2018 Taurus World Stunt Awards – WINNERS

In the tradition of Hollywood’s finest awards presentations, at the 2018 Taurus World Stunt Awards, the best stunt performers in the entertainment industry were recognized for their extraordinary performances in feature films of 2017.

A screening of the 2018 Taurus World Stunt Awards Nominees was held on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 at 7pm. The screening was held at the Garry Marshall Theater (formerly the Falcon Theater) in Burbank, CA. The Garry Marshall Theater is located at 4252 Riverside Drive, Burbank, CA.

The Taurus Stunt Awards program was held at Paramount Studios on May 12, 2018.

CATEGORIES

Taurus World Stunt Awards™ in the form of a Taurus™ statuette are given every year to members of the Taurus World Stunt Academy for outstanding stunt and stunt-related achievements in eligible, theatrically released motion pictures in the following categories:

Best Fight
This award is for fights with or without weapons. Stunts in this category include street fighting, boxing, wrestling and martial arts. This award will be given to the principle stunt performer.

Best Stunt Rigging
This award is for the technical rigging of a stunt. Rigging may include descenders, ratchets, and other rigging equipment. This award will be given to the key rigger.

Best High Work
This award is for stunts involving high work of any kind. Eligible stunts in this category include but are not limited to jumps, falls, dives, bungee jumping, descenders and other stunts performed on or in relation to such things as bridges, buildings and terrain. This award will be given to the stunt performer.

Best Work With A Vehicle
This award is for driving work involving vehicles of any type including, but not limited to cars, vans, trucks, buses, heavy equipment, motorcycles and mopeds. It also includes stunts performed in, on, under or otherwise engaged with vehicles of any type. Eligible stunts in this category include but are not limited to crashes, chases, turnovers, ramp jumps, cannons, getting hit by, bailing from, leaping onto and dragging from a vehicle. This award will be given to the principle stunt performer and/or the principle stunt driver where appropriate.

Best Specialty Stunt
This award is for stunt work not encompassed by the other categories. It includes but is not limited to fire work, water work, work in a motorized aircraft of any kind and specialized work with bicycles, skateboards, snow skis, roller blades and other roller sports, and may also include stunts such as water skiing, parachuting, paragliding and hang gliding. This award will be given to the stunt performer.

Hardest Hit
This award is intended for the stunt performer taking the hit. Stunts in this category include but are not limited to being hit by, thrown into or landing on an object that is either staged or practical.

Best Stunt Coordination and/or 2nd Unit Direction
This award goes to the Stunt Coordinator and/or 2nd Unit Director for best stunt coordination throughout an entire motion picture of any genre.

Best Overall Stunt By A Stunt Woman
This award is for the best overall stunt performed by a Female in a motion picture of any genre. Stunts in all film categories are eligible as long as they fit eligibility criteria and may have been nominated in another category.

Best Action in a Foreign Film
This award goes to the Stunt Coordinator for best stunt coordination throughout an entire foreign motion picture of any genre.

2018 HONORARY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Charlie Picerni Wins Lifetime Achievement Award at 2018 Taurus Awards

NOMINATIONS

BEST FIGHT

https://youtu.be/XarGS1AeEcE

1. American Assassin (Watch Fight Scene)
   Two stuntmen fight using martial arts skills while on a speeding boat going through rough seas. The movement of the boat causes them to be tossed around the small cabin, while simultaneously trying to fight each other.
2. Atomic Blonde (Watch Fight Scene Above) WINNER
   An 8 minute fight scene in a stairwell, made to look like it was one continuous shot, and featuring martial arts, fight choreography, multiple stair falls, hard hits, and big throws. The stunt double for the lead actress did all of the falls and crashes, including stair falls, smashing into a bookcase, and being thrown onto a table.
3. John Wick: Chapter 2 (Watch Fight Scene)
   John Wick fights an attacker in a European city, using weapons and martial arts. The fight features a multiple story stair fall by both stunt performers.
4. Pitch Perfect 3 (Watch Fight Scene)
   Fat Amy fights off 3 bad guys while trying to rescue her friends being held on a yacht. The fight finishes with a scorpion kick.
5. Wonder Woman (Watch Fight Scene)
   Wonder Woman fights the German military in a building. The fight features squib hits, gunfire, and wirework. CGI was used for face replacement and for the glass as Wonder Woman crashes through a window.

