Chetak Screen Awards 2026 Nominations: Who decides, and what’s the process | Bollywood News

Driven The Indian Express Group’s journalism-first ethos, the Chetak Screen Awards 2026 honours are anchored in integrity and merit. The nominees and subsequently the winners are decided the Screen Academy, an independent, not-for-profit body (founding patron Lodha Foundation and supported Tafe) that comprises over 50 acclaimed film-makers and cultural voices.The Screen Academy’s aim is to foster cultural excellence in cinema and entertainment. The Screen Academy selects passionate film students across the country and awards them film school scholarships and connects them to Screen Academy’s members way of Masterclasses and mentorship programs. Academy members are also tasked with the job of selecting the nominees and winners of the annual Chetak Screen Awards.
The vast pool of knowledge and experience of the members helps in strengthening the integrity of the awards’ selection process.

The Chetak Screen Awards 2026 follows a robust, carefully curated selection process for nominees and winners that blends data driven shortling with a critics’ panel’s judgment.
Also Read – Screen Academy unveils Chetak Screen Awards: Here are the nominees for the finest in film and OTT
Priyanka Sinha Jha, COO, Screen Academy, explains the rigorous process followed in determining this year’s award nominations, “Films, performances, and technical achievements were first shortled using a mix of box office performance, viewership, audience and critics’ responses. This core team consed Priyanka Sinha Jha, Shubhra Gupta, Jyoti Sharma Bawa and Nikhil Taneja. These were then evaluated the Screen Academy through structured voting, ensuring that the final nominees and winners truly reflected excellence across categories.”
To bring some structure to the art of film appreciation, Dr. Priya Jaikumar, Chair of Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Los Angeles, and scholar-in-residence at Screen Academy, developed detailed grading guidelines for the Screen Academy members to follow while scoring. Across all categories in the Chetak Screen Awards 2026 rubrics, four core criteria appear consently:Story continues below this ad
1) Creativity and Overall Experience — asking whether the work offers a powerful, cohesive viewing or lening experience that aligns form with content.
2) Technical Excellence — evaluating whether all craft elements are executed at the highest level and work in harmony.
3) Viewer Connectivity — assessing the work’s ability to forge a deep, lasting connection with audiences and leave an enduring imprint on cinema or culture.
4) Innovation — examining whether the work articulates a fresh zeitge, introduces something genuinely new, or expands the audience’s appreciation of the medium.Story continues below this ad
5) For performance-based categories, a fifth shared criterion — Authenticity — is added, probing whether the art makes every aspect of their role believable and fully inhabited, regardless of whether the premise is realic or fantastical.
EY were the process advisors for the awards. The statics show that the evaluation process witnessed over 95 per cent participation of the Screen Academy members across categories, with an average of 38-40 Academy members scoring each category, ensuring a highly robust and representative selection process. For most categories, 38-40 valid scores were considered after applying the trimmed mean (Olympic) scoring methodology, ensuring fairness and neutrality.
Here is the l of the illustrious Screen Academy members:
1. Abhishek Chaubey – Director & Screenwriter2. Amit Ray- Production Designer3. Amritpal Singh Bindra – Film producer, Director & Writer4. Anand Mahindra – Patron of arts, Chairman of the Mahindra Group5. Anil Mehta – Cinematographer6. Atul Mongia – Casting Director, Acting Coach7. Bishwadeep Chatterjee – Sound Designer8. Deepa Bhatia – Film editor , writer9. Deepa Mehta – Director & Writer10. Feroz Abbas Khan – Director & Screenwriter11. Gaurav Gandhi—Head of Amazon Prime Video, APAC.12. Goutam Ghose – Director, Cinematographer13. Guneet Monga Kapoor – Film Producer14. Jaideep Sahni – Screenwriter & lyric15. John Abraham – Actor -Producer16. Kabir Khan – Director17. Karan Johar – Director, Producer, Talk Show Host18. Kausar Munir – Lyric & Screenwriter19. Manish Malhotra — Fashion Designer & Producer20. Manohar Verma – Action Director21. Maxima Basu –Costume and fashion Designer22. Mukesh Chhabra – Casting Director23. Nagesh Kukunoor – Director & Screenwriter24. Namit Malhotra – Film Producer, Global CEO of DNEG25. Namrata Rao – Director and Producer26. Niharika Bhasin – Costume Designer27. Payal Kapadia – Director28. Pooja Ladha Surti – Film Editor & Writer29. Pritam Chakraborty – Music Director and Composer30. Prosenjit Chatterjee – Actor & Producer31. R. S. Prasanna – Director32. Rahul Dholakia – Director, Producer & Screenwriter33. Rajiv Menon – Cinematographer & Director34. Rajkumar Hirani – Film editor, Screenwriter & Director35. Ram Madhvani – Director36. Ramesh Taurani – Film & Music Producer37. Ravi Chandran – Cinematographer38. Resul Pookutty – Sound Designer & Producer39. Rima Das – Writer, Director & Editor40. Ronnie Screwvala -Film Producer & Entrepreneur41. Sabu Cyril – Production Designer42. Sameer Nair – Managing Director, Applause Entertainment43. Shiamak Davar -Choreographer44. Shoojit Sircar – Director & Film Producer45. Siddharth Roy Kapur – Film Producer46. Sriram Raghavan – Director and Screenwriter47. Subhash Ghai – Director, Producer & Education48. Subrata Chakraborty – Production Designer49. Sujoy Ghosh – Screenwriter & Director50. Swapnil Sonawane – Cinematographer & producer51. Tanuj Garg – Film Producer52. Vidya Balan – Actor53. Vinay Kumar – Actor, Director & Theatre ResearcherStory continues below this ad
To know more about the Screen Academy and its members, visit https://screen-academy.org/