Stuntmen and women are planning a protest in front of the Academy after being shut out of the Oscars yet again.
The stunt community has grown increasingly frustrated at the lack of a ‘stunt coordination category’ at the prestigious awards show, and has been protesting the issue for the past 25 years, The Independent reports.
Protesters are now planning on delivering an online petition, signed by more than 46,000 people, to Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, and a ‘peaceful’ rally will take place in Beverley Hills on Wednesday afternoon.
The group’s goal is to raise awareness of the fact that stunt people are not eligible for Oscars.
Set up by Amber Gallaway, a fitness coach whose husband is a professional stuntman, the petition aims to ‘let the Academy know that the men and women who make the death-defying, thrilling and incredible adventures happen over and over again deserve recognition’.
The petition reads:
They are the ones literally putting their lives on the line for the glory of getting that thrilling and breathtaking shot. Those are the shots that are used to promote the movies, driving people into the box offices to see those carefully designed action sequences.
If you have ever enjoyed a movie, held your breath during an impossible leap from a building, been thrilled at a high-speed chase or clung to the edge of your seat when good and evil fought it out on the big screen, then please sign.
Jeff Wolfe, Emmy-winning stunt coordinator and president of the Stuntmen’s Association of Motion Pictures, has supported the rally in a statement where he claims that, for almost 90 years, the Film Academy has ‘blatantly discriminated’ against stunt people and their contribution to movies which they ‘literally bleed for’.
He said:
There are no colour lines or gender lines here. Stuntwomen and stuntmen of all walks are affected by the disregard of their significant contribution to the films we watch. After all, what would most movies be without the action?
Many stunt people believe that movies studios are worried that acknowledging stunt people may destroy the audience’s fantasy that their favourite actors are behind the deft-defying car chases and shoot-outs when, in fact, actors like Tom Cruise who perform all their own stunts are few and far between.
The Academy had previously considered a request to credit the stunt community at the Oscars in 2011 but, unfortunately, turned it down. They are yet to comment on the renewed request and accompanying protest.
Meanwhile, the Screen Actors Guild Awards added stunt prizes for both film and television in 2008, with the Mad Max: Fury Road and Game of Thrones teams taking the prizes this year.
The Oscars takes place on Sunday 28 February at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles and it seems they just can’t escape controversy this year.
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