Friday 8 May 2015

Dear Hollywood, Get Your Shit Together.

Quick question. Name your favourite female director. Go on. Take some time. If I asked you to name your favourite director, you'd confidently throw names like Scorsese, Spielberg or Tarantino at me in no time. If you've seen the films of Andrea Arnold, Kathryn Bigelow, Nicole Holofcener or Jane Campion, you will have to admit there's a longer gap between each film they direct. And if you put two and two together, you'd realise there's a reason for it. Dive through this expose from LA Weekly on how Hollywood is unfair to female directors and ensure the next time a good female director is on the horizon, you'd pay to watch her movie on the big screen.

Some depressing highlights from the LA Weekly article:

-  Kevin Tsujihara, chairman-CEO of Warner Bros. According to the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), Warner Bros. produced 72 films from 2010 through 2014. One was directed by a woman. A Warner Bros. representative said via email, "WB released 72 films ... 53 of which we produced; 19 were only distributed by WB. Of those 53 films produced and distributed by WB, three were directed by women.

— Twentieth Century Fox chairman-CEO James Gianopulos and film studio co-chairman Stacey Snider. Twentieth Century Fox, 20th Century Fox Animation and FOX 2000 produced 45 films. One was directed by a woman.

— Ronald Meyer, vice chairman of NBCUniversal. Combined, Universal and Focus Features produced 101 films. Five were directed by women and one was co-directed by a woman.

— Brad Grey and Rob Moore, the chairman-CEO and vice chairman, respectively, of Paramount Pictures. Paramount produced 51 films. One was directed by a woman; one was co-directed by a woman.

— Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Pictures. Sony's largest studios, Columbia and TriStar, produced 62 films. One was directed by a woman.

— Alan Bergman, president of Walt Disney Studios. Disney Studios and Disney Animation produced 52 films. Two had women as co-directors.


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