Berlin International Film Festival’s Decision For Gender-Neutral Acting Wwards
It is solid that non-binary people have existed, and more than that, have been oppressed by the gender binary standards of society, for millennia. It was only in the last few years, however, that their existence started to enter society’s psyche. Within the film and TV industry, the scenario is no different; few non-binary actors and characters have had a place in Hollywood since the rise of this new consciousness, some examples being Asia Kate Dillon (John Wick 3), Lachlan Watson (The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and Liv Hewson (Santa Clarita Diet).
As a consequence of that disparity, the lack of representation of gender-nonconforming actors in the industry evidently reflects itself in film festivals. One event, however, decided to put an end to its male and female prizes for 2021. The Berlinale announced earlier this year that their Best Actor and Actress awards were to be switched by gender-neutral prizes. As festival directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian stated in their announcement; “we believe that not separating the awards in the acting field according to gender comprises a signal for a more gender-sensitive awareness in the film industry”, abandoning the binary system through which they had handed out prizes since 1956.
The Berlin Film Festival is notorious for its progressivism in the film industry; committing to the 5050x2020 gender parity pledge, agreement introduced at Cannes in 2018 which strives for better gender representation and transparency by 2020. By agreeing to the pledge, the Berlinale, along with Cannes, Venice, and many more film festivals, commits to compiling statistics of gender and race of directors, making public the gender and race of all members of selection committees, and committing to a schedule in order to achieve parity in these bodies.
As of next year’s festival, directors have committed to featuring equal numbers of female and male performances in the competition. Hollywood, however, is certainly not up to date with the festival’s decision, not only when it comes to non-binary roles, but also about the disparity between male and female activity in the industry.
Data shows that almost 9 out of 10 films have more men in their 10 crucial roles, both acting, and non-acting. Moreover, 89% of those films have more men, against 6% with more women, and 5% with an equal gender balance. Furthermore, there are absolutely no films with 100% female leading roles, against 6% exclusively male. Some of those being academy award winners Argo and Saving Private Ryan.
Top-billed cast and crew in 10 major film awards 1990-2018 (Data sources: Film award webpages, OMDb API, IMDb, and Genderize.io)
When it comes to purely acting roles, it is conspicuous that the gender disparity is less notable, though it is frequent for blockbusters to have a single female lead per film, the so-called token woman. As a consequence, around 35% of films have had a female lead in the past few years, and only 37% of speaking roles were women’s amongst 2017’s top-grossing films in the US.
Number of leading actors per film (Data sources: Film award webpages, OMDb API, IMDb, and Genderize.io)
Another problem surrounding female roles in the film industry is the portrayal of women in movies. Frequently depicted as an object to the main character or the male audience themselves, actresses such as Jessica Chastain criticize the ‘disturbing’ portrayal of female characters in festivals such as Cannes, asking for more tales by women.“I do hope that when we include more female storytellers we will have more of the women that I recognize in my day-to-day life. Women who are proactive, have their own agency, don’t just react to the men around them”, she stated.
Amongst crew roles, however, the imbalance is even more alarming. Katheryn Bigelow is the only female Academy Award-winning director, amongst only five other nominated women throughout the award’s 92 years of history.
Nevertheless, evidence also shows that the Academy Awards are, in fact, the least diverse award in the industry. Indie and International film awards such as Sundance and the Berlinale itself present themselves as festivals which tend to prioritize films with a diverse cast and crew when it comes to gender diversity. “It's at the higher levels of the industry, where the money gets big, that I think it is much harder for women to get a fair deal, or even a look in”, says producer Rebecca Wolff; “They are, by and large, not trusted at the helm of multi-million dollar projects and that has a trickle-down effect on the rest of the industry.”
Gender breakdown by film award (Data sources: As before)
Anyhow, said trend amongst Indie and International film awards does shed a light on hope for women and other minorities within the industry. Besides, even though Berlin’s decision for gender-neutral awards may seem risky for women, it is an important statement on gender boundaries within film. Even though non-binary roles remain a minority in Hollywood, as well as around the world, addressing the issue in such a big event encourages actors, crew members, and festival organizers to change the reality of gender-nonconforming people in the industry.
As Emma Watson remarked when winning the first award of such nature, MTV movie awards’ gender-neutral acting prize; “the first acting award in history that doesn’t separate nominees based on their sex says something about how we perceive the human experience.” Adding that, “MTV’s move to create a genderless award for acting will mean something different to everyone. But to me, it indicates that acting is about the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. And that doesn’t need to be separated into two different categories.”