The Academy's AI rules test human authorship, the Golden Globes' demand a written disclosure of every use

On Friday 1 May 2026 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that its Board of Governors had approved awards rules, inclusion standards and campaign regulations for the 99th Academy Awards. For the first time the rules address generative artificial intelligence directly.

The operative language is short. Under Rule Two, eligibility, the Academy reserves the right to request more information about the nature of the use and human authorship. In the acting categories, only roles credited in the film's legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent will be considered eligible. In the writing categories, screenplays must be human-authored to be eligible.

Much of the coverage compressed that into a prohibition. Euronews published on 4 May 2026 under the headline that AI actors and scripts cannot win awards. The rules as reported do not say that. They set a human authorship condition in two categories, they attach a consent requirement to performances, and they give the Academy a right to ask questions about any film. A film that used generative tools in visual effects, editing, sound or previsualisation is not disqualified by any of the language reproduced in the coverage retrieved for this article, and the Academy has said it will treat contested cases, such as the AI assisted Val Kilmer performance, one at a time.

That is consistent with what the Academy said a year earlier. In April 2025, on the recommendation of its Science and Technology Council, it stated that with regard to generative artificial intelligence and other digital tools used in the making of a film, the tools neither help nor harm the chances of achieving a nomination, and that each branch would judge the achievement taking into account the degree to which a human was at the heart of the creative authorship. Academy president Lynette Howell Taylor summarised the 2026 position by saying humans have to be at the centre of the creative process.

The AI clause was not the largest change. The same announcement expanded the International Feature Film category so that a film can qualify either through selection by its country or by winning a top prize at Berlin, Busan, Cannes, Sundance, Toronto or Venice, with the award going to the film and its director rather than to the country. Performers may now receive more than one nomination in the same acting category. Casting statuettes rose from two to three. The cinematography shortlist was fixed at 20 films. Makeup and hairstyling voters must attend at least one roundtable to vote in the preliminary round, and visual effects voters must view before and after reels to vote in the final round.

Six days later a second awards body published a rule that is more demanding and more specific. On 7 May 2026 the Golden Globes announced the timetable and eligibility rules for the 84th Golden Globes, to be held on 10 January 2027 at the Beverly Hilton. The eligibility document, last updated 30 July 2026, carries a dedicated section on artificial intelligence.

Its first sentence is permissive: the use of artificial intelligence, including generative AI, does not automatically disqualify a work from consideration, provided that human creative direction, artistic judgment and authorship remain primary throughout the production process. Its second requirement is not. All submissions must include a disclosure describing any generative AI used anywhere in the production of the completed work, including if any AI alteration was made to a credited performer's likeness or voice. The eligibility committee may request further information or materials, and failure to provide it in a timely manner may result in ineligibility.

The acting provision is drawn tightly. Performances must be primarily derived from the work of the credited performer, and submissions in which a performance is substantially generated or created by artificial intelligence are not eligible. The document then defines its own term: substantially generated or created refers to the extent to which AI replaces or materially determines the performance itself, including the performer's expression, movement or vocal delivery, and the determination is not based solely on screen time. Technical or cosmetic uses such as de-aging or ageing may be permissible provided the underlying performance remains that of the credited individual and the performer authorises the use. Submissions may not include performances generated through unauthorised use of a performer's digital likeness, voice replication or biometric data, whether or not the performer is otherwise credited. Non-performance categories are judged under the general standard, with the same disclosure obligation.

TheWrap, comparing the two on 7 May 2026, read the Academy's rules as the stricter of the pair because of the flat human authorship requirement for screenplays, and the Globes' language as vaguer. On the evidence of the documents, the difference runs the other way on process: the Globes require a written disclosure from every entrant, and the Academy reserves a right to ask.

One gap should be stated plainly. This masthead could not retrieve the Academy's own rules document; oscars.org refused the request. The Academy language quoted here is as reproduced by Awards Daily, TheWrap and Euronews, three outlets that quote it identically. What the Academy has not published, in any of that coverage, is a disclosure form of the kind the Globes now require, or any statement of how it will decide when to exercise its right to ask.