PROMISE KEEPERS
TIFF pledged to do better when it comes to women in film at this year’s festival. Did they make good on that commitment? Sabrina Maddeaux
Amber Heard has seen the worst of Hollywood. The fiercely outspoken actress first publicly discussed her fluid sexuality in 2010, long before it became de rigueur for young celebrities like Miley Cyrus, Cara Delevingne and Lucas Hedges to talk about their sexual preferences in the media. It didn’t go over so well, and many people thought her acting career was over.
Then she married Johnny Depp. In 2016, the marriage came to a tumultuous end when Heard accused Depp of domestic violence and filed for divorce. Predictably, the tabloids went wild and swiftly demonstrated why so many survivors hesitate to seek justice. Many implied, if not outright said, Heard was a lying gold digger in shameless pursuit of Depp’s fortune. She was only vindicated when TMZ posted a video of Depp throwing a wine glass and bottle while shouting at Heard. In the end, she donated half of her $7-million divorce settlement to the American Civil Liberties Union and the other half to the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.
This is on top of the litany of obstacles just about every female in Hollywood faces: unequal pay, ageism, a lack of strong roles and constantly being judged by one’s looks.
“When we still have antiquated institutions that serve only to protect the status quo of a few powerful men, it seems unsurprising that women are in the position they’re in,” Heard tells me over the phone. She was at TIFF to promote Her Smell and discuss the climate for women in film at L’Oréal Paris Canada’s #WorthIt Show alongside Andie MacDowell and TIFF Share Her Journey Ambassador Shohreh Aghdashloo.
“Being in the entertainment industry is I believe one of, if not the, most powerful mediums that we have. To have barely 30 per cent of speaking or named roles when we make up over half the population, it’s heartbreaking and incredibly frustrating.”
The timely panel is just one of many feminist events and programs that was scheduled at this year’s festival. Some, like Birks’ Sixth Annual Diamond Tribute to the Year’s Women in Film, have been around for awhile, but many are new or in their infancy.
Of particular note was TIFF’s Share Her Journey campaign, a five-year commitment founded in 2016 to increase participation and opportunities for women behind and in front of the camera. The ultimate goal of the campaign is to raise $3 million to fund initiatives such as a 10-week mentorships programme for female screenwriters, a speaker series to spark conversations about women in film and the RBC Female Creator Initiative for emerging filmmakers. They also sponsored a women’s rally that took over King Street and featured feminist powerhouses such as Geena Davis, Mia Kirshner (co-founder of #AfterMeToo) and partners from Time’s Up.
One of the most impactful changes for TIFF was transitioning from passive sponsors who simply slapped their logo on red carpets to more active ones. “Everybody knows it’s the right thing to do, and it’s the right time to do it. It’s time. I can’t say that enough,” says Maxine, TIFF’s vice-president of advancement. A major donation from Nespresso to the Share Her Journey fund pushed TIFF’s fundraising ahead of schedule. The brand also hosted intimate Coffee With Creators panels that focused on women’s voices and Nespresso Talents, a short-film competition whose theme this year was “The Difference She Makes.” Meanwhile, RBC’s Female Creator Initiative is a year-round program that provides emerging filmmakers access to mentorship, networking opportunities and skills development.
Using the power and deep pockets of corporate sponsors to disrupt the status quo set TIFF apart from other festivals happy to rely on more superficial proclamations of support for women and theoretical equality goals without any real backing. “In order for those these things to have a longstanding effect, we need more. We need more than just hash-tagging and participation in marches — although those are critically important,” says Heard. “We need to not just shake things up, but be proactive participants in the conversation and the reconstruction that follows.”
Most major film festivals, even in the face of #MeToo and Time’s Up, still can’t seem to get it right when it comes to promoting and respecting women. Cannes, which has never had a stellar reputation when it came to gender equality (remember when they denied entry to women not wearing heels?), saw male reporters awkwardly use question periods to hit on female talent and an Italian filmmaker wear a “Weinstein is Innocent” shirt on the Suspiria red carpet.
In 2017, 63 per cent of Palme d’Or contenders included a female protagonists, but, somehow, in 2018 that number dropped to just 38 per cent. The number of contenders directed by females remained the same: three. Only one female director, Jane Campion, has ever won the Palme d’Or.
