As the Academy continues to retool the Oscars ceremony year after year, John Wick director Chad Stahelski says we could be close to getting an award to recognize and honor stunt performers in the film industry. During the filmmaker’s latest PR tour for John Wick: Chapter 4, Stahelski vocalized the inclusion of an Oscar Stunt category in the annual awards show. Relegated to little more than a name in a long list of end credits, stunt performers are the unsung heroes of cinema. Stahelski thinks this group of talented individuals deserves to see their contributions awarded alongside some of Hollywood’s heaviest hitters, and I could not agree more.
Speaking with ComicBook.com to promote the Blu-ray release of John Wick: Chapter 4, Stahelski told the outlet that talks with the Academy about adding an Oscar Stunt category have happened “in the last couple of months.” Adding, “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,” Stahelski said. “I think, for the first time, we’ve made real movement forward to making this happen.”
According to Stahelski, an Oscar Stunt category “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.”
However, adding a category to the Oscars is more challenging than it sounds. Details about what qualifies for the award need to be ironed out. Stunt performers take a lot of hits and perform incredible acts of physicality. How do you organize those feats for the sake of a golden statue?
“The question is, we haven’t had the real talks about how do you even determine what to award,” Stahleski explained. “Like is it for best stunt? Is it best choreography? Best action sequence? Best stunt ensemble? Does the stunt coordinator get it? The guy doing the gag get it? The martial arts choreographer? The fight choreography? The stunt double? The second unit director? The editor? Who gets the award? All these are great questions that just need to be talked about by smart individuals on both sides of it, the stunt community and the Academy.”
Stahelski says talks are progressing positively on both sides, with the Academy eager to arrive at a place where it feels comfortable adding the category. If and when the specifics are finalized, we could have a fantastic new category to evaluate come awards season. Bring it on!
How would you organize an Oscar Stunt category? What should the Academy focus on to make this an exciting and fair addition to the annual gala? Feel free to share your ideas in the comments below.