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Oscar rejects stunt
performers |
Stunt performers are
getting no love from Oscar. The men and women who routinely leap from
buildings, set themselves on fire, drive automobiles recklessly in
dangerous conditions and so on, all for the entertainment of the
movie-going public, have been denied their request for a stunt-based
Academy Award.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday
that its Board of Governors had voted against granting stunt performers a
category at the 78th Academy Awards.
"At a time when the Academy is trying to find ways to reduce the
numbers of statuettes given
out, and looks at categories with an eye more focused on reduction than
addition, the board is simply not prepared to institute any new annual
awards categories," Academy President Frank Pierson said in a statement
Wednesday.
Stunt performers pushed the issue the best way they knew how. Last
week, about 75 men and women demonstrated outside Academy headquarters,
performing stunts to draw attention to their movement.
"Stunt coordinators are the reason that action sequences come to life
on screen," Jack Gill of Stunts Unlimited told Daily Variety last week.
"They are responsible for every aspect in the film from the smallest
comedic pratfall to the most
elaborate 100-vehicle car chase."
Gill has been pushing for a stunt Oscar since 1991. On Wednesday, he
expressed his dejection upon
learning that the Academy had rejected the request once again.
"I'm disappointed," Gill told the Associated Press. "Everyone believes
we should have a category except the board of governors."
Hollywood types such as Screen Actors Guild president Melissa Gilbert,
Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg and Dustin Hoffman had backed the stunt
coordinators on their quest.
However, in the past 25 years, the Academy has created only two new
award categories: Best Makeup in 1981 and Best Animated Feature in 2000.
In a further movement to pare down the number of little gold men handed
out at the awards ceremony, the Academy announced Wednesday that it will
determine which producers will be given credit in the Best Picture
category and that the number of statuettes handed out in the category
would be limited to three.
"What we're doing is further reducing the possibility of someone
receiving one of our highest awards without really having done the job of
a producer," Pierson said.
For the first time, a limitation was also placed on the number of
songwriters that can receive an Oscar in the Best Original Song category.
The Academy said that it would normally only award two Oscars in the
category, but would reserve the right to award three, should three
individuals have contributed equally to the winning song.
The 78th Annual Academy Awards will be held March 5, 2006 at
Hollywood's Kodak Theater.
(yahoo) | 
Updated: 2005-06-23 15:36
