Explained: Who votes for Oscars, how are winners selected?

The nominees for Best Picture are displayed during the 95th Academy Awards nominations announcement

The Oscars will return in all their glory next month. The 95th Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will be held at Los Angeles' Dolby Theatre on March 12 (local time). The Oscar nominees were announced on January 24, with Academy voters this year handing out various nominations for box office smash hits such as Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever -- raising hopes that Oscars TV audiences will pick back up.

Before the Oscars 2023 awards ceremony, let’s understand who picks Oscar winners and how the process of Oscar voting works:

Oscar nominees and winners are chosen by members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Currently, the Academy has nearly 10,000 members.

The Academy is comprised of members from across the world. These members are industry professionals and past winners, with the Academy describing its voting groups as “limited to film artists working in the production of theatrically released motion pictures.”

Most categories are nominated by the members of the corresponding branch – actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc. All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees.

Nominations voting is conducted using online ballots. All votes are tabulated by PricewaterhouseCoopers, and results are then announced live.

Finals voting is also conducted online. During finals, all voting members can vote in all categories. Members get one vote per category – but the method for choosing Best Picture is slightly different.

The best picture is chosen using preferential ballot system, where voters are required to rank nominated films from most to least favourite.

The process is highly secretive. After final ballots are tabulated, only two partners of PricewaterhouseCoopers know the results until the famous envelopes are opened onstage during the Oscars telecast, the Academy explains on its website.