COMMENTARY: Will 2021 be the year of women in film?
“And the award goes to…” are the five most spoken words every award show season. However, the most popular questions buzzing within the film industry over the past decade are, “will there be women nominated for non-gender specific roles and, if so, will they win?”
With another awards season behind over, more women were added to the long list of females who were left behind in the dust of men winning prominent non-gender specified awards, like Best Director.
For example, a significant moment at this year’s Academy Awards was that “Little Women” was nominated for six Oscars. These nominations included: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Music Score, Best Costume Design and Best Adapted Screenplay. Even though “Little Women” was nominated for acting awards and best film, the director, Greta Gerwig, was not nominated for Best Director. In fact, no females were nominated for Best Director.
This year marked the 92nd year of the Academy Awards, the oldest film award show in the United States. During its 92 years, there have only ever been five women nominated for Best Director, with only one woman, Kathryn Bigelow, winning that distinguished award for her movie, “The Hurt Locker,” in 2010.
At this past Academy Awards show there were at least five outstanding women directors who were notably left out of the nominations. Those female directors include: Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”), Alma Har’el (“Honey Boy”), Marielle Heller (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”), Lorene Scafaria (“Hustlers”), and Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”).
The same goes for the 77th Golden Globes, which is the second oldest film award show in the United States. Those same women were left off the nomination list for Best Director. Similarly to the Academy Awards, only five women directors have ever been nominated for a Golden Globe, and only one of them won. That female was Barbra Streisand for her film, “Yentl” in 1983. She was nominated for Best Director again in 1992 for her film, “The Prince of Tides,” but did not win that year.
Female directors are not a recent emergence in Hollywood. When the film industry was just beginning, there were actually more women working on films then than there are these days. Women have been involved in movie-making from the very beginning.
Alice Guy-Blaché was the first woman director in Hollywood history. Guy-Blaché worked for Gaumont Film Company in Paris and began making films in 1896. The first film she directed was called, La Fée aux Chou, which translates to, The Cabbage Fairy. This is also thought to be the first narrative film ever made. After moving to America, she founded her own production company, Solax.
Guy-Blaché directed approximately 1,000 early films, and she was not alone. During the silent-film era, women pioneered much of the writing, producing, directing, and film technology as well as running their own studios. Unfortunately, the roles of women in the movie-making industry started to decrease when the silent-film era started to come to an end in the mid-1920s.
When the “talkies” started to become more popular, and filmmaking was seen as less of an art form and more of a business, women were pushed out. Men started to gain more power in the film industry, which led to where Hollywood currently is at, with men holding the majority of the higher hierarchy roles.
With the new year starting, and this new decade kicking in, many are thinking (and hoping) that this will be the year of women in film. Out of the top ten most anticipated movies being released this year, five are directed by women. These movies are: “Wonder Woman 1984” directed by Patty Jenkins; “Black Widow” directed by Cate Shortland; “Eternals” directed by Chloe Zhao; “Mulan” directed by Niki Caro; and “Birds of Prey” directed by Cathy Yan. Not only are these movies directed by women, they also feature strong female roles and storylines.
Another indication that changes are in the works for women in film, is the new James Bond movie directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga “No Time to Die,” which features a female 00 character. There was some speculation that the iconic role might go to a woman in the next movie, but producer, Barbara Broccoli, who is the daughter of original 007 producer Albert Broccoli, has denied these rumors stating the character will remain male. She went on to say that “he can be of any color, but he is male.” Idris Elba appears to be a popular choice for a black 007.
However, a woman and/or black 007 character would be a good example of what should be happening across the board in the film industry. From leading roles in movies, to the behind the scenes, and then to the nominations and awards at the end of every year, women and other minorities need to be more, and better, represented behind the camera, as well as in front of it, in Hollywood. Hopefully, with the upcoming movies, we will see these new roles in film take a slight turn toward a more equal playing field in the movie industry and have a more diversified 2021 awards season.
