98th Academy Awards Ceremony (2026 Oscars)

The Oscars want more Conan!

After a rapturous reception at this year’s Academy Awards, emcee Conan O’Brien will return to the Dolby Theatre for the 98th Oscars on March 15, 2026.

The announcement comes from Bill Kramer, Academy CEO, and Janet Yang, Academy president, who also confirmed the return of the Emmy-winning producing team Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan, who will lead the show for the third consecutive year.

Using his signature humor, O’Brien quipped in a statement: “The only reason I’m hosting the Oscars next year is that I want to hear Adrien Brody finish his speech.”

Brody’s best actor speech for “The Brutalist” clocked in as the longest in the ceremony’s history.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday announced rules and campaign regulations for the upcoming 98th Oscars, which will be held March 15, 2026. Chief among the changes is a new procedural demand that voters must now watch all nominated films in each category in order to be eligible to vote in the final round. How they expect members to prove they have watched is not spelled out in the AMPAS release today, but this is a key change in rules that never laid it out quite like this before.

Another — and welcome — key change is that all designated nominees will have their names included on the final ballot. Previously. in many categories. it was just the name of the nominated movie, not the person nominated.

Meanwhile, category rules for eligibility and voting for the inaugural Academy Award for Achievement in Casting have been codified. There will be a preliminary round of voting to determine a shortlist of 10 films, and prior to nominations voting Casting Directors Branch members will be invited to view a “bake-off” presentation of the shortlisted achievements including a Q&A with the designated nominees. There still is no mention about where the inaugural Casting Oscar would be presented, whether on the Oscar show itself, during the Governors Awards, or at some other place.

Other substantive rules changes

• In the rules for film eligibility, the following language regarding Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been introduced, as recommended by the Academy’s Science and Technology Council:
  
• With regard to Generative Artificial Intelligence and other digital tools used in the making of the film, the tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination. The Academy and each branch will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award.
  
• For consideration in the Best Picture category, films released from January 1, 2025, through June 30, 2025, must have shown proof of submission for Producers Guild of America (PGA) mark certification or awards-only determination no later than September 10, 2025. Films released from July 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025, must have shown proof of submission to the PGA no later than November 13, 2025.
  
• In the Animated Short Film category, voting privileges in the nominations round will be extended to all Academy members who opt in to participate. Members must view all 15 shortlisted films to be eligible to vote in the category.
  
• ​​​​​​In the Cinematography category, there will now be a preliminary round of voting for the Cinematography award to determine a shortlist of between 10 and 20 films.
  
• In the International Feature Film category, the eligibility requirement regarding creative control has been updated to be inclusive of filmmakers with refugee or asylum status.
• The submitting country must confirm that creative control of the film was largely in the hands of citizens, residents, or individuals with refugee or asylum status in the submitting country.

In the Cinematography category, there will now be a preliminary round of voting for the Cinematography award to determine a shortlist of between 10 and 20 films.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Monday announced rules and campaign regulations for the upcoming 98th Oscars, which will be held March 15, 2026. Chief among the changes is a new procedural demand that voters must now watch all nominated films in each category in order to be eligible to vote in the final round.

Wait, what? Your argument for the Best Cinematography award needing to be overhauled is because the last few winners have come from films that were released before "Awards season"?!? If that were even true, to me that says the Cinematographers Branch is doing something correctly, not something that needs modification. But...well, it really isn't true. The Brutalist and All Quiet On the Western Front were very much released during the so-called Awards season.

Oppenheimer was the third-biggest film of the year and would have been a runaway shoo-in for the Cinematography award no matter what time of year it was released.

I am not being dense for the sake of making an argument, I just truly do not understand a) what you think is wrong with the Cinematography category as it has existed until now and b) what you think a shortlist is going to do, exactly?