That's what we did last year...
true. here's the "official" rules we made after last edition:
MOVIEFAN PROBOARDS ACADEMY AWARDS CEREMONY RULESThe MovieFan Academy exists of invited members of the MovieFan forum. An annual award ceremony is held and shall be headed by a board of supervisors, who manage and supervise the event. A director of the board will be named before December 1st of each year. He or she may then put other Academy members in charge of other tasks, such as making ballots or counting votes. The director is responsible for all related matters of the Awards ceremony at all times.
Rule OneAwards Definitions
1. Moviefan Academy Awards of merit shall be given annually to honor outstanding achievements in theatrically-released feature-length motion pictures.
2. Awards shall be conferred at an annual virtual Awards ceremony at the MovieFan online forum (http://moviefan.proboards20.com) for the following achievements:
(note: the categories with a * sign may not be given every year. See special rules for these categories for conditions of presentation.
ACTING
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM*
Best animated feature film of the year
CINEMATOGRAPHY*
Achievement in cinematography
DIRECTING
Achievement in directing
DOCUMENTARY*
Best documentary short or feature
NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM*
Best foreign language (foreign to US) film of the year.
MUSIC*
For achievements in music written for motion pictures, original scores only.
BEST PICTURE
Best motion picture of the year.
WRITING
Achievement in writing screenplay, may be given in two separate classifications:
-Adapted screenplay
-Original screenplay
3. A Special Testimonial Award shall be given at such times as in the judgment of the Board of Supervisors there are deserving recipients, but are not necessarily given each year. Either of the two following Special Awards can be awarded:
a) Honorary Award: this award shall be given to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement and exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences.*
b) Special Retrospective Award: Best motion picture of the year which had a primary exhibition within the two years prior to the Awards year, and is therefore not eligible for all main awards. To accommodate fairness in the voting process, the Board of Supervisors are allowed to ask their voting members to state their nation of residence to secure the members only vote for those films that did not screen in their home country before January 1st of the Award year.
Rule TwoEligibility
1. Eligibility for Moviefan Academy Award consideration is subject to Rules Two and Three, and to those special rules approved by the Board of Supervisors which follow.
2. All eligible motion pictures, unless otherwise noted, must be:
a) feature length (defined as over 40 minutes),
b) publicly exhibited in a commercial motion picture theatre,
c) within the awards year deadlines specified in Rule Three.
3. Films which, in any version, receive their first public exhibition or distribution in any manner other than as a theatrical motion picture release will not be eligible for Academy Awards in any category. (This includes broadcast and cable television, as well as home video marketing and internet transmission.) Neither will be films that were publicly exhibited in a commercial motion picture theatre before the awards year deadlines specified in Rule Three.
4. Motion pictures from all countries shall be eligible for the annual awards listed previously in Rule One, as long as they satisfy the requirements of the other applicable rules.
5. In any case, the Board of Supervisors shall resolve any questions of eligibility.
Rule ThreeThe Awards Year and Deadlines
1. The required qualifying run (described in Rule Two Paragraph 2) must open between January 1 and midnight of December 31, of the award year.
2. A picture first theatrically exhibited outside the U.S. prior to the qualifying run shall be eligible for submission provided the prior exhibition takes place in a commercial motion picture theater after January 1, 2003, with the following further conditions:
a) the film may not be exhibited publicly in any other medium for a three-month period following the commencement of its initial theatrical engagement, and
b) after the three-month period, the film may play in non-theatrical forms provided they are outside the U.S. (No film which is shown inside the U.S. in any non-theatrical form prior to its qualifying run shall be eligible for Awards.)
3. The Board of Supervisors see to it that all Academy members get ballots and that all polls will go fairly. The following dates concerning the
a) the Award ceremony will be held each year within the first three months of the new calendar year (as late as March 31st) to honor the previous year’s achievements.
b) the Board of Supervisors will send Nominations ballots to all active members before Christmas of the Awards year, concerning information on which categories will be given an award in, how much nominees each category will have and when all the deadlines are and when the ceremony will take place. Each Academy member is allowed to submit a number of achievements for each category equal to the eventual amount of nominations as confirmed by the Board of Supervisors in the Nominations ballot.
c) the Awards year ends at midnight December 31st
d) Nominations polls close a minimum of eight days prior to the Awards ceremony. Ballots will be send in anonymously and directly to the Board.
e) within a day after polls close, the Board of Supervisors will announce the nominations.
f) on the day of the announcement of the nominations, at least seven days prior to the Awards ceremony, the Board of Supervisors will send Final ballots to all active members, concerning information on which achievements have been nominated and how to cast one’s final vote(s).
g) On the day of ceremony, the Final polls will close at 5 p.m. PST. As late as 10 p.m. PST ultimately, the Board of Supervisors will announce the winners on the forum.
Rule Four Special Rules for the Best Picture of the Year Award
1. Nominations ballots shall be sent to all active members of the Moviefan Academy who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five productions.
2. The five pictures receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Best Picture Award.
3. The individual(s) who shall be credited for Moviefan Academy Award purposes shall be the person(s) having screen credit as producer or produced by. Persons with screen credits of executive producer, co-producer, associate producer, line producer, produced in association with, or any other credit, shall not receive nominations. No more than three producers may be nominated; if more than three producers are credited on a nominated picture, the Moviefan Academy Award recipients shall be those three or fewer who have performed the major portion of the producing functions. The Board of Supervisors shall resolve any questions of eligibility.
