Award-winning Bollywood actor Ayushmann Khurrana adds his name to the list of actors and filmmakers who have recently voiced their support for Gender-Neutral Performance awards.
“Gender-neutral awards should become the norm,” Khurrana said. “I wholeheartedly laud the Berlin Film Festival’s decision to award gender-neutral recognitions and I hope all film festivals across the world and India follow suit.”
Last month, the Berlin Film Festival announced that it would be the first major festival to remove the distinction between male and female acting categories.
“Gender divisions are too deep rooted and the film industry can really do their bit to champion change. Gendered awards, according to me, are totally outdated and should be scrapped,” Khurrana said. “For me, good performances are good performances and they should be seen without the gender lens.”
Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton also praised the decision by the Berlin Film Festival and voiced their thoughts on gender-neutral awards at the beginning of this year’s Venice Film Festival.
“I’m of a generation where the word ‘actress’ was used always in a pejorative sense. So I think I claim the other space,” Blanchett said. “I think good performances are good performances, no matter the sexual orientation of the performers who are making them.”
Swinton says the Berlin Film Festival is just the beginning of gender-neutral awards.
“I think it’s pretty much inevitable that everybody will follow, because it’s just obvious to me,” Swinton said.
Khurrana, winner of the Silver Lotus Award at the Indian National Film Awards, is currently working their next film from Bollywood director Abhishek Kapoor. The project is slated for release in 2021.
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