The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced that they have approved a pair of changes for the Emmy Awards 2021. As a part of this new change, anyone who submits themselves to be in the Actor or Actress categories can “request that their nomination certificate and Emmy statuette carry the term ‘Performer’ in place of Actor or Actress”, reports variety.com

As per the new change, the categories will not be changing names, but the description of the nominees will become flexible.

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“No performer category titled ‘Actor’ or ‘Actress’ has ever had a gender requirement for submissions,” said The Academy in a statement.

The move comes several years after ‘Billions’ star Asia Kate Dillon, the first gender-nonbinary performer to play a nonbinary character on a major TV show, publicly questioned the distinctions of Television Academy’s use of gendered acting categories for the Emmy Awards.

The TV Academy responded that there actually aren’t any gender requirements of any sort for any category, so anyone could theoretically put themselves up for contention in either the Actor or Actress category.

Ultimately, Dillon asked to be entered into the “supporting actor” category at the Emmys.

Even the Berlin Film Festival, last year, announced that its acting awards would be gender-neutral.

Another change that has been implemented at Emmy Awards 2021 are the eligibility of documentary films beginning with the 2022 competition.

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According to that, any film selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) will be considered as a theatrical motion picture and thus ineligible for the Emmy competition.”

The Primetime Emmys will begin on 21 September with nominations to be announced on July 13.

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