A new coalition has called upon independent filmmakers to makemore musicals following a decision not to reactivate the Original Musical Oscarcategory at next month's 77th Academy Awards.

The Coalition of the Musical's Indie Musical Challenge has alreadydrawn support from Team America: World Police co-creator Matt Stone, and thecoalition's Dan Mirvish wants filmmakers to get cracking on new ideas.

"The Academy said there weren't enough films to activate theOriginal Musical category this year," Mirvish, director of the real estatemusical Open Houseand a vocal advocate of the Original Musical category, said. "If that'sthe case, then the answer is simple - make more."

Mirvish, along with coalition co-founders Brian Flemming and JasonMcHugh, are joined by an array of industry supporters including the IndependentFeature Project, the Slamdance Film Festival, the US Comedy Arts Festival,QuVIS Digital, FilmThreat and FilmCrash.

"The Academy is an institution for studio films andmainstream Hollywood," Stone said in a statement. "It's no surprise that theywould ignore their rules when faced with a field of independent films."

The Original Musical category has lain dormant for four years andwill stay that way for at least another year following a recent decision by theboard of governors at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences.

Board members voted against reactivating the category because theyfelt three nominees from the pool of five eligible entries would not be of asufficiently high standard.

Paramount's Team America: World Police, Buena Vista's Home On The Range, Neil Young's Greendale, and Mirvish's pair of titles OpenHouse and Big InGermany were the fiveeligible titles.

The IndieMusical Challenge will require participating pictures to adhere to theAcademy's rules for an Original Musical:the film must have at least five original songs from the samesongwriting team; all songs must be "substantively rendered, clearlyaudible, intelligible, and must further the storyline"; and the songs musthave been written specifically for the film and cannot have been performed orreleased in any other medium prior to being recorded for the picture.