Actress wins festival’s genderless award

THE Berlin Film Festival has handed out its first “gender neutral” award after merging its best actor and best actress categories.

Maren Eggert, the German actress, won the prize for her role as a museum researcher in the sci-fi comedy I’m Your

Man, directed by Maria Schrader. Men and women now compete in the same category for the new award, which was announced last August.

Mariette Risenbeek, director of the festival, said the genderless award was intended to spark further discussions around gender justice.

The merging of the categories, previously split by gender, may pave the way for other award shows to follow suit. Celebrities have praised the move, with Tilda Swinton, the Scottish actress, branding the idea of gendered prizes as outdated.

Speaking at the Venice Film Festival, in September, she said she was “really happy” to hear of Berlin’s decision and that it was “pretty much inevitable that everybody will follow”.

“In every sense, you know, dividing people up and prescribing a path for them, whether we’re talking about gender, or whether we’re talking about race or about class... It’s just such a waste of life,” she said.

Cate Blanchett, the Australian Oscar winner, also welcomed the discussion, saying she “always referred to myself as an actor”, as opposed to an actress. Also speaking at the Venice Film Festival, she said: “I am of the generation where the word ‘actress’ was used almost always in a pejorative sense, so I claim the other space.”

It is not the first awards show to offer a genderless category. In 2017, Emma Watson won the MTV Movie and TV award for best big-screen actor for her role as Belle in Beauty and the Beast.

Watson said winning the prize was “very meaningful” and that acting “doesn’t need to be separated into two different categories”.

Eggert, who also won the Berlin festival’s Silver Bear prize for best leading performance, said she was “overwhelmed”.