Summary

• The Oscars finally adds a new award category after years of campaigning: Achievement in Casting.
• The addition of this category marks the first change to the Oscars categories since 2001.
• The new category will be added at 98th Academy Awards, which will take place in 2026.

The Oscars add a brand-new award category after years of campaigning. Though categories have been tacked onto the popular awards show over the years, the majority of the Oscars categories has stayed stagnant. The last time the Academy added a category was in 2001, with the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, which was first awarded to Shrek. This year, the 96th Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, March 10.

According to IndieWire, the Academy now plans to add a category for Achievement in Casting. The first of these prizes is to be awarded in 2026, at the 98th Academy Awards. This first award will go to films that are released starting in 2025. The Academy has not yet determined all the specifics of the award’s presentation.

How The Achievement in Casting Award Will Impact The Oscars

The announcement of this additional category comes after several years of people campaigning for a Casting Award. This push was partially spurred by the release of Tom Donahue’s 2012 documentary Casting By, which documented the importance of casting directors to the success of films. This piqued the interest of a number of people in the industry, and as a result, the Academy created its first Casting Directors Branch in July 2013.

The Best Achievement in Casting award could have a massive impact on the results of the Best Picture category. Because the strength of a cast can be predictive of the success of a film, the Best Achievement in Casting could easily align with the Best Picture winner, as it has with major categories like Best Directing. Furthermore, if only five films are to be nominated for Best Achievement in Casting, an exclusion from the list could be a harbinger of demise for other Best Picture contenders.

Half of the past 10 Best Picture winners have also won Best Director.

The addition of the Best Achievement in Casting category also begs the question of what categories might next be added to the coveted awards ceremony. Another category floated in recent years is a category recognizing stunt teams, who have made up critical components of Oscar contenders such as Mad Max: Fury Road and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. With the Academy opening its mind to new categories, an Oscars stunt category in the coming years is certainly in the realm of possibility.

Source: IndieWire