The Ensors, the prestigious Flemish film and television awards presented during the Ostend Film Festival, will remain gender-neutral next year, despite strong criticism from the culture sector.
All acting performances will still be judged together for the 2025 edition of the awards, despite pushback due to not a single woman being awarded for her acting performance at the 2023 event.
Since the 2022 edition, the Ensors have been gender-neutral, meaning that separate prizes were no longer given to the best actor and best actress. Instead, prizes are given for the 'best performance in a leading role' and 'best performance in a supportive role,' in films and series respectively.
However, the voting procedure will be changed, the Ensor Academy announced during a press conference on Wednesday.
A richer palette of winners
The Academy consists of professionals from all disciplines, who vote in two rounds. An analysis showed that while there was a balance between men and women in the first round of voting, only men won an award after the second round.
"So the bottleneck is in that final round of voting, where you also see the trend of 'the winner takes it all': once a film or series wins some awards, they usually become the big winner of the ceremony," said Ensors president Wim Vanseveren.
Therefore, from now on, only colleagues from the same field will be allowed to vote in the second round of voting. For example, screenwriters will only be able to vote for nominees in the best screenplay category, which the board believes should ensure a "richer palette" of award winners. The full academy will still decide on the 'best of the best,' such as the awards for best film and best series, for example.
Returning to the previous system, with awards for best actor and actress, is not an option, Vanseveren said. "That would risk hiding the male predominance in interesting roles. Gender-neutral awards encourage the industry to think about the impact of stories on equal opportunities."
Related News
- Ensor Awards 2024: 'Wil' and '1985' win big
- The ten classic Belgian films you should watch at least once
- Living legends: The Belgians who excel on the world stage
For Els Dottermans of the Actors' Guild, the gender neutrality rule sends a clear message. "The problem was that the starting point was not the same for everyone: there are more interesting male roles, more interesting stories for men. We need to and can fix that. This regulation will not solve the problem immediately. But it is also a mindset change we want to bring about."
The Ensors board will continue to evaluate the voting procedure in future. "We cannot solve the problem, we cannot influence the vote and we cannot determine which stories are told. But we remain committed to fair, representative homage to the talent within the Flemish television and film industry, with the aim of making The Ensors as diverse as its internal operation has become."
