Tag Archive for 'The Hurt Locker'

Rachel Abramowitz of the LA Times and Lisa Schwarzbaum of EW weigh in on what a Bigelow win means for women (and the business.)

Abramowitz’ piece In Hollywood, female film directors are still the exception lays out the stats on where women are and how far we still have to go:

Bigelow’s likely ascension to the podium at the Academy Awards has provided a jolt of adrenaline.

For instance, neither Warner Bros., the world’s largest studio, nor Paramount Pictures hired a single female director last year, while Walt Disney Studios and Universal Studios hired just one apiece. No woman has ever been hired to direct an event picture with a budget of more than $100 million, the kind of film most valued by the Hollywood machine.

One apparent growth arena for women is in working for other women. Streep, for instance, told The Times that she attributes her box office renaissance to the fact that she opted to do three films, “Mamma Mia,” “Julie & Julia,” and “It’s Complicated,” that were written and directed by women, as well as backed by studios with women as presidents of production or even higher in rank.

And Schwartzbaum’s piece Kathryn Bigelow: If she wins the Oscar for directing, does that mean it’s been a great year for women?

As a movie-lover, I hope Bigelow wins, because of, well, her great directing of The Hurt Locker. As a woman (and thus, apparently, an oracle for the purposes of his little pre-Oscar feature) I’m aware of and excited about the significance of such a win, since she’d be, oh, the first woman ever to take the trophy in that category (and only the fourth ever nominated). But as a movie-lover, I’d like to think that if a man had directed The Hurt Locker as well as Bigelow did, then he would win the Oscar. I’d like to think that if Bigelow wins, the biggest benefit for women who want to make movies in Hollywood — a Hollywood run, as most of the world is run, by men — would be greater industry-wide recognition that talent comes in all sexes, colors, and sizes. A woman can make an action flick or a war movie; a man can make a feminine romance. All we want is to see stories that move us, excite us, entertain us, challenge us. Sometimes those movies are about alien blue people. More often, those movies are about people with whom we can identify, characters who look as young or old as we are. And as male or female, too.

AMEN.

Here are my bets as to who will pick up Sunday night’s awards.  Also don’t forget, the Indie Spirit Awards are tonight at 8pm.  You can watch it live on IFC.  Here are the nominees.

Keep in mind that these are just my picks based on the movies I saw and other things I have been reading.

I hope everyone has a great time on Sunday night.  We’ll be live tweeting: If you want to join in follow me at: @melsil.

Best picture: “The Hurt Locker”
Actor
: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
Actress: 
Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
Supporting actor
: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
Supporting actress: 
Mo’Nique, “Precious”
Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Animated feature: “Up”
Original screenplay
: “Inglourious Basterds”
Adapted screenplay
: “Up in the Air”
Best foreign-language film
: “El Secreto de Sus Ojos”
Best film editing: 
”The Hurt Locker”
Art direction: “Avatar”
Cinematography: 
”The Hurt Locker”
Costume design
: “The Young Victoria”
Best documentary feature
: “The Cove”
Documentary short: “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province”
Makeup
: “The Young Victoria”
Music (original score): 
”Up”
Music (original song)
: “The Weary Kind (Theme from “Crazy Heart”) from “Crazy Heart”
Short film, animated: 
”A Matter of Loaf and Death”
Short film, live action: 
”Kavi”
Sound editing: 
”The Hurt Locker”
Sound mixing: 
”The Hurt Locker”
Visual effects: “Avatar”

She totally rocked

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Here’s Kathryn Bigelow talking about the film and what it might mean to other women if she wins the Oscar. The anticipation for the Oscars is killing me. I am so excited.

When asked what she thinks of being a role model she said it is “thrilling” especially because “you can factor into someone’s aspirations.”

Seeing is believing:

The awards season keeps rolling on for Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker. Not only was the film named best picture last evening at the BAFTA’s (the British version of the Academy Awards), but Bigelow became the first woman EVER to be named best director.  The film won six awards kicking some Avatar ass on its way to the podium.

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank was named outstanding British Film and for the first time in a long time Carey Mulligan took best actress honors.

So that means two films directed by women won best picture.  And both women also won awards from the London Film Critics Circle earlier in the week.  How great is that?

Here’s what Bigelow had to say about winning:

“I think the secret to directing is collaboration, and I was so lucky to have an incredible cast and crew. This is deeply moving — we all felt an incredible responsibility to honor the courage of the men and women in the field.”

