The Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences was the initiator of the Academy Awards. This award ceremony serves the purpose of honoring the skilled professionals of Hollywood. The nominees in the different categories of Oscars are chosen by the members of the Academy. All these members belong to the film fraternity itself, with the majority of them being actors and actress. All the jury members are invited by Board of Governors, of Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences, on behalf of the academy Branch Executive.
The entire voting procedure for Academy Awards starts from the month of December itself. First of all, the nomination ballots are mailed to the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). According to the rules of Oscar voting, the ballots must be returned within a period of two weeks, in order for their vote to be counted. PricewaterhouseCoopers is the accounting firm assigned with the task of processing the votes of members. Therefore, the secret ballots must be returned directly to the PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Tabulation of the votes received from the members is done by PricewaterhouseCoopers only. A list of nominees is announced in January. After this, another round of secret voting takes place, with members of the Academy voting on the final nominees listed for each category. Within a period of two weeks, the ballots are returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers. A final tabulation is done, with only two partners of PricewaterhouseCoopers being aware of the results. The results are kept secret until the envelopes are opened, to unveil the winner's name on stage, during the Academy Awards ceremony.