BEST HIGH WORK

1. Atomic Blonde (Watch Fight Scene Above) WINNER
   The lead character jumps off a 5th story balcony and swings down to the 3rd floor, crashing into the apartment door below. This stunt was filmed in 2 parts. For the first part, the stunt double leapt from 5th floor balcony, dropped past the 4th floor, and swung into the opening of the 3rd floor balcony. The double held on to a practical garden hose that was attached to the wire system. CGI was used to remove these wires. For the second part of the stunt, the double stood on a scissor lift about 15’ away from the balcony opening, swung on a rope through the opening, let go, crashed into the wall, then fell to the ground. No wires were used to assist in this part of the stunt.
2. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (Watch High Work Scene)
   Four stunt performers leap off a 120’ waterfall, landing in the water below. A descender was used for the initial fall and stunt performers used a quick release from 25’ for entry into the water.
3. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (Watch High Work Scene)
   Four stunt performers leapt from a 90’ cliff to the water below. The stunt performers jumped into a quarry and VFX were used to make the quarry look like a flowing river.
4. Transformers: The Last Knight (Watch High Work Scene)
   The lead character is pushed out the window of a glass elevator 10 stories up. He works his way to the ground by hanging from military drones and uses them as stepping stones while the drones are in flight. A 210’ crane rig was created to suspend the stuntman.
5. xXx: The Return of Xander Cage (Watch High Work Scene)
   A stuntman and a cargo pallet are launched from an aircraft. He dives to catch up with the pallet mid-air and climbs on top of it.

BEST STUNT RIGGING

1. Atomic Blonde (Watch Stunt Rigging Scene)
   The lead character jumps off a 5th story balcony and swings down to the 3rd floor, crashing into the apartment door below. This stunt was filmed in 2 parts. For the first part, the stunt double leapt from 5th floor balcony, dropped past the 4th floor, and swung into the opening of the 3rd floor balcony. The double held on to a practical garden hose that was attached to the wire system. CGI was used to remove these wires. For the second part of the stunt, the double stood on a scissor lift about 15’ away from the balcony opening, swung on a rope through the opening, let go, crashed into the wall, then fell to the ground. No wires were used to assist in this part of the stunt.
2. Kong: Skull Island (Watch Stunt Rigging Scene)
   A stuntman is lifted away from a boat by birds. A two-stage ratchet system was rigged to the side of a crane. The stunt performer was rigged and on the side of the boat as the boat travelled down the river. At the correct time, the performer was dragged off the boat along the water, and then up into the air.
3. The Mummy (Watch Stunt Rigging Scene)
   The lead character attacks the Mummy, only to get beaten down over and over. He finally gets the upper hand and throws the Mummy against a pillar, onto a stone tomb, and eventually kills her. Wires and rigs were used to enhance the actors and performers being tossed around in the fight.
4. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Watch Scene Above) WINNER
   Captain Jack Sparrow and his foe fight between two moving ships. The two ships were gimbals moving up and down, left and right, forward and back. Two high lines were custom built that could be operated while on the move. Six operators were safe-tied to the gimbal, allowing 3 men per performer. This was needed to allow performers to be able to run and jump from one cannon to the next and from ship to ship while continuing their fight sequence. CGI was used to place elements on the ship.
5. xXx: The Return of Xander Cage (Watch Stunt Rigging Scene)
   A harnessed stuntman on skis does a 200’ drop from a tower, alongside a cliff, and into the jungle.

BEST WORK WITH A VEHICLE

1. Baby Driver (Watch Scene Above) WINNER
   A red Subaru WRX performs aggressive driving maneuvers to outrun and outwit police in the wake of a bank heist. The Subaru drives through city streets, drifting through intersections and turns, and causing other cars to crash in its wake. CGI was only used to add a vehicle in an alley, where the lead car does a slide and evades a real reversing truck and a real parked truck at the end of the alley.
2. CHIPS (Watch Work With A Vehicle Scene)
   Motorcycle chase through the streets of Los Angeles with motorcycles and a SWAT Hummer. The bikes navigate up and down stairs, jump across sand dunes at the beach, and finally end on a bridge, where a rider lays down the bike as he is “decapitated”. The SWAT vehicle then crashes through a parked RV, hits a CHP police officer, and finally hits a police car, creating an explosion.
3. The Fate of the Furious (Watch Work With A Vehicle Scene)
   Driven and un-driven vehicles are hacked to attack a police-escorted motorcade. Blind drive seats and rear-seat steering/brake/gas cars were used to create the illusion of unmanned vehicles slamming into the motorcade. Multiple cannons, T-bones, explosions, and chaos lead up to multiple unmanned cars raining down from a parking structure above and stopping the motorcade.
4. The Fate of the Furious (Watch Work With A Vehicle Scene)
   Dom’s team corners Dom and blocks off any chance of escape. Dom blows through a flower store and the chase is on. Dom uses his car to drop a 60’ high scaffold rig on the team. The team race through it and around it, causing chaos in a park and a Corvette to ski on 2 wheels. VFX harpoons are shot into Dom’s car to stop him, trapping him from all sides. He manages to escape after being harpooned by maneuvering with the tensions in the VFX harpoons.
5. The Hitman’s Bodyguard (Watch Work With A Vehicle Scene)
   A motorcycle chases a black SUV on a roadway next to a canal in Amsterdam. The car does a pipe ramp into the canal, landing in the water, and missing a speedboat driving in the canal. The stunt driver of the SUV performed the pipe ramp and went into the water, while a stunt performer drove the speedboat. No CGI or wires were used for this sequence.
6. John Wick: Chapter 2 (Watch Work With A Vehicle Scene)
   John Wick drives a vintage Mustang through a warehouse and around a shipping dock, while evading bad guys in yellow cabs and a motorcyclist. High speed maneuvers, crashes, and drifts are featured.

