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All SAG Awards Will Be Handed Out By Women

This year at the 24th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, all awards will be given out by female presenters. Coming so soon after the Time’s Up initiative and Golden Globes protest, this Sunday’s show will be especially impactful. It’s the first time the awards will have a host too, and that host will also be a woman, actress Kristen Bell.

Producers made the decision in December to recognize the growing importance of gender equality in the entertainment industry and to encourage greater female visibility. Traditionally, awards presenters are a pair of actors—one female and one male—but this weekend’s show is about bringing change to the industry.

The decision to select Bell as the ceremony’s first host is “a unifying salute to women who have been very brave,” said SAG executive producer Kathy Connell, in an interview with Hollywood Reporter.

“How many times has a woman walked into a room of predominantly men? We thought, maybe for one night, it’ll be more than 50/50 [onstage],” she added.

At the time of the announcement, Bell took to Twitter to share her excitement (and nerves) about being the show’s first host.

Female presenters include Halle Berry, Emma Stone, Lupita Nyong’o, Dakota Fanning, Kelly Marie Tran, Rosanna Arquette, Mandy Moore, Olivia Munn, Niecy Nash, Gina Rodriguez, Maya Rudolph and SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris.

That’s not to say men will be left out of the ceremony entirely, a few male actors including Woody Harrelson, Daniel Kaluuya and Sam Rockwell have been announced as participants in the ceremony to introduce their respective movie clips.

Some of the nominees include Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water in the film categories, and Big Little Lies, GLOW and Stranger Things in the TV categories.

The 24th Annual SAG Awards happens Sunday, January, 21, 2018.

 

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