Talent and elite filmmaking might earn you an invitation to the Oscars, but it takes a lot more to actually clinch one of those golden knight awards.
In reality, an Oscar win is the result of careful groundwork, much like a political campaign. Call that an Oscar campaign.
Competitiveness must have been thoroughly considered from the moment the movie was conceived to the moment it was filmed.
But besides creating a masterpiece, the nominee, both the film itself and the cast, must be in the faces of viewers for months leading up to the award ceremony, especially after nominations are announced.
This careful planning is not just about having a 24-karat gold-plated statue on the mantle, but, like in video games, it’s an instant multiplier for every winner’s future movies.
For the movie, winners in the Best Picture category increase their streaming deals or box office earnings. For the individuals, the title “Academy Award winner” adds an extra layer of value to their career.
More offers roll in from filmmakers, the quotations go up, and some take the chance to pursue their own projects.
Here’s a deep-dive into the underground work that goes into priming a project to join the century-long lineage of Oscar winners.
Image credits: oscars.org
The "Oscar Bait" Strategy: Choosing the Right Story
History is proof enough that the preparation for winning an Oscar starts with choosing the kind of story the director wants to tell with the film.
Backstage data show that drama has accounted for over 50% of Best Picture winners since 2009, when the nominees were increased to 10.
Within this category, some sub-genres, such as biopics, historical dramas, and films that address important societal issues, are still clearly rated higher by Academy voters.
Hollywood’s favouritism for biopics dates as far back as the second-ever Academy Awards ceremony, where The Patriot, a semi-biographical drama, bagged nominations in four of seven award categories, though it only scored one win for Best Writing.
Since the 59th Academy Awards, the number of Best Actor nominees from biopic roles has increased.
Of course, filmmakers and actors also caught on to the Academy voters’ attraction to these “Oscar baits” and have invested in them to get their hands on the statue.
Image credits: theformulameme / Instagram
According to Time Magazine, these historical dramas are the industry’s chance to celebrate icons like John Nash of A Beautiful Mind, who won the Best Picture category at the 74th edition, and most recently, Oppenheimer at the 96th Awards in 2024.
Among the 2026 Best Picture nominees, the biopic theory has proven true yet again. Nominees Marty Supreme, inspired by Marty Reisman’s life, and Hamnet, a biopic of Shakespeare, are strong contenders for the award.
As a general rule, winning films that shed light on important social topics and carry a moral weight that does not appear to be accorded to fictional movies, no matter how great.
Oscar nominations and wins also appear to favour movies that require the actor to undergo extreme physical transformations.
Losing as much weight as Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto did for Dallas Buyers Club, or using heavy prosthetics like Brendan Fraser did in The Whale, displays an uncommon level of commitment to the art.
Combine that with good acting, and it easily translates into an epic performance in the eyes of the audience and the Academy voters. The rigorous work that goes into this role often serves as the foundation for the Oscar campaigns of these films.
Image credits: Darmok_At_Tanagra / Reddit
Not only do actors and filmmakers have a strategy for the Oscars, but production studios also make calculated moves to push their best or most expensive movies to what is known as the “Oscar season”.
To keep these big movies fresh in the minds of the awards voters ahead of the mid-January balloting, they don’t release until late in the fourth quarter, between October and December.
The timing also allows the film to build its own momentum among the general audience and film critics for awards such as the Golden Globes, SAG, and BAFTA Awards.
The Multi-Million Dollar Campaign: It’s All About Lobbying
Besides the massive investment required to produce a movie, the cost of marketing in pursuit of an Oscar statuette can be just as crippling. In the case of a movie like Anora (2024), marketing costs can even exceed production costs.
A standard Oscar campaign can short production studios nearly $20 million, and for competitive players like Netflix and Universal, this amount can go higher, according to Variety.
For the latest winner of the prestigious Best Picture award, the studio Neon spent about $18m, about three times the production cost, on Anora’s Oscar campaign.
Streaming services like Netflix open their wallets even wider for a movie like “Roma” with a rumoured budget of about $25m in 2018.
This budget was spent on special screenings, promotional gifts to Academy voters, and advertisements, according to IndieWire.
Safe to say it was a good investment, with the movie bagging 3 wins from a total of 10 nominations, including Netflix’s first Oscar nomination for Best Picture.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is a body comprising about 10,000 entertainment industry professionals with 17 branches, and marketing to them requires strategic planning.
Studios organise exclusive screenings of these big hitters and follow up with question-and-answer sessions with the film’s cast and director, just as A24 Films is doing with Marty Supreme for the upcoming 2026 Oscars.
These events help the film build special connections with the journalists and critics who are voting members of the Academy.
While there are strict rules to prevent outright bribery and coercion, promotional gifts with no real monetary value and website advertisements are permitted under the Academy regulations.
Behind the scenes of every Oscar campaign is a team of strategists who act as the campaign managers, directing every publicity move for the film.
