Oscars 2027 Explained: Shortlists, Nominations and the Road to 14 March

The 99th Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 14, 2027, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The ceremony airs live at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) on ABC and streams on Hulu, with Conan O’Brien returning as host for a third consecutive year. But the ceremony is the last stop on a four-month road, and the first major milestone arrives in just over a month: the Oscar shortlists, announced on Tuesday, December 15, 2026.

This article explains that road in order — the shortlists, the nominations, the voting, and the ceremony — so you know what each date means and what to watch for at each stage.

The key dates, in order

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and ABC announced the dates for the 99th and 100th Oscars in April 2026, and the Academy notes that all dates are subject to change. For the 99th Oscars, the published timetable is as follows.

The eligibility period for films runs from January 1 to December 31, 2026. The final submission deadline for general entry categories and animated feature films is Thursday, November 12, 2026 — tomorrow — at 5 p.m. PT. Preliminary voting, in which Academy members narrow the field in the 12 categories that use shortlists, runs from December 7 to December 11, 2026. The Oscar shortlists are announced on Tuesday, December 15, 2026.

Nominations voting begins at 9 a.m. PT on Monday, January 11, 2027, and ends at 5 p.m. PT on Friday, January 15, 2027. The Oscar nominations are announced on Thursday, January 21, 2027. The Oscars Nominees Luncheon, the traditional gathering of all the nominees, takes place on Tuesday, February 16, 2027. Final voting runs in late February and ends on March 4, 2027, according to trade coverage of the Academy’s calendar. The 99th Oscars ceremony follows on Sunday, March 14, 2027.

Two dates outside that list are worth knowing. The Governors Awards, at which the Academy presents its honorary Oscars, take place on Sunday, November 15, 2026 — this coming Sunday — and the honorees this year include Glenn Close and Ridley Scott. And the 100th Academy Awards, the centenary ceremony, are already scheduled for Sunday, March 5, 2028.

For viewers outside the United States, the 7 p.m. ET start time on March 14 means a midnight start in the United Kingdom (12 a.m. GMT on Sunday night into Monday morning) and a late-morning start in Australia — 11 a.m. AEDT on Monday in Sydney. The Academy says the ceremony will air in more than 200 territories worldwide.

What the shortlists are, and why they matter

The shortlist announcement on December 15 is the first time the Academy publicly narrows the field, and it is the date that rewards close attention. Twelve categories use shortlists: Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, International Feature Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound, Visual Effects, and the two categories that use preliminary voting in other forms. In each of those categories, Academy members vote in December to cut a long list of eligible entries down to a shortlist, usually of 15 films.

The shortlists matter for two reasons. First, they are the first reliable signal of which films the Academy’s own members are taking seriously, as opposed to which films the trade press is predicting. A film that misses a shortlist in a category it was expected to dominate is a real story; a film that makes a shortlist nobody predicted is a bigger one. Second, the shortlists decide what is still in play. A film that is not on the December 15 shortlist cannot be nominated in that category on January 21, whatever the campaign around it says.

The 2027 season also carries a specific rule worth knowing for Best Picture contenders: an expanded seven-day theatrical run, consecutive or not, in 10 of the top 50 US markets, within 45 days of initial release and completed by January 21, 2027. That is a deliberately demanding bar, designed to make sure Best Picture nominees are films that audiences could actually see in cinemas.

How nominations are decided

Nominations voting runs from January 11 to January 15, 2027. The Academy’s membership numbers around 10,000 or more, and most categories are nominated by members of the relevant branch: directors nominate directors, actors nominate actors, cinematographers nominate cinematographers. Best Picture is the exception: all voting members can nominate for Best Picture.

That branch system is the defining feature of Oscar nominations. It means a nomination is a professional judgement by the people who do that job, not a popularity contest and not a critics’ prize. It is also why the nominations announcement on January 21 is the most consequential morning of the season: it is the moment the Academy’s own members tell the world what they think the best work of 2026 was, and it sets the field for the final vote.

