"Best Casting" Oscar....?

I had heard it was coming, but it sounded so absurd I just chalked it up as one more reason the Industry I loved was falling to pieces under its own crushing hubris. I dreaded hearing about it as much as the unspoken certainty that the fight was on to make it real. I didn't want to believe it because it was yet another sign that the Hollywood I used to love and adore was fading into a nostalgic, overindulgent wraith, vacuous and emaciated under a sheer negligee.

What was the point of demanding rewards for such a basic, utilitarian, functionary role, I wondered?

Still wonder. 

If they were to be acknowledged in such a manner, then so should every single department that serves with little more than the thrill of seeing their name in the closing credits on a silver screen. It was only fair.

Some Casting Directors even have their name in the opening credits, so why did they need more?

Then the nonsense became reality. The Academy saw fit to bow to the pressure of the Casting Director Mafia insisting that their job deserved an award for some reason.

Not for any artistic merit, because truly, all a Casting Director does is source literally thousands of names of starving Actors with varying degrees of celebrity - or any sort of notoriety for that matter - and present their lists to the Producers and Directors of any given project for their consideration. Then schedule those selections to appear for an audition. 

They just connect people to people and let them talk. Sometimes they don't even have to do that much.

And because there are so many willing and able Actors, Actresses, online "influencers", etc., there are databases that make their job as indifferent and disconnected as punching the specs from the submitted cast list into a search engine. Those archives service local and national hopefuls, yielding literally thousands of prospects for even the most meager day player role. Maybe they recognize people from the list, or, more likely, they simply fall back on the same people they normally send over - you know, their friends and family. The ones they know will do the job because the favorites list is their shortest and easiest for them to cope with and manage.

It couldn't be for their creative talents. 

They do little more than a grip or a production assistant executing orders, because all they really do is put together lists of names and schedule auditions for someone else to review and approve. Production wants to see new faces? Back to the database, no worries! These days, with the trend in self-taping dominating everything, they don't even have to hold auditions until the Producers and Directors and Agents and Managers - the REAL people doing the casting - have decided the short list that will be requested to schedule.

So the CD schedules those appointments. Tries to at least have coffee and bagels or pastries for the decision makers or their representatives who have to sit alongside them during casting sessions.

That's it.

Curating lists and managing scheduling. 

They don't sit at the table of Decision Makers, Financiers and Visionaries that comprise the Game of Thrones style hierarchy of film production. 

Regardless of what their egos may tell them, it doesn't matter if it's cattle calls for extras or scheduling A-list talent. They are literally an intermediary like a temp agency, nothing more. Their only advantage is access, and the internet is continually disarming that weapon.

Thus, this need to be recognized for... what, again, I wonder...?

They don't rig lights beyond turning the office light switch on or off. 

They have nothing to do with camera or sound other than to record auditions on a camcorder or their cell phones and send that to whomever paid them to do that. And again, with self-taping, they rarely have to do that anymore.

They don't write scripts, but they do occasionally read opposite the actor auditioning for the role - and usually they're terrible at that.

They don't negotiate contracts because that's what an Actor's Agent does for them. And oh, by the way, ever since the major agencies got involved in "packaging" their talent, there's even less need for casting directors to insert themselves in that part of the process - at that point they're mainly casting supporting characters and day players.

They sure as hell don't risk their lives like Stunt Performers and their crews do, and the Academy still refuses to acknowledge their very real skills and sacrifices to do what most of the people on that set would never consider doing for a paycheck. When Stunt Crews show up, they rule on any set - they have to because lives are on the line - and yet the industry doesn't have the courtesy or the balls to say thank you with an Oscar category of their own.

What talent is required to be a Casting Director? Seriously. What risk do they take other than working long hours and fulfilling ridiculous, shameless, thankless demands made while pursuing building their own safety net and (hopefully) maintaining a sustainable career? 

Just like everybody else working in the Industry has to do and does daily. Nothing special there. I have always said, if you want to be in the Industry, you have to love it. The ones who love it are the ones who survive the longest, Oscar or not.

Give the Oscar to the Key Grip and their crew. At least they actually move and set up equipment. They work insane hours with intense physical demands. Daily.

Give the Oscar to Production Assistants who have to deal with every type of narcissist, drug addled lunatic and coddled incompetent whose parents told them that PAs were nothing more than robots to shit all over and abuse. Most of those underpaid PAs sacrifice more than anybody else to keep a production on its feet.

Why not give one to the Location Scouts? They actually have to travel to physical environments of all sorts to find just the right spot for the ego-stroked Director to demand an army of people be moved and housed - no matter how precarious - to fulfill their artistic vision. What about them?

How about the Unit Production Manager who works within the demands of Executive Producers, Line Producers, Directors, and the Heads of every other creative department working daily to fulfill the needs of production? What about those unsung Heroes?

Why not the Lawyers who negotiate those multi-million dollar contracts? Writing those clauses and ensuring that terms like "in perpetuity" never get removed? Certainly, they are responsible for much more than the demands of a Casting Director?

No?

Accountants...? What about those thankless bean counters who have to calculate the fine distinction between gross and net profits and designate shares according to each individual contract? Nothing for them?

Marketing?

Merchandising?

Each one of those areas of cinematic production do as much or more for promotion and elevating the movie business than a Casting Director and their team of part-time job schedulers and bookers.

Nothing for any of them?

So what the fuck do Casting Directors do more than any of those people that merits an Oscar?

Nothing.

Fucking nothing.

I used to love Hollywood.