Yesterday, the Hollywood Reporter roundtable on directors made me crazy, but it also made me think. While I will give them no leeway on the ridiculous comment asking the directors to name a major movie directed by a woman this past year, I thought it would be good to look at ALL the movies directed by women this year in order to get a decent assessment of where we are going on two years after Kathryn Bigelow won the best director award.
Looking back to last year both Winter’s Bone and The Kids Are All Right were a part of the year end discussion in a big way and both films nabbed Oscar nominations. But neither Debra Granik nor Lisa Cholodenko were nominated for best director.
This year I feel we are in the same boat and quite frankly the strong films directed by women that could be in the awards mix are not generating a lot of buzz.
Things to note:
Only 2 women — Jennifer Yuh and Catherine Hardwicke made it into the top 100, and only two more Lone Scherfig and Larysa Kondracki made it into the top 200)
That’s 4 women directed films in the top 200 grossing films of the year. (of course there are a few that haven’t still opened and one in particular Arthur Christmas seems poised to get into the top 100 if not top 50.) Aside from box office grosses there are only 23 women on this list, and if you look at the films there are only a handful that made it out of NY and LA. I am duly depressed.
Films directed by Women 2011 (please let me know if I missed any- these do not include any documentaries)
Kung Fu Panda 2 — Jennifer Yuh #12
Red Riding Hood- Catherine Hardwicke #63
One Day — Lone Scherfig #107
The Whistleblower- Larysa Kondracki #174
Country Strong — Shana Feste (did Oscar qualifying run in 2010)
Queen to Play — Caroline Bottaro
The Beaver- Jodie Foster
In a Better World- Susanne Bier (won the Oscar for best foreign language film)
Meek’s Cutoff- Kelly Reichardt
The Future — Miranda July
Higher Ground — Vera Farmiga
The Hedgehog — Mona Achache
Circumstance — Maryam Keshavarz
Dhobi Ghat — Kiran Rao
Goodbe First Love — Mia Hansen Love
Last Night- Massy Tadjedin
The Puzzle — Natalia Smirnoff
Texas Killing Fields — Ami Canaan Mann
The Tree- Julie Bertucelli
A Bird of the Air — Margaret Whitton
Tanner Hall — Tatiana von Furstenberg and Francesca Gregorini
I Will Follow — Ava Duvernay
Tomboy — Celine Sciamma
Arthur Christmas- Sarah Smith
We Need to Talk About Kevin — Lynne Ramsay
In the Land of Blood and Honey- Angelina Jolie
The Iron Lady- Phyllida Lloyd
Pariah- Dee Rees
Sleeping Beauty- Catherine Breillat
Sleeping Beauty- Julia Leigh
WE- Madonna
The Imperialists Are Still Alive- Zeina Durra
Desert Flower- Sherry Hormann
Cracks- Jordan Scott
When We Leave- Feo Aladag
(data from the-numbers.com and box office mojo)
