BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.— Very soon, the annual mailing of the official Oscar ballots — one of the goofier rituals in the annual Academy Awards cycle — will be a thing of the past. On Thursday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which presents the Oscars, sent a letter advising its 6,000 or so voting members that an electronic system for Oscar voting will be implemented “as early as this year, and will certainly be in effect by next year.”
The letter, which was signed by Kimberly Roush, the academy’s director of membership, asked members for a personal email address that is distinct from anything that goes to an assistant or intermediary. “At some point, once the system is up and running,” wrote Ms. Roush, “mailed ballots will be eliminated.”
The much-anticipated shift to electronic voting could have enormous import for awards season. By eliminating the lag time that comes with paper ballots, which were sent through the mail, the academy’s governors could move the awards night from late February to an earlier weekend. Many in Hollywood have argued that earlier awards will mean a shorter, more vibrant season; others have contended that less time to mull the movies means less attention to them over all, and perhaps fewer ticket sales.
To date, academy officials have been wary of an electronic system, which they feared might be subject to breach by hackers, or might tend to disenfranchise some of the older, less digitally inclined members. Teni Melidonian, a spokeswoman for the academy, had no immediate comment on the mailing.