Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace, Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me, Tamara Jenkins’ Private Life, Chloe Zhao’s The Rider, Karyn Kusama’s Destroyer, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here — these are some of the highly-acclaimed films by directed women this year that the AFI chose to ignore. There is only one film, The Favourite, that is even co-written by a woman. There are barely any women behind the camera anywhere in any top-tier capacity. What to make of this?
First, we’re marching very clearly towards an obvious attempt by the AFI to show the Academy how they can have their popular film cake and eat their art house too. “Save the Oscars from themselves” or “Make the Oscars Relevant again!” Even with prestigious selections like BlackKklansman, Eighth Grade, and First Reformed, there is no doubt that there is a push towards films the public likes, or is destined to like, as is the case with Mary Poppins Returns.
It’s important to point out that the AFI did an impressive job this year in honoring the truly groundbreaking renaissance of black filmmakers, with three films directed by and starring African-American artists. They made their mark on history in that regard, which is a big deal, without a doubt.
Their history with women filmmakers has never been all that great, as it turns out. A couple of selections here or there, but with zero acknowledgment for women at the helm, in this of all years, there is good reason to wonder if something is wrong. Very very wrong. Perhaps if the AFI would consider expanding their jury a bit — not necessarily different judges, just more of them — then they might have made a better effort at embracing of American film talent across the spectrum. There are other ways to help guide the Oscars to greater relevance without creating a Popular Film category. Just saying.
Isso é igual a procurar chifre em cavalo.
Leave No Trace is one of the best films of the year, so I will champion it anywhere and everywhere. But I think its important to denote what we are looking for in a “female film.” In this very article, it alternates between citing women directors and writers. And that’s not to throw any shade Sasha, because I think you have very good intentions with this post. And true, its sad that Debra Granik and Marielle Heller aren’t cited by the AFI…but really they wouldn’t be anyway because its the movie itself that gets named. To that point, when I look at this list I see several female centered stories (Eighth Grade, Mary Poppins Returns), a story about queer women (The Favourite, thank god for it), and even a story led by a young deaf girl (A Quiet Place). Female representation and gender parity is absolutely an issue in Hollywood (and many other places), and if the AFI gave out director and screenplay awards and left women off those categories, Id certainly sound this alarm. But when it is only the movie titles name checked, I see a lineup where female stories are quite present, even though I mourn the absence of Leave No Trace. We should continue to fight for women getting their chance behind the camera, but it also has an impact when women can lead a successful film and then have it elevated by awards bodies like this. So I’m choosing to celebrate the fact that actresses, famous and unknown, are leading some of the best and most recognized films of the year.
With the exception of Can You Ever Forgive Me, there just isn’t another “contending” film with as high a profile by a female director this year.
I mean, The Rider won the Gothams for Chloe Zhao … great. But we’re all kidding ourselves if we think that she/that movie would do much of anything beyond the Gothams given the grandness of the Oscars.
Aside from Jenkins (Wonder Woman) and Gerwig (Lady Bird) recently … the films and female filmmakers just aren’t there THIS year as ripe for the picking for major awards bodies.
Like Sasha, though, I am super psyched for the love for black films and black filmmakers this year. Steps in the right direction. And they are worthy.
And to add insult to injury, many are pushing for Best Actress to be awarded to Lady Gaga, just because she didn’t fall flat on her face. She’s good, but the awards that will be showered on her instead of other actresses in a year that’s loaded with standouts in the category? Shameful. If the Oscar is awarded to Gaga, she will unfortunately be ridiculed because of it (think Paltrow v. Blanchett or Holliday v. Davis/Swanson). Coleman, McCarthy, or Hall? A win from those women would be amazing and hold up over time. I also appreciate that Hall and Coleman were able to interact (OFTEN) with other women in their films, something Gaga was not allowed to do. A Star is Born is like most other current blockbusters – one babe is all there needs to be.
