Oscar Shortlists 2017

It’s Oscar season. As each new year starts, we get to spend the first month of the year watching all of the great movies that studios saved until the end of last year in hopes of getting some Oscar recognition. January is a big month for the Academy awards. The nomination polls for Academy members will officially open this Friday, January 5th, and remain open for the next week until January 12th. The nominations will be officially announced on January 23rd, and then it’s off to the races for the big show on Sunday March 4th. However, as you narrow down what movies to try and watch between now and then, here are a few things to keep in mind

First of all, not every movie released in 2017 is eligible for an Oscar. The Academy has a few rules that must be adhered to before even considering a movie. For example, a movie must have been released in a commercial theater in Los Angeles County before the end of the year to be considered, and it must play in that theater for at least seven consecutive days. The Academy also states that “Feature films that receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release are not eligible for Academy Awards in any category.” meaning basically that any direct to DVD movies or movies that premiered on Netflix aren’t going to be eligible no matter the quality. (Some movies are given a bare minimum release to meet the requirements. Bright for example received this style of release to be eligible for awards even though it was always intended to be a Netflix movie) This means that in total 341 movies are eligible to be nominated for Best Picture this year. The Academy has released a complete list of eligible movies which you can check out here.

But that’s just for the main award. The Academy has also released a shortlist for several other categories.

7 movies have been shortlisted for Makeup and Hairstyling
141 film scores are eligible for the Original Score Oscar (meaning that 200 movies didn’t have score’s that met the Academy’s requirements).
70 songs are in the running for Best Original Song
26 animated features were submitted for Best Animated Movie
10 movies are up for potential nomination for Visual Effects
170 Documentary Features are eligible to be nominated for Best Documentary
92 Foreign Language films were originally considered but that list has been shortened to nine finalists to be considered before nominations.

10 Live Action shorts, 10 Documentary shorts, and 10 Animated shorts were also shortlisted ahead of the nominations.

Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean that only ten of each type of short were submitted or met all the requirements, but that the Academy has narrowed the pool down to these final ten to nominate from before official voting begins. There’s still all long way to go before the awards night is here, but if you’re looking to get a head start in your Oscar movie watching, these shortlist might help you narrow down the viewing pool a little bit. At least until the official nominations are announced later this month.