by Aphrodite M.
Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.
Last year Kathryn Bigelow was the first female director to win an Oscar for her war film Hurt Locker. Many saw this as a major breakthrough for females pursuing and successfully working in the field. Yet, many have been yelling fowl over this year’s Academy snub of Lisa Cholodenko and Debra Granik for best director nominees.
The films The Kids Are All Right and Winter’s Bone were both nominated for best picture but their female directors were not. Does this prove sexism runs rampant in Hollywood Hollywood elite, or is it really just a matter of preference or even ratios?
An easy answer is that there are 10 nominees for best picture while only 5 for best director. Obviously this means some very deserving candidates must be excluded. Why both of the excluded candidates were female directors is the question many want answered.
In an article written by Stacy Smith, on March 2010 for the Huffington Post, Smith looked at gender numbers on IMDbPro and found of those who directed major motion pictures in 2007, 109 directors were male while only 3 were female. Neda Ulaby, in her article on female directors for NPR, found in 2008 only 9 percent of the 250 top-grossing domestic films were directed by women. These disproportionate numbers have not changed much in 2011. The inequality of women in film also extends to most behind the scenes jobs and even to in-front-of-the-camera speaking roles.
Women are vastly underrepresented in the film industry although they make up 50 percent of the population. Lest we forget, women didn’t even have legislation enacted for equality in the workplace until the 1960’s.
There are plenty of women who would like to break in to the male-dominated industry but it seems they are not given the same opportunities as men by the major studios. Even Kathryn Bigelow had to have Hurt Locker independently funded outside of the studio system, and many tried to mitigate her achievements by passing off her success to her mentor and ex-husband James Cameron. On the other hand, a virtually unknown newcomer like John Kosinsky is given a $100 million budget to direct the major studio film Tron: Legacy.
Female directors such as Sophia Coppola and Lynn Shelton, who have commercial success and critical acclaim, are still not at the helm of studio-backed blockbuster films even though they have repeatedly proven their talent and worth by making runaway hits of small independent films.
Coppola even mentioned in her extras footage for the film Lost in Translation that there was a sort of mutiny among the crew who didn’t think she knew what she was doing. Lost in Translation was subsequently nominated for best film and best director and Coppola won the Oscar for best writing and original screenplay.
Catherine Hardwicke, who some may dismiss as making teenage fluff films, was wildly successful in her interpretation of the first Twilight film. She took a film with a very small budget and even tighter shooting schedule and created a blockbuster which grossed a $170 million profit for Summit Entertainment. Any male director who had done the same with teenage fluff, or action fluff or any other type of fluff would probably be set to make the next James Bond film.
The industry may be passing over female directors but it is to its own detriment. The few women who have risen up through the ranks produce compelling films audiences love to watch with profits major studios demand. Some of these amazing directors include Penny Marshall, Lina Wertmüller, Jane Campion, Sophia Coppola, Kathryn Bigelow and Lynn Shelton. They prove that the female voice is not only monetarily viable but important and inspiring to both male and female viewers.
Many argue female directors will get their due when they prove themselves through making quality films. This short-sighted argument fails to notice the quality is evident, while the opportunities are lacking. The Academy is made up of the Hollywood heavy hitters who run the system and the system does not seem to show a fair hand to both male and female directors of the same caliber. No one is arguing that a director should be hired merely for her gender, but when there is proven talent and success, there is no reason for disparaging treatment of one gender over another.
As featured on Picktainment.
As featured on Picktainment.
