The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has topped the 10,000 mark in Oscar voters for the first time ever, with 10,136 members eligible to vote for the 98th Academy Awards.
And with nomination voting beginning on Monday and running to the end of the week, that means it’s time to answer our annual question: How many votes will it take to get an Oscar nomination?
According to an AMPAS Branch Count dated Jan. 5, 2026, the Academy now has 10,136 voting members, 231 more than it had in December of 2024. So if they all vote, it’ll take 922 votes to get a Best Picture nomination this year, 21 more than it took to get one last year. On the other end of the spectrum, it’ll only take 30 votes to be nominated for the new Best Casting Award, since the Casting Directors Branch has 176 members.
All but two of the Academy’s 20 branches grew over the past year, with the Animation Branch and the Producers Branch having the biggest increases of 31 and 28 members, respectively. On the other end of the spectrum, the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch has seven fewer voting members than it did a year ago, while the Actors Branch continued its steady descent by dropping by 56 members, going from 1,258 voters last year to 1,202 this year.
Actors still make up the Academy largest branch, but the gap between it and the 759-member Executives Branch is narrowing every year.
Before we get into the category-by-category breakdown, a reminder: When we say it takes 922 votes for a Best Picture nomination, we’re talking about first-place votes. Under the Oscars’ preferential or ranked-choice system, a voter typically lists his or her top five choices in order of preference. (In the Best Picture category, they’re allowed to list up to 10 choices.) After the first-place votes are added up, the lowest-ranking films are eliminated from contention, and their ballots are redistributed to the film ranked second on each ballot.
If the second choice has also been eliminated, or if it’s already hit the magic number and secured a nomination, the vote goes to the next highest contender on the ballot.
The redistribution continues until the field is narrowed to the final five nominees, or the final 10 for Best Picture.
To figure out the magic number for each category, you take the number of potential voters in that category and divide by the number of nominees, plus one. (In every case except Best Picture, that means you divide by 5+1, i.e. 6.) You round the result up to the next highest number, and that gives you a “magic number” that ensures a film or achievement will be in the Top 5 in that category.
Here’s the breakdown of what it’ll take to land a nomination in each category when voting begins on Jan. 8. Note: as the count goes on, the magic number can decrease.
Best Picture
If all 10,136 eligible voters cast ballots in this category, it would take 922 No. 1 votes to guarantee a nomination. But while it’s unrealistic to expect many films to have that many first-place votes in the initial count, contenders will probably have many rounds to pick up additional votes as other films are eliminated.
Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress
The size of the Actors Branch fell from 1,258 to 1,202 members this year, which means that the magic number fell as well, from 210 to 201. If every one of the voters in the Academy’s largest branch casts a ballot, that’s how many votes it’ll take to land a nomination in each of the Oscars’ four acting categories.
Best Animated Feature
In its second year of existence after a split in the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch, the Animation Branch grew from 677 members to 708, making it the Academy’s fourth-largest branch. Normally, the 708 members would mean that 118 votes would secure a nomination – but voting in this category is open not only to all members of the branch, but to all Academy members outside the branch who volunteer to take part in the voting.
In order for their vote to count, a member must view all of the films on a required-viewing list of around a dozen films, but they can also watch and vote for any of the 35 eligible films. The number required to land a nomination depends entirely on how many members participate in that process.
Best Casting
With the introduction of a casting Oscar for the first time ever this year, the 176-member Casting Directors Branch becomes the smallest voting branch. An initial round of meetings led by the branch’s executive committee narrowed the field to 10 films. A “bake-off’ event will be held to show clips from the shortlisted films and conduct a Q&A with the casting directors, and members of the branch will have access to view the reels and read written descriptions of the casting process. If every member of the branch sees all 10 films and casts a ballot, 30 votes will secure a nomination.
Best Cinematography
The branch has 315 current voting members, 23 more than last year. For the first time, this category has instituted a shortlist. Voters from the branch can now choose from among 16 semi-finalists, with 53 first-place votes landing a nomination. That’s an increase after three consecutive years with a magic number of 49.
Best Costume Design
With 195 members, 14 more than last year, costume designers make up the second-smallest Academy branch. Its magic number went up by two and costume-design nomination can be secured with 33 votes.
