The “Best Casting” Oscar is Brand New This Year. Here’s How Casting Directors Finally Got Their Due
Veteran casting director Kim Taylor-Coleman explains what it takes to get a new Oscar category approved by the Academy—and recalls “putting the puzzle together” for everyone from Spike Lee to Ye.
As the buzz around this year’s Best Picture and Best Actor races reaches deafening levels, there’s another narrative going into the 98th Academy Awards that’s a little more inside baseball but no less exciting. After many years of lobbying, 2026 marks the long-fought-for debut of a brand-new category: Best Casting. The competition for the first-ever Best Casting Oscar (AKA the Academy Award for Achievement in Casting) is comprised of the same movies that have been duking it out all awards season—Hamnet, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent and Sinners—but this award will put a spotlight for the first time on the actual work of assembling an Oscar-worthy ensemble, from the top of the call sheet to that one super-memorable bit part.
To talk about this long-overdue achievement, what it took to get here, and the life and work of a casting director overall, GQ got on the phone with Kim Taylor-Coleman, a member of the Academy’s Board of Governors and a veteran casting director with nearly one hundred credits to her name. Kim talked to us about the new category, reflected on her enduring partnership with Spike Lee, and recalls working on Ye’s infamously unaired HBO comedy pilot.
GQ: Let’s start with this achievement. What did it take to finally get this category through?
Kim Taylor-Coleman: Yeah, look, it’s been a long, long road. When I became a governor, we posed the question—maybe the timing is right, so let’s start the process. And that’s what we did. And it took us a couple of years. We had to put all our ducks in a row, and we went to the awards committee to state our case. And then we moved on to the Board of Governors.
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And I have to tell you, it was two years of just making the right presentation at the right time. And that’s exactly what happened. We just put together a great presentation: [Casting directors are] part of putting the whole movie puzzle together. We’re probably the first people hired on a movie. That’s why we have that intimate personal relationship with our director and producer. And then from there, everyone else is hired.
So we had to present a great case, and it worked, and everyone agreed. And we’re just overjoyed that we officially have our first Oscar official nomination come March 15th. I have to say, what’s really funny is at the awards nomination announcements, this year was so different, because it’s like at four o’clock in the morning, it’s very exciting, and we were literally holding hands like children—we were so giddy and teary-eyed to hear them call “Best Casting.” We stand on the shoulders of a lot of others who came before us, and I hope they’re smiling down on us.
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And I have to tell you, it was two years of just making the right presentation at the right time. And that’s exactly what happened. We just put together a great presentation: [Casting directors are] part of putting the whole movie puzzle together. We’re probably the first people hired on a movie. That’s why we have that intimate personal relationship with our director and producer. And then from there, everyone else is hired.
So we had to present a great case, and it worked, and everyone agreed. And we’re just overjoyed that we officially have our first Oscar official nomination come March 15th. I have to say, what’s really funny is at the awards nomination announcements, this year was so different, because it’s like at four o’clock in the morning, it’s very exciting, and we were literally holding hands like children—we were so giddy and teary-eyed to hear them call “Best Casting.” We stand on the shoulders of a lot of others who came before us, and I hope they’re smiling down on us.
What do you think took so long to begin with? Is it just the process of creating something new? The infrastructure of the Academy?
Everything’s about timing. I think it was how it was presented. There’s a process and we followed the process step-by-step. We wanted it so badly and we didn’t want anything to go astray. So we just did everything by the numbers. And we just came in with a great amount of support and love. And when you put everything together, how can you say no?
When you say support, did some of that come from places like prominent directors or actors?
Oh yeah. We put together quite a group of prominent directors and producers, actors, and past Academy presidents, who stood in support of what we do and how integral we are to the filmmaker’s process.