BEST SPECIALTY STUNT

1. Dunkirk (Watch Scene Above) (Watch Scene Above) WINNER
   A Spitfire plane is engaged in an aerial dogfight and eventually lands on the beach at Dunkirk. Stunt pilots flew in the 76 year-old aircraft to recreate combat sorties and the eventual landing of the plane on the sand of the actual beach at Dunkirk.
2. Fist Fight (Watch Specialty Stunt Scene)
   With a rope tied to his foot and attached to a runaway horse, a stunt performer is yanked off his feet and dragged out of a classroom and down a narrow, 150’ long hallway, bouncing along the walls. The stunt performer wore an ankle harness that was anchored to a jerk vest. The other end was tied off to a rubber bungee harness on the horse.
3. The Hitman’s Bodyguard (Watch Specialty Stunt Scene)
   A stunt performer does a full body burn in a crowded bar, while the lead actors slow dance in the forefront of the shot. There was no CGI used for this burn.
4. The House (Watch Specialty Stunt Scene)
   A man catches on fire and in his efforts to extinguish the fire, the fire grows. The actor’s arm was lit on fire, but the rest of the burn was performed by a stunt performer who did the burn in two stages. The first stage features the performer having a fueled blanket thrown over his head while doing a full burn. The second stage has the performer doing another full burn and being rolled up in a carpet.
5. xXx: The Return of Xander Cage (Watch Specialty Stunt Scene)
   A stuntman and a cargo pallet are launched from an aircraft. He dives to catch up with the pallet mid-air and climbs on top of it.

BEST OVERALL STUNT BY A STUNT WOMAN

1. Atomic Blonde (Watch Overall Stunt by a Stunt Woman Scene)
   The lead character jumps off a 5th story balcony and swings down to the 3rd floor, crashing into the apartment door below. This stunt was filmed in 2 parts. For the first part, the stunt double leapt from 5th floor balcony, dropped passed the 4th floor, and swung into the opening of the 3rd floor balcony. The double held on to a practical garden hose that was attached to the wire system. CGI was used to remove these wires. For the second part of the stunt, the double stood on a scissor lift about 15’ away from the balcony opening, swung on a rope through the opening, let go, crashed into the wall, then fell to the ground. No wires were used to assist in this part of the stunt.
2. Geostorm (Watch Overall Stunt by a Stunt Woman Scene)
   A woman is driving a taxi cab in an effort to evade a grey sedan. The chase features two 180 degree spins, driving at high speed in reverse, and ends with the taxi cab T-boning the sedan.
3. Kidnap (Watch Overall Stunt by a Stunt Woman Scene)
   A stuntwoman is hit by a vehicle, sending her rolling up the windshield. As the vehicle makes a turn, the stunt performer falls to the pavement. No wires were used for this stunt.
4. Logan (Watch Overall Stunt by a Stunt Woman Scene)
   A small girl fights a group of bad guys in an old manufacturing plant. Using her claws, she attacks the men as they try to trap her. Wires were used to enhance the men being thrown and her flipping in the air.
5. Wonder Woman (Watch Scene Above) WINNER
   An all-female army battles German military on a beach. The female army enters on horses and use bow and arrows, spears, and knives against German guns. The sequence features fight choreography, wire work, saddle falls, and horse falls.

HARDEST HIT

1. Atomic Blonde (Watch Hardest Hit Scene)
   A stuntman is hit by a car, sending him crashing onto the back of a parked van. The stunt performer was pulled on wires into the van, then dropped to the ground. A ratchet was used to initiate the stunt performer on wires into the parked van.
2. Havenhurst (Watch Hardest Hit Scene)
   A woman is thrown upside down against lockers and falls to the ground. An air ram was used to propel her into the lockers.
3. John Wick: Chapter 2 (Watch Hardest Hit Scene)
   A stuntman is sent flying into a steel beam after being hit by John Wick’s Mustang. The stuntman was ratcheted into a padded beam and the vehicle was CGI.
4. Kidnap (Watch Scene Above) WINNER
   A stuntwoman is hit by a vehicle, sending her rolling up the windshield. As the vehicle makes a turn, the stunt performer falls to the pavement. No wires were used for this stunt.
5. Logan (Watch Hardest Hit Scene)
   Two bad guys on dirt bikes are chasing a limo. The limo swerves and hits one of the bikers, sending the bike and the rider to the ground.

BEST ACTION IN A FOREIGN FILM

1. Hello (India) (Trailer)
2. Plan B (Germany) (Trailer)
3. Solo se vive una Vez (Argentina/Spain) (Trailer)
4. The Road to Calvary (Russia) (Trailer)
5. Wolf Warrior 2 (China) (Watch Trailer Above) WINNER

BEST STUNT COORDINATION AND/OR 2ND UNIT DIRECTION

1. Atomic Blonde (Trailer)
2. Baby Driver (Trailer)
3. John Wick: Chapter 2 (Trailer)
4. The Fate of the Furious (Trailer)
5. Wonder Woman (Watch Trailer Above) WINNER