But keep in mind that girls will see a movie with a prince in it because, you know, he is a hero.  So even five year olds know that girls in movies aka princesses are not as worthy as princes.

So folks Rapunzel, is now Tangled.  Last time I checked the word Rapunzel is not princess. So what’s the problem?  I guess it’s more that the titles.  It seems that there were too many films with girl leads.  We can’t have that.  Now that Pixar is fully integrated into Disney it didn’t take too long for the girls to be toned down and the boys to be given higher visibility.  Pixar has never been known as a girl focused studio.  They hadn’t hired a single female director of their films until this year when Brenda Chapman was hired to helm The Princess and the Bow which will be voiced by Reese Witherspoon.

Concluding it had too many animated girl flicks in its lineup, Disney has shelved its long-gestating project The Snow Queen, based on the Hans Christian Andersen story. Snow Queen would have marked the company’s fourth animated film with a female protagonist, following The Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Pixar’s forthcoming The Bear and the Bow, directed by Pixar’s first female director, Brenda Chapman, and starring Reese Witherspoon.

The Disney folks only have themselves to blame.  They are the ones who took all the female characters from their films and repackaged them in a pink box with a pink bow and set girls afire.  And they made a ton of money.  Walk by the Disney store and you can’t help but be overwhelmed by the princesses that are everywhere.

I for one am happy that princesses are banished from the titles.  Princesses make moms of girls who don’t want their daughters to be so focused on those types of things crazy.  I know, my sister is one of them.  She is fighting with all her might to free her daughter, my niece, from the pink box that so many girls live in. (Don’t get her started on the pink Dora softball mitts that the girls play with.)  But I don’t want to see strong, smart and independent girls to disappear along with the princess titles, because we know that girls are so much more than princesses.

One good thing that could come out of this is to socialize boys at an early age to see films with feisty female characters — what ever the title.  If they start to see and respect girls and women from an early age on film, maybe 20 years later when they are buying a movie ticket on a Friday night they might look at a film with women a bit differently.

Disney Wrings the Pink out of Rapunzel (LA Times)

h/t Margot Magowan

This year the biggie is Sex and the City 2.  The women were feted at Showest with the best ensemble award.  Amanda Seyfried who is having a big year with Dear John, the upcoming Chloe and this summer’s Letters to Juliet got the breakthrough actress award.  High School Musical’s Vanessa Hudgen’s is the star of tomorrow, and Katherine Heigl is the female star of the year. She stars with Ashton Kutcher in Killers this summer.

Check out the Sex & The City Women.  This one kind of has a Mamma Mia (but with better clothes) feel.

She challenged the theatre community to acknowledge that it has a gender problem and to do something about it.

Theresa has been kind enough to share her entire speech with us.  It is funny and it is important because it is the TRUTH.  Also, if you don’t know who Theresa is please check out this introduction that playwright John Weidman wrote.

Because I am someone who believes in the power of storytelling, I am going to tell you a story.  It is the story of a play, and the story of things that happened to me, because of that play.

The play is called The Butterfly Collection.  I wrote it in 1999.   It is about a family of artists, and the tensions that rise between the father, who is a successful novelist, and his two sons, one of whom is a struggling actor, and the other who is an antiques dealer.   Tim Sanford at Playwrights Horizons fell in love with this play and said he would produce it in the fall of 2000, and he talked to the guys who run South Coast Rep and they read it and included it in the new play festival that spring, so that we had a chance to work on it out there.  The workshop was great, and we were the hit of the festival.  When the play came into New York the following fall, we had a thrilling cast—Marion Seldes and Brian Murray, in their first production together, Reed Birney, Betsey Aidem, and the young Maggie Lacy in her New York stage debut.  Bartlett Sher directed, and there was enormous excitement gathering around the production.  A lot of commercial producers came, as people felt that it could potentially move.  Nine separate regional theaters were circling to produce it.  American theater magazine called my agent to ask for the script because they were interested in publishing it (in those cool inserts I was very excited I’ve always wanted one of those).   Audiences were thrilled with the play.  Lincoln Center Library was filming it for their collection.

