Tag Archive for 'Sophia Coppola'

Read my new piece for the WMC: A Transformative Oscar Moment?

Published
by
Melissa Silverstein
on March 1, 2010
in Awards and Women Directors
. 1 Comment

Here’s the beginning:

In less than one week, March 7 to be exact, the Hollywood awards season will be over, and chances are very good that for the first time a woman—Kathryn Bigelow—will have won the best director Oscar for The Hurt Locker.  Three other women (Lina Wertmuller, Jane Campion and Sophia Coppola) have been nominated in the 82 years that the Academy has held its awards, but with due respect to them and their films, none of them had a shot.

This year is different.  Based on earlier awards by critics and more recently by the Directors Guild (a first for a woman director) and the British academy (BAFTA)—as well as conversations with several Oscar watchers—the consensus is that Bigelow is at the front of the pack to win the award.  Last week, Time magazine got into the act titling its story “The Front Runner.” Forgive me for not sounding the trumpets in advance but we all have seen female front runners fade. While there are many reasons to believe that Bigelow will win, there is something in the back of my head that screams caution remembering the Gloria Steinem piece from the 2008 election season “Women are Never Front-Runners.”

Read full piece here

  • Share/Bookmark
Tags: Academy Awards, Anne Thompson, Gloria Steinem, Jane Campion, Kathryn Bigelow, Lina Wertmuller, Sophia Coppola

EW Looks at the Top Working Directors

Published
by
Melissa Silverstein
on February 26, 2010
in Women Directors
. 5 Comments

I started to get real nervous as I paged through the top 25 since I didn’t run into a woman’s name until SHOCKER, at number 4 is Kathryn Bigelow.  What a difference a year (a great movie, and some awards) make.  Think she would have been on the list last year?

Here’s the list of the top 50

50- Nancy Meyers

45- Mira Nair

30- Sophia Coppola

4- Kathryn Bigelow

Who do you think is missing from this list?

25 Greatest Working Directors (EW)

  • Share/Bookmark
Tags: Kathryn Bigelow, Mira, Nancy Meyers, Sophia Coppola

Getting Over the Hump- Nominating a Woman for Best Director

Published
by
Melissa Silverstein
on November 17, 2009
in Women Directors
. 7 Comments

oscarIf 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)

  • Share/Bookmark
Tags: An Education, Jane Campion, Kathryn Bigelow, Lina Wertmuller, Sophia Coppola, The Piano

Newsflash: Women Can Direct Movies

Published
by
Melissa Silverstein
on September 11, 2009
in Actresses
. 13 Comments
Lone Scherfig

Lone Scherfig

The NY Times takes a look at some of the films generating buzz at Toronto and lo and behold women directors are really making a mark this season.  In general, women directors have a higher presence at film festivals.  Festivals try and get a diversity of films and of creatives.  But none of the festivals are 50/50 and one way to check on women’s progress at the festivals is to see whose film gets bought for distribution.  145 films are for sale at Toronto, lots by women, and we will track the deals.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s so nice to report some good news for women directors but let’s keep in mind that it’s still much harder for women to get a directing gig and it’s even harder if they want to direct a film about women.

As the Times says:

While still struggling to find their place in the movie industry at large — the number of directors at American studios remains well over 90 percent male — female filmmakers have managed to occupy some of this 10-day festival’s most valuable slots: those showcase screenings and press conferences in the first couple of days, when everyone is still paying attention.

I am beginning to think (but don’t want to get my hopes up too much) that this year could really be a watershed moment for women directors.  The Times talks about how in 2003 women directors like Niki Caro (who will be at the festival again this year), Catherine Hardwicke, Patty Jenkins and Sophia Coppola (who actually got a nomination -  in my book Whale Rider by Niki Caro and Monster by Patty Jenkins were way stronger entries)

But this year feels different.  First, people are writing about the directors and the films.  None of the women who could be potential Oscar nominees are novices like was the case with some in 2003.  I think also that Monster was really small and it was all about Charlize’s performance, and this year even though Carey Mulligan is getting amazing notices for An Education and will most probably be a best actress nominee, the film itself and the director Lone Scherfig are also getting noticed.

