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David Rubin, the first casting director elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, speaks at the 2019 Governors Awards.
VALERIE MACON/AFP/Getty Images
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that it will soon begin presenting an annual Oscar in recognition of achievements in casting. The award, which will be presented for the first time in 2026, will be the first new Oscar presented since the organization began presenting the best animated film in 2002, after announcing its creation in 2001.
The announcement is somewhat surprising, considering the pressure the Academy has felt, especially in recent years, to consolidate the number of categories it presents on its ABC broadcast, in order to retain as many viewers as possible. (It has yet to be confirmed whether the casting Oscar will be featured on the telecast, but it’s hard to imagine it won’t be.) Twenty-three awards are currently given out on-air, although the average viewer tends to care about only four or five.
On the other hand, the Academy has increasingly welcomed casting directors in recent years. Professionals in the profession have belonged to the organization for decades, but were classified as general members until 2013, when the organization created a casting directors’ branch. Six years later, a casting director was elected president of the Academy for the first time; David Rubin He held that position from 2019 to 2022. Today, there are 158 active members of the casting director branch, making it the smallest of the Academy’s 19 branches.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the current president of the Academy Janet Yang and executive director Bill Kramer stated: “Casting directors play an essential role in filmmaking, and as the Academy evolves, we are proud to add casting to the disciplines we recognize and celebrate. We congratulate the members of our casting director branch on this exciting milestone and for their commitment and diligence throughout this process.”
The three governors of the casting directors branch of the Academy: Richard Hicks, Kim Taylor-Coleman and Debra Zane — added: “On behalf of the members of the casting directors branch, we would like to thank the board of directors, the awards committee and the leadership of the Academy for their support. “This award is a well-deserved recognition of the exceptional talent of our casting directors and a testament to the dedicated efforts of our branch.”
Category rules for eligibility and voting for the inaugural award will be announced in April 2025 as part of the full 98th Academy Awards Rules. Details of the award presentation will be determined by the Academy’s board of governors and its administrative leadership at a future date.