Director Kathryn Bigelow Makes History
Congratulations to film director Kathryn Bigelow, who made history last night by being the first woman ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director! Though three other women have been nominated for best director in the past (Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation, Jane Campion for The Piano, and Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties), this is the first time a woman has won the award. Kathryn Bigelow won for her film The Hurt Locker, which also won the Best Picture award.
When presenter Barbra Streisand opened the envelope to reveal the winner, she said “The time has come.” And I couldn’t agree more! The film industry has historically been a tough one for women to break in, let alone make such a powerful mark.
According to the Celluloid Ceiling Report from Women in Film:
- 21% of the top 250 domestic grossing films released in 2007 employed no women directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, or editors. (None of these films failed to employ a man in at least one of these roles.)
- Women accounted for 6% of directors of the top 250 domestic grossing films released in 2007, a decline of 1% since 2006.
- A historical comparison of women’s employment on the top 250 films in 2007 and 1998 reveals that the percentage of women in all behind-the-scenes roles (directors, writers, executive producers, producers, editors and cinematagraphers) has declined.
Hopefully, Kathryn’s historic win will open more doors to women filmmakers. As she said in her acceptance speech, “There’s no other way to describe it…it’s the moment of a lifetime.”
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Do you have an interest in a career in film? Here are some resources worth checking out:
To read a firsthand account of life as a screenwriter and director in Hollywood, check out my interview with Susannah Grant (wrote Erin Brokovich and Ever After and directed Catch and Release) in my book In Their Shoes: Extraordinary Women Describe Their Amazing Careers!
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