[Global Times special correspondent Dong Ming] In the coming year of 2023, female filmmakers will shine brilliantly. In Europe and America, from the Oscar at the beginning of the year to the Cannes Film Festival and summer file in the middle of the year, and then to the nomination of the Golden Globe Award at the end of the year, a series of works dominated by women, focusing on women’s themes and paying attention to women’s perspectives, have taken a huge step forward this year, both in box office appeal and artistic level. Compared with male filmmakers, although the overall proportion of women, especially those behind the scenes, is still not high, this trend is gratifying. At the same time, there is still room for women to break through and stabilize in many aspects of the film and television industry.
"She changed the status quo."
Last week, Cannes Film Festival announced that female directors, screenwriter and actress greta gerwig will be the chairman of the jury of the main competition unit in 2024, and she will become the first American woman to play this important role in Cannes history. Cannes announced that "greta gerwig is a hero of our time, and she has changed the status quo in this highly standardized film industry and this era that needs careful examination".
This extremely high evaluation of Cannes also received Gerwig’s own enthusiastic feedback: "I love movies, like to create movies and comment on movies. As a movie lover, Cannes has always been the peak of the language of movies. I am surprised, excited and honored to be the chairman of the Cannes jury, and I can’t wait to feel this experience. "
Gerwig, who just turned 40 this year, is not only the youngest chairman of the Cannes jury after Italian actress sophia loren in 1966, but also the first American female directors to hold this position. The last time female directors was the chairman, it was jane campion from New Zealand in 2014. In the history of Cannes, it is usually a veteran filmmaker, a world-recognized master director and an honorary acting star who can serve as the chairman, and Gerwig can win the favor of the organizers precisely because her work Barbie, which was released this summer, "shocked the world", achieved unprecedented success at the box office and word of mouth, and really "changed the film industry".
On December 4, 2023, greta gerwig, California, USA, attended the 2023 San Francisco International Film Festival Awards Gala. (Source vision china)
Barbie, a comedy with a female theme and created by women, earned $1.4 billion at the global box office. Gerwig also surpassed China female directors and actor Jia Ling to become the world’s highest-grossing female directors, even more dazzling than Oppenheimer, which was dominated by men in the same period. In the list of finalists for the Golden Globe Awards announced not long ago, Barbie led with nine nominations. Both Gerwig’s previous works, Frances Ha, as an actor, and Lady Bird Little Women, as a director and screenwriter, have reflected a unique female perspective, and created a suitable stage for Saoirse Ronan and Margot Elise Robbie, which can be regarded as a master of current female filmmakers.
"superhero" in reality
Coincidentally, another Berlin Film Festival, which is very important in the world film industry, recently announced that lupita nyongo, an African-American actress, will be the chairman of the main competition next year, which is the first time in the film festival history that a Hollywood colored actress has held this important position. With her talent and hard work, this Kenyan actress not only gained a firm foothold in Hollywood, but also won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (12 Years a Slave) and gained high popularity in superhero movies like Black Panther, which is enough to inspire more women of different ethnic groups and cultures to enter this industry.
At the Oscar ceremony at the beginning of this year, "Instant Universe", starring Chinese actress Yang Ziqiong and telling the life and affection of Asian American women, won seven awards, including best film. At the age of 61, Yang Ziqiong became the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for best actress.
Yang Ziqiong, who holds a golden statuette, encouraged Asian teenagers to pursue their dreams bravely at the award ceremony, telling women never to give up and not to accept other people’s definitions easily, especially mothers all over the world deserve thanks, because they are "superheroes" in reality. After The Instant Universe and Yang Ziqiong won the Oscar, more and more similar themes began to explore the strong, brave and persistent side of women, and promoted the continuous emergence of female filmmakers.
"This year is a great progress."
Nowadays, it is an indisputable fact that women’s themes are very popular around the world and there are many excellent works by female filmmakers. In the past, films, awards and film festivals dominated by men had to face up to this trend. Not only Cannes and Berlin invited women to chair the jury, but also Cate Blanchett, Kristen Stuart and Julian Moore held this position a few years ago, and the jury led by women will also pay more attention to the works directed by women.
This year, the best film in Cannes was awarded to the French female directors Justine Trier’s The Trial of Falling, which is the second time that female directors won the Palme d ‘Or in three years after Titanium in 2021. It’s not that the female judges are leaning towards female directors. In fact, the high artistic level of The Trial of Falling has been widely recognized, including the European Film Festival at the end of the year and many professional awards, which are also praising this serious work about criminal trial. "The Trial of Falling" and "Barbie" are both an art and a business, which prove that in the current world film industry, female directors can also shoot what a male director can shoot, and female directors can also earn what a male director can earn.
Manorak Dargis, a columnist in The New York Times, is quite optimistic about the "feminine style" in the world film industry: "For the first time in history, I am optimistic about the performance of women in the film industry. Since Viguero’s hurt locker won the Oscar in 2009, we are experiencing a drastic change in women and movies, an upgrade in quantity and consciousness. "
According to the analysis of the Golden Globe nomination, Forbes said, "This year is a great progress. After all, the last time a woman won the Best Director Award, it was back in barbra streisand in 1984. In the history of Golden Globe Awards, only nine female directors were nominated, and this time, two female directors were shortlisted (Ge Weige and Celine Song’s Past Life), indicating that Hollywood has made remarkable progress in the inclusiveness and diversity of women. "
However, although the prospects are encouraging, it does not mean that female filmmakers are on an equal footing with men. According to statistics, among the 250 films with the highest box office in 2022, only 24% came from female directors, only 7% were female photographers and 21% were female screenwriters. Among the top 1600 films at the box office from 2007 to 2022, 80% were directed by white men, only 4% by white women, and only 1% by ethnic minority women. Barbie has created a box office miracle this year, but it will take some time to accumulate and grow in the future to produce more "big-name female directors" and "gold-medal producers" like Gerwig and Robbie, who can really lead the project, attract investment and decide the cast.
