Voting

Voting membership of the Cosmique Movie Awards was initially restricted to members of the Cosmique Krewe of Colour, a private local Mardi Gras krewe in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as other hand-selected individuals by invitation only. Over the years, membership restrictions were gradually relaxed, and voting is now open to anyone interested who can appreciate our aesthetic and ethos, and who honors our Code of Conduct.

Membership

Members of the Academy come from all walks of life, but share a certain sensibility. Historically, most of the members (but not all) live in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are disproportionately (but by no means exclusively) LGBTQ – and those who aren’t are still LGBTQ allies. They tend to be liberal, politically speaking, though politics plays no role in the actual awards. They take their films seriously, but not too seriously. They are primarily (though not completely) disassociated with the film industry, except as fans.

Members are not expected to see all of the potential or actual nominees, though many make a point of doing so. The Cosmos operate under the philosophy that what we choose to honor is as much about what draws us to the cinemas – or pop into the DVD player, or watch on streaming – as it is about what we liked that we saw.

Film Eligibility

Annual Awards

For the annual awards, films available to U.S. audiences from the previous calendar year are eligible for nomination.

While the Academy Awards stipulate that those films must be theatrically released in Los Angeles for seven consecutive days during the calendar year, our rules can be a little more flexible, with the objective of making sure Como voters have a legitimate chance to see films in time for their eligible year. For most Hollywood films, that’s not a problem.

Most films are released throughout the calendar year, and Cosmo voters have the opportunity to see those films in movie theaters as well, for earlier releases, through other services such as DVD purchase or rentals, as well as through online streaming purchase, rental, or subscription services. In some cases, studios may release Academy Award hopeful films in very limited release only in Los Angeles (where relatively few Cosmo voters live) at the end of the year to meet Academy eligibility requirements. These films are then released theatrically more broadly earlier the next year, well in time for Cosmo voters to have an opportunity to see them before completing their nomination ballots.

Some films require special consideration of their eligibility year. Some films never get a theatrical release at all. While the Cosmos generally do not consider films made for television or direct for DVD or streaming services. Some of these films do have a limited theatrical release to qualify for film awards prior to their availability for home purchase, rental, or subscription, and like the Oscars, they are also eligible for the Cosmos in the award season in which they are generally available to Cosmo voters. If that release occurs during or before the nomination process, they are eligible for the current year’s awards. If that release doesn’t occur until after the nomination process, they are eligible for the subsequent year.

Other films travel through the film festival circuit hoping to find a theatrical distributor, while some international films may receive extensive release in other countries without receiving much of a theatrical release in the United States. We regard these films’ eligibility year to be when Cosmo voters actually have a chance to see the film, which might not be until DVD or streaming release. In these cases, a film’s Cosmo Eligibility Year may not occur until a year or two after its “official” release.

We do our best to assist Cosmo voter in their decision-making process by providing a not-necessarily-comprehensive list of eligible films. We do this by compiling lists from the Oscar’s eligibility list, box office data, and other sources.

Once a film’s eligibility year has been determined, for each award, Cosmo voters are giving wide latitude in determining for themselves the parameters of genres, leading or supporting performances, gender, and other criteria. A nomination vote that seems “off beat” or unusual will generally be allowed, but generally won’t get enough traction to secure the nomination unless other voters have a similar interpretation.

We also provide “For Your Consideration” lists by award to help voters think about which films and performances to nominate. We create these lists by using nomination predictions at Gold Derby and other sites as well as the actual nominations at major awards shows. We may also use a variety of Top 10 lists, IMDb’s genre rankings, past nominees for Hall of Fame awards, and our own personal opinions in populating those lists.

Lifetime Achievements

The Best Films of All Time Lifetime Achievements Hall of Fame award is open to any domestic or foreign film whose annual award eligibility has already passed. A film that is eligible for the current annual awards, or the next year’s annual awards, is not yet eligible for Lifetime Achievement nominations.

The Voting Process

Nominations

For each award category, voters can cast as many votes as there are nomination slots (currently set at six nominees per award).

Voters’ ballots are valid even if they are incomplete. They do not need to make a nomination in all six slots for an award for their other votes to count, and are free to skip entire categories if they choose.

