After decades of pushing, stunts will get their own Oscar

Yahoo

11-04-2025

After more than three decades of lobbying — and countless bruises and broken bones — Hollywood's stunt community will finally be recognized at the Oscars.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Thursday that it will introduce a new competitive category for achievement in stunt design, with the first award to be presented in 2028 at the 100th Oscars, honoring films released in 2027. The new Oscar for stunts follows last year's announcement of an award for casting directors — the first new category added in more than two decades, which will debut at the 98th Academy Awards next year.
'Since the early days of cinema, stunt design has been an integral part of filmmaking,' Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang said in a joint statement. 'We are proud to honor the innovative work of these technical and creative artists, and we congratulate them for their commitment and dedication in reaching this momentous occasion.'
For Hollywood's stunt community, the announcement marks a historic milestone in a decades-long push for recognition. In 1991, veteran stunt coordinator Jack Gill began lobbying for an Oscar for stunts, securing the support of the likes of Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Brad Pitt and Arnold Schwarzenegger for the idea. But while stunt performers are honored each year at the Emmy Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, academy leaders long turned down calls to recognize stunts either on Oscars night or at its untelevised Scientific and Technical Awards. (The three exceptions: Stunt performer Yakima Canutt received an honorary Academy Award in 1967 for developing safety devices for stuntmen, while stuntman-turned-director Hal Needham and Hong Kong action star and stunt pioneer Jackie Chan received lifetime achievement Oscars in 2012 and 2016, respectively.)
Read more: It's time for an Oscar for stunts. 'The Fall Guy' is the best argument for it
With stunts in blockbusters like "Mad Max: Fury Road" and franchises like "Mission: Impossible" and "Fast and Furious" growing ever more elaborate, backers argued that Oscar recognition was long overdue. 'There is no other department head in the movie business that has that kind of pressure where people's lives are at stake,' Gill told The Times last year. 'Stunt performers don't want to be actors and walk the red carpet and all of that. What they want is to be acknowledged among their peers for doing something that involves real blood, sweat and tears.'
That campaign had recently been spearheaded by director David Leitch, a former stunt performer and coordinator who has since helmed action hits like "Deadpool 2," "Bullet Train" and "John Wick." Alongside his producing partner and wife Kelly McCormick at their 87North Productions banner, Leitch worked with Chris O'Hara, a stunt coordinator and designer with Stunts Unlimited, and others to make presentations to the academy, according to people familiar with the process.
With last summer's action-comedy "The Fall Guy," Leitch said he aimed to make a movie that would celebrate and showcase the craft and ingenuity of the stunt world, including a record-setting "cannon roll" that saw a Jeep Cherokee complete eight and a half revolutions, more than any previous film. By labeling O'Hara's work on "The Fall Guy" as 'stunt design' rather than coordination — a subtle but significant shift — the filmmakers mirrored other crafts long recognized by the academy, such as costume and production design.
In a statement following the announcement, Leitch pointed to the critical role that stunts have played in cinematic spectacle throughout film history.
'Stunts are essential to every genre of film and rooted deep in our industry's history — from the groundbreaking work of early pioneers like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin, to the inspiring artistry of today's stunt designers, coordinators, performers and choreographers," Leitch said. "This has been a long journey for so many of us. Chris O'Hara and I have spent years working to bring this moment to life, standing on the shoulders of the stunt professionals who've fought tirelessly for recognition over the decades. We are incredibly grateful."
Though advocates for a stunt category long argued it could help boost ratings for the Oscar telecast, some academy insiders had previously maintained that there were simply too few stunt professionals in the organization to justify their own category. But over the past decade, the organization has tripled the number of stunt professionals in its ranks to more than 100. In 2023, the academy moved stunt coordinators, who had previously been categorized as members at large, into a newly created production and technology branch that also houses assorted technical and production positions including chief technology officers, script supervisors, choreographers and music supervisors.
For the stunt community, the lack of Oscar recognition had become a source of increasingly bitter frustration, starkly highlighted by Quentin Tarantino's 2019 film "Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood," which finally landed Pitt an Oscar for his turn as a grizzled 1960s stuntman.
'That was the big uproar — you can get an Academy Award for pretending to be a stunt guy, but you can't get an Academy Award for actually being one,' O'Hara, who oversaw the stunt department on 'The Fall Guy' and previously worked on films including 'Jurassic World' and 'Baby Driver," told The Times last year.
In a signal the tide was turning, last year's Oscars included a special tribute to the stunt community, presented by "Fall Guy" stars Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling and produced by Leitch and McCormick. 'They've been such a crucial part of our industry since the beginning of cinema,' Gosling told the crowd to warm applause between riffs with Blunt about their 'Barbenheimer' feud. 'To the stunt performers and the stunt coordinators who help make movies magic, we salute you.'
Rules around eligibility and voting for the new stunt award will be released in 2027, and details on how the award will be presented are still to be determined.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.