After this awards season, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will discontinue the standardized use of paper ballots.
After this awards season, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will discontinue the standardized use of paper ballots in determining Oscar nominations and winners, as well as other orders of business, Variety has learned.
The organization first began notifying members of the planned change in October. To ease voters into the new online voting standard prior to next year’s Oscar nominations, the Academy will begin rolling it out during the board of governors elections in the spring.
There has been an ongoing steep decline in the use of paper ballots among voters in recent years, as more and more have opted for electronic voting, which was first introduced as an option in 2012. The Television Academy followed suit in 2014 and then moved to a fully electronic process in 2015, while the Recording Academy finally transitioned to online voting last year.
Final Oscar ballots for this year will go out to voters on Tuesday, Feb. 20, and are due back one week later on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
The 90th annual Academy Awards — hosted by Jimmy Kimmel for the second year in a row — will be held on Sunday, March 4 at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles. The ceremony will air live on ABC.
