The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences currently hands out 23 Academy Awards of Merit, covering acting, directing, writing, music, and a wide range of technical crafts. The lineup grew in 2026 with the addition of Best Casting, and Best Stunt Design is scheduled to join for the 2027 ceremony, so a list from even a few years back is already out of date.
TL;DR:
- Best Casting joined the competitive awards in 2026, and Best Stunt Design is scheduled to debut at the 2027 ceremony.
- A film generally needs a qualifying theatrical run, while first public exhibition outside a theater typically makes it ineligible for consideration.
- Best Picture contenders must submit a confidential RAISE form and meet at least two of four inclusion standards, or they can miss the ballot.
- Specialist branches nominate in their own craft categories, but the full Academy membership votes on Best Picture; some categories also require shortlist rounds or screenings.
Table of Contents
- What do the current Academy Awards of Merit recognize?
- How are nominees chosen and who gets to vote?
- What changed for the 2026 and 2027 Oscars?
- Oscar trivia fans keep searching for
- How do eligibility rules work for each category?
- Competitive Oscars versus honorary and special awards
- What separates Original from Adapted Screenplay?
- Why category knowledge changes how you watch
- Put your Oscar knowledge to the test
- FAQ
- Sources
What do the current Academy Awards of Merit recognize?
Each Oscar category rewards a different kind of filmmaking skill, and knowing who actually receives the statuette (a performer, a director, a film's producers) clears up a lot of confusion for casual viewers. Here's how the current categories break down by craft.
Acting, directing, and Best Picture sit at the top of most people's attention. Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress go to individual performers. Best Director honors the person who shaped the overall vision of the film, while Best Picture is awarded to the producers, recognizing the finished film as a whole rather than any single contributor.
Writing splits into two lanes: Best Original Screenplay, for scripts built from scratch, and Best Adapted Screenplay, for scripts based on existing material like a novel or a true story.
Music covers Best Original Score, honoring a film's composed soundtrack, and Best Original Song, which recognizes a specific song written for the movie, lyrics and melody included.
Cinematic crafts reward the visual and structural backbone of a film: Best Cinematography for camera work and lighting, Best Production Design for sets and overall visual world-building, and Best Film Editing for the pacing and rhythm created in the cutting room.
Technical specialties go to crews whose work audiences often feel without consciously noticing:
- Best Sound recognizes the mixing and design that shapes everything from dialogue clarity to a battle scene's impact.
- Best Visual Effects honors digital and practical effects work, from creature design to large-scale destruction sequences.
- Best Makeup and Hairstyling rewards transformative looks, like aging a character decades or creating a fantastical creature.
- Best Costume Design honors the wardrobe choices that help build character and setting.
- Best Casting, the newest category, recognizes the casting director's work in assembling a film's ensemble.
Feature-length categories outside live-action include Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best International Feature Film, and three short-film categories (animated, live action, and documentary).
How are nominees chosen and who gets to vote?
The path from "released film" to "Oscar nominee" runs through a fairly structured process, and the Academy's own rules spell out most of the detail that general entertainment coverage skips.
- A film generally needs a qualifying theatrical run and must meet the Academy's definition of a feature, with specific exhibition and format requirements laid out in the General Entry rules.
- Submissions happen through forms like General Entry (sometimes called OSF) for most categories, while Best Picture requires a separate, confidential form called RAISE, along with meeting inclusion standards described in the General Entry FAQs.
- Voting follows a branch structure: specialist branches, such as cinematographers or sound mixers, nominate within their own craft categories, while the full voting membership weighs in on Best Picture, a setup the Academy describes on its own voting page.
- Some categories add extra steps before a title can even reach the ballot, including shortlist rounds and "bake-off" screenings where members review submitted reels.
Anyone chasing exact deadlines or technical specs should check the Academy's official rules directly, since details shift from year to year.
What changed for the 2026 and 2027 Oscars?
Recent rule updates matter because they reshape both the ballot and the broadcast. According to the Academy's own press release on awards rules, Best Casting was formally added as a competitive category starting with the 99th Oscars, the number of statuettes awarded for casting increased, and new guidance now addresses the use of generative artificial intelligence in eligible films.
- Best Casting debuted in 2026, recognizing casting directors for the first time.
- Best Stunt Design is set to join the roster for the 2027 ceremony.
- Acting nomination procedures and VFX bake-off viewing requirements were also updated for the 99th Oscars.
Best Casting's 2026 debut marked the first new competitive category added in several years, according to the Academy's own announcement, signaling that casting is now treated as its own distinct craft rather than folded into a film's overall production.
