Make way, Hollywood

THE GROWING POWER OF FEMALE DIRECTORS Written by Cate Tarr, Arts Staff Writer Graphic by Nicole Glesinger, Contributing Graphic Artist

On April 21, 2021, I watched as unfamiliar faces on my TV vied for an award in the film directing category. It was the 93rd Academy Award ceremony: For the first time in history, two women were nominated for best director, and for the second time in history, a woman took home the award.1

Social media posts of praise and excitement followed, but I was left underwhelmed and full of questions. Why is our society one in which a woman winning an Oscar for best director is so out of the ordinary that it’s considered historical?

To quench my confusion, I decided to do some research; I expanded my understanding of why female film directors are a feeble club and also the ways this is beginning to change as women secure their footing in directing.

Historically, there has been low mobility for women in the high ranks of the film industry, yet recent changes reveal that progress is absolutely possible. What should be gleaned from this headway is not satisfaction, but motivation as to how we can continue to amplify these advancements.

In the early years of the 20th century, women worked in essentially every aspect of silent film making.2 Women were directors, writers, producers, actors and more. As the film industry cemented around a small number of leading studios around the 1930s, it grew harder for women to find headway in developing cinematic ventures.3

¹ Claire Shaffer, “Chloe Zhao Wins Best Director at Academy Awards: Watch her Speech,” The Rolling Stones, 2021. ² Margaret Talbot, “The Women Who Helped Build Hollywood,” The New Yorker, 2019. ³ Ibid. Due to this, only 16% of film directors working on the 100 highest-grossing Hollywood films in 2020 were women. Shocking, right? Even more upsetting, this was a significant increase from the 4% that existed in 2018.4

Despite the traditionally low numbers, this data illustrates how stress placed on studios to hire female filmmakers is resonating and resulting in palpable change. For the most part, this stress originates from compelling female voices in the industry. Kelly Nathe, a guest curator at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, created a tribute program to an annual film festival that the center ran from 1994 to 2010, called Women with Vision, which promoted female film directors.5

“A lot has changed in respect to awareness and advocacy on behalf of women directors,” Nathe said. “. . . ’50/50 by 2020’ has been the battle cry on the festival circuit the past few years, and while most of the major festivals still have a way to go, most tout the percentages of films they have selected that are directed by women, so the needle does seem to be moving in the right direction, slowly but surely.”6

Even if film festivals are simply fulfilling a trend when promoting women in film, the publicity and support that female directors are receiving is undeniably giving them key exposure and agency. The Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, for example, created a Women in Film Initiative.7

⁴ Brent Lang, “Women Directed Record Number of 2020 Films, Study Finds,” Variety, Jan. 2, 2021. ⁵ Miranda Harincar, “Then and Now: A History of Women with Vision,” Walker Art Center, March 5, 2020. ⁶ Ibid. ⁷ Ibid. As Hollywood makes an effort to change it is still important to note that outside of gender there are still many identities discluded from the industry. Women of color are significantly underrepresented among filmmakers, have the least opportunities in film directing.8 Of the top 1,300 films released from 2007 to 2019, less than 1% of all directing jobs went to women of color.9 These statistics uncover the stories, perspectives and talent not included in the media we consume and perpetuate the problem by showing individuals that there is no “space” for them.

The media we consume affects how we perceive the world, those around us and society as a whole. This means that there is great power in storytelling, but also a great need for diverse voices, perspectives, backgrounds and beliefs. We see the stigma and rigid social norms that permeate older generations, largely due to the media they consume and the fact that the same old sexist plot tropes and storylines were constantly recycled. If women and those of other marginalized groups are excluded from shaping the collective narrative of the media, then they are excluded from having a role in shaping our worldly views and attitudes about society. Next Academy Award season, I hope to see people like me not only displayed but celebrated when the category for best director is called. ■

⁸ Anousha Sakoui, “Female Directors in Hollywood are still underrepresented, but the gap is narrowing,” Los Angeles Times, Jan. 2, 2020. ⁹ Ibid.