Beverly Hills, CA — Rules for the 77th Annual Academy Awards were approved Tuesday night (6/22) by the Board of Governors of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
The most significant rule change, said Academy President Frank Pierson, is a change in the Sound Editing Award rules that guarantees
three nominations in the category.
Previous rules permitted three annual options for the Award: the voting by the Board of Governors of a Special Achievement Award
for Sound Editing; placement on the final ballot of two or three nominated achievements to be voted upon by all voting members of
the Academy; or no award in a given year.
The category has had three names since it was first given in 1963 when it was called "sound effects." It became the "sound effects
editing" category in 1976 and kept that name for 22 of the next 23 years. For the single year 1979 it was called "sound editing"
and then took that name again in 2000 and has remained so named since.
From this year on seven productions will be selected by preferential ballot by all eligible members of the sound branch. Those
seven films will be screened for the members of the Sound Editing Awards Committee which will select the three nominees (the
so-called "bake-off"). Final voting will be by all eligible members of the Academy.
The initial balloting by all members of the branch is itself a change from previous years when only sound editors and
post-production mixers were sent ballots.
The sound branch and the visual effects branch added provisions to their rules that the reels of excerpts from their "bake-offs"
will be placed in the Academy Film Archive.
The board also incorporated into eligibility rule two a previously-voted provision that permits marketers to show up to ten minutes
or ten percent of the running time of a film, whichever is shorter, in a nontheatrical medium prior to the film's theatrical release
without jeopardizing the film's eligibility.
Rules are reviewed annually by branch and category committees. The Awards Rules Committee then reviews all proposed changes before
presenting its recommendations to the Academy's Board of Governors.
Academy Award® nominations will be announced at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 25, 2005, at the Academy. The 77th Annual Academy
Awards Presentation will be telecast live from the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland by the ABC Television Network at 5 p.m.
PST, Sunday, February 27, 2005, beginning with a half-hour arrivals segment.
