So tonight again no prize for best actor or actress, but best leading orsupporting role. And next week the Televiziergala will also have a gender-neutral prize for television presenters.
‘Moving along with the zeitgeist’, was what the organization of the GoldenCalves called it last year, after which a major discussion broke out in thefilm world. This is too soon, critics keep saying, there is still too muchinequality between men and women.
‘More chance for white straight man’
For example, Fedja van Huêt, last year’s winner of the most important GoldenCalf, best leading role in a feature film, made himself heard. Last month hesaid in Het Parool that he thinks the recognition for his acting is ‘great’,but that he would approach the award ceremony differently.
“I understand the idea of no longer distinguishing between roles for womenand men, it was decided with good thought, but I would have preferred moreawards. […] Most roles still go to straight white men. If you are a womanthere are fewer, if you are black even less. That really needs to change.”
Last year, actor Katja Herbers wrote off her frustration on Twitter. Her tweetwas often quoted afterwards.
Very slight shift
Recent research into the position of women in the Dutch film and televisionsector confirms that inequality still exists. Utrecht University counted fromalmost 2500 fiction and documentary productions from 2011-2020 how many womenand men were involved in leadership positions and in leading and supportingroles.
The conclusion: the past ten years has seen a very slight shift towardsgreater equality. But overall, men are dominant (69.6 percent) when it comesto leadership roles and lead and supporting roles. 40% of the lead andsupporting roles are women. And: the more expensive and longer a production,the fewer women are involved and the more men.
Manouschka Zeegelaar Breeveld, actor and chairman of ACT Acteursbelangen,supports the decision to make the film awards gender neutral. Ultimately, thebenefits outweigh the drawbacks, she says.
For example, attention is now being paid to the underlying problem,inequality. She also points to an increasing group of people who do notidentify as male or female. At least they qualify now.
‘Positive discrimination still needed’
Rosemarie Buikema, professor of Art, Culture and Diversity at UtrechtUniversity, thinks it is too early. “The problem is that we are not yet thatfar in society and the film world. We have to catch up first. As long as thatdoesn’t happen, positive discrimination with separate categories is stillimportant.”
What then has to change? More serious roles for women, for example, saysBuikema. “Roles are often still very masculine or feminine. Female leadingroles are often about the more feminine themes. That has to be broken first.”
This has to be done in the workplace and by screenwriters. “You can adjust theprices, but if there is no policy at that level, it doesn’t make much sense.”