Oscars Change Rules to Keep AI Out of the Acting and Writing Categories

There are still months to go before awards season kicks into high gear, but the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences — the organization behind the Academy Awards — has announced several updates to its eligibility rules for the upcoming 99th Oscars. This includes specific language that doesn’t mention AI specifically, but does emphasize that future awards contenders should expect to be fully human — in the acting and writing categories, at least.

Per these new rules, an actor will only be considered eligible for Oscars consideration if their role is “credited in the film’s legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent.” This specifically rules out the Tilly Norwoods of the world, but could theoretically allow someone like James Ortiz, the puppeteer behind the character of Rocky in Project Hail Mary, to be a contender. (In fact, Variety recently confirmed that Ortiz is eligible for the 2027 awards.)

Additionally, the submission guidelines for the Original Screenplay and Adapted Screenplay categories now specifically state that “To be eligible in either Writing category, an explicit screenwriting credit must be present in the film’s legal billing and the screenplay must be human-authored.” The rules also contain this section regarding the general use of AI:

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. If questions arise regarding the aforementioned use of Generative Artificial Intelligence, the Academy reserves the right to request more information about the nature of the use and human authorship.

In addition to the AI-specific rules, the Academy also announced that going forward, actors may be considered for multiple roles in the same category — meaning that this year (as one hypothetical example), Zendaya could be nominated for her work as supporting actress in both The Odyssey as well as Dune: Part Three. The International Feature Film category also got a major shakeup: Prior to this year, eligible movies had to be submitted by a country of origin, but now films may also be considered if they have won a qualifying award at an approved international film festival like Cannes.

The 99th Oscars will take place on Sunday, March 14th, 2027. You can read the full list of rules changes here, and be sure to check out our full ranking of every Best Picture winner ever.