Kathryn Bigelow has become the first woman to ever win the Oscar for best director, but how significant is it in a male dominated industry?
This week, The Oscars saw something amazing happen. Believe it or not, Kathryn Bigelow won the award for best director. When I say ‘believe it or not’ I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense – by all accounts The Hurt Locker has thoroughly deserved all the praise it has received. I haven’t actually seen the film (yet) so I am unable to give any personalised account or opinion on it, Ashley’s recent re-review will do a far better job if you are interested. No, when I say believe it or not, I am not being derogatory about Kathryn herself, or the film, but I am merely reflecting on my own astonishment that she is the first woman to ever win the Best Director category.
Now due to a complete lack of social life, I have been keeping tabs on the situation of women directors for some time now. It all started when I wrote an epic piece of coursework on the very subject for my Media Studies A-Level (epic in length, not content) and was quite frankly astounded that the proportion of women directors in the film industry is miniscule – it has stayed between 7% and 9% over the last 25 years, something which if you think about it, would make any closet Germaine Greers scream their heads off and, quite frankly, I’d listen. At the time, I did some research and discovered that up until now only 3 women had ever been nominated for the top accolade. I even went so far as to take a ‘hands on’ approach and forced myself to watch a number of female directed films. I say forced because I would be lying if I got any kind of obvious enjoyment out of it other than to validate my previously held belief that women only ever made films that women enjoyed. If this sounds bigoted, then you wouldn’t be the first, but my intention is not to be sexist – there is only so much a man can take from watching Nora Ephron directed Meg Ryan acted romantic comedies. Sorry, but there it is.
And so, my mind was made up. Definitely. Women only make films that women will enjoy. The Piano, Jane Campion. Lost in Translation, Sophia Coppola. Twilight, Catherine Hardwicke. And I kept on scrolling down a search engine generated list of films directed by women and agreeing with myself. That was of course until something remarkable happened. Two words sprang out at me and if I was drinking tea at the time, I probably spat it out. Point Break. And there it was, Point Break (Bigelow, 1991). One of the most macho films ever, armed robbery, guns, (implausible) stunts. Men love it and you only need to see Hot Fuzz and Nick Frost’s character’s love of it to see this in action.
So what is it then? Women don’t just make films that women will go and see. Bigelow is the antidote to this. Once again, with The Hurt Locker she has made a film that men will go and see, probably more willingly than women. And who’s to say it is an issue that women do make films that only women will go and see? Surely if they direct it well it doesn’t matter in the slightest? Hollywood, it seems has a glass ceiling – female directors can see through it, but can’t GET through it. Bigelow it can be argued has smashed straight through, but the extent of the impact she will have may not be lasting. There can be no doubt that Bigelow’s win is symbolic, but in actual terms, it may not do much at all. No woman has ever been asked to direct a film with a budget of over $100, 000,000 and last year four of the biggest studios around employed only two women amongst them – Warner Bros and Paramount employing none and Disney and Universal with one each.
Although the gender based glass ceiling in Hollywood may no longer exist for the award bodies, it appears that it still exists amongst the big studios. Bigelow’s award is no doubt as well deserved as any Best Director Award ever is, but don’t be surprised if she holds the mantel of being the ONLY Academy Award winning female director for some time yet.
See the theatrical trailer for Point Break here (it’s worth it for Patrick Swayze’s hair).
By Charles Dennett 