How are nominees chosen?

The system used to vote for Oscar-nominees is known as the single transferable vote. It’s a form of proportional preferential voting, which is the same method used to elect Australia’s Senate. Australian’s elect six senators from every state, while Academy voters select five nominees for every category (except best picture, where they choose 10).

“Academy members get to vote from a long list of potential nominees,” Raue explains. “If they are choosing five nominees, then you need a sixth of the vote to become an Oscar nominee.

“It’s a decent system because it ensures you get a wide spread of nominations. ”

How are winners chosen?

Once the nominees are selected, members from across the Academy cast their vote for each category using a system known as first past the post. This process involves members casting a single vote, without preferences. The candidate with the most votes wins the election, sorry, the Oscar.

This voting system is commonly used for congressional elections in the United States or elections in Canada and the United Kingdom.

First past the post voting is used for all categories except best picture, which adopts the same system as our very own House of Representatives.

So how is best picture chosen?

Unlike other categories which generally have five nominations, best picture features 10 nominees. As a result, the Academy uses preferential voting, the same process Australia uses to elect members of the House of Representatives, and most state lower houses. The system is also known as Instant Run-off Voting (IRV), Alternative Vote (AV) or Ranked Choice Voting (RCV).

Academy members rank the best picture nominees from most to least favourite. If a film gets more than 50 per cent of the number one vote, it automatically wins. However, the number of nominees makes this very unlikely. Therefore, the films with the lowest votes have their ballots redistributed according to preferences, until a favourite emerges.

“The best picture process is very similar to how Australians choose a seat in the House of Representatives,” Raue explained. “We both number boxes in order of preferences and knock out candidates until someone has the majority of the vote.

“For the Oscars, it’s a pretty good system because the winner is generally a consensus of everyone’s favourite, or maybe second favourite film.

“With preferential voting, Australians can vote for the Greens or One Nation and not worry they are going to split the vote because their vote ultimately ends up going to one of the candidates that are viable.”

‘Choosing a movie to win is not the same as making sure we have a functioning democracy, but there are definitely some amusing parallels.’

Election expert Ben Raue, from The Tally Room website

Despite the similarities, Raue said it was important to remember the Oscars’ voting system and Australian parliament were not completely the same.

“Choosing a movie to win an award is not the same as making sure we have a functioning democracy, but there are definitely some amusing parallels,” he said.

If the Oscars use preferential voting, why don’t the United States?

So why is it that the Oscars mirror Australia’s voting system, when US voting is drastically different? According to Raue, Australia is actually the anomaly when it comes to preferential voting.

“The concept of numbering boxes based on preferences is actually pretty uncommon, most ballot papers around the world just ask you to tick one box to indicate one single preference for a party or candidate,” he said.

“In the US, I think plenty of politicians like the system they got elected under, so there’s probably no need to change it.”

Raue said preferential voting had many benefits, including reducing the impact of vote splitting and ensuring the winner gets a majority of the votes.

However, there were also some disadvantages.

“One of the main downsides of preferential voting is just the complexity of it,” Raue said. “We are used to ticking all those boxes in Australia, but there are definitely simpler ways to do it.”

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