Have you ever wanted to know how the Oscar winners are selected?
Well, I used to think that everyone would send a text message to a particular number similar to The American Idol contests. However, thanks to a video released by TheWrap, it's a whole lot more complicated than just tallying up a number of votes.
Apparently, The Oscars use a preferential voting system and this video explains in detail how the Best Picture will be decided by the Academy members' ballots. Why a preferential voting system? “Because it keeps asking the voters to express a preference: Which of these films do you prefer?”
The preferential system basically says to those voters, Your first choice was eliminated. Out of the seven movies that are still in the running, which do you prefer? That question can be answered by seeing which film is ranked second on each of those ballots. If, for instance, “Bridge of Spies” is the first film to be eliminated, and a “Bridge of Spies” voter has “Brooklyn” ranked second, that ballot goes into the pile for “Brooklyn.” If “The Revenant” is ranked second, the ballot goes into that pile. All of the “Bridge of Spies” voters are still casting a vote — but now they're casting it for the film in second place on their ballot, not the film in first.
