Documentary Filmmakers Alarmed by Proposed Oscar Rule LOS ANGELES - In a move to trim the number of documentaries submitted annually for Oscar consideration, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is poised to require a movie review from The New York Times or The Los Angeles Times to qualify a documentary feature for the Academy Awards. Larry McConkey/Sony Pictures Classics At the 2010 Oscars the high-profile "Tyson" was bypassed in favor of less visible movies. Hope Hall/Tied to the Tracks Films "Semper Fi: Always Faithful" is an Oscar contender that might not have qualified under the rules proposed for documentaries. Ric Robertson, the Academy's chief operating officer, confirmed the plan on Sunday after word of it began circulating among documentary filmmakers and their supporters. In a phone interview Mr. Robertson said it would be made public this week and would apply to films qualifying for the 2013 ceremony. The review requirement is an unusual twist in a long list of qualifying standards that apply to the various Oscar categories, including best picture, best animated feature, best foreign language film and others. It will trim the number of films that must be viewed annually by the Academy's small documentaries branch, which narrows the field to 15 qualifying movies, and then 5 nominees. In 2011 the branch considered 124 movies, up 23 percent from 101 films from a year earlier. But the rule might diminish the prospects of those who make smaller and less prominent movies; these filmmakers have often qualified their documentaries without the kind of commercial release that typically leads to reviews by the two news organizations. Particularly hard hit will be DocuWeeks, a program sponsored by the International Documentary Association, which for more than a decade has let filmmakers pay a fee to have their pictures shown briefly in New York and Los Angeles, thus qualifying for awards. Under the new rule those films would be considered only if a movie critic for one of the two newspapers chose to review it, something that typically does not happen. At least one film on this year's Oscar qualifying list, the documentary "Semper Fi: Always Faithful," about the Marine Corps and tainted water at Camp Lejeune, was shown through DocuWeeks and appears not to have been reviewed in either publication before its submission. Another dozen films - including "The Mexican Suitcase," "The Power of Two" and "Unfinished Spaces" - qualified for Oscar consideration through the program, but also appear not to have had the reviews that will be required for next year's awards. "This will be a disappointment to a certain number of filmmakers," said Thom Powers, the documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival, on learning of the policy. Mr. Powers called it "a strange thing indeed" for the Academy to shift decision making to third parties, in this case the newspapers. But he added, "I can understand that the Academy wants to focus its recognition on films that have had a kind of legitimate theatrical release." Mr. Roberts said the rule was part of an effort by the Academy to ensure that Oscars go to what he called "genuine theatrical" movies, rather than to films that might be made primarily for television but given brief theatrical exposure, or played for a tiny number of viewers simply to qualify. Asked whether worthwhile films might be cut out, he said: "We may indeed lose worthy films. But I don't think we'll lose worthy theatrical films. A draft of the proposed rule did not specify whether the review had to be included in a print edition, or might run only online. It also did not specify length, or distinguish between the sort of capsule review, which sometimes introduces festival films, and a more elaborate piece of criticism. Reviews by television critics were specifically ruled out. The review policy comes atop other major changes that will be announced this week, according to Michael Moore, a member of the Academy's board of governors and a prime mover behind the revisions. Mr. Moore said the Academy planned to abandon a system under which committees within the documentary branch divided up films for viewing and scoring under an intricate numerical system. Instead, the entire 157-member branch will now be allowed to vote for the five nominees and the whole 5,800-member Academy will then vote for the best documentary, even if members have seen the films only on a screener. In the past only the several hundred members who actually attended a screening voted for the best documentary, a limiting factor that Mr. Moore and others have long believed to work against the more popular and culturally significant films. The documentary branch has often been a center of controversy, as a large and growing number of documentarians each year press for recognition and question decisions that have often slighted relatively popular films in favor of smaller and more obscure ones. Eyebrows were raised when widely viewed documentaries like "Tyson," from James Toback, and "Capitalism: A Love Story" from Mr. Moore, were overlooked in favor of less visible movies.