Gotham Awards shifts to gender-neutral categories for actors

New York City’s foremost independent film festival leads the way with ‘a new model of honouring performances without binary divisions of gender’

(Getty Images for IFP)

The Gotham Awards has become the latest to remove gendered categories from its ceremony.

The awards body will replace its gendered categories with “Outstanding Lead Performance” and “Outstanding Supporting Performance” awards for independent feature films.

The awards ceremony also created “The Gotham Breakthrough Actor Award,” which has been gender-neutral since it was first founded in 1997 and will be renamed the “Gotham Breakthrough Performer Award”.

“The Gotham Awards have a 30-year history of celebrating diverse voices in independent storytelling, we are proud to recognise outstanding acting achievements each year,” said executive director of The Gotham Film & Media Institute, Jeffrey Sharp.

“We look forward to a new model of honouring performances without binary divisions of gender.”

Sharp added: “We are grateful to those who helped to start this conversation in recent years and we are thrilled that the Gotham Awards will continue to support artistic excellence in a more inclusive and equitable way.”

A number of other film festivals have removed genders from its categories, such as the MTV Movie & TV Awards, which removed gender roles in 2017, and the Grammys.

The Gotham Awards will take place on 29 November in New York City.