Bafta's Rising Star Award 2013 is a rallying call for more female writers Let's leave aside the somewhat anachronistic nature of the Sports Personality of the Year Award, for if we examine too the closely the slightly odd idea that we would want or need to judge professional sports people on their personalities, rather than their ability to do sport (for which we already have a perfectly good medal system) things may get a little bit, umm, rude. No, let's return to matter in hand: that hardy perennial - the "gender war." Now, I'm not in favour of judging people based on their genitalia at all - if it were up to me, we would judge everybody on an individual basis, and ignore the whole issue. But unfortunately we do not yet live in a world where this is possible. In film and TV, although things are changing, it is still the case that men get a much higher proportion of the exciting, three-dimensional roles that could be deemed worthy of a major award. This is partly due to the fact that most writers are men, most producers are men and most directors are men, and whilst I definitely would not say that these men are all dreadful misogynists (although some are), the old adage of "write what you know" holds true, and most men know a lot about being men, and therefore that is what they write about. Andrea Riseborough has been shortlisted That's fine with me. I'm interested in true and insightful film-making, funny or straight or that particularly delicious combination of the two. A media narrative that persists in shouting "NO WOMEN - BOO!" or "ALL WOMEN - YAY!" is a bit reductive. But we do need more writers, directors and producers who are women capable of telling women's stories and writing female parts that are not just about being a two-dimensional mother, virgin, "slut" or murder victim. So, I'm not going to shout about how amazing it is to have an all-female nominations list for this year's BAFTA Rising Star award (and in any case, it's not all female - there is one male, Life of Pi star Suraj Sharma, on the list, and good luck to him). I'm glad these actresses are getting recognition - they are all brilliant. I'm glad that there have been enough great parts for women in the past year that they have had the opportunity to show what they can do. And I'm glad that the judging panel, which includes Benedict Cumberbatch, have noticed. But let's not make a fuss about the fact that there are four women and one man - let's just say these are five great actors, with enormous potential, and keep writing parts for women that allow the balance to be redressed in years to come.