Stunt coordinators and performers have been badgering the Academy for decades to add an award that recognizes stunts, to the point that it’s become something of a cause célèbre. Creating the category seems like a no-brainer, though there’s an administrative reason why the Academy has continued to vote against adding a stunts Oscar. Stunt work is a technical category, and would require its own craft branch to select nominees, and the Academy at present just doesn’t include enough stunt professionals to form one. (As of 2011, the membership—which hovers around 6,000—included only 19 stunt people.) It’s a shame, because, aside from being the most dangerous job in Hollywood, stunt work is every bit as creative as the work recognized in any other category—from the choppy, free-for-all mayhem of to the pivoting, dance-like moves of to ’s cars stopping within inches of the camera. If nothing else, it would make for a heck of a clip reel at the ceremony. [Ignatiy Vishnevetsky]
