Oscars: New rules announced - AI actors and scripts cannot win awards

By David Mouriquand Published on 04/05/2026 - 8:51 GMT+2 Share Comments Share Facebook Twitter Flipboard Send Reddit Linkedin Messenger Telegram VK Bluesky Threads Whatsapp

The Academy has updated its rules for how artificial intelligence is used, including one that says all screenplays must be humanly created. There are more ambiguous statements regarding acting, however...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has, for the first time, addressed the use of artificial intelligence in performances and scripts for the 2027 Academy Awards.

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As part of its annual review of Oscar eligibility rules, the Academy has tackled the issue of AI.

While the new rules state that “the tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination” and that each branch “will judge the achievement, taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship when choosing which movie to award,” the Academy are reserving the right to request more information from the filmmaking team about the nature of the use of AI and “human authorship.”

“Humans have to be at the center of the creative process,” said Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor. “As AI continues to evolve, our conversations around AI will do so along with that. But for the academy, we are always going to put human authorship at the center of our awards eligibility process.”

When it comes to the eligibility of performances, only roles “demonstrably performed by humans with their consent” will be considered.

The organization declined to comment on whether the upcoming AI-generated Val Kilmer performance would be eligible.

“We will review that on a case-by-case basis,” Kramer said. “We, like everybody in our industry and world, we will be assessing this every year.”

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There is much less ambiguity in the screenplay categories, where the rules state that “screenplays must be human-authored to be eligible.”

Elsewhere, and in a notable shake-up, actors may now be nominated for multiple performances in the same category. For decades, it was not possible for an actor to be nominated twice for the same acting category.

Additionally, the academy revised its longstanding policy that the category of Best International Feature only consider one film per country or region, as determined by a local academy-approved selection committee. From now on, a non-English language film can qualify by winning the top prize at one of several major film festivals, including Berlin, Busan, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto and Venice. A single country can now also have more than one film nominated in the category, and all the international films will be credited as the nominee, not the country or region.

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The Academy’s changes come as industry tensions continue to grow. More and more A-listers are addressing the existential threat that AI poses, especially in the face of AI-generated actors making headlines.

They also coincide with recent comments made by Evangeline Lilly, who has criticised Disney for firing Marvel employees, largely from the visual development team, as part of company-wide layoffs.

This has led to speculation the company may be pivoting to AI for its special effects, although Marvel have made no official announcement confirming this.

Lilly, who starred in Marvel’s Ant-Man films, as well as appearing in Avengers: Endgame, took to Instagram to accuse Disney of turning its back on the people who built the MCU’s success.

“I reached out to my good friend Andy Park, who was the genius behind creating the original Wasp super-suit and concept drawings, and I said, ‘Is this true? Is this really what’s happening?’ He said, ‘Yeah, it’s true.’”

She continued: “I can’t quite believe that… that Disney has let go of the artists who brought the Marvel Universe to life through their genius and that the people who invented these characters and who designed them are being replaced by AI. AI that will take their designs and take what they created and use it to create iterations of that. I am so sorry, Andy. I am so sorry to every one of the artists who were let go.”

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Lilly wrote in her Instagram caption: “Disney, SHAME ON YOU for turning your back on the people who built the power you are now using to throw them away,” before questioning the laws surrounding replacing human workers with AI.

“Where are the laws that REMOVE all human art from the AI bank?!?” she asked. “Why do they get to steal our brilliance and use it to make executives rich while the artists responsible for feeding their robots go hungry?? Disgusting. California lawmakers…where are you?!?!?”

The 99th Oscars will be held on Sunday 14 March 2027.

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