Tilda Swinton has said that it’s “inevitable” that awards bodies will soon remove gender categories.

• Read more: Are gender-neutral acting awards the right move?

Her comments followed the decision from the Berlin film festival to no longer categorise acting awards by gender. Swinton called the new rule “eminently sensible.”

“It’s just such a waste of life,” Swinton said (as per The Guardian), discussing the matter at this year’s Venice film festival, “you know life is too short for this.

“And so I’m really happy to hear that about Berlin and I think it’s pretty much inevitable that everybody will follow. It’s just obvious to me.”

Cate Blanchett, president of the festival’s jury this year, echoed Swinton’s thoughts, saying “I have always referred to myself as an actor.

“I am of the generation where the word actress was used almost always in a pejorative sense. So I claim the other space.”

On the historically categorised awards system, Swinton said, “This is not the way to go. In every sense, you know, dividing people up and 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.”

Accepting a lifetime achievement award at the festival, Swinton added, “We can continue to rely on the great, elastic, wide, wild, bouncy, boundary-less and perpetually inclusive state of cinema,” and ended her speech with a reference to the late Chadwick Boseman, the star of Black Panther who passed away last week.

“Viva Venezia. Cinema cinema cinema. Wakanda Forever. Nothing but love.”