Berlin Film Festival awards first ever gender neutral acting prize to German actress, Maren Eggert

• The festival announced it would stop separating its acting prizes between men and women in August.
• Eggert won the Best Leading Performance Silver Bear for her role in 'I'm Your Man.'
• Most major award ceremonies do not include gender-neutral acting categories despite calls.

The first ever gender neutral acting prize at the 69th Berlin Film Festival was awarded to German actress, Maren Eggert.

Eggert won the Best Leading Performance Silver Bear for her role as a researcher in the upcoming futuristic rom-com, 'I'm Your Man.'

The actress, who stars opposite former 'Downtown Abbey' actor Dan Stevens, said she was "overwhelmed" to have received the award.

The festival announced that it would stop separating all of its acting prizes between men and women in August last year.

Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, Co-Directors of the Berlin Film Festival said in the statement from the time: "Not separating the awards in the acting field according to gender comprises a signal for a more gender-sensitive awareness in the film industry."

Most major award ceremonies including the Oscars, Golden Globes and Emmys do not include gender-neutral acting categories despite calls from advocates including Tilda Swinton and Cate Blanchett.

Speaking at September's Venice Film Festival, Swinton said she was "really happy" to hear about Berlin's decision, the BBC reported.

She said: "In every sense, you know, dividing people up and prescribing a path for them, whether we're talking about gender, or whether we're talking about race or about class. It's just such a waste of life."

At the same event, Blanchett noted how she "always referred to myself as an actor," instead of an actress. She said: "I am of the generation where the word actress was used almost always in a pejorative sense so I claim the other space," the BBC added.

The Berlin Film Festival's biggest prize, The Golden Bear, went to provocative Romanian film, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn.

While the ceremony was held online due to the pandemic, there are plans to host a 'summer special' in June, the festival announced, with a chance for the public to see the winners and watch the films.