Oscars Confront AI and Voting Reform
What seems like a common sense rule might not be so intuitive. This week, The Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences announced that Oscars voters must now watch all the films nominated in the category they vote in.
The Academy is an invitation-only organization comprised of over 10,000 film industry professionals like writers, directors, actors, and more. These members are split up into 19 branches based on discipline and vote accordingly. The only category that all members can vote in is Best Picture.
While most people thought this rule would already be in place, this new requirement is meant to even the playing field for the awards. Before now, it was only a requirement for specialty categories like documentaries and international films. In all other categories it was encouraged but not required. This raised doubts as to whether films have been given awards based on the quality of the film or the actors’ performances, or if they won because of their popularity.
Through a private online screening room, the Academy tracks which members have seen which films. Now the members must submit a form stating if they’ve seen films separately at film festivals or in theaters. If any work in any category has not been viewed, they cannot vote in that category for the Oscars.
Oscars and Artificial Intelligence
Recent controversy involving the use of artificial intelligence in the films Emilia Perez and The Brutalist also led to a ruling from the Academy. The Brutalist was nominated for Best Picture and sparked controversy for its use of AI voice-generating technology to enhance the accents of co-stars Adrien Brody and Felicity Jones. The editor for the film and native Hungarian speaker, David Jancso, spoke about the use of his voice to perfect the dialogue so that even locals wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. In Emilia Perez, the team used generative AI to blend the voices of actress Karla Sofia Gascon and Camille a French pop star to create a wider vocal range for the character. Both films used the same technology called Respeecher which was developed in Ukraine to fix these vocal imperfections.
This use of new technology has created a debate within the industry. People are questioning whether these films can be nominated for awards against films that do not use AI. Should the actors be able to win an award for their performances if it was edited with AI to change core aspects?
The directors of these films claim that the use of AI didn’t change any real part of the actors’ performances or directly affect the quality of the film. They say these changes could be made manually before AI, the new technology just made the process faster and cheaper.
The Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences decided that utilizing AI and similar technology will not help nor harm the chances of receiving a nomination at the next Oscars. While many fear what the effects of this new technology will be, whether that includes replacing writers or actors to cut costs or abuse of image and likeness, this side of the industry is embracing it.