MTV Makes a Hollywood First at Movie Awards

Sunday night's MTV Movie and TV Awards is getting more attention than usual thanks to a first among major awards shows: In handing out its top acting honors, the show ditched the separate categories for male and female actors. As a result, Emma Watson won Best Actor in a Movie for her role as Belle in Beauty and the Beast, reports E! Online. She beat out the likes of James McAvoy and Hugh Jackman, notes the BBC. "The first acting award in history that doesn't separate nominees based on their sex says something about how we perceive the human experience," said Watson in her acceptance speech. (Watch it here.)

The award "will mean something different to everyone," she said, "but to me, it indicates that acting is about the ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes. And that doesn't need to be separated into two different categories." As the Washington Post notes, Watson thanked presenter Asia Kate Dillon of Billions, who identifies as gender-binary and publicly questioned the separate gender categories when nominated for an Emmy earlier this year. MTV also dropped gender distinctions in the TV category, awarding Best Actor in a Show to 13-year-old Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things from Netflix. Stranger Things also won Show of the Year, while Beauty and the Beast was Movie of the Year. See the full list of winners via the AP. (Some say the Beauty and the Beast-themed opening was awkward.)