There are Academy Awards for nearly every aspect of making a movie. You have acting, directing, screenwriting, special effects, makeup, wardrobe, and more as the list goes on and on. But one that you don't see on the list is an Academy Award for stunt performances.
It's been an oft-talked-about topic among stunt performers, as well as a number of big-name directors that the stunt community doesn't get the love that it deserves. These are men and women who put everything on the line for a movie and can literally make or break an action set piece. Why shouldn't they be treated as equals to everyone else?
Well, maybe that's about to change as in a recent interview with Empire, the Academy's CEO stated that the group is in active discussions to bring a Best Stunt Performance category to the Oscars.
“We’re talking to members of the stunt community who are Academy members about the possibility of that,” Bill Kramer, Academy CEO, told the magazine, adding, “We added a new award that will launch in two years for Casting Directors, so we’re always open to those discussions.”
The talk of adding a stunt performance category has been one that many have campaigned for. One recent highlight in terms of that, as it felt like the whole movie was made as a campaign to include stunt work in the Oscars, was The Fall Guy, the Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling rom-com love-letter to the stunt worker directed by David Leitch, a former stuntman himself. It seemed aimed right at the Academy and said, "Hey, we're here, too!"
Vulture's own Bilge Ibiri has been writing about the topic, and campaigning for, for years. And I'm in agreement with him.
Stuntworkers are some of the hardest, most diligent working individuals on a movie set. They have to be, otherwise they or others could get seriously hurt. And the stunts they perform, whether they're rolling a car, flipping through the air, getting hit by a crane, or intentionally crashing a motorcycle is serious work that deserves credit. Not just some line in the credits.
We wouldn't have John Wick, Ronan, Mad Max, The Italian Job, The Fast and the Furious, Atomic Blonde and hundreds of other great action movies without stunt performers. They deserve their time in the limelight and I hope the Academy does just that.
