At the
2021 Berlin International Film Festival, the Festival organization announced it would retire the
Best Actor and
Best Actress categories, adopting gender neutral categories alongside a
Best Supporting Performance category. The move was met with controversy, but intensified the gender neutral categories debate in other awards shows and festivals.
Maren Eggert was the first recipient of this award for her role as in ''
I'm Your Man (2021). Sandra Hüller is the most recent winner of this award for her performance in Rose'' (2026). In 2023,
Sofía Otero became the prize's youngest winner for , at nine-year-old. ==Winners==