We Can Argue Over Whether Stunts Should Get Oscars All Day, But Did You Know There Are Some Great Categories That Used To Exist And Got Cut?

With the 2025 Oscar nominations announced and awards season underway, it's a great time to look back at Academy Awards history. As Hollywood prepares for its biggest night, the Oscars will honor exceptional filmmaking, continuing a nearly century-old tradition.

A persistent debate is whether the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences should create a separate category for stunt work. Given the remarkable feats seen in some of the best action movies, such as Mission: Impossible, John Wick, and Mad Max: Fury Road, many argue, like Jason Statham, who is a major advocate for stunt performers, that stunt coordinators and performers deserve recognition alongside cinematographers, editors, and visual effects artists.

While we can go back and forth about whether stunts should get their own Oscar category, what’s even more surprising is that over the years, the Academy has actually removed several categories that used to exist. Some of them make sense—Silent Film-era awards that became obsolete—but others leave you wondering why they ever got the axe in the first place.

Here are some of the most fascinating Academy Awards categories that were once part of Oscar history but have since been left in the past.

Academy Juvenile Award (1935–1960)

Before child stars with tons of charisma like Anna Paquin (The Piano) or Tatum O’Neal (Paper Moon) won competitive Oscars, there was an entirely separate award dedicated to recognizing kids actors. The Academy Juvenile Award was an honorary award given to outstanding performances by young actors deemed too young to compete in the regular acting categories.

The very first recipient? Shirley Temple received the award in 1935 at just six years old. Other famous winners include Judy Garland (The Wizard of Oz), Mickey Rooney, and Hayley Mills.

While it was a great way to highlight young talent, the Academy eventually phased it out in 1960, leaving child actors to compete against their adult counterparts—something that rarely happens due to the sheer competition and industry politics.

Best Engineering Effects (1928)

Long before Best Visual Effects became a staple of the Oscars, the Academy recognized technical wizardry with the short-lived Best Engineering Effects category. Created in 1928 for the very first Academy Awards, it was meant to honor groundbreaking technical achievements in filmmaking.

The one and only winner of the category? Wings (1927), the first film to ever win Best Picture–in a long list of Best Picture winners. The movie’s stunning aerial combat sequences were revolutionary for the time and set the standard for war films to come.

After that, the Academy decided to merge the idea of recognizing technical innovations into the Scientific and Technical Awards, which are given out in a separate ceremony today.

Best Title Writing (1929)

This one is definitely a product of its time. During the era of some of the best silent movies, the only way to convey dialogue and exposition was through title cards—those interstitial screens with written text. The Academy decided to honor the art of crafting these cards with the Best Title Writing category at the very first Oscars in 1929.

The first and only winner was Joseph W. Farnham, who wrote title cards for multiple films that year. But once talkies took over, title cards became obsolete, and the category was dropped entirely.

Imagine if it had evolved into something like Best Subtitles or Closed Captioning—now that would be an interesting modern-day equivalent.

Best Unique and Artistic Picture (1929)

The very first Academy Awards featured two Best Picture categories: Outstanding Picture (which became the Best Picture category we know today) and Best Unique and Artistic Picture, which was meant to honor films that were particularly innovative or visually striking.

Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), a silent film by F.W. Murnau, was the first–and you guessed it–the only winner of the award. The flick remains one of the most visually breathtaking films ever made.

The idea was scrapped after the first year in favor of a single Best Picture category, but some have argued that it could have evolved into something like a Best Cinematic Innovation award, which could have honored visually bold films like one of the best sci-fi films of all time, 2001: A Space Odyssey, or Mad Max: Fury Road.

Best Dance Direction (1935–1937)

If you’ve ever been wowed by the elaborate dance numbers in classic Hollywood musicals, you might be surprised to learn that there was once an Oscar category specifically for choreographers.

From 1935 to 1937, Best Dance Direction recognized choreographers who created outstanding musical numbers in Hollywood films. Busby Berkeley, the legendary choreographer behind kaleidoscopic dance sequences in Gold Diggers of 1935 and Footlight Parade, was a major presence in the category.

However, after only three years, the Academy folded choreography into the broader Best Original Song and Best Musical Score categories, even though choreography itself wasn’t being honored. With the resurgence of musicals like La La Land and West Side Story in past years, and with Wicked being a critical and financial hit recently, some argue that bringing back a Best Choreography Oscar wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Hey, can we make some changes in time for the upcoming Wicked: For Good as it approaches its 2025 movie release?

Best Original Story (1928–1956)

Today, we have Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay, but back in the day, there was a separate category called Best Original Story.

This award was given to the writer who came up with the idea for a film, even if they didn’t write the actual screenplay. For example, Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett won for The Lost Weekend (1945) despite Wilder also winning Best Screenplay for the same movie.

The Academy eventually realized that it didn’t make sense to separate “original story” from “screenplay,” so they merged the categories into Best Original Screenplay in 1957.

Best Assistant Director (1933–1937)

Hollywood productions skyrocketed in the 1930s, and directing a film—especially a large-scale production—was becoming increasingly massive. Enter Best Assistant Director, an Oscar awarded to recognize the hard work of second-unit and assistant directors.

This category lasted from 1933 to 1937, during which multiple assistant directors would win in a single year. However, as filmmaking became more streamlined, the category was phased out, though many assistant directors today would probably love to see it make a return.

Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing (1963–2019)

For years, the Oscars handed out two separate sound awards: Best Sound Editing (which recognized the creation of sound effects) and Best Sound Mixing (which honored how all audio elements were blended together in post-production).

However, in 2020, the Academy combined these into a single Best Sound category. While it was meant to simplify things, some industry professionals feel that it was a loss, as the two disciplines are distinctly different.

Could Some Categories Make a Comeback Or Be Added

The Academy has evolved a lot over the years, dropping and adding categories as filmmaking has changed. For instance, just last year, the Academy announced a new category (the first addition since 2001) for Best Achievement in Casting, which is set to take effect during the 98th Academy Awards, i.e. the 2026 ceremony covering the 2025 films. While some of these categories make sense as relics of their time (Best Title Writing, for example), others (Best Choreography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Original Story) might actually have a case for making a return.

Meanwhile, the debate over stunt performers getting their own category rages on. Suppose the Academy can recognize makeup artists, sound editors, and visual effects supervisors. Why not the incredible people putting their bodies on the line for some of Hollywood’s most thrilling moments? It makes sense to me.

As we look toward the future of the Oscars, maybe it's time to not just consider new categories but also revisit some old ones that still have merit. The 97th Academy Awards premiere Sunday, March 2 7E / 4P which will be televised LIVE on ABC and can be streamed for those with a Hulu subscription.