Only 265 of 321 Oscar-qualifying films eligible for best picture
There are 321 films that have qualified for the 2023 Academy Awards, with 265 of those films also eligible in the Best Picture category, the Academy announced.
The discrepancy between films that have qualified for the top category and films that are eligible in other categories comes because of new eligibility rules that require Best Picture candidates to meet additional benchmarks for diversity and inclusion. This is the first year that those Representation and Inclusion Standards (RAISE) have been enforced, though they did not appear to disqualify any serious contenders in the category, The Wrap reported.
Films that qualified for the Oscars but are not eligible for Best Picture include ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,’ ‘The Creator,’ ‘Dumb Money,’ and ‘The Marvels’. Absence from the Best Picture list does not necessarily mean that a film failed to meet the RAISE standards, because that application is voluntary and films can opt out of Best Picture consideration.
Other films that aren’t on the qualifying list for Best Picture include a handful of documentaries (‘20 Days in Mariupol,’ ‘Common Ground,’ ‘Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project’), animated features (‘Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia,’ ‘Monkey King,’ ‘They Shot the Piano Player’) and international films (‘Concrete Utopia,’ ‘Godland’).
The 321 eligible films are the most since the 2020 Oscars, when 366 films qualified under COVID-era rules that relaxed the theatrical requirement and made it easier to qualify. Since then, 276 films qualified in 2021 and 301 in 2022.
In order to be eligible for consideration, Academy rules state, “feature films must open in a commercial motion picture theater in at least one of six US metropolitan areas: Los Angeles County; the City of New York; the Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia, between January 1, 2023, and December 31, 2023, and complete a minimum qualifying run of seven consecutive days in the same venue. Feature films must have a running time of more than 40 minutes.”
Nominations voting begins on Thursday and concludes on Jan. 16. The nominations will be announced on Jan. 23. The 96th Oscars will be held on March 24 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.