When the New York Times published its review it was not what anyone expected.  The reviewer, who shall remain nameless, dismissed the play—which was about art and family—as a feminist diatribe.   He accused me of having a thinly veiled man-hating agenda, and in a truly bizarre paragraph at the end of the review, he expressed sympathy to the director because he had to work with someone as hideous as me.

The review was horrible and personal and projected all sorts of terrible things on me.  I was shocked, a lot of people were shocked.  And there was real outcry in the community. A lot of letters were written to the Times—someone told me it was sixty letters, which I don’t know how anyone would know that but it made me feel better, even though none of them were published.  Apologies were made behind the scenes, none to me but to other people.  The heroic Tina Howe went to the Dramatists Guild council and read the review aloud and insisted something be done about this; she and a lot of people made the excellent point that if anyone at the Times had ever dared to publish a review as racist or homophobic or anti-Semitic as this review was, in its bigotry—well, the review would never have been published.   So there was a flurry of upset.   But with a review that bad, the play closed.  All the other productions went away.  American Theater magazine went away.   Everybody knew that that was a crazy misogynistic review.  But no one would produce the play.  Ever again.  And you should know that many people consider it my best play.  Still.

This is what happened to me in the months after that.

–People couldn’t get over it.  For about a year and a half, I had people come up to me at least once a week and this is what the conversation would be:

NICE PERSON:  Hi Theresa, how are you?  I saw the Butterfly Collection!  Wow it was so beautiful!  What a great evening of theater!

THERESA:  Thank you.

NICE PERSON:  That review was crazy!  So misogynistic! Wow, how could he write something like that?

And then this nice person would go on and on and on about that crazy misogynistic review, so I got to live through it all over again.

I cannot tell you how many of these conversations I had.  Maybe 200.  Then one day I did an interview with the great Chuck Mee, and after the interview was over, and the reporter had left, Chuck said to me, “I saw The Butterfly Collection.  It was really beautiful.”  And I said, “Thank you.”  And then I waited, for the rest of the conversation, about that crazy review, and Chuck didn’t say it.  All he said was, that play was beautiful, and for a minute, I had my play back.

The other person who repeated and heroically gave me my play back was the wonderful actress Lyn Cohen, who was really angry about what happened and who would speak to me with such courage and compassion about it that even though I didn’t want to really talk about it, she always made me feel better.

This is another thing that happened:  A whole lot of people decided I should change my identity.   This is the conversation I had with other well meaning people:

NICE PERSON:  You know Theresa everybody knows that your work is terrific but the New York critics don’t like you personally.

THERESA:  How can they not like me personally?  They don’t know me!

NICE PERSON:  Hey!  We love you.  But you know what you should do?  You should produce your plays under a male pseudonym.

THERESA:  You mean, I should pretend to be a man?

NICE PERSON:  That’s right. That’s the only way they will accept you.  Or the plays!  They would like your plays, if only you hadn’t written them!

Okay I know that sounds crazy but I swear I had that conversation at least a dozen times.  Arthur Kopit, who really is great and I love him, thought this was a hilarious idea and he had a lot of fun figuring out for me how I would pull that off, becoming a man.  We never went as far as surgery but there were lots of other clever ideas about how what I might do to trick people into thinking I was a man, which is what I needed to do, to make my identity acceptable.

This is another thing that happened to me:  One of my friends who was a producer in New York told me that this was all a sign, that I was being told by the Times that I am not welcome in New York and I should think of something else to do with my life.

This is another thing that happened:  A close friend of mine who is a theater director started screaming at me in restaurants and he told me I wasn’t an artist.

This is another thing that happened to me:  My agent said, you know Theresa, how you’ve always wanted to write a novel?  Maybe you should do that.  Which is not necessarily bad advice, but it’s also not particularly advice you want to hear from your THEATRE AGENT.  He also told me that my next two plays, Omnium Gatherum and Bad Dates, were unproduce-able and that he couldn’t represent them.

