Should There Be An Oscar for Stunt Work?
By George Robbins
The Academy Awards, otherwise known by most as the Oscars, are considered to be staples in the movie industry that shine a light on some of the best films of the previous year. There are a number of different categories that give praise to a bunch of different aspects about films that make them as great as they are. Even if a film doesn’t have a great plot, there can still be an aspect of the movie that garners praise from audiences and critics alike. This makes it possible for films and the people working on them to get credit for achievements that would otherwise go unnoticed. Thus, it is a time of year that gets people to see just how much work actually goes into the making of all of these different films and how each person who works on them is important to those projects.
There are countless categories of awards that currently exist within the Academy Awards that cover categories from Best Picture to Best Score to Best Costume Design and so on. A number of categories exist to promote aspects of films that people usually don’t know anything about. Sometimes it isn’t even what people know little about, but what they might not know about at all. Things like engineering effects and sound design are the last things on most people’s minds when they are watching a movie, but it is important for the film to be successful. Even if the film doesn’t end up being successful, these things are what make movies happen to begin with.
One of the most important aspects for a lot of movies is that they must have a lot of different professionals working together to make films look good. Now, this does include things like the awards listed before as well as actors and the director, but for many films there are stunts that need to be performed. These stunts are often times dangerous and if done by the actors they could hurt themselves, unless they are trained properly, and this ultimately leads to them needing someone to do stunts for them. This isn’t always the case like Tom Cruise doing his own stunts in all of his movies and Keanu Reeves doing his own stunts in the ‘John Wick‘ franchise. These stunts can be very hard and grueling work for not just the people doing them, but also the people filming them, those responsible for editing the scenes, and the teams behind the stunts themselves.
Recently, ‘John Wick’ director Chad Stahelski stated that the stunt crews on films should be acknowledged in the same way that other teams are come Oscar season. This opens up a strong case for stunt teams because it can take a lot of work and coordination to get these scenes set up and executed properly. If not prepared correctly, there could be dangerous consequences or money can be wasted that the studio would not have had to spend if it was done properly. Oscar season has been delayed a couple of months for next year due to the coronavirus pandemic, so maybe they could add a category that includes stunt departments to give them the recognition they deserve. Even if they can’t get that into the next season, they should probably try to get it in within the next couple of years.