Female directors ready to topple ignoble Oscar stat
NEW YORK — Four. It’s one of the most glaring numbers in Academy Awards history. That’s how many women have been nominated for best director in the awards’ 89 years of existence. Kathryn Bigelow, for “The Hurt Locker” in 2010, is the only woman to win.
“I have to say it really bums me out,” says Greta Gerwig, whose solo directorial debut, “Lady Bird,” opened last week in limited release. “Every year I see the list of people who are in the running for best director. Kathryn Bigelow got in — that’s one. Every year they nominate five guys. Every year. And four women have been nominated in the history of the Academy Awards. That’s ridiculous. And it pisses me off.”
This year, those lists may be different — or, at least, it will be especially confounding if they aren’t.
Gerwig’s sharply observed
This combination photo shows Patty Jenkins (from left), who directed “Wonder Woman;” Kathryn Bigelow, who directed “Detroit;” Greta Gerwig, who directed “Lady Bird;” and Dee Rees, who directed “Mudbound.”
coming-of-age tale “Lady Bird,” for one, is among the most acclaimed films of the year. Patty Jenkins’ summer sensation “Wonder Woman” was a runaway hit with both audiences and critics. Next week, Dee Rees will release her Sundance Film Festival hit, the Mississippi period drama “Mudbound.” Handicapping for March’s Academy Awards is early, but each — particularly Gerwig and “Lady Bird” — is considered among the possible nominees for best picture and for best director.
While Hollywood has AP
been overrun with the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the harsh light it has thrown on widespread gender imbalances throughout the industry, movie screens nationwide have been aglow with ambitious films by female directors who are beating the odds stacked against them.
Oscar nominations won’t change the overwhelming maleness of the industry, where greenlighting executives, top agents and academy members (despite recent efforts to reshape membership) remain overwhelmingly male. The discrepancy is particularly pronounced behind the camera, where women comprised only 7 percent of directors on the 250 highest-grossing domestic releases in 2016, according to an annual study by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University. That’s 2 percentage points less than in 1998.
But as the “OscarsSoWhite” protest of recent years has shown, the Academy Awards can throw a spotlight on wider industry inequality.
“The severe gender imbalance strikes me as a source of considerable potential embarrassment for the academy,” said film professor Martha Lauzen, author of the San Diego State study. “Typically, a few high-profile individuals can skew our perceptions about how members of a certain group are faring but result in little, if any, substantial change. This year could prove to be unique in that nerves regarding this issue are raw.”