10 Categories That Should Be Added to the Oscars

The Oscars aren't perfect. The ceremony runs long, the jokes are often cringeworthy, the Academy sometimes buries craft categories during commercial breaks, and plenty of deserving artists go home empty-handed every year.

But we keep watching. Because we love celebrating the people who make the art we love.

Casting and stunt design are finally getting their due, with awards for these categories debuting at the 98th and 100th ceremonies, respectively. But we want to talk about other areas that deserve recognition.

Palm SpringsCredit: Neon

Best Comedy

Drama dominates awards season year after year, leaving excellent comedies fighting for the leftovers. Comedy is hard—arguably harder than drama—and sometimes just as emotional.

The Golden Globes separate drama from comedy and musical categories, which creates space. Films like Bridesmaids, The Truman Show, and Back to the Future are beloved, but were overlooked when it came to Best Picture awards. (These are the kinds of movies that sneak into a Best Screenplay or an acting category, or sometimes directing.)

A dedicated comedy category could make room for more nominees and potentially draw broader audiences to watch the ceremony.

Best Ensemble Acting

Individual performances get celebrated, but many films succeed as ensemble works. The Screen Actors Guild already presents an ensemble award, recognizing that acting is collaborative.

An ensemble category would acknowledge this at the Oscars, too. It would also create more opportunities to honor diverse casts and narratives that don't center on traditional lead roles.

Achievement in Motion Capture Performance

This is becoming so commonplace, it's about time the Academy caught up. Motion capture acting gave us Andy Serkis as Gollum and Caesar, Benedict Cumberbatch as Smaug, Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri, and more.

These are great actors, just working on specialized stages while wearing tracking equipment. They're doing everything a traditional film actor does, but without sets, costumes, or the immediate visual feedback of seeing themselves in character.

The Academy has been weirdly resistant to recognizing this work, as if the method of capture somehow diminishes the performance.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Credit: New Line Cinema

Achievement in Music Supervision

Needle drops can be integral to a film. Guardians of the Galaxy built its entire emotional arc around a cassette. Baby Driver synchronized edits to its soundtrack. Music supervisors are the people who help make that happen.

They're managing relationships with record labels, tracking down obscure recordings, and dealing with publishing rights that can involve multiple parties, all while staying within budget.

Achievement in Voice Performance

Animation has its own feature category, but voice acting goes unrecognized. Actors have to maintain character consistency across multiple recording sessions, hit emotional beats without visual reference, and sometimes work with limited context and no fellow actors. But the performances are often just as impactful as those in live-action films.

Achievement in Title Design

Credits set the tone and tell you exactly what kind of movie you're about to watch. Title designers use graphic design, animation, typography, and visual storytelling to create these sequences.

Achievement in Location Scouting and Management

Location managers find the real-world spaces of film. They negotiate with property owners, coordinate with local authorities, manage logistics, and solve countless practical problems.

These professionals have to think about things like permits, noise restrictions, and weather. Their work shapes production design before anyone arrives on set.

La La LandCredit: Lionsgate

Achievement in Choreography

Dance and movement choreography make some of cinema's most memorable sequences. Choreographers design everything from elaborate musical numbers to character blocking.

Choreography isn't limited to musicals. It encompasses how bodies move through space in any film, from intimate two-person scenes to crowd sequences involving hundreds of dancers. The craft requires an understanding of music, cinematography, and more.

Achievement in Intimacy Coordination

Intimacy coordinators are relatively new to film sets, but they've become essential. Their job is to choreograph scenes involving physical closeness with the same level of planning and safety that action coordinators bring to fight scenes.

As this role becomes standard practice across the industry, recognizing it with an Oscar could signal that set safety is a professional standard we should celebrate and maintain.

Achievement in Previz and Virtual Production

Previsualization artists create the digital blueprints that allow directors to plan complex sequences before shooting. They build virtual environments, test camera angles, choreograph action, and solve technical problems.

With the explosion of virtual production on projects like The Mandalorian or Our Flag Means Death, these artists now work in real-time, creating live backgrounds and environments that actors can see.

Let us know which you would add.