How The Fall Guy is leading the charge to add an Oscar category for stunts

At this year’s Academy Awards ceremony back in March, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt (both of them nominees that night) took the stage with a multi-layered agenda. They opened with some gentle teasing about the Barbenheimer rivalry, giving us all some closure on the biggest moviegoing phenomenon of the previous year. With that out of the way, they moved on to the real reason they were there—to promote their next project, The Fall Guy. Or was that the real reason? Neither mentioned the title of their upcoming film. Instead, they talked about the “unsung heroes” of the stunt community and introduced a clip package (put together by Fall Guy director David Leitch and his partner and producer Kelly McCormick) highlighting the contributions of stunt performers throughout the history of cinema.

Narrated by Gosling, the video seemed to be aimed squarely at the governor’s board of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars. “The Academy’s history runs deep with the incredible work of the fearless artisans of the stunt community,” Gosling says in the segment, accompanied by images of some of the most famous and dangerous stunts in award-winning films. “And every awards season features their work in every genre.” He didn’t say, “So they deserve an Oscar,” but the subtext was clear.

It was all a bit awkward, as the Academy had just announced a new Oscar category one month before the show, to be added in 2025 and awarded in 2026… for casting. At the time, no one was seriously talking about adding yet another category, and certainly not one for stunts. But this wasn’t the beginning of the campaign to lobby AMPAS for recognition; it was just the most public appeal yet in a fight that goes back decades. And with the release of The Fall Guy, the conversation has only been getting louder.

If there were a drinking game where you had to take a shot every time someone in the media described The Fall Guy as a “love letter” to Hollywood or the stunt community we’d all have spent the past month or so stumbling around in a blur. The film is not ambiguous or coy about its intentions. It’s a showcase for stunts, first and foremost, held together by a sketchy plot and the electric chemistry of its two charismatic leads. Granted, those stunts are pretty spectacular. There are falls, flames, fist fights, gun fights, guys getting thrown into and out of things, and all manner of vehicular daredevilry, including a car crash that set the world record for the most cannon rolls in an action film.

Centering the story on the making of a fictional movie allowed writer Drew Pearce and the rest of the team to directly reference and acknowledge the crew behind the scenes within the film itself. It’s all very meta. So when stuntman Logan Holladay (standing in for Gosling’s character, Colt Seavers) does those eight-and-a-half record-breaking rolls, the scene after it can call the audience’s attention to it without ever breaking the fourth wall. And when Colt points out in the film that there is no Oscar for stunts, he’s making the case for one directly to the audience.

A few days after the Oscars ceremony, the cast and crew were in Austin, Texas, for the film’s premiere at SXSW. In an interview following the screening, Leitch was asked about the reference to the lack of an Oscar for stunts, and went into more detail on the status of the campaign. “I do feel it’s changing,” the director, a former stuntman himself, told the hyped audience. “There’s been a group of stunt people working inside the Academy now for several years that are really going through the process. You saw what happened on the awards the other night. It was a piece that we got to make, Kelly and I got to produce, for the awards that shined a light on it. [Gosling and Blunt] were so gracious to champion it and introduce it. I think the Academy wants it and I think it’s going to happen.”

Just in case the focus on stunts and the contributions of the stunt community wasn’t already clear, the film’s stunt crew was heavily featured during the promotional tour. They appeared in promotional videos and on talk shows right alongside the A-list stars, who took every opportunity to bring up the Academy’s oversight. “They risk more than anyone,” Blunt said of stunt performers on The Kelly Clarkson Show, promoting enthusiastic applause. “Give them an Oscar! It’s time.” Universal Pictures even turned the Los Angeles premiere into a stunt spectacular, with motorbikes, a high fall, and fights breaking out on the red carpet.

“Obviously, this is a love letter to the stunt community,” Gosling told the audience inside the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood (drink!). “They are the hardest-working people in show business. They risk more than anyone. This movie is just a giant campaign to get stunts an Oscar.”

The stunt community has been waiting for a moment like this for a long time. In fact, advocates for the stunt category submitted a proposal to the Academy for 21 years straight, from 1991 to 2012, without success. But comments from supporters like Leitch’s John Wick co-director Chad Stahelski and Mission Impossible writer-director Christopher McQuarrie have reignited the issue in recent years, along with Vulture’s great Stunt Awards series. And now, with a major Hollywood film starring a handful of Oscar-nominated actors providing a massive platform, those efforts might finally pay off.

What does it take for a category to be added to the Oscars? A new proposal would have to be submitted, outlining details like the rules of eligibility and who exactly the award would honor. Would it go to the stunt director or coordinator? The performers who actually do the stunts? Or would it be a recognition of the entire team, like the award for visual effects? Once these guidelines are ironed out, the proposal would have to pass through several committees on its way to the Academy’s Board of Governors, who take a final vote. It’s not a swift process, and it can get political. It’s no coincidence that the addition of a casting category came not long after a casting director, David Ruben, was elected president of the Academy (he served from 2019 to 2022). It may take some time and plenty more campaigning before this fight is won, but the attention that The Fall Guy is bringing to the stunt community is a crucial first step. And if there’s one thing that stunt performers are good at, it’s making crazy difficult things look easy.