Best Director
There are now 594 voters in the Directors Branch, five more than last year, which means that 100 votes will guarantee a nomination if they all vote.
Best Documentary Feature
After a first round of voting narrowed the field of 201 qualifying films to a 15-film shortlist, the 719 members of the Documentary Branch will pick their five favorites, as long as they’ve seen all of the shortlisted docs. If they all cast ballots, it’ll take 120 votes to be nominated, four more than last year.
Best Documentary Short
The same 719 members of the doc branch will be eligible to vote from another a 15-film shortlist. It’s highly unlikely that everyone in the branch will watch the eligible shorts and vote — but if they were to do that, this magic number would also be 120.
Best Film Editing
With 408 members of the Film Editors Branch, 16 more than last year, you’ll need 68 votes to secure a nod.
Best International Feature Film
This category is also open to volunteer members from all branches of the Academy, but AMPAS never reveals how many participate. The field of 86 contenders was narrowed to a 15-film shortlist, and voting is now open to any member who sees all 15 of those films, which are available on the Academy’s members website. The magic number will depend entirely on how many members see all the films and vote.
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
The branch has 229 voting members, seven fewer than last year. The members have already narrowed the film to a shortlist of 10, and nomination-round voting is now restricted to branch members who view a special presentation of bake-off clips and discussions, or members who have seen all 10 shortlisted films. If every member of the branch participates in one of those ways, it would take 39 votes to secure a nomination, one less than last year.
Best Original Score, Best Original Song
The Music Branch contains 421 voting members. The 135 eligible scores and 68 eligible songs have gone through an initial round of voting that narrowed the contenders to a song shortlist of 15 and a score shortlist of 20. In the nomination round of voting, the magic number will be 71, assuming everybody votes.
Best Production Design
The branch has 440 members, 19 more than last year, so 74 votes will be enough for a nomination.
Best Sound
The Sound Branch has grown from 551 to 566 members, an increase of 15 since last year. An initial round of voting produced a shortlist of 10 films, which must submit a clip reel of up to 10 minutes highlighting the sound achievements. With the new members in the branch, the nomination threshold has gone up three to 95 votes.
Best Visual Effects
There are 664 members of the branch, which would mean a magic number of 111 if the VFX branch calculated nominations the way most of the other branches do. But it doesn’t.
Two preliminary rounds of voting by the Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee will narrow the field to 20 and then to 10. Those semi-finalists will take part in a bake-off that includes clips and discussions of the work.
Members then cast ballots to select the five nominees – but instead of the ranked-choice system, the branch uses reweighted range voting, which divides each individual score by the total score given to all candidates on that ballot. The idea is to identify the films that score strongest against the rest of the field. At no point in the count does a magic number come into play.
Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay
The Writers Branch has 527 voting members, four more than last year, meaning it requires 88 votes to guarantee a writing nomination. That number is unchanged since last year.
Best Animated Short, Best Live Action Short
The Short Films Branch has 217 voting members. But that’s essentially irrelevant in these two categories. In the animated-short category, members of both the Short Film Branch and the Feature Animation Branch were eligible to vote in the shortlist round, provided they saw a minimum number of the 113 qualifying films. In the live-action category, all members of the Academy were invited to vote.
Now that the field has been narrowed to 15 films, all members of the Academy are eligible to vote as long as they see everything on the shortlist. (That takes a little more than three hours for animation, 3:42 for live action.) The number for a nomination could theoretically be as high as the number for Best Picture, but of course it’s far less than that.
Branches without awards categories
Members of additional branches only vote for Best Picture, or for the categories that solicit volunteers from across the Academy. The Artists Representatives Branch increased in size by 22 members, to 244; the Executives Branch increased by one, to 759; the Marketing and Public Relations Branch increased by 11, to 657; the Producers Branch increased by 28, to 680; the Production and Technology Branch increased by 19, to 415; and the nonvoting group of Associate Members increased by five, to 45. Emeritus members, who also do not vote, dropped by four, to 945.
The total of all Academy members, voting, associate and emeritus, now stands at 11,126.
Nomination voting will begin on Monday, Jan. 12 and close on Friday, Jan. 16. Nominations will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 22.
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