“Cannes itself is a two-week celebration of male brains and female beauty. Many wheelers, dealers and producers still parade with paid-for models or prostitutes on their arms, which makes female filmmakers deeply uneasy about what, precisely, is valued by the money men,” Kate Muir, former chief film critic of The Times and now activist with the Time’s Up campaign, told The Guardian in advance of this year’s fest.
Meanwhile Jennifer Kent, the only female director in the Venice Film Festival’s main competition, was harassed at a screening by a man who called her a “whore.” The Sisters Brothers director Jacques Audiard called out the competition’s staggering gender ratio and general apathy at a screening, “I was surprised when I read that the lineup was 20 men against one woman ... I wrote to the other directors but there wasn’t much a reaction.”
It was only after these controversies that the male heads of Cannes and Venice signed the 50/50 x 2020 pledge to achieve gender parity in their organizations’ top management by 2020 (also, it should be noted, one of them at first publicly threatened to quit his job rather than sign the document). In contrast, TIFF artistic director and co-head Cameron Bailey publicly and enthusiastically signed the pledge at the Share Her Journey women’s rally on TIFF’s opening weekend.
For TIFF, the pledge was never a subject of controversy. The festival had already made a significant move in this direction with the hire of Joana Vicente as its new executive director and co-head. This year’s programming team went beyond gender parity, featuring more women (13) than men (nine). Since 2016, TIFF has boasted an equal 50/50 gender split in talent development initiatives such as Talent Lab, Studio and TIFF Rising Stars. The festival also opened up its infamously tight accreditation process this season to add nearly 200 more film writers from diverse backgrounds, including women, to their media list. TIFF’s percentage of female filmmakers was higher than ever this year at 36 per cent, although it still falls short of Tribeca’s standout 46 per cent.
Of note, however, was the lack of a single female director in TIFF’s Masters programme, which featured the “world’s most influential art-house filmmakers.” The Special Presentation and Gala programmes were also heavily weighed in favour of male directors.
My new motto is ‘no more missed opportunities.’ If you’re involved in any way in any production of a movie or a TV show, you have a chance to change it and make it genderbalanced. – Geena Davis, on the importance of on-screen female representation.
This could be interpreted in several ways. Perhaps, the current disruption and support for female filmmakers hasn’t yet had time to reach the upper echelons of the industry. Or, maybe, it is increasingly difficult for female filmmakers to succeed after the “emerging” label wears off. It’s one thing to fund and direct an indie film and quite another to secure the backing necessary to reach blockbuster or critical darling status.
The trend is reflected in the industry at large. “When you look at the top 250 grossing films of 2017, only 11 per cent were directed by women, but there are incredibly talented women out there that have a voice that needs to be heard,” says Mary DePaoli, RBC executive vice president.
So the big question inevitably becomes, “What’s next?”
As over 100 women graduate from various Share Her Journey initiatives by the end of this year, where do they and their films land? It’s nice to think that the training, mentorship and access they received through TIFF and its partners will be enough to launch their careers, but historical experience shows that while the ceiling may crack, it’s ultimately made of shatterproof glass. All the education, access and networking opportunities provided to women in business, media and politics still haven’t resulted in significant pay or power parity.
But there is hope. This month, Microsoft announced it will require companies that supply it with subcontractors such as cafeteria and custodial workers to give staff 12 weeks of paid parental leave. In 2015, they did the same thing with sick leave and inspired others like Facebook to follow suit. What if TIFF required all films in the festival to prove they subscribe to pay equity? What if studios had to produce a certain percentage of female-made films to submit to the festival?
Disrupters like Amazon Studios, Netflix and, if rumours hold true, Apple are eager to break into the industry and generate goodwill while traditional studios scramble to stay relevant. What better time to promote and incentivize change when these companies have so much at stake? For the first time in awhile, the power balance seems to be in the film festival’s favour.
TIFF has long prided itself on being the people’s festival, and those people are at least 50 per cent female. It’s laid the groundwork to inspire great change with this year’s festival, and if the fest is willing to think even bigger and take a few risks, it may truly change Hollywood and beyond. According to Bailey, the willpower is there: “In five years at the Oscars when they announce the nominees for best director, wouldn’t it be great if they were all women? That’s my utopia.”
THE POWER BALANCE SEEMS TO BE (IN TIFF’S) FAVOUR.