The Gotham Independent Film Awards this year either went 100 percent woke or toppled the first domino in Hollywood’s rush for gender neutrality.
Maybe both.
The New York-based group announced this month it will no longer separate honorees by gender.
The Best Actor and Actress categories are history for the indie-minded movie group. Instead, up to 10 stars will vie for outstanding lead performance, with another group of up to 10 fighting for outstanding supporting performer honors.
Why stop there?
Hollywood’s woke embrace is a fait accompli. Turning the Academy Awards into a coronation of that shift makes perfect sense. Most Americans no longer watch what was once appointment television. The ratings continue to sink every year, with each new broadcast spending more and more time lecturing that dwindling crowd.
We don’t know if the Oscars will follow Gotham’s lead quite yet. Let’s start with installing a new set of awards recognizing Hollywood 2.0. Who needs a Best Animated Short or Editing category when you can honor what the industry now truly cares about?
Here are seven award categories that shows should start offering to fulfill their woke obligations.
Best Resistance Moment
Oh, you thought Hollywood put down its you-know-what hats the moment President Donald Trump left the White House? The industry still seethes over Trump’s very existence, and we’ll likely see Trumpian characters on the big screen for the foreseeable future.
The new documentary “The Meaning of Hitler” connects the former president to one of history’s worst monsters.
The Resistance persists, and this award will make it official.
Biggest Gender Swap Flop
Hollywood loves to reboot, remake or reimagine existing properties. That often means swapping out men for women without much forethought.
The 2016 dud “Ghostbusters” serves as Exhibit A.
The strategy often fails in spectacular fashion – the female Ghostbusters cost Sony a cool $70 million, according to media reports. Why not celebrate that? It’s not about art or economics, after all. Virtue signaling reigns supreme, so trumpeting the biggest gender swap fail is a fitting tribute.
Most Woke Speech
The beauty of this award is that it isn’t confined to actual movies. The winner could be selected for an awards show speech given at previous galas, or even via social media post.
Consider Leonardo DiCaprio’s eco-speech after winning Best Actor for 2015’s “The Revenant” as a prime example. Even better? Joaquin Phoenix’s vegan manifesto after winning an Oscar for 2019’s “Joker.”
The only complication? We might see actors try to earn next year’s Most Woke Speech award while picking up their current trophy.
Crankiest Mansplaining Scene
Modern screenwriters love penning moments when a female character snaps back at a male co-star for offering advice or wisdom. It could be about anything, from a battle plan to deciding what car to drive for the getaway.
No matter. These feminist morsels let actresses talk down to the man in no uncertain terms. You might think this wouldn’t happen in films set in the 20th century, or earlier. Today’s Hollywood doesn’t care what era the film is set in. It’s always a ripe time for a, “you go, girl” smackdown.
Best Quasi-Coming Out Moment
Hollywood is trying its darndest to bring more LGBTQ voices to the screen. Except they know select foreign markets, like China, aren’t too keen on these reveals. So they split the difference, making microscopic nods to social justice awareness without fully embracing its spirit.
Case in point – a blink and you’ll miss it lesbian kiss at the end of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Also recall the micro-moment in “Avengers: Endgame” when a man tells Steve Rogers he’s having a hard time dating after The Blip, the five-year chasm caused by Thanos’ snap. The man briefly referenced that he dates men, not women.
This award will honor these micro-moments, and more half measures are certainly on the way.
Take That, Patriarchy
The new tic in modern movies lets women dress down men for any ol’ reason. A great recent example? Laura Dern trashing Han Solo 2.0, Oscar Isaac, during “The Last Jedi.”
“Jungle Cruise” similarly featured Emily Blunt’s character both exposing and triumphing over the early 20th century “patriarchy” in the film’s first act.
This Oscar might give voters a difficult task. How many patriarchy-bashing clips must they see before determining that year’s winner?
Best China Kowtow
Hollywood covets China’s cash, so it often renders a collective shrug over the nation’s human rights abuses. It’s a perfect symbol of woke gone wild. The industry rallied to protest abortion legislation in Georgia while later turning a blind eye to genocide.
That makes this award as woke as it gets.
These cringe-worthy moments signal fealty to the Chinese government. It could be adding a superfluous, but heroic, Chinese character or awkwardly removing a story element that previously existed in the printed source material (like making China the source of the zombie outbreak in “World War Z”).
Of course, the best “kowtow” moments are invisible to most movie goers. They’re the evil Chinese characters or groups that are never written in the first place for fear of angering the country’s censorial board.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.