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The Oscar

In this day and age, when there is an official Olympic sport for just about everything, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has yet to recognize certain crafts within the film trade as worthy of annual OSCAR recognition — most notably Stunts, Casting and Titles.

It wasn’t until 1981 that Make-up was officially categorized for awards consideration, due mainly to the advancements seen with prosthetics and puppetry (An American Werewolf in London won the first Oscar for Make-up). And it wasn’t until 2001 that a standalone category for animated films was created.

The most well known exclusions today are for the stunt industry, casting and title design. It’s much easier to understand why the Academy would reject stunts and casting; these two fields contain so many variables that go into the on-screen product that simply establishing the ground rules for nominations might be next to impossible. Would a casting director be worthy of an Oscar for a film in which the main star was installed outside of the traditional casting process, as sometimes happens on big “packaged” films? Similarly, with stunts, would the awards go to the stuntman who executed the maneuver, or to the stunt coordinator?

But why would the Academy reject title design? Unlike stunts or casting, this is a much more contained endeavor with the responsible parties and roles more identifiable. There are companies and craftsmen whose sole job in the industry is to execute title and credit sequences. While the titles on a Woody Allen movie are probably never going to win any awards because they are by design minimal, the titles of many hollywood blockbusters represent an artform unto themselves. And sometimes they’re better than the movie sandwiched between them the opening and closing credits. Some title/credit sequences are so impactful they become iconic, celebrated as standalone works burned into the public consciousness.

You can think of many great title/credit sequences without straining your brain too much, even if you’re not a diehard cinephile. Some great examples include:

1. Star Wars
2. Superman
3. City Slickers
4. Catch Me If You Can
5. Se7en
6. Raging Bull
7. Panic Room
8. The Incredibles
9. Every James Bond movie ever made.

The Academy needs to reverse course on this particular category rejection and seriously consider a Titles/Credits Oscar.

Related Links:

• Stuntmen lobby for Oscar
  
• A collection of famous and interesting title sequences
• AMPAS
• How the OSCARS Work