4. Final voting for the Best Picture Award shall be restricted to active and life Moviefan Academy members. They will mail their votes on the subsequent forms to the organization, who will count the votes. In the case of a tie, the Board of Supervisors has the right to make a decision, which may be either choosing a winner themselves through a unanimous call or placing a tiebreaker poll on the website.
Rule FiveSpecial Rules for the Acting Awards
1. Nominations ballots shall be sent to all active members of the Moviefan Academy who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five acting achievements in each category: Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role.
2. The five acting achievements in each category receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Acting Awards. In the case of a tie, the Board of Supervisors has the right to make a decision.
3. A performance by an actor or actress in any role shall be eligible for nomination either for the Best Performance in a Leading Role or for the Best Performance in a Supporting Role. If, however, all the dialogue has been dubbed by another actor, the performance shall not be eligible for award consideration. Singing which is dubbed will not affect the performer's eligibility unless it constitutes the entire performance. The determination as to whether a role is a lead or support shall be made individually by members of the branch at the time of balloting.
4. The leading role and supporting role categories will be tabulated simultaneously. If any performance should receive votes in both categories, the achievement shall only be placed on the ballot in that category in which it receives the greater percentage of the total votes.
5. In the event that two achievements by an actor or actress receive sufficient votes to be nominated in the same category, only one shall be nominated using the preferential tabulation process and such other allied procedures as may be necessary to achieve that result.
6. In the event that an actor or actress receives a sufficient number of votes to be nominated for one achievement in one category and for another achievement in the other category, both achievements shall be eligible.
7. Final voting for the Acting Awards shall be restricted to active and life Moviefan Academy members. In the case of a tie, the Board of Supervisors has the right to make a decision, which may be either choosing a winner themselves through a unanimous call or placing a tiebreaker poll on the website.
Rule SixSpecial Rules for the Best Writing of the Year Award
1. Nominations ballots shall be sent to all active members of the Moviefan Academy who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five screenplays in each category, which subject to the decision of the Board of Supervisors may be either one (Best Screenplay) or two (Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay).
2. The five writing achievements in each category receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Writing Awards. In the case of a tie, the Board of Supervisors has the right to make a decision.
3. The individual(s) who shall be credited for Moviefan Academy Award purposes shall be the person(s) having screen credit as writer, screenplay by, written by, screen story by or story by. Persons with screen credits of teleplay by, idea by, novel by or original screenplay by, shall not receive nominations. No more than five writers may be nominated; if more than five writers are credited on a nominated picture, the Moviefan Academy Award recipients shall be those five or fewer who have written the major portion of the final drafts of the screenplay, subject to the decisions of the Writer’s Guild of America. The Board of Supervisors shall resolve any questions of eligibility.
4. Final voting for the Best Writing Awards shall be restricted to active and life Moviefan Academy members. In the case of a tie, the Board of Supervisors has the right to make a decision, which may be either choosing a winner themselves through a unanimous call or placing a tiebreaker poll on the website.
Rule Seven Special Rules for the Special Retrospective Award
1. Nominations ballots shall be sent to all active members of the Moviefan Academy who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five productions.
2. The five pictures receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Best Picture Award.
3. The individual(s) who shall be credited for Moviefan Academy Award purposes shall be the person(s) having screen credit as producer or produced by. Persons with screen credits of executive producer, co-producer, associate producer, line producer, produced in association with, or any other credit, shall not receive nominations. No more than three producers may be nominated; if more than three producers are credited on a nominated picture, the Moviefan Academy Award recipients shall be those three or fewer who have performed the major portion of the producing functions. The Board of Supervisors shall resolve any questions of eligibility.
4. Final voting for the Best Picture Award shall be restricted to active and life Moviefan Academy members. In the case of a tie, the Board of Supervisors has the right to make a decision, which may be either choosing a winner themselves through a unanimous call or placing a tiebreaker poll on the website.
5. Films eligible for the Retrospective Award are those who have had a first general release in the countries of the MovieFan Academy members in the Awards year, while it’s official first public exhibition was within the two years prior to the Awards year. This generally excludes films produced in the Awards year from each member’s home country. Those films may, however, be eligible for Academy members from other countries, who didn’t have the opportunity yet to see that film in their country in the film’s initial year of release. Films that were originally produced more than two years prior to the Awards year are considered too dated to be eligible for the Retrospective Award.
6. The Board of Supervisors shall resolve any questions of eligibility.
Rule EightSpecial Rules for the Award with irregular time specifications
1. The Board of Supervisors may be choose to include some of the irregular categories into the ceremony. This concerns the following categories: Best Animated Feature Film, Best achievement in cinematography, Best documentary, Best non-English language film, Best achievement in music written for motion pictures, original scores only and Honorary Award.
2. With the exception of the Honorary Award, the three achievements in each category receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for these Special Awards, as opposed to five in the regular categories. In the case of a tie, the Board of Supervisors has the right to make a decision.
3. Final voting for the Special Awards shall be restricted to active and life Moviefan Academy members. The Honorary Award will be rewarded by means of a unanimous decision by the Board of Supervisors. In the case of a tie, the Board of Supervisors has the right to make a decision, which may be either choosing a winner themselves through a unanimous call or placing a tiebreaker poll on the website.