If Bradley Cooper wins for Actor/Director over anybody else, it would be a little more shameful. A Star is Born isn’t exactly color-by-numbers, but it is far from original. I don’t care that it’s a remake. Re-tellings can be great (The Wizard of Oz, My Fair Lady, The Departed, Ben-Hur, True Grit, Imitation of Life, etc.), so his version shouldn’t be docked points for that aspect. Its lack of originality is more from its characters (again, one real part for an actress); the focus that was taken from the female and placed on the male character; so many tight shots on the actors’ faces…
I realize I’m stumping against A Star is Born like so many other are, and it’s a bit much and borderline hateful, it’d just be so disappointing for it to triumph over so many other more deserving films and performances in such a strong year.
Granik’s and Heller’s films are truly worthy of admiration and notice, and it will be a shame when the Academy looks past them in anticipation of a red carpet moment.
… and so, here we go again…
regardless, this been the year of black directors (Coogler, Lee, McQueen and Jenkins all in the running to be nominated for DGA, and conceivably 2 or even 3 of them can make the cut), and while the female-directed films have been prominent, too, the impact of those who Sasha mentioned can’t be compared to the combined impact and gravitas of Black Panther, BlackKklansman, Widows and If Beale Street could talk. Reality check. Out the films noted, only Can you ever forgive me? had a realistic chance to make the cut, am I mistaken?
Exactly.
Considering AFI gave opening & closing slots to two female directors..yes, it’s quite surprising alright!
I agree. Leave No Trace and The Rider are masterworks, and I cannot wait to see CYEFM. Some may argue that this movies feel too indie to make it into the Oscar race, but I could make the counterargument that these female directors only have these kinds of work opportunities. I’ve yet to see a big-budget film directed by a woman that isn’t Kathryn Bigelow, or the occasional Wonder Woman.
Also, if the Oscar nomination ballot had 10 slots, we would certainly see Leave No Trace or CYEFM in the Best Picture lineup, just as we would certainly see Black Panther, BlackKklansman and Beale Street. There was a conscious effort to make the Oscars a closed circle again (I still argue that the 2010-2011 lineups were fantastic), and now they’re scrambling to nominate big-budget and best-grossing movies again trying to be relevant again. Mistake after mistake.
In their defence this year at least they included films with female leads (The Favourite, Eighth Grade, Mary Poppins Returns) and co-leads (If Beale Street Could Talk, A Quiet Place, A Star Is Born) and the AFI fest was at least bookended with films from female directors (On the Basis of Sex; Mary Queen of Scots).
Having said that, the Granik-Heller-Ramsay trio delivered masterpieces this year (as they often do) and it is ridiculous none of those three films made the cut. I consider Green Book one of the most effective crowdpleasers I’ve ever seen and sure, I can appreciate certain aspects of A Star Is Born, as well, but neither can hold a candle to any of those three films in the quality-department, they just can’t. My two cents.
Side note : As long as we are talking about “Movies of the Year”, I must say the constant – and seemingly inevitable – exclusion of A Private War frustrates me a great deal. That was an excellent, painfully timely movie about the kind of hero we could use in the real world right about now, and yet it doesn’t even seem to register with pundits. Such a shame.
I have a feeling that Leave No Trace keeps narrowly missing out in these nominations.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/394e41115cd947b6d7fca607a73d3871f28f2e1049859dca60d7eeea4bd8adcd.jpg Looks like a power player is helping.
A Private War seemed to release too late, and out of nowhere. At least to my eyes. I think it didnt have much time to build momentum. Additionally, most pundits said Rosamund Pike was its best awards chance, but its again releasing late with little buildup, in a stellar packed year of female leads. Which is a shame, but just goes to show how much planning and effort goes into effective awards campaigns.
Maybe there just weren’t a woman-directed film this year that gets near the quality of last year’s The Beguiled, Lady Bird and Mudbound. I mean even if I like Wonder Woman and it was directed by Patty Jenkins, I wouldn’t say it’s one of the 10 best films more so top 5 directing achievement of last year.
Why is it that when we talk about female directors, the ones whos get nominated always have to be “the correct representation” that is in some ways “the best” film directed by a woman in a long time. Last year, Gerwig wasn’t “the correct representation” because people considered there to be better films by women in the race, as if that meant that she personally stole the spotlight from another talent (a thought pattern you’d never have for a male director, did Paul Thomas Anderson steal consideration from David Lowery?), this year no one is “correct representation” because no one is as good as Gerwig. Perhaps the people saying: “We should just look at the films themselves” should actually do what they say instead of treating different female filmmakers in the race as mutually exclusive events.
