The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to award a new Oscar for Achievement in Stunt Design, starting with the 100th Academy Awards in 2028 (i.e., recognizing achievements in films released in 2027). The corpses of Daryl F. Zanuck, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Robert Towne, David O. Selznick, Irving Thalberg, Alfred Hitchcock, Edith Head, Ben Hecht, William Wyler and Gregg Toland have just turned in their graves…trust me.

This will be the first grunt-level or “meathead” Oscar category in the Academy’s history. For almost a full century every other category — directing, acting, screenwriting, cinematography, makeup, set design, costumes — has represented some kind of truly creative, fine-art aspiration. Even the forthcoming casting Oscar category, which will produce a winner at the 2026 Oscars, represents the kind of achievement that, if done right, truly enhances the art of cinema.

Stunts, difficult as they can be to perform well, are essentially low-rent. The only artful stunts I could point to were performed by Buster Keaton a century ago.

Today’s stunts, of course, are a different deal. They certainly don’t occupy the same station as modern dance or ballet, which have long been practiced by performers who care about creative visions and possibilities. Even trapeze artistry can be regarded as an art form. But not movie stunts. Stunt performers are fine as long as they say on their side of the fence. But they don’t deserve to stand alongside the film industry’s actual artists.

The bad guys in his instance are director David Leitch and stunt coordinator Chris O’Hara of Stunts Unlimited. They’ve been aggressively advocating for a stunt Oscar category, and now the Academy, grappling with the fact that the Oscars are a failing brand, has imperceptibly shrugged and given in.

Owen Gleiberman‘s 3.28.25 review of Warfare, co-directed by Alex Garland and former SEAL Ray Mendoza, explained the basic deal — no movie stuff — just raw, assaultive, in-your-face realism within a short time frame.

By “stuff” he meant “no story, no dramatic hooks, no scripted banter, no musical score, no establishment of plot points, no character development, no giving those of us in the audience our bearings”…just a real-time incident that happened to Mendoza and several other SEALS 19 years ago during the Battle of Ramadi. A mere 95 minutes, and all of it inside and just outside a two-story home without plants or shade.

And I knew all that going into last night’s 7 pm IMAX screening. No surprises, locked and loaded…ready.

So here’s what happened…not in the film as I knew that Garland-Mendoza would put me through the ringer and leave me with a temporary case of PTSD. And they do exactly that, in spades. What I mean is, here’s what happened to me:

The screen was fake IMAX (half as large as the one at the AMC Lincoln Square) but the projection quality was aces — immaculate clarity, razor-sharp focus — and the loud battle sounds (dunf-dunf-dunf-DOOF!) were, in a sense, life-giving. They got my pulse going…woke me the fuck UP….I almost forgot about the popcorn.

Nothing happens during the first 25 or 30 minutes, but it holds you tight and firm because you know bad shit is right around the corner. Everything we hear and see is at the very least riveting because you KNOW. And then it starts…okay, I won’t describe it. But it has to be experienced on a big screen with loud, crisp, pumped-out sound. No streaming, no couches, no smart phone distraction…full attention.

A few guys get shot up and shredded, but then you knew that. That’s not to say what happens isn’t horrific. I was flinching and gasping all through it, but as I know a few of the actors I was able to occasonally pull back and disassociate and think about stuff of my own.

One of the SEALS is Joseph Quinn‘s “Sam”, and while I felt terribly for the poor guy (in actuality, back in ’06) and his ghastly leg wounds (he moans and wails a lot and who could blame him?) but to be perfectly honest I was also whispering to Quinn, “I’m sorry for your character’s terrible pain but on another level you, Joseph Quinn, almost deserve it because you’ll be playing George Harrison for Sam Mendes, and you don’t even faintly resemble Harrison…alabaster skin, auburn hair, eyes that couldn’t be more different than Harrison’s deep browns.”

Mendoza is played by the 25 year-old D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, whom I liked right away. He’s good-looking and slender and watchful like a tiger and super-attuned….a guy you feel good about right away. I had looked at current photos of Mendoza, and, as you might expect, he’s put on a fair amount of weight over the last 20 years. You can laugh but the fact that Woon-A-Tai’s Mendoza is a young and lean workout Nazi…you can laugh but I gave thanks to God for this.

On the other hand Michael (son of James) Gandolfini is a bit on the bulky side, and as he’s only 26 he’d better watch himself…if you’re not in reasonably trim physical shape in your mid 20s you’ll be a mess when you hit 40 or even 35.

And yet Charles Melton, who only appears during the last half-hour as Jake, an officer of some kind, delivers great authority and pretty much restores his acting career.

I didn’t mind Melton’s passable performance as Julianne Moore‘s much younger husband in Todd Haynes‘ May December (’23), but I was really turned off when he started winning Best Supporting Actor awards in late ’23. The wokesters shrieked their usual denials, but it was obvious this was happening because of Melton’s ethnicity (his mother is Korean). But when he took charge and starting barking orders last night, I almost said out loud,”All is forgiven, dude…your mushy husband portrayal from two years ago is gone from my head, and all I can see and feel is Jake’s hardcore commitment…you’ve saved yourself.”

