The Sundance film festival revealed a growing challenge to the traditional casting of middle-aged men with much younger women
![Move over, silver foxes: Hollywood gets to grips with the age gap](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/50aed471da60348e698ae4122f667916bfd8a9b3/0_243_5902_3542/master/5902.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdG8tZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=95a4631b685338170330a0953c330e93)
It’s a contentious issue. The
Hollywood age gap romance – the habitual casting of an older male
Actor and a much younger female actor, for so long accepted as the norm – is now meeting with increasing scrutiny and criticism from audiences. Some filmmakers, identifying a hot-button topic, have started to respond.
At the Sundance film festival last month, age gaps in relationships were a recurring theme. But rather than the traditional approach, of hoping that people wouldn’t notice an age difference which could practically be measured on a geological time frame, filmmakers are instead emphasising and examining the issue.