Isn’t the indie world supposed to be better for women? Guess not that much better since women were virtually shut out of all the major awards categories for the Independent Spirit Awards which will be held in LA on Friday, March 5th.
Here are some of the things that stood out for me:
I guess this is really not the year for women directors because not a single woman was nominated for best director in either the feature category or the best first feature category. Granted Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker was not eligible this year but last year when it was eligible, she didn’t get a nomination and neither did the film. An Education and Bright Star were also ineligible for the major awards because they don’t fulfill the requirement of having a “citizen or permanent resident credited in two or more of the following categories of responsibility: writer, director, producer or the film is set in the United States and fully financed by a company whose principal office is in the U.S.”
But still – not a single woman? Amreeka gets nominated for best feature (and award given to the producers and it does have one female producer) yet it is not nominated for best first feature which is given to the director and producer? And how did they reconcile nominating the film for best feature and then nominating her for best first screenplay, but not best screenplay? Bizarre.
Not a single woman was nominated for best screenplay, yet two women Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls) and Cherien Dabis (Amreeka) were nominated for best first screenplay. I have no idea how these decisions are made.
And isn’t it supposed to be even better for women in documentaries? Guess not. Only one (out of five) of the best docs was made by a woman, Rebecca Cammisa who directed Which Way Home.
The good news:
Each of the best feature nominees has at least one female producer and several of the films are women-centric including: Amreeka and Precious.
Women did get noticed for the John Cassavetes award (which is for a film made for under $500,000)
“Humpday” Writer/Director/Producer: Lynn Shelton
“Treeless Mountain” Writer/Director: So Yong Kim
In the foreign film category, while there is only a single woman directed film nominated, Lone Scherfig for An Education, four out of the five films in that category are women-centric including: An Education; Everlasting Moments; Mother and The Maid.
A single woman, Anne Misawa was nominated for cinematography for Treeless Mountain.
Two women (out of three), Karin Chien (The Exploding Girl, Santa Mesa) and Dia Sokol Beeswax, Nights & Weekends were nominated for the Piaget Producers Award and two women (out of three) Natalia Almada for El General and Jessica Oreck for Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo were nominated for the Truer Than Fiction Award.
The acting noms included:
BEST FEMALE LEAD
Maria Bello — Downloading Nancy
Nisreen Faour — Amreeka
Helen Mirren — The Last Station
Gwyneth Paltrow — Two Lovers
Gabourey Sidibe — Precious
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE
Dina Korzun — Cold Souls
Mo’Nique — Precious
Samantha Morton — The Messenger
Natalie Press — Fifty Dead Men Walking
Mia Wasikowska — That Evening Sun
Spirit Awards (The Nominees) (IndieWIRE)
On the upside, women are making great strides entering military combat roles previously reserved for men.
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/30/morning-buzz-women-breaking-the-combat-barrier/
So ladies if you feel frustrated by the utter lack of progress of women in the film industry, you can always fire a machine gun in Iraq or Afghanistan for a living. And they’re hiring…