The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has for the first time issued rules on the use of artificial intelligence in performances and scripts for the 2027 Academy Awards, emphasizing human authorship without outright banning AI.
In updates across many categories released Friday, the academy said AI “neither helps nor harms the chances of achieving a nomination” and that each branch will judge achievements by taking into account the degree to which humans were at the heart of creative authorship. The academy also reserves the right to request more information from filmmaking teams about their use of AI and the nature of human authorship. “Humans have to be at the centre of the creative process,” academy president Lynette Howell Taylor said, adding that the academy will continue to evolve its conversations about AI.
For performances, only roles “demonstrably performed by humans with their consent” will be eligible. The academy declined to say whether an AI-rendered Val Kilmer performance would qualify, noting the film has not been submitted; eligibility could depend on how the performer is credited. Bill Kramer, the academy CEO, said such cases will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis and assessed each year. Screenplay rules are clearer: screenplays must be human-authored to be eligible.
The academy said it has long updated standards to reflect technological advances such as sound, color and CGI, and is now addressing generative AI in that tradition.
Significant changes were also made to the International Feature Film category to reduce reliance on national submissions. Films that win top qualifying awards at major festivals will now be eligible regardless of country submission. Qualifying awards listed include the Palme d’Or at Cannes, the Golden Lion at Venice and the Platform award at Toronto, along with Berlin’s Golden Bear, Busan’s best film award and Sundance’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize. That could make films like Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident — which was not submitted by Iran but screened via France — eligible based on festival recognition.
Under the new rules, the film itself will be credited as the nominee rather than a country or region, the award will be accepted by the filmmaker, and the director’s name will appear on the Oscar plaque after the film title and country if applicable. Kramer said this reflects a focus on honoring filmmakers rather than countries as the academy becomes more global.
Other changes: the acting branch now allows a performer to be nominated for more than one performance in the same category in a single year, aligning acting with other categories where multiple nominations for one individual are already permitted. For example, if an actor delivers two leading performances in different films in the same year, both could be nominated. The director category saw this previously in 2001, when Steven Soderbergh was nominated for Best Director for both Traffic and Erin Brockovich.
The academy also clarified original song eligibility for end-credit placements: if the first music cue plays over the end credits, the song must overlap with at least the film’s last 15 seconds before the credits begin to qualify. This distinguishes songs that are integral to a film’s narrative from those that play only after the story ends.
“We never stop looking at ways to improve our eligibility process,” Taylor said, noting the academy’s ongoing reviews as membership and filmmaking become more international.