And, I couldn’t get produced.  He was right about that.  No one wanted to touch the Butterfly Collection and no one wanted to touch me.  And then I fell off of the map. I got really depressed because of all this, as you might imagine, and I couldn’t think anymore, and I was spending way too much time lying on the couch all day, and I was drinking white wine a lot, in one inch increments, I would lie on the couch and tell myself I wasn’t turning into an alcoholic because I was only drinking white wine one inch at a time.  And then one day my son, who was five years old at the time, came up to me and said, “Mom, are you all right?”  And I looked at him and I thought:  GET UP. It is your job to take care of this kid and it’s not his job to take care of you and you are not going to turn into this person.  So I got off the couch.

And then a bunch of other things happened that were equally or more hideous, it’s not like getting off the couch solved everything.  I did start writing a novel, although that’s a whole different story.  But I really was off the grid, for two years, and then one day I went to see my friend Sinan’s play up at the Longwharf, and I caught a ride back to the city with John Eisner, and we talked for three hours and he said you should come up to the Lark.  And then the next day Arthur Kopit called and told me as well, you should come up to the Lark. And the Lark saved me.  They saved my sanity and they saved my career and I thank them for everything they have done for me, and what they do for a lot of playwrights, there is no organization, in my mind, that does more.

And that is the last time I am telling that story.  I am never telling that story again.  But I tell it today because I don’t want to hear from anybody that there isn’t, or hasn’t been, a real gender problem in the American theater.  I really did think about what I might talk to you about today and I had no choice, honestly, I felt like my whole career as a playwright has been so hyperdefined by my gender—sometimes I feel like it is strangely blinding, even—and it’s time for all of us to look at this, and talk about it, without going “oh there’s not really a problem” because there IS a problem—and then start talking about what we, as a community, are going to do to solve it.

This is an important point to realize:  Before I came to New York and started working in the theater, I was never told that being a girl was going to be a problem for me in any way that I took seriously. It’s not like I was a stranger to conservatism. I know a lot about the Republican party and the Catholic church because I was raised, basically, in both.  Both my parents were staunch Ohio Republican Catholics until some point where my mother got a clue and switched parties and now she’s a democrat and my father is still a republican so since then they’ve done nothing but fight incessantly about politics.  My father, who is as I said both republican and catholic, thinks I’m insane BUT there was a moment in my childhood, when some of his buddies got into ribbing him about having so many daughters.  He had four daughters and two sons, and someone apparently even expressed pity one day, the story goes, one of his golfing buddies said something like, “Poor George, what is he going to do with all those girls?”  And it pissed him off, and he came home and said to my democratic mother, “Those girls can do anything the boys can do.” And that is what the expectation was, in my house.  Then I went to an all girls Catholic high school where the nuns were all quietly radical liberation theologists who were secretly agitating for women’s ordination.  Then I went to Notre Dame, which was more traditionally conservative, but I couldn’t take it tooo seriously because they had things like panty raids there. I thought it was just too dumb to be believed.  And then I went to Brandeis, where I read a lot of feminist literary theory and considered questions like “Is the Gaze Male?”  This was in the EIGHTIES, that’s more than 25 years ago, for people who are counting.   And at the time there were fantastic plays being produced all over the country by Wendy Wasserstein and Tina Howe and Marsha Norman and Emily Mann, and I thought it was a cool thing, to be a woman playwright.  I thought, I’m not in the Catholic Church anymore, and the world is saying we haven’t heard from the women, and now we’re ready!

And then I began my career as a professional playwright, where I was told that since I’m a woman, if I write about women, that means I have a feminist agenda and that’s BAD.    I also got told that when I write about men, since I’m a woman, that I clearly have a feminist agenda, and that’s bad too.  I couldn’t write about anything without hearing that I had a feminist agenda.  It turned out that being a woman playwright was just in and of itself suspect; if you are a woman playwright by definition you have a feminist agenda, which was so bad, it annihilated the work itself.   Apparently the other word for woman playwright might as well be ‘witch.’