And by the way, at least the following films reach the level you mention (aka are better than the least masterful film you list, Mudbound) this year (I haven’t seen Can You Ever Forgive Me? yet):
Happy as Lazzaro
Zama
Madeline’s Madeline
You Were Never Really Here
The Rider
Leave No Trace
Private Life
Western
I agree that it doesn’t have to be the “correct representation”. This year, there just isn’t a film directed by a woman that actually comes close to the films directed by women last year which happened to be 2 of the best directing achievements of 2017 (The Beguiled and Lady Bird) which I consider a great year for cinema. And even if Mudbound was lesser of a directing effort than these two films, I respect it as a well-made film over-all.
This year, Happy as Lazzaro and You Were Never Really There meanwhile are the two films I love and were directed by woman but I couldn’t say the films will make my top 10 list of the year’s best with few more films yet unseen. I would have to re-watch Ramsay’s film as I’ve seen it a year ago and would definitely consider YWNRT but the thing is 2018 is yet another great year for cinema and the main problem as we have been telling year after year after year after year, there weren’t that many women filmmakers being given the opportunity to make a film as compared to men.
Another point I would like to raise as you have mention is to look at the films themselves. Zhao, Martel, and all the other films you mentioned, which I’ve already seen as well, may have support from various pundits and critics, it’s great if they will push for them and continue putting them in conversation. I just couldn’t and it would be unfair to other films especially the foreign ones which are being considered long shots or even just a sidelines just because they are foreign films. But that’s a different discussion. Looking forward to seeing Can You Ever Forgive Me? and most especially Kusama’s Destroyer and I couldn’t wait to root for them.
I solidly enjoyed ‘Lazzaro’ and think it would have made for a more deserving Italian Foreign Language Oscar submission than ‘Dogman’, but was so bored and/or aggravated by ‘Zama’ that I walked after about twenty minutes. You win some, you lose some.
Sasha why is your page such a sausage fest? I am amazed at the mansplaining in the comments here.
What would your definition of ‘mansplaining’ be?
And what’s the best example on this page?
All the comments such as maybe the woman directed films were not worthy.
There is a lot of womansplaining going on here as well. Let’s not use sexist terms to dismiss certain posters’ opinions.
For the record, of the six titles Sasha lists at the top of the article, one I thought was good, daring, distinctive work, but not much to my taste, while another was clearly ambitious and heartfelt but honestly didn’t interest me enough to stick with it until the end. The remaining four are as yet unseen by me. I look forward to forming an opinion on them.
Mansplaining is when a man explains so etching to a woman that she already knows.
Any comment on this page from a man who thinks he needs to explain to Sasha about all the great movies directed this year by filmmakers of color? and why that’s a reason to celebrate? That’s mansplaining.
I would have been thrilled to see Dee Rees win last year – because I genuinely thought that ‘Mudbound’ was easily one of the five best, bravest, and most satisfying cinema experiences of the year. The fact that she was a black female director who not only got the opportunity in the first place to show how good a filmmaker she was, but knocked it pretty much out of the park, in a classical-yet-uncompromising style, adapting the material and shaping it into a movie with flair and guts that was beyond most of the white-male-helmed product in that year (or most recent years that you could name) – well, it made the movie’s near-miss in the top Oscar categories that much more frustrating, because it felt like we had to accept that this was probably the furthest it could have gotten at all, being a Netflix release. At least nothing can take away from the Rachel Morrison milestone – but still, it’s hard for as big a fan of ‘Mudbound’ as I am to not wish there could have been more; the level of reward that I felt the film truly deserved.
This is probably something we’re going to have to get used to because I highly doubt that woman is going to get in to Best Director this year and more than likely a female directed movie isn’t going to make it into Best Picture. It’s just kind of how how the pieces fell, in terms of general critical and box office success there have been a lot of female directed films that are decent B/B+s but no real home runs. You can certainly list off a number of pretty good movies directed by women this year but everything’s just been too small or just hasn’t gotten a large following. I wouldn’t blame people like the AFI or the Academy for this either, it’s not their fault that they’ve been given this situation.
