“For me, the question isn’t why we would switch and go to genderless awards, but why we wouldn’t,” says Josh Welsh of Film Independent.
For many, the question has simply been, “Why has it taken so long?” As Ser Anzoátegui, a transgender and non-binary actor known for his work on the Starz series “Vida,” joked with TheWrap: “If you want to compete, I feel like, what are you afraid of? What am I going to hit you?
More importantly, removing acting categories from gender requirements brings award shows in line with the times and presents opportunities for new faces and new audiences at a time when most award shows are in desperate need of a spark. “Really, there was no good reason to keep doing it. For me, the question is not why we would change and go to genderless awards, but why I would not do it change,” Josh Welsh, president of Film Independent, told TheWrap of the Spirits’ decision. “It’s really hard to put together an argument for why acting awards should be gendered when there are no other award categories.”
Despite the wave of awards bodies making this move, Welsh said Film Independent discussed the issue internally for years to ensure this latest push for category fairness didn’t come at the cost of progress already made in terms of gender balance. After all, the last thing anyone wants is a Best Actor category where nine of the nominees are cisgender white men and the tenth is Cate Blanchett.
“That’s probably why we didn’t make this decision sooner,” he said. “We don’t want to make any changes that will hurt women in the awards space, so we really put a lot of thought into this.”
For some award shows, the results of making a switch to genderless categories have been positive in terms of representation. Since the Grammys overhauled, eliminating separate awards for the Best Female and Male Pop Solo Performance categories, seven of the 11 winners in Best Pop Solo Performance have been women (although three of those were Adele), and only 14 have been nominated. they were men. . In the five years since MTV’s Movie Awards have been gender-neutral, three men (Chadwick Boseman twice) and two women have won Best Performance in a Movie, and exactly half (13 of 26) of the nominees in that period have been women. .
Last year’s new gender-neutral acting categories at the Gotham Awards even gave female nominees a slight edge. And BAFTA’s Rising Star Award, which has always been gender-neutral, has produced three female winners in the last five years, but only 10 of the 25 nominees overall.
All of these data points are things Women In Film President Kirsten Schaffer will be watching closely in the future, acknowledging that while the idea of gender-neutral acting categories should be celebrated, fairness remains a priority. . “I always champion innovation and looking outside the box and changing the culture, and then adapting based on that,” Ella Schaffer said. “If we see it negatively affecting women, then we need to readjust.”
However, there is no guarantee that such a change will work the same way for all award shows across the board. In the case of Indie Spirits, the Best Actor category will include 10 nominees, while a new Best New Star award will be a genderless list of five names. Although the move to gender-neutral categories was not a data-driven choice, Welsh pointed to Film Independent’s more female membership and the show’s track record in recognizing diverse talent.
But both the Spirits and Gotham Awards nominees are ultimately selected by a committee after going through an initial round of member voting, so those award bodies are better prepared to embrace gender neutrality and avoid potential Shame on a male-dominated slate of nominees. . The BAFTAs, which operate a similar nominating committee, are continuing in talks on the issue of gender-neutral acting categories, with a representative from the British Academy saying “we’re absolutely giving it a lot of consideration and continued consideration.”
“This includes ongoing and close consultation with our sector and industry peers, including our members, stakeholders and experts in the field, as well as expanding our use of input data this year to inform these conversations,” said the representative.
The Oscars, on the other hand, vote very differently, counting the votes of the individual branches of the Motion Picture Academy to determine the nominees. Perhaps as a result, talk of adopting gender-neutral acting categories has remained mostly preliminary, according to a source.
Academy president Bill Kramer acknowledged this in a recent media scrum: “We are doing due diligence on it… but there are no plans at this time to activate it.”
Still, the push to rethink acting awards has gathered momentum since Anzoátegui first brought attention to the topic in a 2019 Los Angeles Times opinion piece explaining your dilemma when submitting for award consideration. Emboldened by “Billions” star Asia Kate-Dillon, a non-binary actress who entered the 2017 Emmys race in the Supporting Actor category, Anzoátegui decided to run in the Supporting Actor category as well, but said neither of the gender awards seemed appropriate. .
“It is binary, there is no place for us. The way they see us has to be what changes,” Anzoátegui told TheWrap. “The fact that you put me in [Best] Actress, it’s an erasure. Oh yeah, we don’t have to try. The problem is that people put on the bandages and say: ‘I see you as I want to see you. I choose to see you as a woman’… That’s very frustrating.”
For Anzoátegui and others, a gender-neutral acting category is not just about being inclusive but about breaking the binary gender norms that Hollywood has traditionally used to define people. Eliminating the categories that separate men and women for the industry’s top awards could be a step toward dismantling the notion that leading men and women should look a certain way.
“It’s not about how you see me because how you see me is shaped by Hollywood. The way you see me is determined by your experience and all these things that were said about me, people who look like me,” Anzoátegui said. “We need to see more people who do not fit into these little molds that patriarchy has created.
“I want to stay alive. Can you help my representation so that they don’t kill people like me? “That’s the crux of the matter, it’s the real need to change because you’re saving people’s lives. You’re doing something we all need.”
Anzoátegui’s view was echoed by Schaffer, who said his organization welcomes non-binary and trans artists and also includes them on its annual awards season ticket. That will be pertinent this year for artists like Dillon and “The Crown” star Emma Corrin, who came out as non-binary last july and is attracting a talk of awards for his work on the romantic drama “My Policeman.”
“We’re so used to thinking of acting categories in a binary… this helps us exploit that. We could look at the scripts and think, oh, could it be a male actor or a non-binary actor? Schaffer said. “There are a ton of opportunities there, which ultimately, if you can break down the binary around prizes, it helps us break down the binary in general.”
In a sense, fixing representation in award categories has no direct impact on changing the industry as a whole. But Ruby Marchand, the Recording Academy’s industry and awards director, thinks the Grammys’ switch to genderless artist categories in 2012 made a difference.
“The Academy’s leadership in this area helped open many minds. It helped open a lot of doors,” Marchand said. “It’s part of establishing really fair and equitable outcomes for all music creators. It’s still resonating in the industry.”
When the Grammys did an overhaul of their categories, it wasn’t just about addressing DEI, but part of a larger “philosophical shift” in the Recording Academy and the overall value of a Grammy Award, with the Academy ultimately cutting 109 categories to only under 80 years old. Marchand explained that the reevaluation forced Grammy officials to look at the awards from a different perspective and ask, “If we’re going to celebrate musical excellence, do we need genres?”
“When we made that leap forward, that paradigm shift, to say excellence is excellence and we don’t need to break that down by gender, we actually opened the door at that time for people, no matter how they identify, to feel recognized. and feel that they are welcome in our awards process,” said Marchand. “That is something that has flourished over the years and we are very proud that the decision was made for the right reasons. We have never doubted it. We have always reaffirmed it, and now we have seen in those 10 years how other awards organizations have also considered their footprint in that area.
While Anzoátegui acknowledged that there has been real progress since his 2019 opinion piece, they predict that the Academy will only make serious changes when the public conversation intensifies as it did with the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.
“What’s stopping you? What’s the problem?” Anzoátegui said. “The reason… to have a gender-neutral category or to have a non-binary category is so that you give it a name, so that it is visible. Sometimes I still don’t see [myself in a category]. We are not included yet. So there is still a deeper dive to be made to be truly equitable.”