She also said she hoped she was “first of many” women to win the prize.

Her grace in winning continues to make me even more and more excited for her.  She’s not getting a big head or acting like the “queen of the world.”  She is a great example for all directors  — men and women — to follow.

Bigelow is first woman to win BAFTA director prize (Screen Daily)

THE HURT LOCKER: BAFTA’s Big Winner (Alt Film Guide)

Bigelow Takes Directing Prize From London Film Critics Circle (The Wrap)

I am traveling and seeing family for the next several days and also working on the book (I have made some great progress) so I won’t be blogging until mid next week.

But, I couldn’t resist sharing these two clips one from James Cameron on Charlie Rose (via Deadline Hollywood) and one from Kathryn Bigelow (and writer Mark Boal) on The Rachel Maddow Show.

Cameron told Charlie Rose that his film deserves to win because his team “worked so hard” (as if the other nominated teams didn’t) and that Bigelow should win the best director honor cause “he already has a couple and doesn’t need another one.”

I don’t know why anyone let this man speak in public. I truly believe that he thinks he is doing something nice by saying that she should win. That’s how tone deaf he is to his own voice. If I were her I would call him and say shut the hell up.

The whole transcript made me nauseous cause he is really setting himself up as her biggest cheerleader if she wins, and if he wins he can at least say, oh, well I tried, I said I didn’t need another.

Gross.

Bigelow and Boal are total class acts talking to Rachel who has of late gotten into the Oscar race (she interviewed Quentin Tarantino recently.)  Rachel said that she “didn’t expect to like the film as much as she did” and I think that is a very consistent feeling that I get from lots of people.  People do shy away from war films (especially ones about Iraq) but this one just feels different and that’s the reason why it is resonating for so long.  It’s just that good.

This Oscar race is way tighter in the best picture and best director categories than expected.  It’s going to be a nail biter all the way to March 7th.

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It’s been over a week since the DGA win, and almost a week since Kathryn Bigelow got her best director Oscar nomination and it turns out that since then, she has been nominated for a second Oscar as one of the producers for her film The Hurt Locker.  (When the nominations were announced last week, the credit were still pending.)  So, if she wins best director and The Hurt Locker wins best picture — both are conceivable — she will win two Oscars in one night.

The reason why I want to talk about it is because I think that no matter how much Ms. Bigelow doesn’t want to talk about the gender implications in her nomination, they are everywhere.  I heard them when I was listened to the Oscar Talk podcast when Kris Tapley called her “hot” and Anne Thompson said that she’s not 100% convinced she will win because the Academy is “overwhelmingly male and she just doesn’t trust them.”

I started thinking about this a lot more this weekend when I was reading the excellent new book Notes from the Cracked Ceiling by Washington Post reporter Anne Kornblut which is all about the gender issues and the 2008 election.  The book talks about how lots of people, especially young women, think that we have achieved equality, we are far from equal and what happened to the female candidates are examples of how far we have to go.  (Mind you I haven’t gotten past the Hillary Clinton section yet.)

While many believe we live in a “post feminist” culture, 2008 reminded us how far we still have to go.

But in hindsight, 2008 turned out to be just the opposite for women: a severe letdown, with damaging consequences.  It revided old sterotypes, divided the women’s movement, drove apart mothers and daughters, and set back the cause of equality in the political sphere by decades.

and

…the political culture does not take women as seriously as we would like to think.  The glass ceiling may be cracked, as Hillary Clinton declared at the end of her presidential campaign.  But it is far from broken.

Women in politics, though very different from women in Hollywood, still gives us a context to think about how women are looked at in general.

We all know that the Hollywood culture doesn’t take women as seriously as we would like to think they do.  The fact that there are so few female writers, so few female directors, so few female centric films are right off the top examples of the problems Hollywood has with women. Continue reading ‘Pondering the Bigelow Nomination in Larger Context’

Here’s the link to my BBC interview:

Women & Hollywood Talks Oscar Nominations on the BBC

Building on our earlier conversation about Golden Globes, I reached out to many different female film writers and bloggers about the Oscar nominations.