Trouble is the Academy seems to be hellbent on excluding women from the BD category even in years when there are very obvious contenders with very well-received, zeitgeist-y hits. Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman (RT 93), Dee Rees (Mudbound (RT 97), Ava DuVernay (Selma (RT 99) Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty (RT 91) are just some of the most recent examples. So while an argument can be made that this year’s female director contenders simply delivered relatively low-key fare the kind that rarely registers with the Academy to begin with, we should just remember that it doesn’t matter because the Academy ignores female directors even when they DO deliver the big, high-profile hits. I mean to this day, 90 years in, Bigelow remains the only female BD winner and FFS Gerwig last year became only the 5th woman to get a BD nod. Fifth. Out of what, 443 ? So basically roughly 1% of all BD nominees ? Lord.
And Gerwig was nominated because the Academy felt pressured to do it. They wouldn’t have nominated her under different circumstances.
I liked Lady Bird, but curiously, Sasha didn’t support it. (All the male critics had fallen in love with Greta Gerwig, apparently.)
It should be pointed out that the four big movies listed above all had other problems totally unrelated to the gender of the director. Wonder Woman was another superhero film. Mudbound was Netflix. Selma had an all-black cast in 2014, the year before the “Oscars So White” movement. Zero Dark Thirty stumbled with a serious political controversy.
All 500+ of them?
Yes.
If 50% of movies were directed by women those would indeed be shocking stats, but that isn’t the case and it especially wasn’t the case for the majority of the Academy’s history. Women are allowed to direct a fraction of what men are allowed to direct and it’s basically impossible for that imbalance not to also show up to some degree in award shows and best of lists and the like unless they’re setting quotas or voting dishonestly. Giving them the shit for this problem is almost like yelling at historians for not including women in rankings of U.S. presidents.
Not really because historians can’t have direct effect on gender equality in politics. Awards voters COULD move the needle in the right direction by recognising female directors when they deliver worthy work but said voters seem to be adamant not to give these female directors their due.
Sure, it is a valid argument that there aren’t more BD nominees / winners because the majority of the films are not directed by women but guess what, studios would probably hire more female directors if their success was recognised by the industry more often. But it isn’t. For example if the Academy had nominated Patty Jenkins and / or Dee Rees last year, Ava DuVernay in 2014 (Selma) and Kathryn Bigelow in 2012 (Zero Dark Thirty), I can ASSURE you that we would have more prestige films and franchise films directed by women in 2018, 2019, 2020. But the Academy refused and instead opted for the likes of Morten Tyldum and David O. Russell delivering films tailored for Oscar consideration.
They have zero trouble giving the likes of Tom Hooper or Michel Hazanavicius not only nominations but wins on their first earnest attempt at Oscar glory but God forbid they give even the nomination let alone the win to lauded female auteurs delivering excellent films in the same years, like Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids are all right), Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone) and Lynne Ramsay (We need to talk about Kevin) in 2010 aka the Hooper year.
Bottom line : Yes, we won’t have more female BD nominees until we have more films given to female directors. But it’s a two way street : once the Academy gets its head out of its ass and starts nominating female directors delivering memorable, critically acclaimed hits, THEN there will be more opportunities for female directors. Until then it’s just the same old lame “boy’s club” it has always been.
But that assumes that awards just exist to give people career boosts rather than to reflect the Academy’s taste, which they don’t. Take Patty Jenkins. There are a million reasons why Wonder Woman wasn’t to the Academy’s taste. They aren’t exactly giving men Oscar nominations left and right for making superhero movies. Hell, Christopher Nolan couldn’t even get one.
Can you imagine if The Dark Knight had been directed by a woman? In the eyes of the media that choice instantly stopped being a quirk in how the Academy feels about Batman movies and would have immediately been an unforgivable referendum on industry misogyny when maybe it wasn’t.
Awards, in big part, DO exist to give people career boosts, plain and simple. Trouble is that career boost has been given to female directors roughly 1% of the time (5 out of 443 nominees) and 99% it was given to men. With that in mind, OF COURSE female directors aren’t getting equal opportunities right about now. Question is will they ever ? That 1% vs. 99% gap sure looks soulcrushingly impossible to bridge.
