Face-Off: Gender Neutral Awards

And they have had very negative reactions every last time they attempted to change things. Probably other Festivals and minor awards may follow the example, but for the time being I don't think big awards will.

Absolutely Peter

Gender is irrelevant behind the camera... a role is different... its like comparing a coach and an athlete

Male actors and female actors do the same job, not different jobs. This is the reason to make this change, and I can't really argue with it even though I might prefer to stick with tradition.

Gender is irrelevant behind the camera... a role is different... its like comparing a coach and an athlete

Fine, that is your thesis, but where are your arguments. We can't compare the cinema with sports. Most of the time, in sports, women are disadvantaged when competing with men, that is just fact. Women aren't playing in the NBA or the NHL, because they wouldn't be competitive enough. 

However, (except for the number of roles), there are absolutely no disadvantages of being a woman or a man when you are acting in a film.

Did I say something wrong? My point is simply that:

- men and women have equal skills and talent when it comes to directing, writing, editing or anything else, no need to argue on that, we all agree.

- there were less women in the directorial side of the job probably for social reasons,  there weren't many women in leadership positions to begin with (business,  politics etc.) and directing a film wasn't just an artistic endeavor, so maybe women were disadvantaged, but it didn't prevent some to become directors

(it's much ironic that one of the greatest filmmakers of the 30s was a woman that worked for the Third Reich, the "Olympia" two-parter is certainly the seminal sport film and one of the best documentaries of all time and yet it came from the director of "Triumph of the Will", so women could be as talented as men and as controversial, which is fine).

- performing is not the same thing than acting because gender plays a role. Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara was the characterization of a  typical Southern belle that learned how to be independent and tough in an old patriarcal order.  Bette Davis could have played the role, maybe not Greta Garbo. As "Marty", Ernest Bognine embodied the figure of the average Joe trying to find love in an environment full of family pressure and where the diktat of the macho guy made him an outcast, Rod Steiger could have played the part, but not a handsome actor like Paul Newman, it had to be an average looking guy.

There are varieties of role in the world and it's only fine to divide them into separate categories, nothing implies that one is superior to other, but each enriches film-making through unspoken statement on figures defined by their gender, their looks, their ethnic background etc. Each role a man or a woman plays reflects a figure that belongs to the gender, and I can hold the same argument for ethnicity. Not that it prevented women to play male roles and have their performances acclaimed or awarded for that.

Now to put a little water in the wine, it's not totally true that gender doesn't play a role behind the camera because a director still brings his or her personal sensitivity in the way the camera gazes at the characters or the way the story unfolds.

The comparison with sports is just to assess that we don't watch a sport regardless of the gender, many people who love football (soccer) don't care about female competition, so maybe women are disadvantaged but would you blame male audiences for not being as enthralled by female soccer than male? or female audiences who don't care about soccer? And maybe there are fields where men are disadvantaged, I don't know maybe figure skating or modeling.

Anyway, concerning cinema, 5 male roles, 5 female roles, like I said, it's fair and square, and audiences are as interested by male than female roles as long as it's relevant and coherent.

Nygma, 

I have googled watermelon king and only got results for a book, but anyway, I don't believe that crowning an object is a bad idea...

This pretty much explains my opinion:

Guru Granth Sahib

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nKqiXz5zOU&ab_channel=NanakNaam

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Granth_Sahib#Meaning_and_role_in_Sikhism

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-meaning-of-guru-in-Sri-Guru-Granth-Sahib

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofMIA154088&ab_channel=SikhiGian

I couldn't find a Berlin Film Festival related image, but I added it with a picture of a group of male actors. Thanks.

I followed Ruby's suggestion above.

One option would be of total approval, and another considering it is good, but that before it is implemented there needs to be equality in the number of roles men and women get.