Oscar trivia fans keep searching for
A few numbers come up again and again in conversations about the Oscars, and most of them get slightly garbled along the way.
- Walt Disney holds the record for most Oscars overall, with a total of 26: 22 competitive awards plus 4 honorary ones, a distinction that often gets flattened into "26 competitive Oscars" when it isn't.
- Three films are tied for the most wins in a single ceremony, with 11 each, and three different films share the record for most nominations, with 14 each, according to CBS News.
- The ceremony's start time varies from year to year depending on broadcast scheduling, so it's worth checking the current season's announced date rather than assuming it matches last year's.
Walt Disney's 26 total Oscars include both competitive and honorary awards, a detail that explains why the number is often misquoted as a record for competitive wins alone, per CBS News.
How do eligibility rules work for each category?
Eligibility isn't one blanket rule, it's a layered set of requirements that differs by category. A film generally needs a qualifying theatrical run in specific markets and formats to be eligible at all, as laid out in the General Entry rules, and a film whose first public showing happens outside a theater typically loses eligibility entirely.
From there, individual categories layer on their own conditions. Best Picture now requires producers to submit a confidential RAISE form and meet at least two of four inclusion standards, a requirement that can keep an otherwise qualified film off the ballot, according to the General Entry FAQs. Technical categories like Visual Effects add their own screening requirements, since voters need to review "before and after" demonstration reels before casting a ballot, a process described in the Academy's awards rules announcement.
Short-film and documentary categories carry separate runtime definitions and exhibition rules, and international submissions go through a different country-by-country selection process entirely. None of these rules are static: the Academy revisits submission requirements most years, which is why the official rules document stays the most reliable reference for anyone submitting a film or simply trying to understand why a favorite title didn't qualify.
Competitive Oscars versus honorary and special awards
Most of the attention each year goes to the competitive Academy Awards of Merit, the categories voted on by the membership and announced during the televised ceremony. These are the ones tied to a specific submission cycle, a nomination round, and a winner chosen by ballot.
Honorary and special awards work differently. They're not voted on through the same nomination process and aren't tied to a single year's eligible films. The Honorary Award recognizes a lifetime of achievement or service to the industry, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award honors charitable work by someone in the film community, and the Gordon E. Sawyer Award recognizes technological contributions. These awards explain why Walt Disney's total of 26 Oscars includes both competitive wins and honorary recognitions rather than competitive wins alone.
The distinction matters for anyone trying to compare records: a competitive win reflects a specific film or achievement that beat out other nominees in a given year, while an honorary award reflects a broader body of work judged outside that annual competition.
What separates Original from Adapted Screenplay?
The split between Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay comes down to one question: did the story exist somewhere else first? An original screenplay is written specifically for the screen, with no prior source material, no novel, play, article, or earlier film it's based on.
An adapted screenplay, by contrast, draws its plot, characters, or structure from existing material, whether that's a bestselling book, a true story already published elsewhere, a stage play, or even a previous film. The achievement being judged shifts slightly between the two: Original Screenplay rewards pure invention, while Adapted Screenplay rewards the skill of translating existing material into a workable, often very different, cinematic structure. A screenplay based loosely on real events but largely invented in its specifics can sometimes blur the line, which is part of why the Academy's writing branch makes category placement decisions on a case-by-case basis rather than through a rigid formula.
Why category knowledge changes how you watch
Once you know what Best Film Editing or Best Sound actually rewards, you start noticing the craft instead of just the story, the rhythm of a well-timed cut, the layered sound design under a quiet scene, the specific casting choice that makes an ensemble click. The Oscars keep evolving, with new categories and rule changes nearly every year, so it's worth checking the official Academy rules whenever something seems off from what you remember.
— Aakash
Put your Oscar knowledge to the test
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FAQ
How many types of Oscar awards are there?
There are currently 23 Academy Awards of Merit, covering competitive categories across acting, directing, writing, music, and technical crafts. This count does not include honorary and special awards, which are given separately from the competitive ballot.
What person has 26 Oscars?
Walt Disney holds the record with a total of 26 Oscars, made up of 22 competitive awards and 4 honorary awards. No one else comes close to that combined total.
Which three movies got 17 Oscars?
Three films are tied for the most wins at a single ceremony with 11 wins each, and three different films share the record for most nominations with 14 each.
What time do the Oscars start?
Start times vary each year based on broadcast scheduling, so there's no fixed hour that applies every season. The Academy and its broadcast partner announce exact show dates and times closer to each ceremony.