The Academy’s mission statement says things like “single out cinematic excellence,” not “pad the resumes of people regardless of whether we actually liked the work. No voter is going to just pretend they like Wonder Woman more than they do just because they want Patty Jenkins to get more work and not should they. And again, throwing around that 5 in 443 statistic is asinine when they basically had any female options at all for 265 of those and had a very small pool of options for the other 173.
Sure you love to throw Wonder Woman around here to make a point but what about Selma then ? Zero Dark Thirty ?
ZDT had the torture controversy and it was also the same year as the Ben Affleck snub so there were strange things in general with the directors’ branch. Selma just sort of came out too late and never really became s critic’s darling. Sometimes just shit happens when it comes to these awards campaigns, it just doesn’t stand out as much when white male directors have these kind of near misses.
Kevin Harts the new host for the 91st Oscars
A handful of films about women that are directed by men it seems.
I will say – if this year ends up being another one with five white directors nominated, well, I’ll be pissed. This year is a prime opportunity to reward diversity in the directing field with some of the finest directing coming from women and black directors.
To be fair, McQueen and Lee are quite far from a nomination, Coogler’s film is not considered “good” enough, so that leaves only Jenkins.
I disagree with Spike Lee. He’s sitting in the top five predicted nominees on Gold Derby, alongside Cuaron, Cooper, Lanthimos and Barry Jenkins, with Peter Farrelly and Damien Chazelle in sixth and seventh. I’d say that Lee is looking pretty good for a Best Director nomination, and that it’d be Jenkins and Coogler who are on the fringe. Steve McQueen has no chance.
I am already putting it out there, that Barry Jenkins should make history by winning the Oscar/DGA for Best Director. I think he has a chance.
Baby steps…it will happen…I am confident.
I just want to say here that I was thrilled to see, for the first time, a quote from Sasha Stone used in a movie trailer! It was in the middle of a trailer for Destroyer, which ran before my showing of Widows here in the UK. I’m not sure about the exact words, but I think it was this partial sentence:
“Kusama is a long-simmering cinematic force”
— Sasha Stone, The Wrap
Maybe Sasha’s name and quotes have been used before, but it’s the first time I noticed it, so I found it exciting.
I saw that too!!
Harsh senstiments. List is admirable. Can’t please everyone.
Reports are coming in that the Academy is negotiating with Kevin Hart to host the ceremony.
Sasha while your complaint might be valid, I think it’s a little harsh pointing finger of blame on AFI. After all, their nominees are exactly what the pundits have predicted. Even AD readers have matched it nine out of ten. They just seem to go along with whatever is being talked or is top contender in critics awards or pundit prediction. he awards season seems to just follow in one direction most of the and everyone just agrees.
Exactly. There’s a fundamental logical problem here. Noone really expected them to nominate The Rider, and they didn’t. But everyone expected them to nominate A Star is Born, and they did. If we argue that The Rider is just as good a film as A Star is Born (substitute either of these with appropriate female/male-directed films) why were we not predicting The Rider instead of A Star is Born? I am not arguing that either is better or worse than the other, I’m just saying that we didn’t predict one and predicted the other for a reason. Is that reason that we knew they wouldn’t go for a female-directed film? No, I think. It’s just that this year, male-directed films are more in the awards conversation than female-directed ones. Why? That’s a completely different question. If I had to guess, I’d say because there’s a general gender bias in the film industry (male directors have more opportunities, many more male directors are already “stars” in the awards conversation than female ones). In short, for this to change, female directors should get more chances to make “Oscar movies”.
Boooring. Did they choose anything undeserving? Well, “BlacKkKlansman” is bad but apart from this their list is pretty solid. So why should they drop some of their choices and put – for example – “The Rider” or “You Were Never Really Here” (great movies, I admit) – just to have female directors in their lineup? First and foremost they should choose GOOD movies and it’s totally unimportant by whom they were made.
And AFI has ALWAYS chosen popular movies. They had “Wonder Woman” last year! So the fact that now they have “Mary Poppins Returns” does not say anything. I’d say that their list from this year is quite typical for them.
Only nominating films by men when there are equally good movies by men it just seems to conform to gender bias. If there was no bias then you’d expect movies by women to more represented. That’s not the case.