British Independent Film Awards Go Gender Neutral for Acting Categories

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran The British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) have made all acting prizes gender neutral from this year.In the BIFAs’ 25th year, the traditional best and supporting actress and actor awards have been replaced by best lead performance, best supporting performance, best joint lead performance — for two (or exceptionally three) performances that are the joint focus of the film — and best ensemble.

BIFA’s breakthrough performance award, sponsored by Netflix, remains unchanged. These changes to the acting categories are permanent.In addition, BIFA is adding a new debut director category — best debut director, feature documentary.

The Douglas Hickox Award for best debut director, sponsored by BBC Film, will now be for fiction features only. The award for best music, which previously recognized both original composition and music supervision, will be separated into best original music and best music supervision.

BIFA directors Amy Gustin and Deena Wallace said: “We’re very excited to be able to launch BIFA’s new expanded awards categories which will more fully capture the range of exceptional performances and acting talent in British independent film and allow us to celebrate even more talent than ever before.”The 2022 nominations will be announced on Nov.