Hollywood still doesn’t know females exist

While I thought perhaps 2019 was going to be the year some solid change was seen, after last week’s Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild nominations it’s become abundantly clear Hollywood still doesn’t know female filmmakers exist.

Over the years it’s been a hot topic, with impassioned speeches coming from all sides of the industry about the lack of recognition thrown the way of successful female directors and screenwriters, while the men are lauded and applauded like it’s going out of fashion.

It’s not.

And it’s time things changed – once and for all.

It was nearly two years ago that Natalie Portman got up on that Golden Globes stage and delivered the boss introduction to the ‘all-male nominees’ in the best director category. Clearly no one has learnt. Nothing has changed.

Dear God, please have Natalie present the award this year – the only saving grace to this oversight will be her clapback.

This year, the Golden Globes shut women out of the best director, best screenplay, and best drama and musical/comedy motion picture categories, with the most notable snub seemingly being Oscars-bait Greta Gerwig, who has been nominated for nowt following the critical acclaim of Little Women.

In fact, in the past Gerwig’s films, like Frances Ha and Lady Bird, have long been nominated, with Saoirse Ronan nabbing best actress nominations left right and centre for the latter.

This year? Ronan scored a Globes nomination and it got a best original score nod, but missed out on all the SAGs. And across the board Gerwig can jog on.

Little Women, which also stars the A-list cast of Meryl Streep, Florence Pugh, Emma Watson and Timothee Chalamet, was hardly a blip on the radar of The Nomination Powers That Be. Even though it scored nine Critic’s Choice Awards nominations including best picture, adapted screenplay and director for Gerwig.

While the chatters of Hustlers and its chances of awards season glory have long been touted since its September release, and Jennifer Lopez scored her due Golden Globe nomination for her role as stripper Ramona, the woman who put her on the screen, Lorene Scafaria, was passed over.

And Awkwafina, who has already been scoring the acting gongs for her brilliant role in Lulu Wang’s The Farewell, was passed over in the acting category at the SAGs (granted she did score a Globes nomination), and the film’s director might as well not exist since she also missed out on any plaudits at all.

Seems this female-helmed film wasn’t worthy enough.

I understand there are hundreds of worthy nominees and only so many places and categories, but when will Hollywood realise it’s got a real problem with celebrating anyone who isn’t a white man and start making some actual changes to how it operates and nominates?

The Golden Globes has a particularly glib history with the best director category, with Barbra Streisand the only female winner in its history, when she won in 1984 for directing Yentl.

That’s it.

The only other women to be nominated in that category are Jane Campion (for 1993’s The Piano), Sofia Coppola (2003’s Lost in Translation), Kathryn Bigelow (2008’s The Hurt Locker and 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty), and Ava DuVernay (2014’s Selma).

Cool.

It’s not like I’m asking for the bosses (who are probably very most likely not reading this) to throw these women a bone just coz – there is no point in a token female taking a nomination simply because she has a vagina and people are marching. There are women filmmakers – such as Gerwig, Scafaria and Queen and Slim’s Melina Matsoukas – who are more than worthy of a place among the men because they’ve made brilliant projects, case closed.

And, while I’m here on this slippery soapbox, not only is there a severe lack of females in the top ranking categories, but, yet again, there is still a lack of diversity in race. That was made clear last week when the director of Queen And Slim, Matsoukas, spoke about the lack of recognition her film – about a young black couple forced to go on the run after shooting and killing a racist policeman – received in the categories, suggesting voting members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association didn’t even bother to see her film during the pre-nomination screenings.

Is that the problem? Too many films, too little time? I wish it were that simple.

Yes there are projects, such as Cats, that were also snubbed, as was The Irishman’s Robert De Niro in the Globes race – it’s not just the female directors and people of colour, ok, I get it.

But be that as it may, while I keep my fingers crossed for the upcoming Oscars nominations (which often follows the same rhythm and rhyme of the earlier awards) it’s hard to ignore Hollywood still has a massive issue with inclusion, no matter how loudly it cheers on the Time’s Up movement and insists its behind diversity.

Actions speak louder than words and judging by the actions of the past week, all we’re getting is awkward silence.

Perhaps this can be used as a glaring reminder Hollywood still has so far to go in recognising women and minority filmmakers and stars, because right now it’s failing them big time.

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