As an aside let me add, I would rather be called a witch than a man hater.  Honestly ‘man hater’ really does need to be simply off the table.  It bugs the shit out of me.  I have a husband and a son and a lot of men in my life who I love a lot and it’s creepy, that people would toss that ugly accusation at anyone in the jovial spirit of name-calling.  Someone actually called me that at a party a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to hit him.  BUT I DIDN’T.    Anyway, if you need to call me a name, the preferred insult would be “witch,” or “madwoman in the attic” is also acceptable.

So those are some of the ways I know there actually is a gender problem in the American theater. This is another way:  Because so many people—not just Arthur Kopit—have told me, over the years, that in order to have a career that is commensurate with my talent, I should pretend to be a man. This is another way I know there is a problem:  Because the extraordinary Julia Jordan ran the numbers for us.

Two years ago in what I think was an act of inspired intelligence and courage, Julia Jordan conducted a series of town halls at New Dramatists, which put the question of gender parity on the table for the American theater to discuss.  She invited women playwrights to come and present their situation and they showed up in droves.  Then she invited artistic directors and literary managers to come and confront the situation with us.  And this is the situation:  Plays written by women are not being produced.  In 2007, the one year I opened a play on Broadway, I was the only woman playwright who did so.  That year, nationwide, 12 per cent of the new plays produced all over the country were by women. That means 88 percent of the new plays produced were written by men. (Back in 1918 before women had the right to vote, the percentage of new plays in New York, written by women, was higher.  It was higher before we had the vote.)

Generally, over the last 25 years the number of plays produced that were written by women seems to have vacillated between 12 and 17 percent.

This is a disastrous statistic, and it is related to another disastrous statistic, which is the number of women writers and directors in Hollywood.  This year 6 percent of films were directed by women, and 8 percent of produced screenplays were written by women, or women had a shared credit on them.  That means 88 percent of all plays were written by men, 94 percent of all movies were directed by men, and 92 percent of all movies were written by men.

Women playwrights like myself have a lot of anecdotal evidence to support some pretty coherent theories about why this is the case.  People in the power structure seem more mystified and often they don’t seem sure that there is a problem. (One of them actually said to me, not to long ago, “But Theresa, where ARE the women playwrights?”  Seriously, he looked me in the face and said that.) Several artistic directors have expressed concern at the idea of “quotas,” they really don’t like the word “quota.”  I don’t like that word either.  Another word I don’t like is “discrimination” and, “censorship,” and I wish I could get them to dislike those words as much as they dislike “quotas.” “Boys club” is another couple of words I could very well live without.  But since there is so much murky territory in language, I think this discussion of numbers is very useful.

Here is what the numbers say to me:  If we lived in an ideal world, the balance of new plays produced in theaters all over America would come out to, roughly, fifty/fifty.  The Dramatists Guild—of which I am a proud member, I serve on the council and it’s a great organization, everyone who is a playwright should belong, here’s a shout out to Gary Garrison and Ralph Sevush you are excellent, and so is Stephen Schwartz our excellent president.  Anyway the Dramatist Guild tracks the percentages of women and men who enter graduate school as playwriting students, and it also tracks the numbers of people who apply for membership, and those numbers either stick to the 50/50 ratio OR there is a higher number of women.  So in the ideal world, those women and men who are over the years developing their craft as playwrights should rise though the system at an even rate.   This is not what is happening.  Women are being shut out, at different levels of development and production, and you end up with this crazy 17 percent number which seems to be the highest percentage we can get to, year in and year out.  Seventeen percent of fifty percent is thirty four percent of a hundred percent.  (Bear with me I’m not making this up I’m actually pretty good at math.)  That means that sixty-six percent of the best plays by women—the plays that SHOULD be rising to the top, the plays that in a fair world would move into the culture as the stories we are telling ourselves—sixty six percent of women’s stories are being lost.  Every year.

