To be eligible for award consideration , the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences requires that a film be shown in a theater in Los Angeles County , California , for at least seven consecutive days during which it is advertised in print media . Studios hoping to position a film for some nominations usually satisfy that minimum requirement , then ease them into wide release from then until the nominations and/or awards ceremony . The flexibility this marketing strategy requires means that screens be available , and studios limit their releases of new films during this time to that end . As critic Ty Burr explained in a 2013 '' New York Times Magazine '' article on the mediocrity of new releases in the first month of the year : " T he studios ... know our attention is elsewhere . " New films shown publicly anywhere for the first time after January 1 themselves are ineligible for Oscars until the following year , by which time they will likely have been forgotten by critics , audiences and voters . '' The Silence of the Lambs '' , winner of the 1991 Academy Award for Best Picture , is a rare exception , as the only film in the post-studio era released in the first two months of its year to go on to win that Oscar . Burr calls it " the grand exception to the January Movies Will Never Amount to Anything rule , " and finds that only one other classic of the late 20th century , '' Dr. Strangelove '' , was a January release . The 2017 satirical horror film '' Get Out '' is another example of a movie released in the months of January and February that went on to be nominated for various Academy Awards such as Best Picture , eventually winning one for Best Original Screenplay
1991 Academy Award
64th Academy Awards
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