I laid out a couple of things to consider:

• A woman directed movie, The Hurt Locker matched a male directed movie, Avatar – nomination for nomination. Pretty groundbreaking.
• 3 of the 10 best picture nominations — Precious, An Education, The Blind Side — were for movies about women.
• 2 of the 10 best picture nominations were directed by women — An Education, The Hurt Locker.
• Only one of the five nominees for best adapted screenplay has a woman: District 9 – Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
• NO woman was nominated for original screenplay.
• Bright Star got only one nomination for costume design.
• Meryl Streep got her 16th nomination, the most ever and Sandra Bullock as well as Gabby Sidibe and Carey Mulligan got their firsts.
• Lastly, what does Bigelow’s nomination here and win at the DGA mean for women directors (if anything.)

The participants include (in alphabetical order):

Manohla Dargis, NY Times: Jan Lisa Huttner, The Hot Pink Pen; MaryAnn Johanson, Flick Filosopher; Jenni Miller, Cinematical; Mary Pols, Time; Katey Rich, Cinemablend; Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer; Shannon Ridler, The Movie Moxie; Sasha Stone, Awards Daily; Ella Taylor, LA Weekly

Some answered the questions, some gave other quotes and thoughts.

Manohla Dargis:

I’m just glad that Bigelow has received this initial recognition. There’s really not much more that can be said on this subject until she actually wins.

Jan Lisa Huttner:

Although the number of noms is the same the quality of these noms is very different.  With the exception of Best Picture & Best Director, AVATAR’s noms are all technical, whereas noms for THE HURT LOCKER include the major categories of BEST ACTOR & BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY.  (Major/Minor being determined by what gets announced on Nominations Morning versus what just goes out in the press release for Oscar junkies like us.)  In this respect, ROTTEN TOMATOES is an accurate guide.  As of today, AVATAR stands @ 82% Fresh whereas THE HURT LOCKER stands @ 97% Fresh, way ahead of all other candidates qualitatively speaking.

I’m especially pleased that Jeremy Renner was nominated because his face in close-up is the core image in THE HURT LOCKER & I think Kathryn Bigelow directed him brilliantly.  I have some hope that the 9 noms will make more people see his extraordinary performance now that THE HURT LOCKER is a top contender beyond the best director barrier-buster.  Momentum for THE HURT LOCKER will surely build as more people see it, & if a significant number of voters decide to “vote the ticket,” he just might squeak thru.  One lives in hope!

This is a break-through year for women characters, & in particular, this should be appreciated as “the year of the woman as teacher.”  Look at the all the contenders again & you’ll see this thread running through almost all of this year’s “female-oriented” noms.  Who saves Precious?  Ms. Rain!  Who saves Jenny?  Miss Stubbs!  (See more on this below.)  Who are Leigh Anne Tuohy’s key allies: Miss Sue (Kathy Bates) & Mrs. Boswell (Kim Dickens).

If I ruled the world, contenders would have included BRIGHT STAR, JULIE & JULIA, and THE LOVELY BONES.  Me, I nominated UP IN THE AIR for the Women Film Critics Circle’s “Hall of Shame Award,” & to call it “an adaptation” of Walter Kirns’ book is ludicrous.

I have BRIGHT STAR as a Top Contender in my own BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY category.  Whether you agree with me on this or not, I sincerely believe that BRIGHT STAR stands in much closer relation to Andrew Motion’s KEATS Bio than the “adaptation” of Walter Kirns’ novel in the UP IN THE AIR screenplay.  But bottom line, in this particular category I am simply thrilled that Nick Hornby was nominated for AN EDUCATION!!!  His screenplay opens with Miss Stubbs, closes with Miss Stubbs, & has Miss Stubbs mention the name “Mr. Rochester” THREE TIMES in between, so shame on anyone who’s surprised to learn that David “has secrets” in Act Three!!!

But here’s a fact that’s more important: Meryl Streep has not won an Oscar in 26 years!!!  Yet again, critics have used her brilliance primarily to damn her collaborators (in this case Amy Adams & Nora Ephron)–what’s up with that?!?  If they’re going to reward Jeff Bridges for CRAZY HEART then for sure, they should NOT “yawn” about Streep this year & pass her over yet again. (And I say this also having loved all the other contenders).

