Oscar nomination voting begins next Monday, kicking off a numbers game for the movies hoping to land a coveted spot among the 40 or so feature films that garner nominations each year.
And while 6,124 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are eligible to vote this year, you don’t need nearly that many admirers to end up one of the chosen few.
In fact, in the Best Picture category, fewer than 600 votes will guarantee you a first-round nomination, while slightly more than 300 will get you a spot once the counting is finished.
Also read: 10 Things You Might Not Know About the Oscar Best Picture Race
The numbers are due to the Academy’s preferential method of counting votes, in which ballots are separated into stacks based on each voter’s first choice.