Andrea Riseborough flap prompts most significant Oscar campaign rules change in decades

Following controversy earlier this year over Andrea Riseborough’s surprise lead actress Oscar nomination for the little-seen movie “To Leslie,” the film academy announced Monday that it has updated its regulations around campaigning for the coveted awards.

The new regulations, approved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 54-member board of governors, clarify rules regarding communications to members to promote particular films and performances, including the use of social media, and limit the number of hosted screenings that are allowed prior to nominations.

Among other changes, the organization also imposed new limits on academy governors’ involvement in lobbying for Oscars, expressly forbidding them from hosting events or screenings for nominated movies or otherwise publicly endorsing any films or performances in contention unless they are directly associated with them.

While the academy has periodically updated its rules as the ever-escalating arms race of Oscar campaigning has grown more expensive and intense, the new changes mark the most significant overhaul of the regulations since their inception in 1994.

Those regulations came under fresh scrutiny in January after Riseborough secured her unexpected nomination following a brief but intense grassroots campaign of emails, social media posts and celebrity-hosted screenings to highlight her performance, with A-listers like Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Aniston, Edward Norton, Charlize Theron and others lending their support to the cause.

Riseborough’s nomination for a film that earned a mere $27,000 at the box office led some to question whether the aggressive lobbying — spearheaded by Riseborough’s manager, Jason Weinberg, and actor Mary McCormack, the wife of “To Leslie” director Michael Morris — violated the academy’s campaign rules. Fueling the debate over Riseborough’s nod were the exclusions of Viola Davis (“The Woman King”) and Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”), who were both considered strong contenders, from the nominees.

After conducting a review, the academy’s leadership decided to let Riseborough’s nomination stand. But in a statement announcing that decision, film academy Chief Executive Bill Kramer acknowledged that “components of the regulations must be clarified to help create a better framework for respectful, inclusive, and unbiased campaigning.”

In the lead-up to this year’s nominations, actor Frances Fisher posted on social media that Davis and Deadwyler were “locks” and encouraged others to vote for Riseborough — a form of lobbying that would now be disallowed.

Clarifying what is permissible in terms of lobbying, the new rules state that while members may praise films and performances in general terms and encourage others to see them, they may not discuss their voting preferences or those of other members. “You may not attempt to encourage other members to vote for or not vote for any motion picture or achievement,” the regulations state.

In an effort to level the playing field, smaller films like “To Leslie,” which often lack the marketing resources of bigger competitors, will now be able to apply to the academy for a reduced rate for inclusion on the organization’s digital screener platform, giving them a chance for greater visibility among the group’s more than 10,000 members.

It remains to be seen to what extent the organization will be able to police the communication of its thousands of members, many of whom have both personal and professional social media accounts. As many have pointed out since the Riseborough flap, soliciting votes for friends and allies through personal connections is a practice virtually as old as the Oscars themselves.

To enforce the new rules, which will be reviewed annually, the organization announced the establishment of a new process for reporting violations and further clarified potential penalties, which may include disqualifying a film or performance for consideration, rescinding a nomination, revoking a member’s voting privileges or suspending or expelling them from the group.

“The Academy is committed to conducting a fair, clear, and equitable awards process focused on honoring creative excellence,” the organization says in its new regulations. “Members are expected to make their awards voting decisions based on the artistic and technical merits of all eligible motion pictures, performances, and achievements.”