Friday, May 22, 2026

Gotham Awards Go Gender Neutral, No More Best Actor or Actress, Just Best Performance

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Say goodbye to Best Actor and Best Actress.

In an effort to really complicate things, the Gotham Independent Film Awards are doing away with gender and the distinctions of men vs women in awards.

From now on, they’re just giving Best Performance in Lead and Supporting. There will be 10 nominees in each category, but  it’s entirely possible that more “men” than “women” will wind up being nominated.

“Actresses” are not going to like the outcome, I can tell you now. Every year it’s a big deal to field enough actresses in each category for all awards shows. The number of men, or actors, is always larger. So this should be very interesting.

Additional category updates for 2021 include the creation of a Breakthrough Nonfiction Series award (previously included with fiction series) and the eligibility of international documentaries in the Best Documentary Feature category. The Gotham Awards will also be adding the first acting category within its Breakthrough Series categories with Outstanding Performance in a New Series. There will be up to ten nominees in each of the three new categories including Outstanding Lead Performance,Outstanding Supporting Performance and Outstanding Performance in a New Series.
Also the Breakthrough Actor award is being changed to Breakthrough Performance.
This is new world, kids. It’s also very PC, and you’re not allowed to say a word against it. So don’t. I’m warning you.
Will the Oscars try this? I don’t think so. But you never know.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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