The Bigelow nomination means EVERYTHING!!!  Another huge crack in the celluloid ceiling!!!  Do not buy into the BS: Bigelow’s films have often included strong supporting women’s roles not to mention two wonderful female leads (Jamie Leigh Curtis in BLUE STEEL & Sara Polley in THE WEIGHT OF WATER).  Most offensive: Embedding in the gossipy “Exes Issue” is the not so subtle implication that she’s riding on Cameron’s coat tails.  Those of us who know better must fight back!!!  Yes, she’s a babe.  Yes, she’s got great legs.  Yes, she was once married to James Cameron.  But, guess what: THE HURT LOCKER is a riveting film that’s 97% Fresh, Bigelow has Lifetime Achievement, & oh yes, women hold up half the sky! Continue reading ‘Women Writers React to the Oscar Nominations’

This morning I have such a feeling of relief over Kathryn Bigelow’s nomination.  Since the Academy has such a shitty track record of honoring women, I thought in back of my mind that they just might give her (and us) the big finger.

But those thoughts have now been displaced, and the good news is that she got nominated.  The better news is that her film, The Hurt Locker — a film directed by a woman — got the same amount of nominations as Avatar — 9. I’m gonna go out on a limb (not very far out though) and say that no other female directed film has ever garnered that many nomination.

But in my joy and relief, I am still reminded of how far we have to go when I got these headlines in my in box describing the nominations:

From CNN: “Avatar,” “Up in the Air” among leading nominees at this year’s Academy Award nominations.”

From the Hollywood Reporter: “James Cameron, ‘Avatar’ among Oscar nominees”

The Hurt Locker got more noms than Up in the Air and was equal to Avatar.  So why doesn’t it rate a headline?

I know I’m nit picking but come on, when is this going to happen again?  When is a movie that is directed by a woman going to match nomination for nomination to the man who calls himself the king of the world?

So beyond her nod for directing which is momentous, lets look at the bigger picture in that her leadership, and yes it is leadership (which is always one of the reasons why women have a hard time with directing — men can’t see them as leading the troops aka the crew) has been rewarded with NINE nominations.

Continue reading ‘Early Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations’

Getty Images

This is big.

This is Sally Ride, first American woman in space big.  This is Sandra Day O’Connor, first female on the Supreme Court big.  This is Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs big.

This is a big, bold blast in the glass ceiling for all women directors.

Last night in the wee hours here on the east coast, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman EVER to win the DGA top honors for feature filmmaking.

What is interesting about the DGA event is that all the nominees get up to make a speech, all receive a silver plaque and then at the end of the evening one gets the gold.  Reports are that when Bigelow’s name was announced everyone cheered.

I’m getting goose bumps just writing about it.

Her acceptance speech seemed incredibly humble:

“Just to be in the room with all of you is an unimaginable honor,” says Bigelow, who appeared uncomfortable speaking to the audience. “We all felt a deep responsibility to tell this story as honestly as possible, given the courage of our troops overseas. This is the most incredible moment of my life. And with that, I’ll disappear.”

But following the whole event on twitter I couldn’t help but be dismayed at some of the sexist remarks coming out of the mouths of people in the room.

Here’s what Lee Daniels, the director of Precious said of Bigelow: “Your movie is as beautiful as your legs.  You make me question my sexuality.”

I find that incredibly offensive.  Lee just finished making a movie about how a girl was treated because of how she looked and who she was, and this is the bullshit that comes out of his mouth when talking about his fellow nominee?  Unacceptable.

Another comment:

Stage manager (I can’t figure out who that person is) to Carl Reiner after seeing Bigelow: “That’s the most beautiful director I’ve ever seen.

And

Jeremy Renner said the only thing to rival Kathryn Bigelow in a bikini is “Lee Daniels in a one-piece.”

I was tweeting back and forth with another woman who knows much more about the awards that I do and she wrote to me when I said I was appauled:

I think it’s unique to have such a looker in the room up for awards.  Plus, ppl are surprised she is almost 60. But yeah.

I wonder if they said the same things to Robert Redford back in the day.

I was thinking maybe only in the most rare cases, like Brad Pitt or Redford.  I’ve never seen them talk this way about any other.

But some other people did notice the comments and were disturbed by them.  Andre Soares at Alt Film Guide wrote:

Comments abounded on Bigelow’s looks — in other words, on the fact that she’s a woman. Had she been a handsome guy, I wonder how many remarks would have been made about his physical attributes. And how many male directors and presenters would be publicly questioning their sexuality.

And in other good news, Lesli Linka Glatter took top honors for AMC’s Mad Men.

