The “Best Casting” Oscar is Brand New This Year. Here’s How Casting Directors Finally Got Their Due

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.

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.

You talked a lot about timing. How does it feel to have the category here with this crop of movies that we’ve got that we’re working with right now? How is that reflected?

The subject matters are different, therefore, the casts are different. You have a casting season where you have A-listers and marquee names in some films doing a totally different turn on what they normally do, getting lost in the character. You have [a great mix of] veteran actors, fresh faces, and street casting. It’s just so eclectic and so exciting. I think that really shows how each casting director went through their process and really dug in and came up with these gems. It’s a very exciting group.

Speaking of street casting, it’s probably especially fun to have this be the inaugural year—a lot of the nominated films feature first-time actors, like the military interrogator in One Battle After Another, or the people in Marty Supreme who were more or less picked up off the block.

What I really love is that each casting director came with their A-game. And this is the thing about casting directors: no matter where you are, what you’re doing, we’re always thinking. We could be in the grocery store, and we see someone, it’s like, “Oh my gosh, he would be great in this.”

I’m personally really bad at remembering which movies competed in which Oscars race, but was there ever a year where you looked at the crop and you were like, man, I wish there was a Best Casting Oscar category for these films?

Oh my gosh, so many years. I mean, we could go way, way back. When I wasn’t even in casting, when I was young, I’d go back and look at some of the older films… it would’ve been amazing.

When you watch a film that you didn’t work on, what’s the calculus that makes the casting director lightbulb go off for you, where you say to yourself, “This is a well-cast film”?

I think you sort of get lost in it, right? It’s almost like the actors become invisible. You just get lost in the story and you’re on their journey with them. It’s like the cast and the story are one perfect piece.

I want to go down memory lane a little and look at some of your past highlights. One thing in particular that I thought was interesting, especially given the point you just made, is that you’ve worked on a fair share of biopics, which seems like a real specific muscle, because there’s got to be a level of avoiding caricature.

Yeah. I think you have to look at a lot of different factors depending on who or what you’re looking for. There’s a physicality, there’s a resemblance, but you never want anyone to do an impersonation—you have to embody the spirit of that person. Years ago when we were working on Everybody Hates Chris, we had to find a young Chris Rock. And as we were looking at so many actors, Tyler James Williams… physically, they did not look alike, but he embodied who a young Chris Rock was. You see what I’m saying?

It’s kind of intangible in a way.

Exactly. And sometimes you hit all the marks. They look exactly like him, they’re the embodiment. They’re great actors. So that’s the goal. But it’s always hard. You always want to get it right, because you don’t want anyone to do an impersonation of anyone.

Bringing up Tyler is a really interesting point too, because in your position, in accordance with the showrunner and the director and everything, you’re kind of part of the process of finding and minting new faces and new stars, which must feel really rewarding.

Years ago when I was working on a Bob Marley film—not the one that just came out—I found this one guy. The casting director was traveling all over the country looking for who could play Bob Marley and I literally found one of our top contenders at the Beverly Center when I was shopping with my friend. So we’re always out there.

Do you feel like, nowadays, with the industry going through a phase of chasing “sure things” and making safer bets, that you lose something, because people would rather go with a recognizable face instead of looking for a fresh one?

Yeah, but I think that’s part of our job, too. I think we champion actors. I’ve worked with so many directors and producers who [have a person] they’re thinking about. Then you tell them your thoughts and then you sort of meet in the middle. But a lot of times, casting directors really champion an actor they feel is really right for a part or really could embody this character. And a lot of times the director and producer will be like, “I didn’t think of that character that way.” So part of our job is to introduce new thought patterns as well.

You’ve worked with Spike Lee a lot. What’s it like collaborating with him?

He’s hilarious, first of all. And a lot of people don’t think so. Spike and I have a shorthand now. He says, “Kim, I don’t need you to tell me to cast Denzel Washington. I know that.” But so many other people have to embody that particular world.