These strategists create a story around the movie, something that sells to the media and the audience and keeps attention for months leading up to Oscar season.
For instance, the campaign for Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant relied heavily on his long-overdue Oscar, leading to his first and only Best Actor win to date. For 2023’s The Whale, the press coverage and marketing were focused on Brendan Fraser’s comeback to the screens, including his own personal struggles so far.
Image credits: Eikichi_Onizuka09 / Reddit
Data-Driven Victory: The Stats Behind the Trophies
Visual data analysis by the Data Visualisation Society suggests that the average Academy voter may be a victim of the “Oscar-bait” trend, with biopics and historical dramas still the highest-rated by most members.
While the Academy has, in recent years, invited hundreds of new members to improve its diversity, available data indicate that the majority of members are still white and male.
Image credits: Christian Tate / informationisbeautifulawards.com
According to the LA Times, about 24% of Oscar voters live outside the United States, and this global shift has increased the chances for a movie like Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite (2020), the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture.
At the end of the day, or rather the Oscar season, winning an award is rarely a surprise because of the momentum built leading up to the D-day.
A major part of this momentum is the awards ceremonies that precede the Oscars, including the Golden Globes, SAG-AFTRA, BAFTA, DGA, PGA, and Critics’ Choice awards.
Think of these awards as primary elections, gearing up the industry for the anticipated Oscar ceremony, with votes coming in from colleagues of the nominated directors (DGA) and actors (SAG). While the Golden Globes have no overlap with the Academy's voters, it is still a major influence on who wins at the Oscars in the coming weeks.
Common Myths About Winning an Oscar
A common misconception about the Academy, despite being thrown in the dust many times, is that the highest-grossing movies eligible for voting are always the frontrunners to win awards.
In truth, the facts point to niche indie movies that don’t chart high, going home with awards.
The New York Times records that between 2004 and 2018, none of the Best Picture winners were among the top 10 highest-grossing films at the Box Office.
Movies like Moonlight (2016) won the coveted prize despite a Box Office gross of $65 million, while ones like Avengers: Endgame, with grosses pushing towards $3 billion, were not even recognised with a nomination.
Another scarce-known fact is that the Best Actor award is only for performance in a film in a year. In fact, there are occasions where the Best Actor is unofficially awarded as a ‘lifetime achievement’.
This means that the Academy rewards an industry veteran for a good performance because it has been long overdue. Just like with Al Pacino’s win for Scent of a Woman, or Leonardo’s for The Revenant, both legends had been denied Oscar recognition for previous iconic performances.
So, basically, the Academy rewards the actor's entire filmography rather than the year’s performance in a movie.
Image credits: r/Oscars
However, there is also an official Honorary Award section that bypasses the year and deadline requirements to honor “exceptional contributions to the motion picture arts and sciences of any discipline, or outstanding service to the Academy.”
Also, people seem to believe that the Academy ignores the cinema blockbusters with large production budgets.
This has been repeatedly proven wrong because these films excel in categories outside the “Big Five”: Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay.
The Academy recognises the craft work in these films and deservedly awards them in those categories.
A movie like Mad Max: Fury Road went home with 6 statuettes in 2016 for wins in Cinematography, Editing, Score, Visual Effects, Production Design, and Sound.
However, with the most recent exception of Oppenheimer at the 2024 Oscars, winning awards for Director, Actor, and Picture, blockbusters rarely have a good day in these categories.
🔔 Stay Tuned for Hollywood’s Biggest Night!
We are gearing up for a massive Live Oscars 2026 Coverage event. Mark your calendars for March 15th, we’ll be right here with real-time winner updates, red-carpet highlights, and expert analysis of every viral moment. Check back soon for our official live-tracking page!
We are gearing up for a massive Live Oscars 2026 Coverage event. Mark your calendars for March 15th, we’ll be right here with real-time winner updates, red-carpet highlights, and expert analysis of every viral moment. Check back soon for our official live-tracking page!
Conclusion
Laying hands on one of the golden statues of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is barely ever the result of pure talent, but also requires the perfect alignment of good timing, a compelling story, and a great campaign.
The Oscar is the gold standard of achievement in the film industry and remains the most career-defining stat in Hollywood, even as it approaches its 100th anniversary.
FAQs
Can an actor win an Oscar for a short performance?
Yes. The Academy does not have a minimum screen time requirement for actors/actresses to be eligible, so a short performance can win an Oscar.
What is "Oscar Bait"?
Oscar Bait refers to movies created to intentionally appeal to the Academy's taste in the hope of winning an Oscar.
Who refused the Oscar for best actor?
George C. Scott refused to accept his Best Actor Oscar award for his performance in Patton (1971) because he believed acting, as an art, shouldn’t be competitive.
How much is a real Oscar worth?
An Oscar is legally worth only a dollar. According to Academy regulations, winners had to offer the gold statue to the Academy at that price before trying to sell it.