More Than a Third of Oscar-Qualifying Films This Year Are Not Eligible for Best Picture

“Bad Boys: Ride or Die,” “Mean Girls” and Andrea Arnold’s “Bird” are among the titles excluded from competition for the top award

Oscar statuettes
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There are 323 feature films eligible for the upcoming Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Monday, though a whopping 36% of those – 116 feature films – are not eligible for consideration in the Best Picture category.

The discrepancy between films that have qualified for the top category and films that are eligible in other categories comes either because the filmmakers did not attempt to qualify – likely the case for several documentary, animated or international films. Or because of new eligibility rules that require Best Picture candidates to meet additional benchmarks for diversity and inclusion.

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