The Awards-Season Delivery Calendar for Post-Production, 2026-27

Between 23 October 2026 and the 99th Oscars on 14 March 2027, the film and television awards in this calendar set more than thirty entry and delivery deadlines, and each one is a deadline for somebody in post-production. The tightest stretch runs from BAFTA's film entry deadline on Thursday 29 October to the Academy's final General Entry deadline at 5pm Pacific on Thursday 12 November 2026, when final credits, the shooting script and proof of a qualifying cinema run are due.

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‍The calendar, from November 2026 to Oscar night

November 2026

Mon 2 Nov, 5pm PT. Actor Awards. Performance submissions. Delivers: legal main and end titles, stills; screeners optional, captions mandatory if sent.

Wed 4 Nov, 5pm PT. Academy. Original Score. Delivers: final music cue sheet and Music Breakdown Form.

Fri 6 Nov, 5pm PT. Costume Designers Guild. All entries. Delivers: a studio-approved segment or the public trailer, crew credit roll.

Fri 6 Nov, 9pm PT. Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild. All entries. Delivers: through the guild’s entry platform.

Mon 9 Nov. Critics Choice. Film submissions, all categories. Delivers: via the Critics Choice portal.

Mon 9 Nov. American Society of Cinematographers. Television and documentary entries. Delivers: for television, a link to the full episode, a 4-minute excerpt and a 6-minute clip, H.264 or H.265, 1080p.

Thu 12 Nov, 5pm PT. Academy. General Entry, Animated Feature, Best Picture: final deadline. Delivers: signed submission form, full screen credits, the final shooting script as a PDF, the theatre and dates of the qualifying run, or the cinema’s written confirmation if the run comes later.

Fri 13 Nov, 5pm PT for features. Directors Guild of America. Theatrical feature, television and commercials. Delivers: online entry form.

Fri 13 Nov, 11.59pm PT. American Society of Cinematographers. Theatrical feature. Delivers: credit verification, qualifying theatre and run dates, a viewing link if available.

Mon 16 Nov. Critics Choice. Television submissions. Delivers: via the Critics Choice television portal.

Thu 19 Nov. BAFTA Film. Stage Two entry and fees. Delivers: entry confirmation.

Fri 20 Nov, 5pm PST. Writers Guild of America. Screenplays and television scripts. Delivers: entry form; television entries also send the script as a PDF or Word file.

Sun 22 Nov. Golden Globes. Television upload. Delivers: the programme on the Golden Globes viewing platform.

Fri 27 Nov, 4pm GMT. BAFTA Television and Television Craft. Programmes broadcast in November 2026. Delivers: as 23 October.

Mon 30 Nov, 11.59pm PST. Annie Awards. Final submissions. Delivers: 1080p H.264 or H.265, or ProRes; password-protected play-only screener links for the feature categories.

December 2026

Tue 1 Dec. Motion Picture Sound Editors. Golden Reel entries. Delivers: entry paperwork; music cue sheets for the music editing categories; sections marked for judging.

Tue 1 Dec, 11.59pm. Royal Television Society. Television Journalism Awards. Delivers: items as originally edited for transmission, with title slates; length limits vary by category.

Wed 2 Dec. Golden Globes. Film upload. Delivers: the film on the Golden Globes viewing platform, with English subtitles if more than half the dialogue is not in English.

Fri 4 Dec. BAFTA Film. BAFTA View upload for films released from 1 July. Delivers: the film, with a descriptive-subtitled version.

Fri 4 Dec, midnight. Royal Television Society. Programme Awards: the written entry for every programme, and the video for programmes broadcast before 1 December. Delivers: one episode as transmitted, synopses of the rest.

Mon 7 Dec, 5pm PT. ACE (American Cinema Editors). Eddie Awards entries. Delivers: online entry; video and subtitle files for the ACE screening platform, optional at entry and required once nominated.

