This might be old news to some, but not to us.  Once again this year The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AKA “The Academy”) has declined to offer an award to honor the stunt community.  The campaign to add an Academy Award catagory for stunt coordinators has been led for the past 20 years by Jack Gill.  Hollywood Reporter has a good article about Gill’s 20 year quest that you can read here.  You can also read about the ultimate decision by the Academy to decline Gill’s proposal here.

Well, since the Academy can’t or won’t honor the great filmmaking tradition of stunt work, we here at ActionFest want to be their champions.  Since 2010, ActionFest has been showcasing and honoring the work of stunt men and women from around the world, and we plan to keep honoring this exciting community.  At the 2011 ActionFest, we honored stunt legend Buddy Joe Hooker with a lifetime achievement award.  And we don’t plan to let the honors and accolades end there.

In response to the Academy’s decision this year, ActionFest Co-founder Bill Banowsky has said, “ActionFest will become the Academy Awards for the stunt community”.

Stay tuned here on ActionFest.com for more updates, some blasts from the action world past, and more feature articles honoring the men and women of the stunt community.