Women make little headway in Hollywood
Women are not among directors nominated for top honors at this year's Academy Awards ceremony.
Despite Hollywood’s reputation for liberalism, women have made little headway in the film industry. “In 2014, women comprised 17 percent of all directors, writers, producers, executive producers, editors and cinematographers working on the top 250 (domestic) grossing films,” wrote Martha M. Lauzen, executive director of the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, in a report titled The Celluloid Ceiling, Behind the Scenes Employment of Women on Top 250 films of 2014. “This is the same percentage of women working in these roles in 1998.”
Women constitute roughly 51 percent of the American population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but they accounted for just 7 percent of directors during the past year. While this is a 1 percentage point increase from 2013, it is down 2 percentage points from 1998, when women accounted for 9 percent of all directors.
Among women involved in ambitious film projects, two notables were ignored for Oscar nominations: Angelina Jolie for Unbroken and Ava DuVernay for Selma. (Jolie also starred in and was among the executive producers of Maleficent, which received a nomination for costumes.)
Disturbingly, women have been literally shut out as musical composers.
“Women comprised 1 percent of all composers working on the top 250 films of 2014. This represents a decline of 1 percentage point from 2013,” wrote Lauzen, who is also on the film and television faculty at San Diego State University.
This year’s Oscar nominees all involve male protagonists:
Women constitute roughly 51 percent of the American population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but they accounted for just 7 percent of directors during the past year. While this is a 1 percentage point increase from 2013, it is down 2 percentage points from 1998, when women accounted for 9 percent of all directors.
Among women involved in ambitious film projects, two notables were ignored for Oscar nominations: Angelina Jolie for Unbroken and Ava DuVernay for Selma. (Jolie also starred in and was among the executive producers of Maleficent, which received a nomination for costumes.)
Disturbingly, women have been literally shut out as musical composers.
“Women comprised 1 percent of all composers working on the top 250 films of 2014. This represents a decline of 1 percentage point from 2013,” wrote Lauzen, who is also on the film and television faculty at San Diego State University.
This year’s Oscar nominees all involve male protagonists:
- American Sniper: Bradley Cooper portrays Navy Seal Chris Kyle.
- Selma: The story of Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and the 1965 civil rights march.
- Whiplash: Andrew (Miles Teller) is a young drummer who enters a music conservatory and encounters an over-the-top instructor.
- The Imitation Game: In this film set during World War II, Benedict Cumberbatch portrays Alan Turing, the mathematician called upon to decipher the Enigma code.
- Birdman: Michael Keaton portrays a has-been action-film star attempting to revive his career.
- The Theory of Everything: Another biopic, this movie examines the relationship between scientist Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) and his first wife.
- Boyhood: In this coming-of-age movie, the character Mason, portrayed by Ellar Coltrane, navigates childhood and adolescence in a dysfunctional family.
- The Grand Budapest Hotel: A hotel concierge, portrayed by Ralph Fiennes, is framed for the murder of one of his elderly mistresses.
Related:
