I don’t know if many members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences knew that March 8, the morning after the Oscars ceremony, was International Women’s Day. I’m guessing not. But as it is, in awarding the best director award to Kathryn Bigelow for her work on The Hurt Locker, they gave a green light to campaigners to launch 1000 press releases pegged to her victory.
It does seem almost incredible that no woman director had won this award until now, in 2010. Have there really been so few women directors in the history of cinema? Winning an Oscar is a bit like winning a number one market share position. You have to beat all of the opposition. So a great director – like Jane Campion, for example, can make a powerful film like The Piano, but if you are up against Steven Spielberg (Schindler’s List), as she was in 1993, then it is hard to win outright.
Directing a film must be one of the hardest leadership jobs of all. It is no job for the shy, nervous or semi-competent. A film set will rapidly run out of control unless there is a strong leader in the director’s chair (do they still have those? I hope so). But there is no reason on earth why women directors shouldn’t be backed to make films just as often as men are, and maybe some will now find it just a little bit easier to get funding.
One of the many press releases I received pegged to today referred to the startling lack of women board directors in British companies. Some things do seem to take a very long time to change – if they change at all.
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