The 2026 Oscars will launch a new category

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of the United States of America has announced a new Oscar category, Best Director, for which films released in 2025 and selected for the 2026 awards will qualify.

The Academy will announce the new rules award in April 2025when they publish the complete rules of the 98th Academy Awards.

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

For their part, members of the Subsection Academy of Casting Directors – which has almost 160 members – believe that “this award is a well-deserved recognition of the casting director’s exceptional talent”, for which they thanked the Academy’s management.

The Directors Branch Casting Academy -which has about 160 members-

The fight to recognize casting directors at the ceremony, which currently awards 23 awards, dates back to the late 1990s, but then the proposal did not find widespread support within the Academy.

Fact

The Academy has not created a new competition category since 2001, when the award for Best Animated Feature was established.