I had a real chuckle reading about the Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC) handing out their annual awards, but more specifically adding the Gotham Awards to their Hall of Shame for deciding to go gender-neutral this year.
The WFCC press release reads as follows “HALL OF SHAME: THE GOTHAMS — For removing the category Best Actress, in the further erasing of women”. Hilarious. Why just stop at the Gothams? This year also saw the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the Indie Spirits, and the Berlin Film Festival all going Gender Neutral.
I called this. A circular fire squad is about to occur with the gender-neutral categories at awards shows. I wrote:
“And just like that, the Spirit awards [and Gothams] have opened the door for predictable outrage if a male actor were to win and a female actress wins nothing — did they not think about this before announcing today’s changes?”
“It’s actually been argued that this would hurt women as most meaty acting roles are for men, so they would have a better chance of winning every time. Although, in the age of virtue signaling, this could also mean that rewarding a woman with the award could be perceived as unearned and deliberately done due to her gender. It’s a lose-lose situation for all, they just don’t know it yet.”
If I had to bet, the BAFTAS are next, for sure the Golden globes as they are already on thin ice with the social media hounds and they need to virtue signal their way out of the socialist prison they dug themselves into.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.