For more than a decade, gender-neutral acting categories for award shows have slowly been gaining popularity. Beginning with the Grammys in 2012, numerous award shows have altered their verbiage from “Best Actor” to “Best Performer” as the slow rollout gained steam. Proponents of the switch are looking at a big picture of ending a gender binary that doesn’t really fit with today’s world, where most understand gender expression as existing on a spectrum rather than fixed binaries. But the move isn’t without its critics, who argue that it means two fewer categories for performers to win. Just getting a nomination has a major impact on their careers, so there is some concern about missed opportunities.
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Either way, everyone is really waiting for the Oscars to make a call on this one since it is the standard bearer for all awards shows. In a new interview with Variety, Academy CEO Bill Kramer said the organization is “in the early exploration stage.” Though Kramer didn’t offer specifics, he said the topic is “one of many conversations about the future of awards and the Oscars,” one they are “still investigating how it could look.”
It’s something many performers want, particularly transgender and nonbinary actors and their allies. It was a problem that broke through to mainstream conversation with the FX series Pose, which saw its lead actor, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, become the first openly trans performer nominated in a lead acting category at the Emmys. Rodriguez was nominated as lead actress, but nonbinary actors don’t have the luxury of fitting neatly into those categories, such as Billions’ Asia Kate Dillon. “It’s erasure,” Dillion, who is nonbinary, told NPR in 2021. “It’s exclusionary, and it continues to uphold a binary that is, ultimately, really dangerous.”
Others, like actors Jaime Lee Curtis, Rhea Seehorn, and Sarah Polley, worry that because there aren’t the same opportunities in the industry between men and women, the all-encompassing category may create more imbalance. “What none of us want to see is a general acting category where it ends up being all-male nominees,” Polley told The New York Times last year, “Which I think is the fear — and that’s a genuine fear.”
Last year, the Indie Spirit Awards awarded Performance-based awards for movie roles to Jeffrey Wright, Dominic Sessa, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, one fewer than the Oscars. The Gotham Awards gave out two.
At the end of the interview, Kramer, who is gay, offered some words to queer performers during Pride month. “Don’t let that part of you go just to accommodate a job,” Kramer said. “It’s dangerous and a matter of life or death in many cases. My advice is to anyone who feels ‘other’—own your sense of self. It’s essential to your mental health and success.” We suppose that also means creating a space for them not to feel othered as well, like, say, at an industry award show.