The Award Season: The Status of Women
Last week there were two pieces written about women and the awards season. The first from Sharon Waxman in the Wrap lamented the fact that films that star women are being crowded out of the best picture field (like that’s news?); and the second from Peter Kneght at IndieWIRE celebrating the fact that this could be a very female friendly season at the Indie Spirit Awards. Now, I’m not one for seeing the glass half full when its half empty, but one good thing about the fact that we have 10 best pictures nominees is that we have a better chance of seeing more films about women, and more films directed by women on the final list for best picture. Last year there were three films with female leads that were on the list of 10: The Blind Side, Precious and An Education. And there were two female directed films: The Hurt Locker and An Education on that list. The year before the nominees were guy centric with the exception of The Reader (and no female directed films); and the year before that Juno and Atonement were in the top five (and no woman directed films.) And honestly, neither The Reader nor Atonement are really women centric but at least they had women in major roles. Waxman is right by saying that men dominate the Oscar discussion, as usual, but this year the good news is that there are several strong women’s films still being talked about that might go the distance. Conviction and Secretariat will most probably not be best picture nominees, but the strength of those films are the performances. Both Hilary Swank and Diane Lane are in the talk for best actress, but it’s not Swank’s year because while she is great in Conviction, she’s played this part before and won an Oscar for it already. Other women’s movies we have this year are Black Swan – the single white female in the ballet world – which is directed by Darren Aronofsky who is lucky enough to be able to fail (have you seen The Fountain?) and succeed (The Wrestler) which not a lot of women directors are allowed to do. Other films with women at the center are Fair Game (which rolled out last weekend) and Made in Dagenham (which rolls out on the 19th of November.) Both are directed by men. But the big news is that we also have two films directed by women and about women (the hardest nut to crack) — The Kids Are All Right and Winter’s Bone — that continue to endure even though they were released earlier this year. They endure because they are two of the best movies of the year. They endure because they are well directed by Lisa Cholodenko and Debra Granik respectively. They endure because there are amazing performances all across both films including stellar leading performances from Annette Bening and Julianne Moore in The Kids Are All Right and Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone. This is why it is important to keep talking about Cholodenko and Granik at every opportunity. Because there are fewer women directors it is very easy to let them recede to the background. We need to keep up the momentum from the Kathryn Bigelow win from last year. It would be another story if there wasn’t product to stand for itself. Both Cholodenko and Granik have made first rate movies. They both should be on best directing year end lists just like Aronofsky is and Danny Boyle (127 Hours) is and Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) is. They have earned it through their stellar work. For Your Consideration: Gauging a Crowded and Female-Friendly Spirit Award Field (IndieWIRE) Women Crowded Out of the Picture in the 2010 Oscars Race (The Wrap) |
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