We navigate 181 Festivals and the new US theatrical rules to explain how to Get Your Film Academy Qualified.
To get a film “Academy Qualified” (eligible for Oscars)?
There are 2 different ways you can qualify your film for Oscar submission: 1. Winning an Academy Qualifying Award at an Oscar Qualifying Film Festival. This applies only to Short Films & Feature Documentaries. 2. Publicly exhibit the film for paid admission in a commercial motion picture theater in one of the 6 qualifying US cities.
What Types of Films are Eligible?
The first question to always ask is: Do I have a film that is eligible for the Oscars? The types of film eligible for Oscar submission are Animated, Live Action, Documentary Short & Feature Films. Music videos, Adverts, Branded Content, VR, Trailers, Episodic & Web Series are not eligible.
If you are a student and have a student film, you will need to submit to the Student Oscars. This is a separate competition exclusively for Students. The Student Academy Awards (SAA) recognize and honor student filmmakers who demonstrate excellence in motion picture creation.
The Academy considers a short film to be 40 minutes or less and a feature film to be over 40 minutes. For those with mid-length short films (i.e. 43 minutes long) I’d strongly advise trimming it to 40 minutes as it will be much more economical to qualify it as a short film instead of a feature film.
The Qualification Process Step by Step
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, there are 2 ways you can qualify your film. You do not need to do both options; you only need to choose one.
Option 1
Winning an award at an Oscar qualifying Film Festival.
Currently there are 181 Oscar Qualifying Film Festivals for Short Films. These Festivals are based all around the world. Films that win an award at a qualifying festival are eligible to submit to the Oscars. It’s important to remember that being selected for an Oscar qualifying Film Festival does not mean you can submit your film to the Oscars.
If you win one of these awards between October and June 30th your deadline to submit will be in August. If you qualify between July 1st and September 30th your deadline will be in October.
Let’s take HollyShorts for example. They have 4 Oscar qualifying awards: Best Documentary, Best Animation, Best Live Action and Best of Festival. If you win one of these awards you can submit your film to the Oscars. Winning Best Director, Best Actor or Best Sound for example will not make you eligible to submit to the Oscars, it must be one of their Oscar qualifying awards.
There are just under 40 Oscar qualifying film festivals for Documentary feature films. None of these festivals are based in the USA they are all based outside of the USA. For example, there is Visions Du Reel in Switzerland, Doc Edge in New Zealand and Doc Fest in the United Kingdom.
And the same rules apply: you must win their Oscar qualifying award to become eligible to submit your film.
The festival will give you an official letter confirming your win and once you have this you are now officially eligible to submit! You will need to add this letter to your submission to complete it.
Option 2
There are no awards on the festival circuit that Animated Features and Narrative Features have the opportunity to win; it is only open to short films and documentary feature films.
Therefore, if you have an animated or narrative feature film or if you don’t win an Oscar qualifying award on the circuit you must do option 2 – qualifying your film via a week-long theatrical release in a commercial motion picture theatre in one of the Oscar qualifying cities in the USA. The period of eligibility for Feature films is January 1st– December 31st each year. For short films it is January 1st until September 30th.
This option is open to international films; it’s not just limited to local filmmakers or US-based filmmakers—it’s 100% global.
First thing you need to do is select which Oscar qualifying city you want to screen your film in and there are currently 6 cities. It used to be only 2: New York and Los Angeles. Now, the San Francisco Bay Area, Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas Fort-Worth are part of the group of qualifying cities.
The film must be screened in a commercial motion picture Theatre – for example AMC, Odeon or an independently run Theatre like the Texas Theatre in Dallas. It must not be screened in a conference room or a bar or a private members club – it needs to be a theatre which is dedicated to exhibiting films for public entertainment.
You screen your film for 1 week – specifically 7 consecutive days in a row in 1 Theatre. Short films are required to have 1 screening per day at any time. Feature films need to screen 3 times per day and 1 of these screenings must take place between 6 pm and 10 pm every single day. Failure to do so will make the film ineligible to submit. Qualifying a feature film is much more expensive than a short film, therefore it’s important to shop around and find the best deal.
All films need to be screened off a DCP and have a 5.1 sound mix. You are no longer required to do any expensive marketing and PR to promote your qualifying release, all you need to do is ensure that the Theatre advertises your screening times on their website and provides the option to book tickets for your screenings.
When the film has finished its theatrical release, you then need to obtain a letter from the theater confirming the dates and showtimes of your film’s release. Once you have this you are now officially eligible to submit! You will need to add this letter to your submission to complete it.
What Happens After I submit?
Academy members view the submitted films and vote for their 15 favorite films from each category. Oscar shortlists for some categories (which includes short films and documentary features) are announced mid-December. Nominations are announced in January. The 5 films from each category that received the highest number of votes receive a nomination. If nominated, it is important to hire a film publicist who specializes in Oscars PR to get your film on everyone’s radars (Variety, Deadline, etc.) and host private screenings for Academy members.
To find out how I can help you qualify your film for the Oscars, take a look at my website https://www.thefilmfestivaldoctor.com/. Drop me an email at rebekah@thefilmfestivaldoctor.com or via Instagram @rebekahfilmdr
