Well, darlings, Hollywood’s finally getting something right in 2025 — and it’s about time. The Academy’s decision to add a stunt design category to next year’s centennial Oscar ceremony feels less like breaking news and more like finally acknowledging that water is wet.
Let’s dish about this long-overdue recognition of Hollywood’s most fearless artists. The Academy’s announcement landed with all the subtlety of a Marvel superhero landing — which, come to think of it, probably wouldn’t exist without the very people this award aims to celebrate.
“Since the early days of cinema, stunt design has been an integral part of filmmaking,” declared Academy CEO Bill Kramer and President Janet Yang, serving up the kind of carefully worded statement that probably took longer to craft than some of those death-defying sequences we’re talking about. From Buster Keaton’s railway escapades (sans green screen, thank you very much) to Tom Cruise’s latest attempts to give his insurance company heart palpitations, these unsung heroes have quite literally been breaking their backs for our entertainment.
The timing’s particularly delicious, what with David Leitch’s “The Fall Guy” making waves. Leitch — who went from being Brad Pitt’s stunt double to calling “action” from the director’s chair — has been pushing for this recognition harder than a stunt car through a plate glass window. “We have spent years working to bring this moment to life,” he shared, probably while planning his next gravity-defying set piece.
Though leave it to “John Wick” mastermind Chad Stahelski to raise the kind of practical question that keeps Oscar producers up at night: “Who’s going to decide who gets it, and who actually gets the award?” Fair point, considering stunt work involves more moving parts than a Rube Goldberg machine.
Meanwhile, over in streaming land, “Shrinking” continues its clever expansion into must-watch territory. The addition of Sherry Cola and Isabella Gomez to the cast for Season 3 feels like the kind of smart casting that makes other shows wonder why they didn’t think of it first. Cola, fresh from stealing scenes in “Nobody Wants This” and “Joy Ride,” brings exactly the kind of energy this already-stellar ensemble needs.
The series — which gave us Jason Segel’s beautifully messy therapist Jimmy and reminded everyone that Harrison Ford can do comedy (and rather brilliantly at that) — keeps collecting industry nods like a magnet in a paperclip factory. Those SAG nominations? Just the beginning, sweeties.
With Jeff Daniels already signed on as Jimmy’s father (talk about inspired casting), adding Cola and Gomez suggests the writers know exactly what they’re doing. It’s the kind of show that makes you wonder how therapy sessions ever survived without a little comedic intervention.
In true Hollywood fashion, we’re watching an industry simultaneously pat itself on the back for finally doing the obvious while also quietly revolutionizing how we consume content. Perhaps that’s always been Tinseltown’s special magic — the ability to make even its course corrections look like carefully choreographed dance numbers.
And isn’t that just perfectly Hollywood? Always ready for its close-up, even when it’s just fixing something that should’ve been fixed ages ago. Now, about that category for casting directors…
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