Mon 7 Dec, 5pm PT. Cinema Audio Society. All entries. Delivers: entry form; CAS has not published a delivery specification.

Mon 7 Dec, 5pm. Art Directors Guild. Feature film entries. Delivers: crew list, main and end credits, a downloadable link.

Wed 9 Dec. Guild of Music Supervisors. All entries. Delivers: written entry and screening materials.

7 to 11 Dec. Academy. Preliminary voting; shortlists Tue 15 Dec.

January to March 2027

Tue 5 Jan 2027, 4pm GMT. BAFTA Television and Television Craft. Final deadline: December broadcasts, and all Craft entries. Delivers: as 23 October.

Tue 5 Jan 2027. Royal Television Society. Programme Awards: video uploads for December broadcasts, entered in writing by 4 December. Delivers: one episode as transmitted.

8 to 10 Jan 2027. Academy. Bake-offs: Casting, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound, Visual Effects. Delivers: for shortlisted Visual Effects, a reel of up to 10 minutes from the release DCP and a before-and-after reel of up to 3 minutes; for Sound, a DCP clip reel.

Mon 11 Jan 2027, 12pm GMT. BAFTA Film. Sound clip reel, longlisted films. Delivers: clip reel to BAFTA.

Tue 19 Jan 2027. BAFTA Film. Nominations; Special Visual Effects reel due. Delivers: visual effects reel.

Thu 21 Jan 2027. Academy. Nominations announced. Delivers: DCPs or prints to the Academy’s venues.

25 Feb to 4 Mar 2027. Academy. Final voting.

Sun 14 Mar 2027. Academy. The 99th Oscars.

Several deadlines have already passed this season, among them the Film Independent Spirit Awards (29 September), the Academy's International Feature (30 September) and Documentary Feature (15 October), and the BIFA film entries (2 September).

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What the 12 November Oscar deadline asks of post-production

For the 99th Academy Awards, a feature qualifies with a run of seven consecutive days in a commercial cinema in one of six US areas (Los Angeles County, New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth or Atlanta), with at least three screenings a day, one of them starting between 6pm and 10pm, beginning between 1 January and 31 December 2026, according to the Academy's 99th Oscars rules.

The copy that plays that run is the first post-production deliverable. The Academy accepts a 35mm or 70mm print, or a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) to SMPTE ST 429-2 at 24 or 48 frames per second and at least 2048 by 1080, with sound in mono or, at minimum, left, centre and right channels. Its rules state that Blu-ray, ProRes and MP4 files do not meet the requirement. A film running its qualifying week in late December still has to have its paperwork in by 12 November: the signed submission form, the full screen credits, the final shooting script as a read-only PDF, and documentation from the qualifying cinema. Production Design and Sound exception letters are due the same day.

Music comes first. The Original Score deadline is Wednesday 4 November 2026, with the final cue sheet. The cue sheet BAFTA asks for at Stage One is due earlier still, on Thursday 29 October. So the score's paperwork has to be done before the picture's own deadline.

The work does not stop at entry. If a film is shortlisted on 15 December, its visual effects team builds a reel of up to ten minutes from the release DCP for the Academy's nominating screenings, the bake-offs, on 8 to 10 January 2027, plus a before-and-after reel of up to three minutes, and the sound team builds a DCP clip reel. After nominations on 21 January, DCPs or prints go to the Academy's venues straight away.

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BAFTA: two entry stages and a viewing upload

BAFTA's film rules for 2027 split entry in two. Stage One for films released from 1 July 2026 closes on Thursday 29 October, with the cue sheet, the music tracker and the Original Music Breakdown form. Stage Two and fees close on Thursday 19 November. The film itself goes onto BAFTA View, BAFTA's viewing platform, within 60 days of UK release and no later than Friday 4 December 2026. BAFTA View will not show a film until its descriptive-subtitled version is in place, so that version is a finishing deliverable in its own right. Long listed films owe a sound clip reel by 12pm GMT on 11 January 2027. The ceremony is on 21 February 2027.

