For the first time since the 2002 ceremony, where the Best Animated Feature category made its debut, there is a new category to be presented at the 2026 Academy Awards. Best Casting, or more officially, Achievement in Casting, will honor the work of casting directors who populate films with performers in both the foreground and background. It’s a nice little treat to get an additional category as the categories are more often reduced rather than expanded. We hardly knew you, Best Original Comedy Score (1996-1999). Yet, for those in the position of predicting, thinking about trends, and finding a theme, it’s anxiety producing. There’s no past data to fall back on.
As we begin to see the broader awards season taking shape we all have to start to ponder, what is good casting? Casting happens long before the film begins shooting. It’s a process that is also evolved as the film takes shape. Acting is a job. People can get fired or quit, so how much does that come into play?
Just as an example, casting director Carmen Cuba could have been considered for a nomination for the film All the Money in the World. Though, that’s a bit complicated. Would her peers be applauding her original casting of Kevin Spacey, an actor who was removed from the final film due to accusations of sexual misconduct, or her last minute save of securing Christopher Plummer to be inserted into those scenes? This also goes into a confusing conundrum of what this award really encompasses.
The complicated nature of casting is that the lead actors are sometimes a part of the package before a casting director gets involved. Many powerful A-list actors have also created their own production companies to develop projects for themselves. There are also long standing creative partnerships or friendships that supersede the need to involve a casting person. The same with small, but key supporting parts. These can be long standing relationships between filmmakers and actors.
What the heart of this award will boil down to is the non-marquee ensemble players. It’s about which casting director can nab the best character actors, supporting players, and discoveries who are found for large supporting or co-lead parts. If this is the case, then larger films will have the advantage. It may be a way for something like Fantastic Four: First Steps and Superman to break out of the doldrums of Best Visual Effects. It may be a way for animated features like Zootopia 2 and KPop Demon Hunters to bring voice acting into a larger conversation about acting.
What we really know is that like most technical awards, the casting directors branch executives will come up with a shortlist of ten features. It’s from those ten features the branch as a whole will vote for their favorites and the list is narrowed to five. It’s those five that will be the nominees.
It’s likely that this will be a populist category. It will likely be a battle of studio films, which isn’t a bad thing, but it’s going to push out films that may have been perfectly cast if a little smaller. Films like Black Bag or Highest 2 Lowest will most likely be forgotten like they will likely be forgotten in other categories. This is where the smaller Best Picture nominees will lose steam.
This year’s inaugural class of nominees will establish a base line. It will include the Best Picture frontrunners and likely a wild card or two just to shake things up. We’ll have to wait five or six years to see if a pattern emerges that people can analyze and decide if the category can be predicted to a high probability. We’ll probably start to see a trend where a broad statement that no film not nominated for Best Casting has a shot at Best Picture. For now, though, based on audience and critical reactions and early prognostications, 2026’s Best Casting award will be One Battle After Another‘s Cassandra Kulukundis’ to lose.
