Moonlight’s same-sex pair wins Best Kiss at MTV Movie & TV Awards
Moonlight has won Best Kiss at the MTV Movie & TV Awards.
Ashton Sanders and Jharrel Jerome took home the award for their kiss in the ground-breaking film about a gay black man’s journey to adulthood which won the Best Film Oscar.
The newly branded awards ceremony, which has instituted gender-neutral awards for the first time, crowned its fifth ever same-sex pair in the category.
Picking up the award, Jerome said that picking up the trophy showed there has been a sea change in the way minorities are seen in Hollywood.
“I think it is safe to say that it is okay for us young performers, especially for us minority performers, for us to step out of the box.
“I think it is okay for us to step out of the box and do whatever it takes to tell the story,” he added.
Sanders said that the award going to a film about gay black people made it “bigger than Jharrel and me.
“This represents more than a kiss. This is for those who feel like the others, the misfits.
“This represents us,” Sanders continued.
Brokeback Mountain and American Pie 2 are notable previous winners of this section, which first went to a same-sex kiss in 2000, when Cruel Intentions took the trophy.
RuPaul’s Drag Race took home the Best Reality Competition gong.
The show, recently renewed for a tenth season, beat out competition from America’s Got Talent, MasterChef Junior, The Bachelor and The Voice.
Meanwhile, the gender-neutral Best Actor in a Show prize went to 13-year-old Millie Bobby Brown for her striking performance in Stranger Things.
Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Mandy Moore (This Is Us) and Gina Rodriguez (Jane The Virgin) were also nominated.
Atlanta creator and star Donald Glover and Jeffrey Dean Morgan of The Walking Dead were the other nominees.
And Emma Watson won the event’s gender-neutral film counterpart, the Best Actor in a Movie prize, picking up the award from non-binary Billions actor Asia Kate Dillon.
The Beauty and the Beast actor said that MTV making its awards show gender-neutral “will mean something different to everyone.”
She said for her, “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.”
Watch Sanders and Jerome pick up the award below:
'Moonlight' stars Ashton Sanders & Jharrel Jerome win Best Kiss: "This is for the others. The misfits." #MTVAwards pic.twitter.com/QtOKQAxb3J
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) May 8, 2017
