What a difference a year makes. After hiring all male directors for its Oscar shorts project in 2017, Walmart has brought on all women to direct its 2018 campaign. Melissa McCarthy, Dee Rees (“Mudbound”), and Nancy Meyers (“The Intern”) will each helm a 60-second short film centered on Walmart’s blue shipping box that will air during the Academy Awards broadcast. “While each story begins when the box arrives, what happens next has been uniquely interpreted by each director to showcase their individual styles and voices,” a spokesperson told Women and Hollywood,
The directors have been given free rein on their shorts and Walmart has encouraged them to be as creative as possible. “They can really do what they want to do,” Walmart vp Kirsten Evans said, per Variety. “As long as there’s a blue box.”
As for the 180 degree change from the all-male 2017 team to this year’s all-female group, Evans says that Walmart is tuned into the #MeToo and #Timesup movements but hired McCarthy, Rees, and Meyers primarily for their talents as storytellers. Politics didn’t factor into the decision. “We are aware of the conversation going on, but we are looking to be integrated authentically into the show,” Evans explained. “Being a part of a really entertaining night is the sole purpose of what we were trying to accomplish.”
Even so, Walmart isn’t staying completely neutral: they’re using this opportunity to address the gender disparity amongst directors. The corporation will contribute funding to Women in Film’s Catalyze program as part of “The Box” project. Catalyze supports and trains up and coming female filmmakers. “As part of the sponsorship, four emerging female film teams will receive funding to create, produce, and distribute short films,” Women and Hollywood learned. “Additionally, three WIF Catalyze students will have the opportunity to visit the sets of ‘The Box’ films to shadow [McCarthy, Rees, and Meyers] during production.”
“There is kind of a long-held belief in the entertainment industry that the pipeline of talent isn’t deep enough and I think that it is starting to shift, and that this is representative of that shift,” WIF Los Angeles exec director Kirsten Schaffer said of “The Box” campaign.
The Academy Awards will be held March 4. Rees and “Mudbound” co-writer Virgil Williams are up for Best Adapted Screenplay. Rees is the first black woman ever nominated in the category.
