A film can still open in theaters this December and be in the running for Best Picture at the 99th Oscars. But its distributor or producer needed to get the paperwork in by 5 p.m. Pacific on Thursday, Nov. 12. Under the Academy’s rules, an entrant that had yet to complete its initial qualifying run needed to confirm the booking by the deadline. If the wider Best Picture run was unfinished, the entrant also needed to confirm that booking or provide plans with specific dates, markets and theaters.
The first run is the General Entry qualifying run. It can start as late as Dec. 31, 2026, and must last at least seven days in a row at the same commercial theater, with paid admission. The Academy’s deadline notice lists six qualifying U.S. areas: Los Angeles County, New York City, designated counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, Cook County for Chicago, Dallas and Tarrant counties for Dallas–Fort Worth, and Fulton County for Atlanta. The theater must screen the film at least three times a day, with at least one show starting between 6 and 10 p.m.
Best Picture asks for a wider release. That first market counts as one of the ten. The film needs nine more markets under Rule Twenty, with at least seven days of paid public screenings and at least one show per day in the expansion. Those seven days don’t have to be consecutive. The nine markets come from the Academy’s top 50 U.S. list, but if the film can’t meet that requirement, the Academy can approve up to two distinct territories outside the U.S. as substitutes. Entrants also had to file the confidential inclusion form and meet two of the Academy’s four representation and inclusion standards.
For a film whose first qualifying run starts Dec. 31 and lasts exactly seven days, that run ends Jan. 6. Rule Twenty measures the 45-day expansion window from the end of the qualifying run and allows screenings on either side of that date. For an expansion that goes past Dec. 31, the formal rule caps it at Jan. 21, 2027, or the end of the 45-day window, whichever comes first. In this example, Jan. 21 is the cutoff: there are only 15 calendar days after the qualifying run ends. The film can use eligible expansion dates before then, including before the first run finishes.
The Academy’s public guidance doesn’t give a single version of that timetable. The deadline notice describes the 45 days from initial release, while the Best Picture FAQ uses the end of the qualifying run but lists Jan. 22 as the cap. The dates in the example above follow Rule Twenty. For moviegoers, the rules call for screenings open to the paying public in specific markets. They give no assurance of a nationwide release; check the film’s local theater listings for where and when it’s actually playing.