The last time the Oscars proposed a new category was in 2018 in the form of Outstanding Achievement in Popular Film. (People were not too happy about the proposed category, and it was eventually discarded.) Though with a lot of these “popular movies” from major studios utilizing stunt work more and more, many have been campaigning for an award recognizing stunts. Now, John Wick’s Chad Stahelski, who's called for the Oscars to add a stunt category, has weighed in on whether this will finally come to fruition.
It goes without saying that stunt work is incredibly important, and crews have only managed to up the ante with their work in recent years. For an example, you can look to John Wick: Chapter 3’s challenging stunt that has Keanu Reeves’ titluar character trying to shoot someone on horseback There's also Tom Cruise’s epic motorcycle sequence in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, which is incredibly impressive. So where do things stand when it comes to a stunt-centric Academy Award honor? Chad Stahelski, who directed the 2023 movie release of John Wick: Chapter 4 and the franchise's previous installments, discussed that with Comic Book Movie.com. In his estimation, there's been no movement up to this point because serious discussions just hadn't been conducted:
No, actually, I think why hasn't it happened has been, again, it's all like urban legend of why there's not a category or anything like that. In truth, from what research I've done, is that the conversation hasn't happened. No one from the Academy has sat down at a big table with a contingent from the stunt world and sorted it out. I mean, we're not just talking about an American stunt team, we're talking about a global network of stunt performers, and international films from all over the world. That's a lot of people. I don't know, if you or anyone is really familiar with how big the Academy really is, but it's hundreds of members. It's a lot of mechanisms to get these things done, and I just don't think anyone's ever sat down at the table and figured it out.
So communication has seemingly been one of the elements that's been needed to help get the ball rolling. When John Wick co-director David Leitch was once asked why stunt performers aren’t eligible for the Oscars, he couldn’t provide a concrete answer. Leitch figured that stunt people are behind the camera, making them harder to recognize compared to their lead star counterparts. Yet he still believed that given how collaborative filmmaking is, a stunt should still receive it nonetheless.
Chad Stahelski -- one of Hollywood’s most legendary stuntmen -- has expressed a lot of feelings on the Oscar category's absence. He's argued that if creative departments like hair, makeup, and costumes get recognized, then so should the stunt department. He's done a considerable amount to get stunt work recognized by the Academy. Though he previously mentioned, that progress was moving slowly, it sounds like things may be turning a corner:
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. I think it's something that can happen as soon as, you know, the next Oscars, or at least the one after that, at the latest, the next three or four years. I think there's a lot of working parts, but there's also, when you say that, I ask you a question back. - ‘Okay, so I'm the Academy, you've come to me and said we should have stunts in the Oscars, and I go, I agree with you. Great. How do we do it? How do we select the best stunt? Who do we give it to? Quick, what are your answers?
The cerebral filmmaker continued to explain that stunts are not as broad a category as one might believe. There are plenty of subsections within it, including choreography, action sequences, stunt ensembles, the stunt coordinator and more. This topic has been discussed for quite some time, and those who've chimed in about it seem incredibly passionate. A fair number of people would probably agree when I say that stunt people are some of the unsung heroes of the film industry, as they take some serious hits while on the job. With that, they could certainly stand to get their flowers.
Calls for a new category could very well ramp in the near future, especially since action movies have been taking over the film industry in recent years. And with Chad Stahelski and some of Hollywood’s biggest stars pushing for stunt people to get their long-deserved praise, it's certainly not impossible for them to achieve their goal.
