The director of Sky Fall and D’American Beauty is in favor of non-gendered Oscars.
End of november, Emma Corrinaka Diana in the fourth season of The Crown, told the BBC “hope in the future” that gender-neutral categories will be the norm at awards ceremonies like the Oscars. Two months later, the filmmaker Sam Mendes (Sky Fall) says he “totally agrees” with these statements. “I think it will be inevitable,” he explained on the BBC. “That’s how the world is going and I think it’s a really good idea.”
And the director ofAmerican Beauty to add: “people see [les prix] as something very important when in truth it is primarily a TV show. These awards are there to promote the films.”
“If a film wins an award, it will make me want to go see it. That’s exactly what we do with these ceremonies. We don’t talk about us, not our art in particular, but we sell movies,” he adds. He does not “dismiss their importance”: “They are the window of the store, not the thing itself.”
Emma Watson winner of a gender neutral award
The absence of non-gendered categories is linked to the lack of representation of LGBTQIA+ people in films and series, Emma Corrin pointed out: “I don’t think the categories are inclusive enough at the moment. Everyone has to feel heard and represented.
The question of non-gendered prices has been raised for a few years in Hollywood. Emma Watson won a gender-neutral award at the 2017 MTV Awards for her role in the remake of The beauty and the Beast.
“MTV’s decision to create a gender-neutral award for actors will mean different things to everyone,” the actress said at the time when she received her award.
“To me, it shows that acting is all about the ability to put yourself in someone’s shoes and that shouldn’t be separated into two separate categories,” she added. “Such a decision makes a lot of sense to me.”
In 2020, the Berlinaleone of the world’s leading film festivals, has announced that it will henceforth only reward plus the actors separately according to their gender. A way to avoid any hierarchy between men and women, according to its direction.
