If you read this blog regularly, you know that only three women have been nominated for a best directing Oscar in the 81 years that the Oscars have existed. Zero wins, three nominations. Based on a wikipedia count there have been 396 (one year 2 men were nominated together) total nominations and three for women. That’s .75%. Not even 1 percent. Women have been nominated less than 1 percent of the time. Shameful.
I wanted to learn a little bit about how the nomination process work in order to understand if and how we can get a woman — or multiple women — nominated this year.
First, in order to get a best director nomination you need to be nominated by that branch. According to the folks at the Academy right now there are 367 members of that branch. They of course do not share the names and also tell me they don’t do demographic breakdowns. The winners are voted by the full Academy which currently has 5785 members.
Now there are a couple of ways to become a voting member. According to the Academy site:
Membership in the Academy is by invitation of the Board of Governors and is limited to those who have achieved distinction in the arts and sciences of motion pictures.
A candidate must be sponsored by at least two members of the branch for which the person may qualify. Each proposed member must first receive the endorsement of the branch’s executive committee before his/her name is submitted to the Board.
Individuals nominated for an Academy Award® who are not already members will be considered for membership.
Other things to consider, a person can only be a member of one branch so for example an actress with a long career like say a Barbra Streisand who becomes a director will probably be a member of the acting branch (which is the largest branch) and not a member of the directing branch. I don’t know if people can switch branches. Also, lots of women directors are also writing movies in order to get them made so maybe some of them are getting invited into the writing branch which while great, seems kind of a shame since they can’t be in both places.
The reason why these numbers are important is because those 367 people hold the key to getting a woman on the ballot. And numbers matter. I know there are at least five or six women members of the directing branch in NYC. Let’s say there are 10 others in LA and a couple more around the world. So maybe there are 20 women total. That’s only about 5.5%. (And if anyone knows there are more than 20 women please let me know and I will be happy to correct this.)
I have no reason to believe that the male directors only vote for male directors for anything other than believing that they have made the best movies. It should be about artistic excellence, yet, do movies that women make get looked at differently than the movies men make? And also I have no reason to believe that women will support and vote for other women just because they are women. But all things being equal it can’t hurt to have more women in the pool thinking about this issue. It’s hard to get a level of critical mass when you can’t get through the door.
This year could be a game changer. Women including Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Jane Campion (Bright Star), Lone Scherfig (An Education) are in the hunt along with longer shots Nora Ephron (Julie & Julia) and maybe even Nancy Meyers (It’s Complicated).
It would be awesome if one or two made it into the final five. But based on the numbers above think about how hard that is. The fact is Bigelow has the best chance because her film is a movie that guys feel very comfortable with. She blows up stuff and even though she produced that film independently, she’s been a Hollywood insider for a while. She comes off with a certain strength and confidence (I have never met her but have heard interviews) that makes guys very comfortable. She made a masculine movie as a woman. That’s a big feat. She has much love all around the Academy and the blogosphere for her film. And it is well deserved.
But does it take a woman making a movie that guys are comfortable with the only road to a nomination? Can movies that feature more feminine and feminist themes get enough votes? Clearly, back in 1993, Jane Campion got enough votes to make it into the final five for The Piano. Holly Hunter’s performance and eventual win kept that film on the radar screen. Campion’s Bright Star has some serious breath taking moments and is loved by women and men including director Quentin Tarantino who sent a note to Campion calling the film “brilliant.” Carey Mulligan is one of the front runners for a best actress nod for An Education which is directed by Dane Lone Scherfig. When Mulligan got the part she was pretty green and while she is massively talented, I bet Scherfig helped get a great performance out of her as well as the amazing ensemble that populates that film.
The the question I am asking is how do we get women noticed without any type of critical mass in the voting bloc? How can more women get into the branch without actually getting nominated? I don’t think that this is an easily solvable issue. But I would hope that people, especially those in a creative business known for its progressiveness on many issues, would think about how this lack of women affects how the awards are looked at. There is a lot of work that needs to be done to remedy this lack of women at the highest levels of visibility in this area.
(Disclosure: I have been engaged to organize a cocktail party in NY for Jane Campion)
Hey that’s awesome you’re gonna organize a party for Jane Campion. Anyway. I don’t know how to answer your questions cos I ain’t really an expert on the voting issues in the Academy, BUT I really hope Kathryn Bigelow wins for Best Director. I will be so PISSED OFF if she doesn’t.
It will be such a friggin’ cop out to not have AT LEAST 2 of the nominations go to women, based on the year’s films. Imagine the hoopla if 3 of the spots go to women – they’ll act like it “proves” a lack of sexism in Hollywood blah-de-blah-blah when really the fact that it’s still a big deal for a woman to even be nominated proves that it’s a misogynist industry.
MS QUESTION: “The the question I am asking is how do we get women noticed without any type of critical mass in the voting bloc?”
JLH ANSWER: Combination of Critical Support & Box Office Clout!!! THE HURT LOCKER has an extemely high “Rotten Tomato” score (98%), so if it crosses a minimal box office threshhold, it’s in. Great films are much easier to forget if they don’t generate good box office. These two factors (Critical Support & Box Office Clout) propelled SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE to the very top last year. But if women do not support films by women filmmakers, then they’ll never get noticed during awards season.
Melissa has helped diagnosis the problem, but what about you… Have YOU seen BRIGHT STAR &/or AN EDUCATION?!? If not, then YOU are part of the problem, not part of the solution. It’s easy to blame others, but in THIS case I really, really believe that the fault, dear Brutus is in ourselves :-(
I saw all three films (The Hurt Locker, Bright Star & An Education) and thought they were fantastic! The Hurt Locker could have made a lot more money if it had gone wide earlier, with more advertising. The theaters were packed a month in to the run.
Bright Star was stunning in a completely different way. Rarely have I been so deeply moved by a film. It’s a beautiful movie, finely crafted and nuanced. I fear it might be overlooked by a mostly male academy. Jane Campion and Kathyn Bigelow should both be nominated for Best Director. Is there a film God we can pray to?
I really need to get off my duff and see Bright Star and An Education! Hurt Locker and Kathryn Bigelow deserve nominations and maybe even wins.
This is totally why I started my blog, XX Cinema–to raise awareness about all the female-directed movies that are out right now. I think of it as a complementary project to the Women & Hollywood blog! There are lots of DVDs up there right now because of the X-Factor Filmmakers Contest (http://xfactorfilm.bracketeers.com/), but I like to focus on new movies and film festivals.
Also: I really liked “Bright Star,” but I LOVED “An Education.”
Forgot to mention: click on my name to get to the XX Cinema Blog. Thanks!