Passion counts, but shouldn’t count too much. One the one hand, if a voter has strong feelings about one of their nominees, we want their ballot to reflect that. Passion counts. On the other hand, allowing the voter to cast all six nomination votes for the same film can skew the results. Passion shouldn’t count too much. To strike the right balance, the following rules apply to nominations:

  • Each nomination slot for a particular award must be unique. The same film or performance cannot be nominated by the same voter more than once for the same award. If this occurs, the nomination will only be counted once.
  • For each award, the voter has the option (but not a requirement) to give one of them a “Power Vote” to give that nomination extra weight. This essentially has the effect of casting two nomination votes for that nominee.
  • In the event that an actor or actress has appeared in multiple roles for a particular role (such as for many performers in Cloud Atlas), a performer’s nomination for a particular film encompasses all of the characters they may play in the film. An actor who has played multiple roles in a single film is still only eligible for one nomination for the film, not for each character.
  • An actor or actress may be nominated for the same award multiple times the same year, providing that each nomination is for an appearance in different films.
  • Except when an award’s parameters explicitly state otherwise, such as the age requirements for the Best Young Actor and Actress awards, voters must decide for themselves whether a film or performance meets the criteria for the award. This includes the scope of genres, or whether a performance counts as leading or supporting, heroic or villainous, or even gender in some circumstances.
  • When voters deem it appropriate, an actor or actress may be nominated for their performance in the same film for seemingly contradictory awards, such as for both leading and supporting awards, or heroic and villainous awards.
  • Voters may change their nominations up until the end nomination deadline by resubmitting their ballot with the same email address. Only their most recent nomination votes will be counted.

A Special Note on Gender

We respect the stated gender identities and expressions of every individual nominated for the Cosmique Movie Awards. We reserve the right at our sole discretion to disqualify nomination votes that appear to be mocking the performer’s gender identity. It would not be appropriate to nominate Laverne Cox for male acting awards, for examples.

At the same time, we allow for flexibility in nomination votes when it appears that the voters are not mocking the performer but instead are playing lightheartedly with the idea of gender. For example, Charles Busch’s nomination for Best Actress in Die, Mommie, Die! was permitted because it was keeping in the spirit of Busch playing a cisgender woman, while Felicity Huffman was nominated for Best Actress for her performances as a transgender woman in TransAmerica.

Divine received nomination votes for both male and female Halls of Fame. All of those votes were accepted, and she was ultimately nominated for the female awards. We felt this was in keeping with the spirit of allowing voters flexibility in their definitions when the voters were not using their votes to mock the performer.

Handling Nomination Ties

Each award has a fixed number of nomination slots, currently set at six per award. In the event of one or more ties for the final slot, we may choose to do any of the following:

  • Expand the number of nominations beyond the fixed number in order to accommodate all of the ties;
  • Reduce the number of nominations to exclude all of the tied candidates for the final slot; or
  • Use tie-breaking criteria by giving greater weight to the breadth of a nominee’s support (i.e., number of votes from different voters) rather than the depth of their support (i.e., number of Power Votes).

Best Director

Cosmo voters do not directly nominate directors for the Best Director annual award. Instead, we use an algorithm that factors in the following criteria:

  • Each director’s nominations in major other film awards such as the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, the Directors Guild of America Awards, the BAFTAs, and other related films awards.
  • Each director’s wins in those awards.
  • Their film’s nominations in other Cosmo Award categories, with greater weight given to significant awards like Best Film and Best Actor/Actress, and little to no weight given to “just for fun” awards like Sexiest Ensemble and Favorite Guilty Pleasure.

Selecting Winners from the Nominees

Once nominees for each award are selected, voters will then choose winners from among those nominees.

Each award category is multiple choice. Each voter can only vote for one nominee per award. There are no PowerVotes this round, and no write-in votes – the time to write in a candidate was during the nomination round. Voters do not have to complete their entire ballot. They can skip entire award categories and the rest of their ballot will still remain valid.

Voters can change their votes up until the deadline to vote ends by resubmitting their ballot with the same email address. Only their most recent votes will be counted.

The Cosmo Calendar

The deadline calendar for the Cosmique Movie Awards is intended to allow voters to use other award shows as inspiration for which films they want to prioritize seeing. Often, films that studios believe are award-worthy aren’t released until the end of the calendar year. Sometimes, Cosmo voters don’t even hear about a film until they see it mentioned at the Oscars.

For that reason, the Cosmique Movie Awards’ season follows the Oscars. Our nomination ballots are released the day of the Academy Awards and remain open for about a month. That hopefully gives voters a chance to see films they first heard about at the Oscars. (But again, we’ve always believed that our nominations are as much about what draws us to see a film as they are about which films we liked.)

Once nominations are closed, we take about a week to process ballots before announcing the nominees. Voters then have about another month to have a last chance to watch films before casting their votes for the winners.