Golden Globe nominations a mixed bag for female directors

By Sarah Sluis

Today the Golden Globe Nominations were announced, and, as usual, there weren't quite enough nominations to cover all the great performances (in particular, Nicolas Cage's crazy-amazing performance in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans). Inspired by New York Times critic Manohla Dargis' recentdocumentation of the lack of female directors in Hollywood, particularly for studio films, I also decided to tally up the nominations for female-directed movies. Results and analysis follow.

The Takeaways

* Golden Globes reward more female directors, but this is because its picture and acting nominations are genre-specific: "Best Drama" and "Best Comedy/Musical." More females direct in the latter category, allowing them to rack up more nominations. When it comes to the Oscars, however, the majority of the nominees usually come from the more prestigious "Drama" category.

*Of the twenty films nominated for a form of Best Picture (Drama, Comedy/Musical, Animated, Foreign Language), three were directed by a female. Kathryn Bigelow recieved a nomination in the Drama category, and Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers were nominated in the Comedy/Musical category. This is slightly higher than the 60 females out of 600 directors (10%) that Dargis figured for 2009, but given the small sample size, this isn't significant.

*Zero of the ten "Best Actor" nominees were directed by females. Four of the ten "Best Actor" nominees were directed by females, including two directors not nominated in the "Best Picture" categories. Sandra Bullock was nominated for her performance in Anne Fletcher's The Proposal and Carey Mulligan for Lone Scherfig's An Education. This correlation is difficult to judge, but it could reflect a well-known Hollywood bias that female directors are only offered women's films.

*One female, Kathryn Bigelow, was nominated for "Best Director." She's running against her ex-husband, James Cameron (Avatar).

Bigelow, the sole director to receive a nomination for "Best Director," was highlighted by Dargis as an example of Hollywood's unequal treatment of female directors. Before Hurt Locker, she hadn't directed a film since 2002.

Dargis compares her to director Michael Mann, who was in a similar

standing to her at the time. Both directed films (Ali and K19: The Widowmaker, respectively) in the early aughts that underperformed.

Dargis writes, "What

did a $22 million difference in box office mean for the directors

of "Ali" and "K-19"? Well, Ms. Bigelow didn't direct another feature

until 2007, when she began "The Hurt Locker," a thriller about a bomb

squad in Iraq that was bankrolled by a French company and is said to

cost under $20 million." Mann, by comparison,

directed three big-budget movies, and produced several more--all a mix

of hits (Collateral) and misses (Miami Vice). She goes on to say,

"I

imagine there are a host of reasons why Mr. Mann has been able to

persuade executives to keep writing such large checks. He's a dazzling

innovator, and big stars keep flocking to his side, despite his

reputation for difficulty. But Ms. Bigelow is one of the greatest

action directors working today, and it's hard not to wonder why failure

at the box office doesn't translate the same for the two sexes."

Dargis seems to have drawn the conclusion that women are held to higher standards than men, and have to be that much better in this position in order to succeed.

The other key to equality in film direction is making projects open to both

male and female directors. Lee Daniels directed a great film (Precious) with a female cast, just as Kathryn Bigelow has distinguished herself for her "testosterone" action film. Besides Bigelow, Scherfig (An Education) and Jane Campion (Bright Star) have been mentioned as the standout directors of the year, but their films' lack of nominations could push them out of the running. Bigelow's nomination for The Hurt Locker makes her chance of being nominated for Best Director at the Oscars that much more likely.

Surprise! Only 7% of mainstream movies directed by women

By Sarah Sluis

Put film directors in the category of dead presidents: most are white males, and their average age is 45, when most of them are mid-career. It's the kind of information that gets rehashed occasionally with an aura of outrage, as it was in a New York Times article yesterday. Some blogs, like Women & Hollywood, offer dedicated, consistent commentary on female filmmakers, and consistently point out their absence.

Certainly directors in this "dead president" demographic are capable of directing movies that appeal to audiences beyond themselves, just as directors like Kathryn Bigelow can direct war and action movies (though her gender turned some heads and became the focus of many of her publicity interviews and articles). Many female directors work in designated genres, like movies appealing to kids and teens, or romance and comedy. Not one has won an Oscar for "Best Director." When the female demographic is directing only 7% of the films, and working on less prestigious, non-award-seeking projects, the gap seems even worse.

It's easy to forget about the dearth of women in the film industry because women do work in virtually every area of the business, and most of the "firsts" in female filmmaking have already been taken (the Academy Award for Best Director notwithstanding). Some suspect that the lifestyle required by a director turns many women off to the position, but I don't buy that. There's also evidence that people react more negatively to certain types of female leadership, leaving women a narrow range in which to discipline and delegate without being called that B-word. Finally, with so few female directors out there, they simply don't look the part, and are more likely to be called into question or sent back to central casting.

By drawing their talent from such a narrow range of people, studios are selling themselves short. As the article puts it, "Directors who are overwhelmingly of the same sex and ethnicity can hardly be expected to tap all of the cinematic potential in a rich and roiling humanity."

Hollywood seems to be stuck in a feedback loop, where the young male, first-weekend audience is considered the ultimate prize, and in turn many movies (e.g., Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) are created with them in mind. Female-oriented successes are still considered aberrations. Who do you think were the majority of people that saw Titanic again, and again, again? All the girls in my middle school. Twilight? Check. Sex and the City? Check. Today, Women & Hollywood posted the news that The Proposal (directed by a woman) had quietly surpassed the theatrical gross of Sex and the City, which many had touted as the movie that proved women existed at the box office. It's clear to me that conventional wisdom about female moviegoers contains some serious errors. Perhaps some female directors could help the studios get back on track.