Before I started writing about movies I cared a lot more about the Oscar nominations. Now, probably because I spend so much time reading about pop culture and how women are treated, most of the excitement I had when I was just a fan is gone. I used to park myself in front of the TV and furiously write everything down, and yesterday I just went about my day and waited for the noms to be posted on the web.
So here’s what I gleaned from the nominations yesterday:
None of the Best Films Feature A Woman as the Lead
Look at the best pictures noms: Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire. While both Benjamin Button and The Reader feature strong female performances, neither of them are about women. Frost/Nixon has nary a single female character of significance, Milk has one woman, and Slumdog has a young woman as the object of the star’s affection.
Even last year with all the talk about how women were missing from No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood we still had Juno. In previous years there was The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine, Million Dollar Baby and even further back there was Chicago and The Hours. After a great year for women at the box office, the lack of a film about a woman in the final five stings. The films with the strongest female roles like Doubt and Revolutionary Road were left of the best picture list.
Directing is Still a Boy’s Club
Slumdog Millionaire has a female co-director which does not seem to get acknowledged publicly due to guild rules and the perception that there needs to be one person at the helm (except of course if you are the Coen Brothers.) It’s interesting to note that the documentary category has no problem naming more than one director. The directors of the Betrayal Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath have been identified as co-directors throughout the awards season but now the co-director has been dropped and both are identified as director. A woman hasn’t been nominated since 2004 when Sophia Copolla was nominated for Lost in Translation.
Meryl Streep Now Has the Most Oscar nominations at 15
She has 12 leading actress nominations and two wins but hasn’t won in 25 years. Is this her year? Will the snub of Doubt as a Best Picture contender propel her to the win?
Women of Color Dominate the Supporting Actress Category
Congrats to Viola Davis (Doubt), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button). The best actress category is white and not a single of the male acting nominees are of color.
A Woman Still Has Never Been Nominated for Best Cinematography
Maryse Alberti for The Wrestler and Mandy Walker for Australia were getting noticed but neither was able to break through.
Where Are the Women Writers?
Last year we were celebrating Tamara Jenkins (The Savages), Diablo Cody (Juno), Sarah Polley (Away from Her), and Nancy Oliver (Lars and the Real Girl). This year we will have to settle with Courtney Hunt (Frozen River) and Robin Swicord (with a story credit on the Curious Case of Benjamin Button).
Frozen River Was Able to Sustain Momentum Even Though it was Released in August and Not Seen by Many.
First time writer/direction Courtney Hunt secured a best screenplay nom for her drama about a woman driven to the brink to support her kids. I love that it is completely a women’s story. Veteran actress Melissa Leo got her first Oscar nom and this will hopefully signal bigger and better roles for her. Here’s what she said to the LA Times: Things will be different from now on. This morning, perhaps, my life has changed.” We can only hope so. I bet we will see Frozen River back in theatres by next weekend.
Pray the Devil Back to Hell and Blessed is the Match Fall Short in the Doc Category
Heartfelt congrats to Ellen Kuras The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) and Tia Lessin Trouble the Water for their nominations but I would love to have seen those others acknowledged as well. And not to take away anything from the accomplishments of Kuras and Lessin both of those films have co-directors, Blessed is the Match and Pray the Devil Back to Hell both had female directors and tell female stories.
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I had hoped that Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married) would get nominated for best original screenplay. It’s one of the best films I’ve ever seen about the relationship of two sisters.
The Jan. 19, ’09 issue of The New Yorker has an article titled “The Cobra – Inside a movie marketer’s playbook”. (Letters from California by Tad Friend).
Here’s a partial quote regarding older women (which are defined by Hollywood marketers as over 25 years old) as a target audience: “Particularly once they reach thirty, these women are the most “review-sensitive”; a chorus of critical praise for a movie aimed at older women can increase the opening weekend’s gross by five million dollars. In other words, older women are discriminating, which is why so few films are made for them.”
Fascinating article. I highly recommend it.