Second, because there are several strong women directors along with their strong films this year it has become a trend story and not a lone woman trying to make it is a man’s world.  That’s a big deal.  Numbers matter.  The women can talk about their films and not their gender.

Third, the guys have not yet impressed the same way that women have.  We all know that once the momentum starts for a male director like it did last weekend for Jason Reitman and Up in the Air it has a tendency to suck the air out of the room for the women.

The key for the women directors will be continuing to build on the momentum out of Toronto (because it will fade fast) as the campaigns for all the fall releases start rolling out.

But I gotta ask- could this be the year a woman (or two) breaks through not only getting a nomination for best director, but actually winning?

In Toronto, Directing Is Clearly Women’s Work (NY Times)

On a side note there are way more women than have gotten into the Times piece.  Here’s the ones I’ve found: Continue reading ‘Newsflash: Women Can Direct Movies’

  • Share/Bookmark
Tags: Catherine Hardwicke, Kathryn Bigelow, Lone Scherfig, Niki Caro, Patty Jenkins, Sophia Coppola

Deals and News

Published
by
Melissa Silverstein
on June 12, 2009
in News
. 2 Comments

Elephant Eye Films has acquired North American rights to Sebastian Silva’s La Nana (The Maid), which will be released theatrically in the fall. Written by Silva and Pedro Peirano, the film stars Catalina Saaverdra as a maid trying to hold on to her position after having served a family for 23 years. The film won the Dramatic World Cinema Grand Jury Prize and a Special Jury Prize for Saavedra’s performance at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. It is the first narrative film acquired by Elephant Eye, headed by Kim Jose and David Robinson.  (HR)

Strand Releasing has acquired all U.S. rights to Emily Abt’s Toe to Toe, which played the Sundance Film Festival this year.  An early 2010 domestic release is planned.  The film, focusing on the friendship and rivalry between lacrosse mates Tosha and Jesse, two senior girls at a competitive Washington, D.C., prep school, was produced by Abt for Pureland Pictures and Susan Leber of Suzie Q Productions. (HR)

Shauna Cross will write Summit Entertainment’s fantasy-drama If I Stay, to which Twilight helmer Catherine Hardwicke has been attached to direct. “If I Stay” will be based on Gayle Forman’s novel of the same name which centers on a gifted classical musician who’s forced to choose between life and death when she’s in a car accident with her family. Cross penned the screenplay for Whip It!, starring Ellen Page, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis and Marcia Gay Harden and scheduled for release later this year. She also wrote “Live Nude Girls Unite!,” based on the documentary of the same name and is currently writing the “Untitled Ellen Barkin Project” for HBO. (Variety)

Amy Poehler will star in Lunch Lady, a Universal feature based on a soon-to-be-launched series of children’s graphic novels written and illustrated by Jarrett Krosoczka.  The Lunch Lady series, centers on a mild-mannered school cafeteria server who secretly dishes out helpings of justice as she and her assistant investigate wrongdoings. The books also feature three kids who try to figure out her double life.  Sarah Haskins, a writer and correspondent for Current TV’s “InfoMania,” and Emily Halpern, who was a writer on CBS’ “The Unit,” are penning the screen adaptation. (HR)

Sophia Coppola’s next film Somewhere which she wrote will film in LA this month.  Story centers on a bad-boy actor stumbling through a life of excess at the Chateau Marmont. With an unexpected visit from his 11-year-old daughter, he is forced to reexamine his life. (Variety)

Cameron Diaz is in final negotiations to topline Warner Bros.’ legal comedy Bobbie Sue.  Story centers on a hard-charging female ambulance chaser whose mindset makes her the ideal candidate to be the face of a prestigious law firm when a powerful client is sued in a sexual discrimination case. (Variety)

Rita Wilson has sold her script Terms of Embarrassment to 20th Century Fox.  The film in which she will star is about a middle-aged couple who end up attending the same college as their son – causing, we’re guessing, enormous amounts of embarrassment to said offspring.  (Empire Movie News)

  • Share/Bookmark
Tags: Amy Poehler, Emily Abt, Sophia Coppola, Strand Releasing, Toe to Toe