At the 98th Academy Awards on March 15, Cassandra Kulukundis won the inaugural Achievement in Casting Oscar for her work on "One Battle After Another." In her acceptance speech, she dedicated the win to “casting directors who never had the chance to get nominated.” This new award recognizes the essential role of casting directors in creating a cohesive ensemble. It is also the first new competitive category since 2001.
Casting directors play an essential role in filmmaking, and as the Academy evolves, we are proud to add casting to the disciplines that we recognize and celebrate,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and former Academy president Janet Yang in a joint statement last year.
The move represents a landmark moment for the casting community. It follows years of advocacy from the Casting Directors Branch, which has pushed for greater visibility and recognition for the profession. Here's everything we know about the Oscar for Best Casting, including this year's nominated casting directors.
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The best casting Oscar is the result of a decades-long effort to formally recognize casting directors within the Academy’s awards structure. While the idea of a casting category was considered and ultimately voted down in the ’90s, the Academy did establish a dedicated casting guild, the Casting Directors Branch, within its membership in 2013.
In 2024, the Academy’s board of governors approved the addition of best casting for the 2026 awards season for films released in 2025. Casting Directors Branch governor Richard Hicks told Screen Daily, “It’s quite thrilling that it’s actually happening. We’ve been talking and hoping for years.” Following this change, professional casting directors can also fully participate as voting members of the Academy starting in 2026. Prior to the new category announcement, only one casting director had ever received an honorary Oscar: the late Lynn Stalmaster (“The Graduate,” “West Side Story,” “Superman,” “Deliverance”), who was recognized for his work in 2016.
Adding a new competitive award at the Oscars is a rare event, but the Academy is making notable changes. We also won’t have to wait much longer for another new category. In April 2025, the Academy announced another major addition: The award for achievement in stunt design is slated to debut at the Oscars’ 100th ceremony, with films released in 2027 being the first eligible to compete.
“Sinners” Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures
On Jan. 22, nominations for the 98th Oscars were announced. Here are the casting directors who were in the running for Best Casting:
- Francine Maisler, “Sinners”
- Cassandra Kulukundis, “One Battle After Another”
- Nina Gold, “Hamnet”
- Jennifer Venditti, “Marty Supreme”
- Gabriel Domingues, “The Secret Agent"
Courtesy Warner Bros
Actors hoping to work with awards-caliber CDs can look to recent interviews and insights from some of the categories’ early front-runners.
“Keep your information up-to-date and pay attention, because I was trying to search for a bunch of people, and they weren’t getting back to me, so they missed out. I’m not a social media user, but when I’m working on a movie, yeah, I’ve got this fake Instagram and I’ll DM you!” —Cassandra Kulukundis, “One Battle After Another”
“When you get an audition, look at who’s directing it, who’s written it, [and] look at their work. There’s a tone that every director has. There’s so much information to be gotten from doing that research. Then I would say, try to make some strong choices. I feel bad for actors if they’re self-taping and not getting any direction because they don’t know what to do, but sometimes people go just in the middle, and the middle never works. Just try to, with what you know, make a choice” — Francine Maisler, “Sinners”
“I personally like it when [actors] just keep [their self-tape] simple. Some people really go to town and practically make the whole film! And then it’s pretty impressive, but it’s not necessarily revealing everything you need to know about the performance. It’s fun and you remember it, I guess. But just a fairly simple, plain [tape] just dealing with the text and the performance, rather than any other stuff, is pretty good. —Nina Gold, “Hamnet” + “Jay Kelly”
“When people are learning lines, they get over-rehearsed a lot. It begins to sound like line-reading because they’re so focused on learning. I always [recommend] using improv to get people out of their heads, redirect them, and then bring them back to the line. I think it’s a great tool for actors just to play with. Even if a director is not going to let you improvise, I do think it’s important for actors to exercise that muscle, because it’s a good way to get warmed up and get comfortable.” —Jennifer Venditti, “Marty Supreme” + “Bugonia”
According to Variety, the nomination process begins with the Casting Directors Branch shortlisting 10 films, each accompanied by:
- A written breakdown of the casting process
- Photo grids of the cast
- A five-minute reel featuring clips from the final released film
These materials are then presented to branch members with prerecorded Q&As. Afterwards, branch members vote to select five nominees, with all eligible Academy members participating in final-round voting. ​​Nominees must be credited as casting directors (with the title “casting director,” “casting by,” or “casting”) in a principal onscreen position, with no more than two CDs eligible per film, except under rare circumstances approved by the branch’s executive committee.
Once the final nominees are set, the entire Academy membership votes to determine the winner of the Best Casting Oscar. However, the 2026 rules mandate that only members who have screened all nominated films are eligible to cast a ballot. While the Casting Directors Branch curates the list of nominees, the final award is a consensus decision from the full Academy.