Melissa – my story is the same as yours – I used to live for the oscars – I even used to believe they represented the best of the best. Now, as the years go by, I am becoming more & more jaded by the whole thing. Yes indeed – “major”, nominated “best” films with no major female roles. Not a surprise considering who is writing & directing the films!
I know I sound awfully cranky – but it’s just simply gotten old.
As for the oscars representing the best of film making in general – um – no – I don’t buy that anymore either. If every voting member were required to watch every movie made in a given year they would have their eyes opened to the great films being made away from the media fueled industry of hollywood. But – ’twill never happen.
sigh
Wow! Thank you so much Maggie for letting us know about that article! :D I found it fascinating, if not downright disheartening. Those four quadrants are very interesting indeed! And when you look at the all-time big box-office hits, you can see how they not only hit all four quadrants, but hit them in a lot of different sub-categories. So thanks again!
When I read this entry Melissa, I was deeply saddened – it seemed like a lot of that magic was lost, and it seems like such a tragedy. But I guess it’s like all things? I can’t say that my experience isn’t much more different than yours (or yours Anna). I used to watch the Oscars when I was really young (probably one of the few things my mom let me stay up late for). And I loved all the categories, especially the technical ones about costumes, and special effects, sound editing, and the like. I also thought it was the best of the best.
And then I aged – so I guess I am part of that finicky, discriminating older women age set (though I do enjoly a great explosion!), because as I really started to look at the films that are nominated, verses the ones that aren’t I started to find precious little difference between them. The oscars snub complete genres of films almost on principle, which bothers. And it seems like they will nominate only the films they see, even when it is inappropriate. Maybe Transporter III doesn’t need to be in the best film category, but maybe it should get some nods for special effects?
It’s a hard road to walk I guess. I’m happy for Taraji and Viola. But part of me thinks this is a recognition for the same old type of role. She’s actually in a small movie now directed by TD Jakes (Not Easily Broken), and one of the reasons she cited for doing it was that she was able to take a break from playing maids, or ghetto fabulous characters – and she was able to play a modern, successful woman; her comments reminded me a lot of Emma’s.
But there are quite a few things I’m glad about in terms of the oscars, just not quite as many as I thought. But I guess it’s not oscar’s fault, but the movies that are produced? Just to quote a bit from the New Yorker article: “The collective wisdom is that young males like explosions, blood, cars flying through the air, pratfalls, poop jokes, “you’re so gay” banter, and sex—but not romance…Older men like darker films, classic genres such as Westerns and war movies, men protecting their homes, and men behaving like idiots. Older men are easy to please…”
I feel like the summer season reflects the younger men, and the oscar season now reflects the older men, with women squeezed into either sexual and sometimes romantic roles, or mother roles. And really the only woman nominated for a role that doesn’t fit either is Anne’s Rachel. I don’t know, could things be getting worse even as they’re getting better? Does that even make sense?
Actually I just thought of something. They always talk about how the oscars are losing ratings. I guess they assume it’s because of the disconnect between the popular and critically acclaimed films. They call it the superbowl for women, but maybe more women feel like us, who have started turning away from the show. Maybe that is the audience they need to recapture again, and not with fashion features, with more films that women can wholly embrace. Just a thought.
thanks, d
D-
Thank you for your comment. I’m working on a piece on the New Yotker marketing story. I thought this part of your comment: “I feel like the summer season reflects the younger men, and the oscar season now reflects the older men, with women squeezed into either sexual and sometimes romantic roles, or mother roles. And really the only woman nominated for a role that doesn’t fit either is Anne’s Rachel. I don’t know, could things be getting worse even as they’re getting better? Does that even make sense?” was dead on. I couldn’t agree with you more. I think that things are getting worse for women on screen even as we gain more holds of power in other places. The problem and why I keep writing and fighting this is that movies have such an effect on people that we need to see all experience reflected onscreen or else people will think that we’ve disappeared.
You know, I see a lot of women commenting here .
I wonder what is wrong with your husbands.
You should be in the Kitchen making dinner
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