What does this mean for women directors in the future, only time will tell but at least no one will ever have to be the first one in this category again.

One big step forward and a little push back.

Kathryn Bigelow tops directors with ‘Hurt Locker’ (USA Today)

DGA Awards: Focus on Kathryn Bigelow’s Gender Alt Film Guide

Here’s a quote that Helen Mirren gave to the NYTimes’ Carpetbagger (who is now a woman- Melena Ryzik) getting on the bandwagon for Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker and also for Avatar:

“I think they’re both spectacular films, from either end of the spectrum of what is possible to do with film,” she said. “I guess because ‘The Hurt Locker’ was directed by a woman; I’m a big supporter of that. It’s a fantastic film — visceral, fabulous filmmaking. Proper filmmaking.”

Rock on Helen.

I am very excited to see her playing a Mossad agent in The Debt. Anyone have an idea on a release for that film.

A couple of weeks ago The Hollywood Reporter held two roundtable conversations that forgot to include any women.  Whoops.  One was with cinematographers and the other was with writers.

The good news is that in their most recent roundtable with directors they included a woman, Kathryn Bigelow.  The woman has so much momentum that they actually would have looked like idiots had they not included her.

The discussion is interesting in the fact that gender is not part of the conversation at all.

Here’s one of most interesting things that Kathryn Bigelow said:

I always want to make films. I think of it as a great opportunity to comment on the world in which we live. Perhaps just because I just came off the “Hurt Locker” and I’m thinking of the war and I think it’s a deplorable situation. It’s a great medium in which to speak about that. This is a war that cannot be won, why are we sending troops over there? Well, the only medium I have, the only opportunity I have, is to use film. There will always be issues I care about.

Awards Watch: Director Roundtable (Hollywood Reporter)

Critics from across the country are weighing in with their year end awards and Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker are doing really, really well.

Yes, you are reading this properly: a woman is winning best director honors from New York Film Critics Online, San Francisco Film Critics,  Boston Society of Film Critics, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, New York Film Critics Circle, Southeatern Film Critics Association among others.

In fact (from what I can tell) of the awards that have been handed out, Bigelow has won all but one the National Board of Review.

I am now fully convinced that we will see the 4th woman (maybe a 5th?) get a nomination this year, but who knows what these critics kudos mean to the Golden Globes nominations which will be announced this morning and more importantly to the Oscars.

It’s getting really exciting.

Here’s a very interesting quote I picked up this weekend off Anne Thompson’s blog about Kathryn Bigelow and her potential Oscar win:

But here’s what’s going to happen at the Oscars this year: Bigelow will win best director. Why? Because she is due. She boasts a long, solid resume of robust, stylish genre films, all of which look like they could have been directed by men. She was married to James Cameron. She makes action films, not romantic comedies. She’s one of the guys. Folks in the film business respect her.

The Hurt Locker is a great film.  Very much enjoyed it (as much as you can enjoy a war movie.)  Kathryn Bigelow has been making action type films her whole career.  It’s awesome that a woman has the the mojo behind her (and now other critics prizes) to win, but it brings up an important issue that I keep coming back to about this year.

Why does a woman have to be one of the guys to get to the finish line for Oscar?  Why does a woman have to direct a film that people think could be directed by a man to win an Oscar?  And what makes a movie look like it could have been directed by a man?

It kind of reminds me of the suits that women used to wear in the 80s, you know, the one with ties so they could fit in best in the male corporate world.  We need to be able to play in the guy’s sandbox, not stand out too much, not have too many “girl things” going on to get the credit.  Yet, on the other hand, a win is a win is a win and once one woman gets into the book it opens it up for many more.

Hopefully.

Oscar Watch: The Hurt Locker’s Bigelow Heads for Best Director (IndieWIRE)

Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker started off the awards season with a win for best feature at the IFP’s Gotham Awards.  The event also included a tribute to director Bigelow.  We shouldn’t read too much into the win but last year’s winner Frozen River made it to the Oscar dance with two nominations (lead actress and best original screenplay.)

Since this year there are ten best picture nominees, most people are predicting that The Hurt Locker will get one.  The film also won an award for bet ensemble which reflects the great work of the actors and the director.  Seems that Bigelow’s road towards an Oscar nomination is still on track after last night.

