The Academy is Exploring Adding a Stunt Category to the Oscars

Here’s an exclusive from Empire Magazine.

The Academy has started making inquiries about a Stunts category, says President Janet Yang. She adds to “stay tuned” for more details in the coming future. If you remember, a few months back, ‘John Wick 4’ filmmaker Chad Stahelski confirmed he’d had talks about adding a Stunt category to the Oscars and that it could happen sooner than expected:

I think it's something that can happen as soon as [the] next Oscars, or at least the one after that.

Is this how Tom Cruise wins his first Oscar? Stahelski confirmed that he’s actually been meeting with the Academy to figure out a way to add the new category. However, it’s more complicated than it sounds.

So, in the last couple of months, we've been meeting with members of the Academy and actually having these conversations, and, to be honest, it's been nothing but incredibly positive, incredibly instructional. I think, for the first time, we've made real movement forward to making this happen.

The complications lie in exactly who to honor. How do we do it? How do we select the best stunt? Who do we give it to? Stahelski spitballs that maybe the stunt coordinator should be honored. He goes even further by saying maybe there should be a few categories for each individual department.

The question is, we haven't had the real talks about how do you even determine what to award, like is it for best stunt? Is it best choreography? Best action sequence? Best stunt ensemble? The martial arts choreographer? The fight choreography? The stunt double? The second unit director? The editor? Who gets the award?

Coming off calendar years that had ‘Mission: Impossible 7,’ ‘John Wick 4,’ and “The Fall Guy,” now’s a good time to create this award. It’s been a long time coming. In fact, this wouldn’t be anything new, the Emmys actually already have a Stunt Coordinator category

The people against an Oscar stunt category being installed claim that awarding life risking scenarios would be bad for the industry and that serious injuries and even deaths would rise amongst the profession. You’re just tempting adrenaline junkies with a prestigious award. Nobody wants to incentivize dangerous, potentially life ending stunts, and I’m sure Stahelski and the Academy can figure out a way around this with strict eligibility rules.

Last week, a Vulture report, titled “Here’s the Real Reason Why There’s Still No Oscar for Best Stunts”, had a veteran filmmaker saying, “These people (stuntmen) are the dumbest people on set. I don’t want them getting any awards.”

Ignorance is bliss. What this filmmaker doesn’t realize is that sunt professionals have to be meticulously smart about what they’re doing. They’re the ones dealing with math and physics so as to not be killed. There’s a ton of preparation that goes into pulling off death-defying feats. An Oscar category is the least the Academy can do for these professional warriors.