Ryan Gosling’s New Movie With 87% On Rotten Tomatoes Will Make One Oscars Choice Look Far Worse (It’s Not Ken)

After Ryan Gosling’s iconic performance at the 2024 Oscars, his latest movie, with an 87% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, will make another part of the Academy Awards Gosling was involved in seem far worse. The Fall Guy was screened for critics at the South by Southwest Festival (SXSW) on March 12 and has drawn rave reviews from the limited number who have seen the film already. Gosling’s portrayal of Colt Seavers in The Fall Guy will be his first on-screen performance since playing Ken in the Barbie movie and has become highly anticipated.

The Fall Guy has a story that centers around a famous stunt action choreographer who must jump into action to save a film when its star goes missing during production. The cast of The Fall Guy includes Emily Blunt (Blunt presented with Ryan Gosling at the 2024 Oscars), Winston Duke, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The Fall Guy focuses on the stunt choreographers and stunt performers and stars two of the industry’s most famous actors, which makes a glaring omission at the Oscars that much worse.

The Fall Guy Will Make The Oscars Not Having A Best Stunts Category Worse

The Fall Guy movie is, in part, a homage to the work stunt performers and stunt choreographers do. The plot of The Fall Guy is really going to highlight them and show how essential they are to a wide variety of movies, not just action and adventure films. This showcase of their abilities combined with Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt praising stunt work at the 2024 Oscars shines a spotlight on the fact that a stunt category still doesn’t exist despite so many calls over the years for it to be included by a variety of Academy members.

In addition to Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt praising stunt performers and directors at the Academy Awards, The Fall Guy director David Leitch has started to become very vocal in his campaign to get an award created for the stunt community. David Leitch got his start in Hollywood as a stunt performer and now has transitioned to behind the camera, but remains a champion for their work. The Emmy Awards already honor the stunt community, giving out Outstanding Stunt Coordination and Outstanding Stunt Performance awards, but the Academy Awards continue to not take steps to add the category.

Will The Oscars Ever Add A Best Stunts Category?

The Academy Awards have traditionally been slow to add new awards, and there are currently no plans to add an Oscar for stunt work, despite discussions from all corners of Hollywood. Currently, the film stunt community highlights their own achievements at the annual Taurus World Stunt Awards, which highlights parts of films such as Best Fight, Best Specialty Stunt, and Best Stunt Coordinator. There will never be a shortage of films or scenes from which to select a potential Academy Award for stunt work, so it seems the sluggish pace of the Academy is what is slowing down the process.

The Academy Awards have only added three awards to the program since 1948:

At the 2026 ceremony, the first Oscar for Best Casting will be awarded, which is a win for the Academy Casting Directors branch, who have been lobbying for the award since its creation in 2013. This new award could signal that as the Oscars start to skew younger and more international, that they might be starting to rethink new awards that could be a part of the program. Hopefully, Ryan Gosling’s performance in The Fall Guy and his advocacy for stunt performers will help pave the way for this long overdue award to be added in upcoming years.