According to The Atlantic the Sundance Film Festival hit a record high with half of the U.S Films were directed by women. There were 119 films this year alone at the Sundance film festival and 34 percent were directed by women and for two years in a row a woman has won for best director. These winners include Jill Soloway and Ava DuVernay. Woman are making headway in the independent world, however the task of infiltrating the big budget or Hollywood films that will be the challenge.
Since the Academy Award’s first meeting back in 1927, the organization still remains majority white and Male dominated today. Out of the Academy Awards 85 years of history, there have only been four women nominated for best director, not even speaking of winning; but, simply nominated. Does that sound like a time for change to you? And according to The Atlantic only 4.4% of studio movies were directed by women, but 50 percent of Sundance films in 2013 were also directed by women, which is an encouraging leap in comparison.
However, according to a study done by the Women in Film Los Angeles they “found that 23.9% of directors at the Sundance Film Festival from 2002-2012 were female, compared to 4.4% of directors across the top 100 box office films each year from 2002 to 2012 that were female.”
Thanks to the independent film and Sundance, women may soon see changes in the mainstream big budget film industry. According to Flavorwire “Only four women have ever been nominated for Best Director” Lina Wertmüller for Seven Beauties (1976), Jane Campion for The Piano (1993), Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003), and Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker.” However, only one has actually won for best director, and that was Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker” in 2009. She has become the first and so far the only woman to win the Oscar.” There is just a hand full of female directors that can catch the Academy’s eye due to the large budget & distribution and Bigelow is one of those people.
Here is a list of the top ten female directors according to GalTime.com:
1. Kathryn Bigelow 5. Catherine Hardwicke 9. Julie Taymor
2. Jane Campion 6. Mira Nair 10. Nora Ephron
3. Gina Prince-Bythewood 7. Amy Heckerling
4. Caire Denis 8. Sofia Coppola
Women Directed Narrative Film at Sundance- 8 out of 16 films were made by women in 2013
Women nominated for best Director- (Only 4 women)
Percentage of Female Directors in Documentaries (39%)
Female directors of Top Grossing Films (only 5%)