Czech Film and Television Academy, registered association
Voting on the candidate of the Czech Republic for the “best international feature film” within the framework of the AMPAS awards
- The Czech Fim and Television Academy, registered association (hereinafter referred to as Academy) suggests the candidate representing the Czech Republic for the voting on the International Feature Film within the frameworks of awards annually presented by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the so-called Oscar (hereinafter referred to as Candidate, Awards and Organiser).
- The films are included in the voting of the Academy on the Candidate for the relevant year based on the applications of their producers which have to be delivered to the Academy by the deadline set by the presidium of the Academy (hereinafter referred to as Presidium).
- The film can be included in the voting on condition that the producer provided the Academy by the deadline set by the Presidium with:
- the film (in the current form if it is not finished yet) and the related permission for its utilization so that it could be made accessible to the members of the Academy for the purpose of voting,
- information and the documents that are necessary in order to verify if the film fulfils the conditions for being included in the voting on the Award set by the Organiser,
- information and documents that have to be delivered to the Organiser in connection with the potential candidature for the Award and
- information and documents related to the film and its festival and distribution strategy.
- Included into the voting on the Candidate can be only such films which fulfil the criteria and conditions announced by the Organiser in the relevant year, mainly regarding the date of their publishing/premiere and the distribution criteria.
- The members of the Academy then vote on the in time and duly enrolled films. The voting is non-public and there are two rounds, while the five films selected in the first round move to the second. In the first round the committee (hereinafter referred to as Committee) consisting of the members of the Academy votes on the films and in the second round all the members of the Academy can vote, provided that they are not excluded from the voting following the conditions of the Organiser. The closing date is in both cases set by the Presidium.
- Before the voting in the first round, the Academy makes the enrolled films accessible to the Committee in such a way that they are accessible remotely; the films will be accessible based on log in and the access will be protected by a password. The Academy furnishes the films with trademarks in the image (a logo, a watermark etc.). Before the second round of voting, the Academy makes the films which will be voted on in the second round accessible in an analogous way to all the members of the Academy. For the second round of voting, the producers will get the opportunity to substitute the firstly submitted version of an unfinished film by a more recent or, as the case may be, by the final version of the film.
- For the purpose of making an informed decision within the framework of the first round of voting, the Academy will provide the members of the Committee with the documents according to paragraph 3, article d).
- The Committee will be newly established for each new year of voting. The Committee consists of seven members and its composition (even in case of replacement of some members by substitutes) has to correspond with the rules of the Organiser, i.e. it has to consist only of those members of the Academy that are the citizens of the Czech Republic and most of the members of the Committee have to be either film artists or actors.
- The composition of the Committee is decided by postal vote of the members of the Academy and that has to be from those members of the Academy who after being invited by the Presidium agree to become members of the Committee and who at the same time fulfil the conditions set by the Organiser. Those seven aspirants who in the voting by the Presidium get the most votes become the members of the Committee, in case of equality of the votes at the seventh position the decision is made by a draw. However, if the majority of the thus selected Committee members does not consist of film artists and actors, then four members of the Committee who are actors or film artists will be selected according to the number of votes for the applicants and just then the remaining members of the Committee will be selected. The not selected applicants will be ordered in a list of substitutes according to the number of obtained votes and out of these the executive committee of the Academy will choose the substitute members of the Committee according to their order in case any of the selected members of the Committee could not participate in the dealings of the Committee due to an impediment according to paragraph 11, being it an impediment discovered subsequently and related to the rules of the Organiser (including the impediments according to paragraph 14) or an impediment by force majeure.
- The members of the Committee are obliged to prepare for the dealings of the Committee in such a way that they watch all the enrolled films and study the documents related to the films made accessible to them by the Academy. The members of the Committee are obliged to take part in the dealings of the Committee unless it is prevented by force majeure or an impediment following from the rules of the Organiser, which has to be related to the Academy immediately after the impediment appears. The members of the Committee do not get remunerated for their activities in the Committee.
- The voting in the first round takes place in person within the framework of the dealing of the Committee which has to be summoned at least one month ahead. The Committee chooses a chairman from the members present. The Committee is quorate for the purpose of voting on condition that at least five members of the Committee are present and out of these at least three are film artists or actors. If the Committee is not quorate, its dealing will be summoned repeatedly, in which case the members of the Committee who did not take part in the originally summoned meeting without a prior excuse will be substituted by new members of the Committee in a way according to paragraph 9. The producers of the enrolled films can take part in the dealings of the Committee in order to present the enrolled films and their festival and distribution strategy. The producers of the enrolled films can take part in the dealings of the Committee in person or via remote access (online). The members of the Committee take part in the dealings in person, and only under exceptional and justifiable circumstances they can also take part via remote access (online).
- The voting in the first round is organised so that after the presentations and discussions each present member of the Committee votes for at least one and five of the enrolled films at the most without stating their order. The voting is non-public. Should any member of the Committee vote for more than five films, their vote is not valid. Five films that thus obtain the most votes proceed to the second round. If in case of equality of the votes, more than five films are selected as a result of the above stated rules, there is another vote on those films that obtained the least votes and if there is an equality of votes despite this then the decision is made by a draw.
- In the second round all the members of the Academy can vote as long as they fulfil the conditions of the Organiser; however, the members of the Academy are not obliged to vote. The subjects of the voting are those films that proceeded from the first round. These films will be presented to the members of the Academy for the voting without any commentary or recommendation of the Committee. However, the films will be accompanied by a letter from the producer, provided that these are delivered to the Academy in time. The voting in the second round takes place by means of an internet application which can be accessed by the members of the Academy via a unique link. In the second round each voter votes for one film only. The film that has obtained the most votes becomes the candidate. In case of the equality of the votes, the number of the votes in the first round is the decisive factor and if that number is also the same the decision is made by a draw. The results as well as the potential draw are verified by a notary.
- When it comes to the dealings of the Committee and the voting in the first round, the members of the Committee who professionally participated in any of the enrolled films and also those members of the Committee who have not watched all the enrolled films by the time the dealings start will be excluded from the dealings.
- When it comes to the voting in the second round, the members of the Academy who professionally participated in any of the enrolled films that proceeded to the second round and also those members of the Committee who have not watched all the films that proceeded to the second round by the time for their voting will be excluded from the voting in the second round.
- It is understood that a member of the Committee or a member of the Academy participated professionally in a film if their name is mentioned in the credits of the film (or in the final credit document in case of films that have not been finished by the date of the voting) with the exception of the acknowledgement section, unless the Organiser specifies different rules for the relevant annual Awards regarding the elimination of the conflict of interests. The verification of the non-existence of the reasons for such exclusion of a member of the Committee or Academy takes place by checking the credits and credit documents of the enrolled films as well as statutory declarations of the voting persons. In the first round of voting, the statutory declaration of each voting member of the Committee according to the previous sentence is part of the minutes of the dealings of the Committee.
- The fulfilment of the condition that the voting member of the Committee has watched all the films or that the member of the Academy has watched all the films that proceeded to the second round is certified by a statutory declaration which is in case of the first round of voting part of the minutes of the dealings of the Committee and in the second round the certification of its veracity is part of the voting procedure.
- If the Academy obtains five or less enrolments in the given year according to paragraph 2, the first round of voting does not take place and the Candidate will be selected directly by the voting of all the members of the Academy who are not excluded from the voting following the rules of the Organiser, using the procedure according to paragraphs 13 and 15.
- This internal regulation of the Academy was approved by the Presidium of the Academy on 11.5.2026.