Four months after “Gravity” premiered in Venice, 17 weeks after “12 Years a Slave” screened in Telluride and 27 days after “The Wolf of Wall Street” became the last major contender for the 2013 Academy Awards, Oscar polls will open on Friday.
Nomination voting will begin on Dec. 27 for members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Overall, 6,028 members are eligible to vote, assuming they’ve paid their dues.
Also read: Academy Adds 172 Oscar Voters, Tops the 6,000 Mark
Members who’ve registered to vote online can log in here, with the same user name and password they use to sign onto the AMPAS website, and with a phone number for a security code. Members who haven’t registered will receive paper ballots in the mail, even if they haven’t specifically requested that option.
Voters will have 13 days to cast nominating ballots, with the polls closing on Wednesday, Jan. 8 at 5 p.m. Pacific time. Nominations will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 16.
Members of 13 of the Academy’s 17 branches will vote to nominate in their categories of expertise; all those branch members, along with members of the Casting Directors, Executives, Producers and Public Relations branches, as well as Members-at-Large, will vote to nominate in the Best Picture category.
The reminder list of 289 eligible films in all the major categories is here. It does not include most of the films that were eligible in the foreign-language and documentary categories, which use separate qualifying rules.
Also read: 289 Films Qualify for Oscars (Updated With Complete List)
Of the nine foreign-language films and 15 documentaries shortlisted by the Academy, only four foreign films and four docs are eligible for other awards.
The Academy has promised that this year’s online voting process will be more streamlined than when the system was introduced last year, without the mailed VIN codes and multiple layers that made voting overly complicated for members.
“We’ve simplified the process … and we improved the user experience without lowering the bar on security,” wrote AMPAS CEO Dawn Hudson in an email to members in October.
For Academy members who have questions, a support line will be open 24 hours a day at (855) 742-9140, beginning Dec 27.