How MTV Movie & TV Awards Possibly Changed Award Shows Forever

Nick Paschal
·Supervising Producer, Yahoo Entertainment

Since 1992, MTV has been awarding the best in film with the Golden Popcorn Award at the MTV Movie Awards. However, the show made some major changes this year. MTV started celebrating the best TV shows too, renaming the award show the MTV Movie & TV Awards. But that wasn’t the only major change to the 25-year-old award ceremony.

The awards were not separated into “Male” and “Female” categories. So, for example, the award for Best Actor in a Movie included stars like Emma Watson and Hugh Jackman. Appropriately, Billions star Asia Kate Dillon, who is the first openly non-binary actor to play a non-binary character in a major television show, presented the Best Actor in a Movie award. Asia said, “It’s so cool to be here, presenting the first acting award ever that celebrates performance free of any gender distinctions.”

Emma Watson hugging Asia Kate Dillon while accepting the Best Actor in a Movie award. (Photo: AP Images)
Emma Watson hugging Asia Kate Dillon while accepting the Best Actor in a Movie award. (Photo: AP Images)

Emma Watson received the award for her performance in Beauty and the Beast, and she was honored to win the first gender-neutral acting award. Emma said, “MTV’s move to create a genderless award for acting will mean something different to everyone. But to me, it indicates that acting is about the ability to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. And that doesn’t need to be separated into two different categories.” Emma then thanked Asia, saying, “Thank you for educating me in such an inclusive, patient, and loving way.”

It will be interesting to see if other award shows like the Emmys and the Oscars follow suit and get rid of gender-specific categories.

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