have 20 films listed, rather than a range of 10 to 20. In the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category, Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch members must attend at least one of the two final branch meetings (roundtables) to be eligible to vote in the preliminary round.

And for the Best Visual Effects category, all Academy members must view the three-minute Before and After reels from the Visual Effects Bake-Off to be eligible to vote in the final round.

Finally, the last bit of changes are that a minimum of three disciplines (think Academy branches like Actors, Writers, Cinematographers, etc.) must be represented in a given year for who wins honorary Oscars at the Governors Awards.

And on the Oscar campaign side of things, screenings with Q&A sessions or panel discussions before nominations may now have up to two moderators instead of one moderator. Plus, all eblasts and FYC calendar entries sent to Academy members via an Academy-approved mailing house from a motion picture company, individual associated with an eligible motion picture or Qualifying Film Festival must include an email address or phone number contact for inquiries regarding how members may request accessibility and disability needs or if the theater hosting the screening has proper accommodations.

Awards Rules are formulated by the Awards Committee based on recommendations by Branch Executive Committees, the International Feature Film Executive Committee, and the Scientific and Technical Awards Executive Committee, and are subject to final approval by the Board of Governors. These updates are still subject to change in advance of the 2027 Oscars.

The 99th Oscars will air live on ABC on Sunday, March 14, 2026, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

Read on for the latest submission deadlines and additional key dates, including voting periods, for the 99th Academy Awards:

Thursday, August 13, 2026: First submission deadline for Animated Short Film, Documentary Feature Film, Documentary Short Film and Live Action Short Film categories

Thursday, September 17, 2026: First submission deadline for General Entry categories, Animated Feature Film, Best Picture and Representation and Inclusion Standards Entry (RAISE) form

Wednesday, September 30, 2026: Submission deadline for International Feature Film 

Thursday, October 8, 2026: Final submission deadline for Animated Short Film, Documentary Short Film and Live Action Short Film categories

Wednesday, October 14, 2026: Submission deadline for Music (Original Song)

Thursday, October 15, 2026: Final submission deadline for Documentary Feature Film

Wednesday, November 4, 2026: Submission deadline for Music (Original Score) 

Thursday, November 12, 2026: Final submission deadline for General Entry categories, Animated Feature Film, Best Picture and Representation and Inclusion Standards Entry (RAISE) form

January 8 – 10, 2027: Casting, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound and Visual Effects voting events (bake-offs)