There’s a recurring image — a prop, I should say — in Warfare that I will never forget. Not a dead American body but a portion of one. That’s all I’m going to say.

10:30 am update: Lynne Ramsay‘s Die My Love, a post-partum depression “comedy” that costars Jennifer “JLaw” Lawrence and Robert “RPatz” Pattinson, will be announced as an additional Cannes title. World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy is hearing “as many as SEVEN late additions, including two in competition, will be announced.” Die My Love costars LaKeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek and the profoundly grizzled Nick Nolte.

Earlier this morning: Many potentially exciting Cannes ’25 films are missing from the just-announced lineup, and despite a general understanding that more titles will be added over the next two or three weeks, I for one am moderately bummed.

After five years of editing The Way of the Wind, the seemingly wispy, undeniably fickle-minded Terrence Malick has once again chickened out.

Amazon has also wimped out, I gather, on approving the showing of Luca Guadagnino‘s reportedly forceful After The Hunt. In the realm of potential award-season contenders, distributors are generally scared shitless of Cannes.

Gregg Araki‘s I Want Your Sex has apparently been given the go-by. Jim Jarmusch‘s Father, Mother, Sister, Brother has been rejected. Kristen Stewart‘s The Chronology of Water either isn’t ready or hasn’t made the cut. And for whatever reasons[s] Laszlo Nemes’ Orphan is, for now, out.

It would’ve been surprising if Paul Thomas Anderson‘s One Battle After Another had been selected (it’s almost certainly going to Venice) but it would’ve been so much fun to catch it early. Warner Bros. is understandably concerned over advance reactions — I would be too.

But hey, at least attendees will have an opportunity to savor Joachim Trier‘s Sentimental Value, “an intimate and moving exploration of family, memories, and the reconciliatory power of art.” HE is earnestly looking forward to this, especially with Renate Reinsve starring.

Not to mention the somber spectacle of Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor doing each other in early 20th Century New England in Oliver Hermanus‘s The History of Sound…spiritual longings, hard-ons, primitive recording equipment, etc.

And Ari Aster‘s Eddington…I guess. And Chris McQuarrie and Tom Cruise‘s Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. And, for a change of pace, Andrew Dominik‘s Bono: Stories of Surrender

And Richard Linklater‘s Nouvelle Vague, about the making of Jean-Luc Godard‘s Breathless.

Oh, and Spike Lee‘s Highest 2 Lowest, a remake of Akira kurosawa‘s High and Low (’63), will screen non-competitively.

In Competition:

“Sentimental Value” (dir. Joachim Trier)
“Sound of Falling” (dir. Mascha Schilinski)
“Romeria” (dir. Carla Simon)
“The Mastermind” (dir. Kelly Reichardt)
“Nouvelle Vague” (dir. Richard Linklater)
“The Eagles of the Republic” (dir. Tarik Saleh)
“Dossier 137” (dir. Dominik Moll)
“The Secret Agent” (dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)
“Fuori” (dir. Mario Martone)
“Two Prosecutors” (dir. Sergei Loznitsa)
“La Petite Dernière” (dir. Hafsia Herzi)
“A Simple Accident” (dir. Jafar Panahi)
“The History of Sound” (dir. Oliver Hermanus)
“Renoir” (dir. Chie Hayakawa)
“Alpha” (dir. Julia Ducournau)
“Sirat” (dir. Oliver Laxe)
“Young Mothers” (dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne)
“Eddington” (dir. Ari Aster)
“The Phoenician Scheme” (dir. Wes Anderson)

Cannes Premiere:

“Amrum” (dir. Fatih Akin)
“Splitsville” (dir. Michael Angelo Covino)
“Connemara” (dir. Alex Lutz)
“The Disappearance of Josef Mengele” (dir. Kirill Serebrennikov)
“Orwell” (dir. Raoul Peck)
“The Wave” (dir. Sebastián Lelio)

Un Certain Regard:

“The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo” (dir. Diego Céspedes)
“My Father’s Shadow” (dir. Akinola Davies)
“Urchin” (dir. Harris Dickinson)
“Meteors” (dir. Hubert Charuel)
“A Pale View of Hills” (dir. Kei Ishikawa)
“Eleanor the Great” (dir. Scarlett Johansson)
“Pillion” (dir. Harry Lighton)
“L’inconnue de la Grande Arche” (dir. Stephane Demoustier)
“Aisha Can’t Fly Away” (dir. Morad Mostafa)
“Once Upon a Time in Gaza” (dir. Arab Nasser, Tarzan Nasser)
“The Plague” (dir. Charlie Polinger)
“Heads or Tails?” (dir. Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis)
“Homebound” (dir. Neeraj Ghaywan)
“The Last One for the Road” (dir. Francesco Sossai)

Special Screenings:

“Bono: Stories of Surrender” (dir. Andrew Dominik)
“Tell Her That I Love Her” (dir. Claude Miller)
“The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol” (dir. Sylvain Chomet)
“Dalloway” (dir. Yann Gozlan)

Out of Competition:

“Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” (dir. Christopher McQuarrie)
“The Coming of the Future” (dir. Cedric Klapisch)
“Vie Privée” (dir. Rebecca Zlotowski)
“The Richest Woman in the World” (dir. Thierry Klifa)