And I have to reiterate the premise of those numbers is that playwriting is NOT in fact a gene on a Y chromosome, and that we are NOT losing women playwrights because they decided to run off and have babies.   The reason we lost all those women playwrights is, We buried their work, and we sent them away.

I would also like to note that in January a lot of reports came out about the recent study of the American Council on Education, which informed us that last year women earned more than half the degrees granted in every category—associate, bachelor, master, doctor or professional. The actual numbers nationwide stand at 57 percent women, and 43 percent men, and they have stood somewhere in that vicinity since the year 2000.  USA Today asks, is this “cause for celebration, or concern?”

When I read all these accounts, I thought 43 percent, wow, women playwrights would be so happy if our numbers got up to 43 percent.  We would be throwing parties.  But the people who do the studies and write these reports up are in fact WORRIED that it’s not fair to the boys, that they only have 43 percent of the slots in the college population. This is a bad thing we are told, for a lot of reasons, principle among them that smart girls won’t have enough men to date.  (That is how the NY Times reported the story.)  A lot of colleges have admitted that just as they might consider race or geographical diversity in building freshman classes, they similarly look for gender parity, which means they are letting boys in over more qualified girls—which does look like affirmative action,  or shall we say “quotas,” which apparently are okay when they favor  boys.

So women playwrights live in a world where we are told it is a bad thing if women are 57 percent of the undergraduate population, because that’s too big an imbalance, but it’s an okay thing if women are only getting 17 percent or 6 percent or 9 percent of the best jobs in show business (and elsewhere, in America) and if we tried to rectify that it would be unfair because it would involve “quotas.”

Now let me tell you something:  A lot of people will think that what I just pointed out was a “feminist” statement.  But I don’t actually see it that way.  I see these contradictions as just kind of comical and even, well, stupid. As an indication that there is just something truly systemically unfair going on here.  That’s not a feminist agenda.  That’s the truth.

I never had an agenda.  I just wanted to write plays that told the truth.  Some of those plays told the truth about what it is like to live on this planet, as a woman.  Why would that be off the table? Why would that story be something that they only do in fiction, or on cable tv?  Why can’t we do that in the theater?  I just don’t think that we want to align ourselves with the backward-looking institutions of culture.  We want to see ourselves, I think, as a relevant and intellectually rigorous and culturally progressive community.  It’s past time to acknowledge the fact that that means welcoming the voices of women into the cultural discussion.

There are a lot of ways to do this.  Primarily, I think, we need to encourage theaters and producers and foundations and boards of directors, to extend to women playwrights the kind of excellent programs which have been put in place to encourage the work of minority playwrights.  All across America, and here in New York, there has been strong and necessary support for these voices, and wonderful writers have emerged because of that support.  I have been told so many times over the years that theaters and foundations are interested in “diversity” but that doesn’t mean women.  That needs to change. We need to stop discussing why the numbers are so bad, and stop asking where are the women playwrights, and we need to start recognizing them where they are—which is right in front of us–and hold them up and celebrate their voices, and produce their plays.

In that context, I would like to report that this year, in New York, the following plays were produced:

Circle Mirror Transformation, by Annie Baker

Or, by Liz Duffy Adams

This, by Melissa James Gilbert

The Vibrator Play, by Sarah Ruhl

The Understudy, by me

Smudge, by Rachel Axelrod

Happy Now, by Lucinda Coxon

All of these plays have received wide critical recognition; most of them were extended and all of them played to packed houses.  In short, there were a lot of plays by women in New York this year, and they were not only fierce and dazzling and interesting:  They also made a lot of money.  Tim Sanford, over at Playwrights Horizons, who has long been an unacknowledged champion of women’s plays, is having a truly sensational season, in a worried, recessionary economy.   He deserves it.  Julia Crosby over there at the Women’s Project is also having a sensational season, and she and they deserve it, too.

