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entrenched attitudes. Although TV seems to have made a leap forward, the big Hollywood studios are still obsessed with the box office. We have more diversity, but there is still a fear that female audiences are smaller.”
And yet, as Academy Award host Jimmy Kimmel pointed out in his uncharacteristically earnest opening speech, long-held notions that neither a woman nor a minority “could open a superhero movie” have both been disproved in recent months, after first
Wonder Woman and then Black Panther broke box office records. “Female-led stories can and do make money,” insists author and filmmaker Jojo Moyes. “Films like Wonder Woman,
The Hunger Games and Hidden Figures spring to mind… and who would have thought a film about mathematicians would be a crowd-pleaser? Our film
Me Before You – female written, directed and produced – took $200million on a $20million budget.”
For Moyes, it’s about the very business conversations Mcdormand is going to be having. “It’s about commissioning.
Most of the big decisions in Hollywood are made by white men, and they often gravitate towards stories that reflect their own feelings and experiences. I have been in so many meetings where the main concern about a script is: ‘Is the guy attractive/manly/relatable enough?’”
Eve Gabereau, the Canadian founder of the female-led, Londonbased film production, events and distribution company Modern Films, echoes Moyes’s words: “As I got older, I felt I could offer more but wasn’t really seeing the results,” she says. “I wasn’t raising as much finance or having access to projects in the way I would have liked to. At studio level, [the industry] is very male-driven. There are always more ‘nos’ than ‘yeses’ to women.”
Alison Owen, the British producer best known for Elizabeth and
Suffragette, says women are under represented in every area of film. “It’s staggering,” she says. “It has been a boys club. I’m a great fan of quota systems. There has to be more women in positions to make creative choices.”
Gabereau argues that “more openness to female stories and female-led businesses, to our voices and projects” would be a start. Moyes underscores the importance of female support networks: “Understanding who to send a script to, which producer has power, how to get a meeting… but women in film have started to build stronger networks.” One such network is being set up by Kate Kinninmont, the chief executive of Women in Film & TV. Next month, she, Emma Watson, Gemma Arterton and The Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund are launching a helpline for women in the industry suffering from harassment and discrimination issues as well as anxiety and depression.
“What with the recent BBC pay-gap disclosures and what happened with Harvey Weinstein, women in the industry are increasingly aware that they still haven’t got parity in so many ways. It all comes down to power being abused,” she says. “But the power of social media has made women realise that they have a voice.”
Of course, after the hashtag comes the follow-through.
It’s now no longer about easy statements, but actions, as Tarana Burke, the founder of the original Me Too movement, tells me. “Before the Oscars, everyone was wondering ‘Are they going to wear black dresses?’ But that’s just another way of getting caught up in distractions. If we keep on just making statements and not really doing the work, we’re going to be in trouble.”
“There is this feeling of exhaustion over Metoo,” admits Kinninmont, “but I’m seeing the follow-through. Part of that is Time’s Up. I am optimistic; I don’t believe that the industry can move back from this moment.”
Allison Janney, who won an Oscar for I, Tonya, said the same thing when I spoke to her prior to her win.
“This is a transformative moment for Hollywood and the world,” she enthused. “I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime: this addressing of the abuse of power that is so shameful and despicable – and the disbanding of the old boys’ club.”
Asked what, once that had been properly dealt with, would be the next milestone, Janney was in no doubt: “To go from this to equal pay – the next most important thing. And from there,” she added, only partly in jest, “on to rule the world.”
‘I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime: this addressing of the abuse of power’