British Independent Film Awards Go Gender Neutral for Acting Categories
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neutral from this year.In the BIFAs’ 25th year, the traditional best and supporting actress and actor awards have been replaced by best lead performance, best supporting performance, best joint lead performance — for two (or exceptionally three) performances that are the joint focus of the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.