I just got back from a meeting and broke open the list of indie spirit nominees for 2012 and I am utterly dispirited at the lack of female voices throughout the categories.
I am looking back at the list from last year and two female directed films — Winter’s Bone and The Kids Are All Right — got multiple nominations.
This year not so much.
A variety of these lists that will be coming at us over the next months and they will be very male centric. If people were under the illusion that this was a good year for female voices, this list is an indicator of how much work needs to be done. This so makes me want to start the female film awards. Who is in?
This year…
There are NO women directed films in the best feature category. And NONE of the films are about women. Last year, Black Swan and Winter’s Bone and The Kids Are All Right.
There are NO women directors in the best director category.
There are NO women in the best screenplay category. (Last year there were 3)
There are NO women directors in the best first feature category (there are women producers)
There is ONE woman in the best first screenplay — Brit Marling the co-writer of Another Earth
There is ONE woman director in the best documentary category — Daniele Anastasion as co-director/producer for The Redemption of General Butt Naked.
There are NO women directed films in the best international film category (where the hell is We Need to Talk About Kevin?)
There are NO women in the best cinematography category.
ONE woman — Sophia Lin producer of Take Shelter — out of three is nominated for the Piaget Producers Award.
There are NO women nominated in the Someone to Watch category.
Some better news…
Two women directed films — Circumstance written by Maryam Keshavarz and Pariah written and directed by Dee Rees are nominated for the John Cassavetes Award — which is for films made for under $500,000.
Two women directors are nominated for the Truer Than Fiction Award: Heather Courtney — Where Soldiers Came From and Alma Har’el — Bombay Beach.
Lauren Ambrose surprisingly gets a nod for BEST FEMALE LEAD in Think of Me a film on nobody’s radar screen but is of the time (a mom living on the edge of poverty trying to raise her daughter) and ditto for Rachael Harris for Natural Selection. Others nominated are Adepero Oduye — Pariah; Elizabeth Olsen — Martha Marcy May Marlene; Michelle Williams — My Week with Marilyn.
Best supporting female: Jessica Chastain — Take Shelter; Anjelica Huston — 50/50; Janet McTeer — Albert Nobbs; Harmony Santana — Gun Hill Road; Shailene Woodley — The Descendants
