A screener is an advance screening of a film sent to critics, awards voters, video stores (for their manager and employees), and other film industry professionals, including producers and distributors. Often, each individual screener is sent out with distinct markings (such as a digital watermark), which allow copies of a screener to be tracked to their source.
A screener often has no post-processing.

In 2003, the MPAA announced that they would be ceasing distribution of screeners to Academy members, citing fears of piracy. A group of independent film makers sued and won a decision against the MPAA. The MPAA later reinstated the screeners with the implementation of a new policy requiring recipients to sign a binding contract that they would not share the screeners with others.

In January 2004, Academy member Carmine Caridi was announced as a person of interest in an ongoing FBI investigation into video piracy. He was subsequently expelled from the Academy after he was found to have sent close to 300 screeners to a contact called Russell Sprague in Illinois, over a five year period. He was later ordered to pay Warner Brothers for copyright infringement of two of their films, Mystic River and The Last Samurai, a total of $300,000 ($150,000 per title).