Nancy Schreiber is set to make history. The veteran cinematographer will be the first woman to receive the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Presidents Award, Variety reports.
In fact, Schreiber is only the second woman ever to receive an honor from the ASC. Tami Reiker of “Carnivàle” was the first with her win for Movie of the Week or Pilot at the 2004 ceremony.
That pattern is poised to change if Schreiber has anything to say about it.
“If this award does anything, it will open some doors to the younger generation of women, to show that they can succeed, that they can work in all areas of the film and television industry,” the DP said.
These are doors that sorely need opening, as we’ve discussed. A study from the Center for Study of Women in TV and Film found that women accounted for just five percent (5%) of all cinematographers on the 250 highest-grossing films of 2016. Adding insult to injury, the women who are lucky enough to find success in cinematography often face sexism and harassment.
Further, as our own Melissa Silverstein pointed out this week, a “female cinematographer has never received [an Oscar] nomination.”
According to Variety, women cinematographers tend to be reluctant to talk about the gender inequality in their field. They “dislike the gender qualifier, preferring to be thought of as simply DPs, like their male counterparts.” But as the existence of groups like the the International Collective of Female Cinematographers and CINEMATOGRAPHERS XX, a supportive group for cinematographers who identify as women prove, many female DPs consider gender equality in their field an issue that needs to be addressed.
Schreiber suggested that she had to ignore sexism in order to survive in the industry. “If I had paid attention to [sexism] being an issue, I would not be where I am today,” she said. “You can’t focus on obstacles. It would have been ludicrous to have those types of thoughts in my head — self-defeatist, really.”
She believes things are changing for the better for women in cinematography. The ASC has made “leaps and bounds this past decade in supporting women,” she commented. “We doubled our female membership, and that’s hopefully making us more visible to the industry at large.”
Variety points out that quite a few women in the field “have recently broken through.” The source cites Reed Morano (“Vinyl,” “Frozen River”), Rachel Morrison (“Black Panther,” “Cake”), Anna Foerster (“White House Down”), and Charlotte Bruus Christensen (“Fences”) as working cinematographers who are finding success as DPs and beyond.
One of Schreiber’s first jobs was as a gaffer on Shirley MacLaine and Claudia Weill’s documentary “The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir.” She has worked as a cinematographer on a variety of mediums since 1979. Her previous credits include “Better Things,” “Blue,” “The Comeback,” “Loverboy,” “The Celluloid Closet,” and “Chain of Desire.”
The DP has also “been a longtime mentor to younger camera crew members, and has worked with Film Independent’s Project Involve — a program designed to enhance the careers of women and people of color,” Variety writes. Schreiber has taught at the American Film Institute and given guest lectures at film schools all over the world.
The ASC Awards will be held February 4.