Which brings us finally to another couple of statistics which I think are worth noting:  Women buy more tickets.  They buy 55 percent of movie tickets and anywhere from sixty to SIXTY FIVE percent of theater tickets. So opening our stages and our hearts and our minds to women playwrights is not only cool and relevant and interesting and just—it is also a sound business model.

Sir David Hare recently made news by informing the London Telegraph that “many of today’s best plays were being written by women, but that “macho” theater managers were failing to capitalize on the trend.”   That is a direct quote, and here’s another:  “I don’t think the repertory of most theaters is reflecting what seems to be happening in terms of the most interesting new theater.  We would hope to see management in theater reflecting where we think the creativity in playwriting is coming from.”

A friend of mine was worried about me after all that shit went down with The Butterfly Collection, so she got me a session with an astrologer named Coral.  So Coral did my chart, which was apparently in very poor shape at the time, like me.  And she got very specific about the names of the stars and the planets which were passing through my heavens, and apparently there’s a planet out there named Cairon, it’s not actually a planet I think it’s one of the moons of Jupiter, but Coral informed that Cairon is the wounded healer, and Cairon was just all over my chart.  Then, and now; I apparently have been claimed in every way by Cairon, the wounded healer.  And there is no question, I am wounded.  But I offer you all this information as a hope that I might actually provide one of the healing voices in this discussion. I really do believe that if enough people stand up and say this cannot go on, it will not go on. After a season like this one, where so many plays in New York were by women, and were so relevant, and important, and successful, both in what they achieved dramatically, and the way they drew in audiences, we will not go back.   We will not go back.

There is a Native American saying, “It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story.”    And Walter Cronkite told us, “In seeking truth, you have to get both sides of the story.”

It’s time to hear both sides, to hear all voices, to build a culture where stories are told by both men and women.  That is the way the planet is going to survive, and it’s the way we are going to survive.

Thank you very much.

Theresa Rebeck and I have been friends for a very long time, and one of the first things I learned about her was also one of the most important.  When she has something to say the best thing to do is just get out of the way.

Which is what I plan to do tonight.

First, however, there are a couple of things I want to say about Theresa:

A number of years ago, somebody asked George S. Kaufman what it was like to write a play.  He said it was easy.  You simply sat down in front of a blank piece of paper and stared at it until blood began to seep through your forehead.  From my point of view, an entirely accurate description.

But what about from Theresa’s?

Since she graduated first from Notre Dame, then from Brandeis—a religious mystery I still can’t quite sort out—Theresa has produced a body of work the breadth and variety of which is genuinely breathtaking.

16 full-length plays, 23 one acts, 3 produced screenplays, 2 published novels, a book of essays, between 25 and 40 episodes of prime time television shows like L.A. Law, NYPD Blue, and Law & Order, along with a grab bag of pilot scripts, treatments, unfinished or abandoned plays, Christmas lists, to-do lists, grocery lists, and a list of people who really piss her off—a list which, believe me, you do not want to be on.

A brief footnote.  The first time I actually saw smoke come out of Theresa’s ears and flames shoot out of her eyes was back in the days when it was still fashionable in certain segments of the playwriting community to characterize playwrights who worked in television as losers and sellouts, prostituting their talent and betraying their craft and their colleagues.

Not surprisingly, this position was advanced by a handful of playwrights who had actually managed to become wealthy writing plays and before the publication of Todd London and Ben Pesner’s book Outrageous Fortune, which found that on average, successful working playwrights earn between $25,000 and $39,000 a year, only 15% of which actually comes from productions of their plays.

Theresa wasn’t the first playwright to understand this, but she was one of the first playwrights to actually do something about it.  And it’s fair to say that the excellence of the work which she produced in this non-playwright’s medium helped prepare a path for the playwrights who would come after her—the Diana Sons who would write for Law & Order while continuing to write plays, the Marsha Normans who would write for In Treatment while continuing to write plays, the Peter Parnells who would write for The West Wing and the Kia Corthrons who would write for The Wire, both while continuing to write plays.  And the list goes on.

