The Oscars stopped giving out a specific kind of award 64 years ago, but the idea behind the Honorary Academy Award could be tweaked to reflect an often overlooked kind of performer. Over the course of 97 years, the Academy Awards have shifted and changed with the times. This meant some categories have been added to the ceremony, while others have been changed. Some potential Oscar categories (like stunts) have been suggested to be included in future Academy Award ceremonies, broadening the chances for a larger variety of films and performances to be celebrated by the Academy in the future.

The history of the Oscars includes unique categories, including informal ones like the Juvenile Academy Awards. An idea that actually predates major categories like Best Supporting Actor and Actress, those Honorary Awards were a chance for the Oscars to celebrate young performers who didn’t stand much of a chance to win the major awards. While this practice fell out of style over sixty years ago for good reason, the underlying idea behind the concept could actually be tweaked to reflect modern times and could inspire a potentially key new category for celebrating new and diverse talent in the film industry.

The Oscars Used To Have A Special Juvenile Academy Award For Young Performers

A Juvenile Academy Award Made Up For A Lack Of Major Category Compeтιтion

The Academy Awards used to have a special Juvenile Academy Award, and a new spin on that concept could be an ideal way for the Oscars to recognize fresh talent. The Academy Awards have always presented “Honorary” Academy Awards to celebrate unique achievements in film that don’t necessarily qualify for a standard Oscar. This includes the “Juvenile Academy Award,” an informal тιтle for a special Oscar awarded to actors who were under 18 years old. The idea was to create an award that could celebrate young actors who would have a hard time outshining their adult contemporaries in other categories.

The winners of the award were given a special variant of the Academy Award, reflecting the nature of the honor. Young actors could still be nominated in major categories (as was the case for Brandon deWilde, Patty McCormack, and Sal Mineo), but they often lost. The first recipient of the award was Shirley Temple, who received the honorary Oscar at the 7th Academy Awards in recognition of her various performances in 1934. Other young stars like Mickey Rooney, Bobby Driscoll, and Judy Garland earned the award over the years. Ultimately, 12 child actors earned the accolade between 1934 and 1961.

The Academy Juvenile Award Hasn’t Been Given Out Since 1961

The Last Juvenile Academy Award Went To Hayley Mills

For years, the Juvenile Award served as a means of celebrating young actors for their on-screen excellence without risking them being completely overshadowed by more experienced and well-known performers. This was illustrated early in the Academy Awards history with Jackie Cooper, whose nomination for Best Actor in 1931 for his part in Skippy was eclipsed by performers like Lionel Barrymore. However, while the Oscars still continue to hand out Honorary Awards for certain unique achievements and lifetime commitments to the world of film, an Oscar specifically created to celebrate young performers was effectively removed as an option in the 1960s.

Hayley Mills was the last recipient of the Academy Juvenile Award, which was presented to her at the 33rd Academy Awards. Mills, who was about to turn 15 at the time of the ceremony, was given the Oscar for her performance in 1960’s Pollyanna. The Disney dramedy about a plucky orphan also earned Mills a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress. The Honorary Oscar gave the Academy a chance to celebrate Mills despite the strong compeтιтion in the acting categories that year preventing her from having a chance to be actually nominated in the Best Actress category.

Why The Oscars Stopped Giving Out The Juvenile Award

Patty Duke Proved Minors Could Win The Major Acting Awards

The Juvenile Academy Award actually predated the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, which has become the typical place for young performers to be nominated for an Oscar. The inclusion of the category eventually set the stage for more young performers to earn Academy Awards in compeтιтive categories instead of simply earning Honorary Awards. Just a few years after Mills’ Pollyanna performance, Patty Duke won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 1963’s The Miracle Worker. Duke was 16 at the time, confirming to the Academy that the Supporting categories gave young performers a place to be celebrated.

Since then, a number of younger actors and actresses have been nominated for Academy Awards, typically in the Supporting Actor or Actress categories. 10-year-old Tatum O’Neal won Best Supporting Actress for her performance in 1973’s Paper Moon, while Anna Paquin won the award for 1993’s The Piano. Meanwhile, Justin Henry, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Kramer vs. Kramer at the age of 8, remains the youngest Academy Award nominee in any category. The Juvenile Academy Award has become a footnote in Oscar history, but the idea behind it still has merit in modern times.

The Academy Juvenile Award Should Be Brought Back As A Breakthrough Performance Oscar

A Breakthrough Performance Oscar Would Help More Than Just Young Actors And Actresses

The Academy Awards should take inspiration from the Juvenile Award and reimagine it as an Oscar for a “Breakthrough Performance.” This can still reflect a child actor who makes a splash with an early role, but it wouldn’t constrain younger performers with that specific designation. Instead, by making the honor a more all-encompᴀssing recognition for new talent, the Oscars could introduce a way to honor new generations of acting from across the world and with no age cap. It would be an ideal way to naturally embrace diversity at the Academy Awards, highlighting acting excellence in a variety of films.

This would give performers who are often overshadowed by mainstream talent a chance to showcase their skills to the industry. It would be a great tool for broadening the horizons of the Oscars’ winners to include new generations of performers and could become a perfect springboard for up-and-coming talent to become stars in their own right. This could also be a useful way for the Academy to recognize unexpectedly impressive performances from people who aren’t typically actors. While the Oscars getting rid of a child-specific Academy Award makes sense, the underlying idea behind it still has some unique merit.