We love it when female filmmakers call out the industry for its sexism. Now Agnieszka Holland has joined in the fight.
According to The BBC, during an on stage interview with BFI Southbank, which is running a season of Holland’s films as part of the 14th Kinoteka festival of Polish film, Holland said that female directors suffered because their “demanding” profession was “difficult to combine with a family life.”
Holland also pointed out the inequality in salaries that saw “male A-listers [being] paid twice as much as female A-listers — if not more.”
As reported by The Guardian, Holland went on to call cinema a “boys’ club” and that those in the Hollywood hierarchy “don’t believe women have the capacity to make blockbusters.” Holland noted that female directors often found themselves spending “five years in [industry] hell after just one failure,” as opposed to their male counterparts who are released from “movie jail” much more quickly.
Holland’s 1990 film “Europa Europa” was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and won the 1991 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Her film “In Darkness” was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2012 Academy Awards. 1978’s “Provincial Actors” won the International Critics Prize at the 1980 Cannes Film Festival.
Holland went on to say that she found television a much more welcoming environment. She should know; the acclaimed director has helmed episodes for Netflix’s “House of Cards” “The Wire” and beat out Spike Lee to direct the pilot of HBO’s “Treme.”
At the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013, Holland shared advice for female directors with Women and Hollywood: “It is a very hard profession,” she said, “in general and for women much more so. It takes constant fighting. If you really don’t feel that it’s something you must do, it’s better that you don’t do it. And when you’re doing it, be yourself. Don’t pretend that you know something you don’t. Don’t create the appearance of fake authority. Speak about the things you really care about.”
Obviously, Holland is speaking about something that we all care about, and we thank her for her frank opinions.
[via The Guardian]
