MTV to adopt gender-neutral category titles for its awards show
Malaysian banned Disney’s Beauty and the Beast earlier this year, starring Emma Watson
MTV’s annual awards show will have gender-neutral categories for the first time.
The rebranded MTV Movie & TV Awards will see female and male nominees will compete against each other in the “best actor in a movie” and “best actor in a show” categories.
This means the nominations, which were revealed today, see Game of Thrones’ resident Queen of Dragons, Emilia Clarke, compete for the TV show prize against Stranger Things’ 13-year-old star Millie Bobby Brown.
Women have taken four of the six spots for the award, with Jane The Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez and Mandy Moore from This Is Us also nominated.
Atlanta creator and star Donald Glover and Jeffrey Dean Morgan of The Walking Dead are the other nominees.
In the film category, men and women are equally matched in terms of nominations, with Get Out’s lead Daniel Kaluuya facing up against Beauty and the Beast’s Emma Watson.
Actor and singer Hailee Steinfeld is included for her performance in The Edge of Seventeen, with Logan’s Hugh Jackman, Split’s James McAvoy and Hidden Figures’ Taraji P. Henson also in the running.
The awards show will also feature two new categories.
Best American Story will be given to a show or film that shows the US at its “open and diverse” best, while Best Fight Against the System honours a creation whose characters will not be defeated by oppression.
Psychological race-centric horror Get Out earned six nominations for the awards show on May 7th, while Beauty and the Beast and Stranger Things pulled in four nominations each.
