This year’s Oscars will include a brand-new category: Who’s up for the award?

(NEXSTAR) – For the first time in more than two decades, the Academy Awards is introducing an all-new competitive category at the Oscars.

Beginning with the 2026 ceremony, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will recognize Hollywood’s casting directors with its inaugural award for Achievement in Casting, a category the Academy’s Board of Governors approved in 2024.

“Casting directors play an essential role in filmmaking, and as the Academy evolves, we are proud to add casting to the disciplines that we recognize and celebrate,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Janet Yang said in a 2024 joint statement.

At the time, Academy leaders called the addition an “exciting milestone” for the ceremony, which hadn’t added a new competitive category since Best Animated Feature in 2002.

The road to recognition, however, wasn’t a quick one. In the early years of the Hollywood studio system, casting directors were largely overlooked for their efforts to coordinate auditions, scout out talent or even discover new faces. And it wasn’t until 1968 that a casting director would........

© The Hill