The Independent Spirit Awards Creates Gender-Neutral Acting Categories

The Independent Spirit Awards have announced that its acting categories will no longer be defined by gender. As NPR reports, rather than “best actor” or “best supporting actress,” for example, awards will be given to “best lead performance” and “best supporting performance.”

The Spirit awards honor filmmakers working outside the studio system. Similarly, the Grammys went gender-neutral in 2012, the MTV awards in acting in 2017, and the Gotham Awards made an announcement last year that their awards would be gender-neutral.

“We're thrilled to join the other festivals and award shows that are already moving to celebrate great acting without reference to gender,” Film Independent President Josh Welsh said in a statement. “We're also happy to welcome nonbinary performers into the Spirit Awards without forcing them to choose to identify as male or female.”

Asia Kate-Dillion found themselves this position in when the nonbinary actor was asked by Showtime in 2017 if they wanted to be submitted for best actor or best actress.

“It's erasure,” Dillion told NPR in 2021. “It's exclusionary, and it continues to uphold a binary that is, ultimately, really dangerous.”

The then-chief awards officer for the Recording Academy, Bill Freimuth, recalled when the Grammy Awards went gender-neutral.

“The question came up. Why do we have these categories? What's the difference between a male country singer and a female country singer?” he said. “And, no, that's not the lead into a joke. I have no punchline. It's just a matter of fact. They're both singing, so why do we need to separate that out? And the answer was, we don't know why.”

The Spirit awards are seen as a step towards bigger film and TV awards, such as the Oscars and the Emmys, neither of which has given any indication of moving toward gender-neutral categories in acting.

Read related myGwork articles here:

Berlin Film Festival To Adopt Gender Neutral Performance Awards

Lady Gaga Calls for Non-Gendered Award Categories and Sends Love to Sydney Mardi Gras

BRIT Awards Ditch Gendered Categories To Be “Inclusive” Of All Artists

Queen’s Brian May Apologizes For Comments On Brit Awards Gender Neutral Categories

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