Women dominated gender-neutral acting categories in their institution’s first year at the Independent Spirit Awards, claiming four statuettes at Saturday’s ceremony.
Everything, everywhere, all at once‘s Michelle Yeoh won Best Actress, while her co-star Stephanie Hsu took home the new Best Breakthrough Performance award. Abbot Primary SchoolQuinta Brunson took home the award for Best Lead Actor in a New Scripted Series The bear‘s Ayo Edebiri ends up as a supporting cast in a new scripted series.
The only winner on the men’s side in the acting categories was Everything everywhere‘s Ke Huy Quan – an Oscar winner, wins Best Supporting Actor here.
Film Independent first announced its intention to make its acting categories across film and television gender neutral by 2023 in August last year. The ceremony is the latest to go this route, following shows such as the Gotham Awards and the Brit Awards.
Some of today’s winners mentioned the renewal of the awards program — including Brunson, who admitted, “I like the gender neutrality.” Edebiri jokingly exclaimed “Sorry!” after realizing she was up against her male The Bear co-star Ebon Moss-Bacharach.
But if the shift toward gender-neutral awards in pop culture in general has been a minor lightning rod, that’s about the extent to which it was addressed at today’s ceremony.
Nevertheless, before the ceremony, Deadline met with a number of nominees who freely expressed their opinions – usually in favor of the development of the awards program. Elsa Ramos, the executive producer of the Best International Film winner joy landsuggested the move aligns with the Spirit Awards’ place “at the forefront” of diversity and inclusion.
“[The move to gender-neutral categories] feels like an opening and a way to just give more voices a chance,” Ramo said. “joy land, feels like a part of that story to us, and it was great to see this film speak to so many people, and the Spirit Awards embraced that kind of awareness that there’s a much broader perspective on humanity. It was really great to be a part of this journey.”
Added Ramos comrade joy land EP Tiffany Boyle: “I think it’s important to get behind this initiative a little bit. The fact that they do this only speaks to the fact that they are actually putting their money in the right place. So we are very happy that they are doing it.”
Actor Jeff Hiller – first nominated for his work on HBO Anyone anywhere – seemed more divided along the way. He called the way nominees were grouped “fantastic” and felt that “we people shouldn’t use gender to define what a construct is”.
He expressed concern that this style of award show could have a negative impact on “cisgender women … just because of the way Hollywood is” — although that certainly wasn’t the case today.
Comedian Hasan Minhaj hosted today’s ceremony, which took place as usual in a tent along the Santa Monica Pier. A24s Everything everywhere with seven wins at the top.
Source: Deadline
Ashley Root is an author and celebrity journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a keen eye for all things celebrity, Ashley is always up-to-date on the latest gossip and trends in the world of entertainment.
