5,000 signatures reached
To: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board
Create a Best Stunt Designer Category at the Oscars!
"Mission Impossible." "The Avengers." "John Wick." "James Bond." "The Matrix." "Con Air." "Miss Congeniality." All the action movies we know and love wouldn’t be half as good if it weren’t for the stunt performers who bring those stories to life. But at the Academy Awards, Hollywood’s biggest night, the action industry is completely left out of the ceremony.
Ask the Academy Awards to honor the contributions of the action industry with a best stunt designer category!
Why is this important?
From jaw-dropping fight scenes to thrilling car chases, stunts take incredible creativity and skill to pull off safely. Action designers deserve to be honored as the artists and professionals they are. Action and adventure stories—like the Marvel comic book franchise—dominate the box office. Adding a stunt award would give the Academy the opportunity to recognize the popular action genre and keep the industry relevant with new audiences.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has rejected action designers every year from 1991 to 2012. But there is precedent for change. The last major category added was Best Animated Picture in 2001, and more recently the Academy has announced Best Casting as a category slated for the 2026 award season. Stunts have been a part of creating movie magic since the very beginning of filmmaking, making the stories we know and love more exciting and engaging.
Urge the Academy: It’s time to finally pay homage to the action industry experts carrying the filmmaking tradition forward.