Stunt Performers to Receive First Oscar as Academy Introduces 2028 Stunt Design Award

The Oscars are finally putting some gold where the bruises are. Starting with the 100th Academy Awards in 2028, the show will feature a competitive Achievement in Stunt Design Oscar, honoring films released in 2027. The move caps decades of pressure inside the industry to formally recognize the specialists who plan and pull off high-risk action sequences. Stunt teams across Hollywood say the new category could mean long-overdue credit, fresh career paths and more visibility for the safety work and crediting that often stay in the shadows.

What the Academy announced

The Academy's Board of Governors approved the new category in April, with its first statuette set for the centennial ceremony, according to the Associated Press. In unveiling the change, Academy leaders Bill Kramer and Janet Yang called stunt design "an integral part of filmmaking," and the organization said more details on eligibility and voting will roll out ahead of the 100th show.

Industry push and reaction

Director and former stunt performer David Leitch helped lead the charge for the new Oscar and described the moment as "a long journey" for stunt professionals in a statement to Variety. Leitch and stunt coordinator Chris O’Hara spent years making presentations to the Academy in a sustained push to have the craft recognized alongside other technical fields that already have their own awards.

Hollywood's take

In Los Angeles, the news landed like a carefully staged fall at local stunt schools and action houses, where trainers already teach the precision driving, fight choreography and high-fall work the Oscars will now honor. The Los Angeles Times even sent a reporter through a stunt-driving class as the community marked the announcement, and the Screen Actors Guild has been recognizing stunt ensembles since 2007, according to SAG-AFTRA.

What still needs sorting

Plenty of details still need to be worked out. Key questions include whose names will appear on the trophy, how the category will balance design against performance, and how voters should judge complex, highly collaborative sequences. Category rules and voting procedures are expected to be released in 2027, Variety reports, and the Academy has not committed to presenting the award on the live telecast, TheWrap notes.

For now, the stunt community can claim a symbolic victory. A century into the Oscars, the people who design the falls, fights and car chases finally have a category that names their craft. Hollywood will get a clearer sense of what that looks like once the Academy publishes formal rules in 2027 and voters begin weighing 2027 films for the first batch of stunt design gold.