MTV Movie Awards 2017 Removes Gender-Specific Categories; “Get Out,” “Beauty And The Beast” Leads Nominations

Excited for the 2017 MTV Movie Awards? There will be some interesting changes once the show gets broadcasted on May 7.

On Friday, the Viacom-owned network announced that it has removed categories that are gender-specific for the very first time. CNBC said male and female actors will now compete together in non-gendered awards. This means Emma Watson, for example, will be competing against James McAvoy for “Best Actor in a Movie.”

The new categories will now be “Best Villain,” “Best Host,” “Best Actor in a Movie,” “Best Actor in a Show,” “Best Comedic Performance,” “Best Hero,” and “Next Generation” artist.

“Get Out,” the critically-acclaimed horror movie by Jordan Peele, is leading the nominations with six nods, including the “Next Generation” nod for film star Daniel Kaluuya and “Movie of The Year.” “Beauty and The Beast” came second with four nominations, including a nod for star Emma Watson for “Best Actor in a Movie.”

The change comes after “Billions” actor Asia Kate Dillon challenged the Television Academy when she was asked to consider which category would she get a nod in. The actor, who identifies as gender non-binary, sent an impassioned response.

Variety published a portion of the letter, which read, “I’d like to know if in your eyes ‘actor’ and ‘actress’ denote anatomy or identity and why it is necessary to denote either in the first place? The reason I’m hoping to engage you in a conversation about this is because if the categories of ‘actor’ and ‘actress’ are in fact supposed to represent ‘best performance by a person who identifies as a woman’ and ‘best performance by a person who identifies as a man’ then there is no room for my identity within that award system binary. Furthermore, if the categories of ‘actor’ and ‘actress’ are meant to denote assigned sex I ask, respectfully, why is that necessary?”

Television Academy has since expressed their support about Dillon’s opinions.