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Screeners are the copy that travels furthest

A screener is the copy of a film or episode that voters watch at home, and in the 2026-27 season many of them are watched through a viewing platform the awarding body chooses. A film that takes the Academy's optional For Your Consideration streaming in the Academy Screening Room, the Academy's own members' platform, supplies the theatrical qualifying version as ProRes 422 HQ or H.264 with an English caption file, and a film that sent H.264 must supply ProRes 422 HQ if it is shortlisted. The Golden Globes want films on their platform by Wednesday 2 December 2026 and television by Sunday 22 November. The Actor Awards make closed captions mandatory on every screener, and audio description in English for the final round, and switch all digital screeners off at midnight Pacific at the start of 4 January 2027. The Annie Awards ask for password-protected, play-only links for the feature categories.

Three things follow for the finishing schedule. Captions, subtitles and a descriptive-subtitled version are now entry requirements, so they are booked with the master, not after it. Each platform takes its own file, so one master turns into several encodes. And every copy that leaves the building is an unreleased film travelling outside the facility, which is why content security standards for post-production apply to screeners as much as to dailies.

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The craft guilds judge the department's own reel

The guild and craft awards ask the departments to cut their own evidence, and they want it while those same teams are finishing the film. The Visual Effects Society wants two reels of up to three minutes each, the work as released and a before-and-after, as ProRes LT 422 at 1080p and 23.98 frames per second, uploaded by 11.59pm PDT on Saturday 31 October 2026. The American Society of Cinematographers asks television entrants for a 4-minute excerpt and a separate 6-minute clip in release order, by Monday 9 November; one clause of its television rules gives 13 November, so work to the earlier date. The Motion Picture Sound Editors take entries by Tuesday 1 December, with up to 15 minutes of marked sections for feature sound editing and music cue sheets required for the music editing categories. ACE takes Eddie entries until 5pm Pacific on Monday 7 December; video and subtitle files for its screening platform are optional at entry and required once a film or episode is nominated. Sohonet's Crafting the Contenders interviews, such as colourist Tim Vincent on Only Murders in the Building, talk to the people doing that work.

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UK television runs on its own calendar

BAFTA's Television and Television Craft awards for 2027 take entries in three waves: by 4pm GMT on Friday 23 October 2026 for programmes broadcast from 1 January to 31 October, by Friday 27 November for November broadcasts, and by Tuesday 5 January 2027 for December broadcasts and every Craft entry. Each entry needs the full episode uploaded with a subtitle option, and BAFTA's rules require the video to stay available until the end of May 2027. The Royal Television Society's Programme Awards take the written entry for every programme by midnight on Friday 4 December 2026, with the video for anything broadcast before 1 December. For December broadcasts the portal reopens for video and supporting material from Friday 11 December to Tuesday 5 January 2027, and nothing is accepted after that. RTS entries go in as originally edited for transmission, so the deliverable is the transmission master, not a recut.

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Working back from the dates

Read as a delivery plan, the calendar asks for six things to be finished earlier than the Oscar date suggests:

1. A qualifying DCP to SMPTE ST 429-2, mastered and checked in time for the cinema run, with the run documented by 12 November.
2. Captioned and audio-described screener encodes before the first viewing-platform upload: Golden Globes television on 22 November, film on 2 December, BAFTA View on 4 December.
3. The release DCP kept to hand into January, because the bake-off reels for visual effects and sound are built from it after the shortlists on 15 December.

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Where Sohonet fits

Most of this calendar is about files arriving in the right place, in the right form, on the right day, and about sign-off from people who are rarely in the same room. FileRunner, Sohonet's file transfer service, moves large files such as DCP packages and ProRes reels between facilities, labs and distributors. ClearView Flex streams a live session from the edit suite or the grading theatre, so a director in another city can approve the final colour and finishing before the deliverables are made.

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