Other winners include Catalina Saavedra as breakthrough actor for The Maid, and Ry Russo-Young’s second film You Won’t Miss Me which won the Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You.  The film premiered last January at Sundance.

Hurt Locker Tops Gotham Awards (Variety)

It has begun. The crazy awards season. We’re going to keep track of the women creatives (and films about women) on the way to the Oscars.

The good news.  Two women directors are up for best feature.  The Hurt Locker was expected, but Amreeka is a big, good surprise.  So psyched that Cherien is getting noticed for this wonderful film debut.  Three of the film nominated for best ensemble have a woman director of co-director – The Hurt Locker, Cold Souls and Sugar.

Bad news.  No woman director included in the list of breakthrough director.

Best Feature

Amreeka – Cherien Dabis, director

The Hurt Locker – Kathryn Bigelow, director

Best Documentary

My Neighbor My Killer Anne Aghion, director/producer

Full list of noms from indiewire

Kathryn Bigelow

This is a story that I have written numerous times but it just seems that nothing changes.  I will keep on keeping on until we get more women directors.  NPR did an interesting piece on women directors and their films this summer and how in order for them to get their movies made they need to work outside the studio systems.

YUP.  Since only Nancy Meyers, Nora Ephron and now Anne Fletcher can get studio jobs.

It’s great that Kathryn Bigelow and Lynn Shelton are being noticed for their work this summer.  I think both their movies are great and I enjoyed them both.  I do think it’s interesting that both these films keep getting talked about in the context of the fact that they are women directing movies about men making it seem that this is such a freaky occurrence.  It’s shouldn’t be that big a deal.  I’ll say it again: nobody makes a big deal about guys directing movies about women yet we continue to be shocked that women can make movies about men.  Even NPR.

But NPR basically answers its own question with the following quote:

When women direct, they’re in control. And major Hollywood studios cannot exactly bask in their legacies of female empowerment: Historically, female directors tend to work outside the traditional studio system.

Lynn Shelton

Control.  What is the fear of women being in control of a film? Women can be producers, but control and, of course, vision seems to make everyone go nuts.  The issue regarding women directors is so hard to document as blatant discrimination because the hiring process is not like hiring a receptionist or a manager.  A producer or a studio head has to hire someone they trust with their money, someone they trust to get the job done on time, someone they trust to be able to command a crew.  Women can be trusted to do many jobs in our society yet getting studio chiefs to trust that a female director is right for the job seems to be too far a leap.  Yet everyone knows it is discrimination but they also know it is near impossible to prove.

From the piece:

Bigelow says she has no idea why even now so few women are trusted to direct major films.

“You’d have to sit somebody down here and ask them,” she says, with the slightest edge to her voice.

By “somebody,” Bigelow means a studio head, a Hollywood mogul. Ask Lynn Shelton the same question — Why aren’t there more go-to female directors? — and she likewise points to the studio bosses.

I wish one of those somebodys would sit down and give someone a real answer. The problem is there is no real answer and they all know it.

Female Directors, Still a Scare Movie Commodity (NPR)

Another of the post-Cannes write ups include a supposition that 2009 might be a year where a woman could get a best director nod which would be the first since Sophia Coppola in 2003 for Lost in Translation.  (H/T to Guy Lodge from In Contention for even raising the question.)

Potential contenders include:

Kathryn Bigelow

Jane Campion (New Zealand) – Bright Star- being released by Bob Berney’s (Picturehouse) new company on September 18.  She’s the one with a pedigree and the movie fared quite well out of Cannes.

Lone Scherfig (Denmark) – An Education- did very well at Sundance starring this year’s “it” girl Carey Mulligan.  Will be release this fall.

Kathryn Bigelow (US)- The Hurt Locker- will an Iraq war film really work and will it be the one directed by a woman?  Opens on June 26.

Mira Nair (India) – Amelia- Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhardt.  Opens October 23rd.

Also mentioned are Nora Ephron (US) for Julia & Julia, Andrea Arnold (Scotland) for Fish Tank (didn’t know it had distribution.)  I would also throw Nancy Meyers (US) for her Christmas release with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin.

Could this be a breakthrough year for women directed films?  If yes, will it have any long term effects or would it be dismissed as a fluke.  I don’t want to get up my hopes too early but just the fact that women are being thought of this way so early in the year is heartening.

Any other contenders I’m missing?

Could female directors hit Oscar paydirt this year?