One rule change for the 99th Oscars is worth noting. Actors are no longer limited to a single nomination per category. An individual may now hold multiple nominations in a single acting category for different performances in the same year, bringing the acting categories into line with the rules for Best Director. The Academy has also updated its rules on generative AI: human authorship and performance are required, and AI performances are not eligible.

The new category: Best Casting, year two

The 99th Oscars will present awards in 24 categories, and one of them is still new. Best Casting, introduced for the 98th Oscars, is only in its second year as an Oscar category, and it remains the newest prize on the ballot. It rewards the casting director and the ensemble they assembled, and early predictions for the 2027 race have pointed to bold, unconventional choices — including Being Heumann, Siân Heder’s Apple drama about disability rights campaigner Judy Heumann, and La Bola Negra, a Netflix epic from the Spanish directors known as Los Javis.

The question the category raises is a real one: will voters reward genuine casting ambition, or simply default to whichever Best Picture frontrunner had the splashiest ensemble? The answer will tell us something about how seriously the Academy takes its own newest award.

The host, the producers, and the show itself

Conan O’Brien will host the 99th Oscars for a third consecutive year. He hosted the 97th Oscars in 2025, returned for the 98th in 2026, and the Academy announced in May 2026 that he would return for the 99th. Executive producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan return for a fourth consecutive year, with Jeff Ross and Mike Sweeney returning as producers. O’Brien has won six Primetime Emmy Awards and earned 33 nominations, including a nomination for his work on the Oscars.

Three consecutive years is a significant run by modern standards, and it signals that the Academy is happy with the tone O’Brien set: a ceremony that is funny without being cruel, and that treats the awards themselves as the main event rather than a backdrop for the host’s act. The show airs live on ABC and streams on Hulu, the same arrangement as recent years, and the Academy says it will be televised live in more than 200 territories worldwide.

The season around the Oscars

The Oscars do not happen in isolation. The Golden Globes, on January 10, 2027, fall the day before Oscar nomination voting begins, which means Globe winners are announced while Academy voters are still deciding. The Governors Awards, on November 15, 2026, open the season’s ceremonial phase. Between the nominations announcement on January 21 and the ceremony on March 14, the guild awards — the Producers Guild, Directors Guild, Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild — will hand out their own prizes, and each one is a data point for the final vote.

That is the structure to keep in mind when the predictions start. The shortlists on December 15 tell you what is in play. The nominations on January 21 tell you what the Academy’s members actually chose. The guild awards in February tell you where the industry’s momentum is. And the ceremony on March 14 is where the final-round ballots, cast by all voting members across all categories, are finally opened.

For the ceremony that opens the season, see our guide to the Golden Globes 2027. For the Governors Awards and this year’s honorary Oscar recipients, see our guide to the Governors Awards 2026. And for how awards voting works across the Oscars, the Grammys and the Emmys, see our guide to how awards voting works.

Frequently asked questions

When are the 2027 Oscars?
Sunday, March 14, 2027, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The ceremony airs live at 7 p.m. ET (4 p.m. PT) on ABC and streams on Hulu.

Who is hosting the 2027 Oscars?
Conan O’Brien, hosting for a third consecutive year.

When are the Oscar shortlists announced?
Tuesday, December 15, 2026, after preliminary voting from December 7 to 11. Twelve categories use shortlists.

When are the Oscar nominations announced?
Thursday, January 21, 2027, after nominations voting from January 11 to 15, 2027.

How many categories are there?
Twenty-four categories, including Best Casting, which is in only its second year as an Oscar category.

When is the 100th Oscars?
Sunday, March 5, 2028.

Sources

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “The Academy and ABC Announce Show Dates for 99th and 100th Oscars”: Oscars Press
• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “99th Oscars Reunites Host Conan O’Brien and Executive Producers Raj Kapoor and Katy Mullan”: Oscars Press
• Wikipedia, “99th Academy Awards”: Wikipedia
• Screen Daily, “Academy dates 99th and 100th Oscar ceremonies”: Screendaily
• Enstarz, “Oscars 2027 Countdown: Submission Deadline Is Nov. 12 — Every Key Date for the 99th Academy Awards”: Enstarz