Impossible jumps, fires, acrobatic flights, shootings, falls and other film follies are only possible thanks to someone: specialists, action doubles. These professionals as praised as, often, invisible, now see how a historical request is recognized: that of competing in the Oscars and winning the famous statuette. This April 10, the Academy of Arts and Film Sciences of Hollywood has announced that, as of 2027, and coinciding with the centenary of the awards, it will be. With this, when the Oscars turn 100, they will deliver 25 statuettes at each gala.
The Academy has made it known through a statement issued on Wednesday afternoon. “Since the first days of cinema, action doubles have been an integral part of film creation,” said President Yang, and the institution’s executive director, Bill Kramer. “We are proud to honor the innovative work of these technical and creative artists, and we congratulate you for their hard work and dedication when we arrive this moment.” The prize is called in English stunt designthat does not have an exact translation in Spanish, but that could be called design or production of doubles or specialists. It will be in the face of 2027 when the rules by which this category will be governed, as explained by them will be announced.
As soon as a year has passed since, in February 2024, the creation of another award was announced, the best delivery address. This, also, is two years old, so there has been no award in the delivery of 2025, but will arrive in the next one, that of 2026. That was the first new prize to create in almost a quarter of a century. There was no new category since, in 2001, the best animated film was created, which went to Shrek In 2002. “Distributed directors play an essential role in the cinema, and as the evolution academy we are proud to add the cast to the disciplines we recognize and celebrate,” Kramer and Yang said then.
With more than 10,500 members, the academy is organized in 18 branches or professional categories. Action doubles, around 100, are grouped into production and technology. It is very new, created only in March 2023. Therefore, it has been even faster than that of the distribution directors, the immediately prior to it, created in 2013 and that managed to establish a prize 11 years later, in 2024. That branch has about 400 professionals in total and, according to the academy, “it represents the members who work in technical and key production positions in all the phases of the cinema to postproduction. ” Among them: technological, creative, file restoration managers, choreographers, colorists … and, of course, specialist coordinators.
The double action has been a long -desired award for this group, which often puts at risk its physical integrity and, in fact, its own life. The premiere last spring of the film The specialiststarring Ryan Gosling, who got into the skin of one of these workers, fueled the conversation about it. In fact, in some of the interviews that the academy made at the foot of the carpet actors and directors in the Oscars, one of the questions would be incorporated if a new award was created, and many responded, precisely, that the action doubles.
Precisely he has been the director of The specialist (as well as action movies such as Deadpool 2 o Bullet Train), David Leitch, the main promoter of the creation of this award, as explained by the specialized media Variety. He himself was on his specialist and coordinator of specialists, until he went to management and production. He has also wanted to send a statement, in which he says that “the action doubles are essential for any film genre, and their roots are deep in the history of the industry, from pioneers such as Bustter Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Charlie Chaplin to inspiring artists today, designers of specialists, coordinators, interpreters and choreographers.” Leitch has joined Chris O’Hara, designer and coordinator of specialists, to make various presentations before the members of the Academy, whose Board has approved the category this Wednesday. “This has been a long trip for many of us,” he said. “Chris O’Hara and I have spent years working so that this moment comes to life, uploaded to the shoulders of the professionals of the risk scenes that have tirelessly fought for their recognition for decades. We are incredibly grateful. Thank you thank you, Academia.”