Did Theresa Rebeck invent the idea that good television would be even better if it was written by playwrights?  Maybe not.  But she did more than her fair share to legitimize it.

But back to those 16 full-length plays and 23 one acts.

Quantity, of course, is not quality.  Nor do awards necessarily memorialize excellence.  We live in a world, after all, in which Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize and Sunset Boulevard won the Tony Award for Best Musical.  Nevertheless, I would be remiss if I did not note in passing that Theresa has won the Peabody Award, the National Theatre Conference Award, the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award, the Writers’ Guild Award for Episodic Drama, the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award, the Hispanic Images Imagen Award, and a Prime Time Emmy.  And that four years ago her play Omnium Gatherum was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Of course, as the people in this room know, no one who writes for the theater measures his or her success by counting statues on a mantelpiece.  The award all playwrights covet is the feeling you get when you’re standing in the back of the house watching an audience holding its breath, totally enthralled by the work you’ve put in front of them.  And many of the most riveting, provocative, disturbing and exhilarating evenings I have spent in the theater have been evenings spent sitting in front of a Theresa Rebeck play.  Our House, Mauritius, The Understudy, The Scene, Bad Dates, The Family of Mann, The Waters’ Edge …

I saw The Water’s Edge four years ago and I haven’t stepped into a bath tub since.

Sometimes hilarious, sometimes harrowing, often both, but always truthful, Theresa’s plays are written with a unique voice, the product of a unique personality comprised of a dizzying array of kaleidoscopic qualities—among them, a withering wit, an inexhaustible capacity for indignation, a survivor’s capacity for generosity and kindness, and a ferocious inability to tolerate injustice.

The director Doug Hughes was once asked about Theresa’s work and this is what he said, quote:  “Theresa does not make nice for the sake of making nice.  She’s a believer that pathologies and tainted motives are important to expose.  She sees that as her job.  Play­wrights are here to make trouble.”

Ladies and gentlemen, Theresa Rebeck.

Here are the women directed films:

Encounters- Zero out of 14

Discovery- (2 out of 18)

brilliantlove, directed by Ashley Horner, written by Sean Conway. (UK) – World Premiere, Narrative. Love and lust entangle over a sweltering summer as a novice photographer, Manchester, documents his sweaty affair with his taxidermist girlfriend, Noon. But when a wealthy art-world pornography collector “discovers” Manchester as a genius, the trappings of the art world are unleashed upon the unsuspecting couple, shattering Noon’s trust and heart. Director Ashley Horner captures the yearning and desire that can simultaneously strengthen and burn romance.

No Woman, No Cry, directed by Christy Turlington Burns. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. More than half a million women each year die from preventable complications during pregnancy or childbirth. In her gripping directorial debut, Christy Turlington Burns shares the powerful stories of pregnant women in four parts of the world, including a remote Maasai tribe in East Africa, a slum of Bangladesh, a post-abortion care ward in Guatemala, and a prenatal clinic in the United States.

The Other City, directed by Susan Koch. (USA) – World Premiere, Documentary. There’s a part of Washington, DC never seen by the tourists and ignored by the mass media. At least three percent of DC is HIV positive, a staggering rate higher than parts of Africa, but the city is also full of encouraging stories of grassroots movements to extend education, combat stigmas, and spread hope. TFF alum Susan Koch’s (Kicking It, TFF ’08) eye-opening documentary tells the unheard stories behind the growing epidemic in our nation’s capital.

Cinemania (Zero out of six)

Spotlight (Three out of nine)

Cairo Time, directed and written by Ruba Nadda. (Canada, Ireland, Egypt) – US Premiere, Narrative. In this graceful cross-cultural love story, a happily married woman (Patricia Clarkson) is separated from her husband in the overwhelming city of Cairo. While waiting for his return, she experiences the unique beauty of Egypt with his friend (Alexander Siddig). As their tender friendship blossoms, a series of small yet profound moments changes both of their worlds forever. An IFC Films release.

Joan Rivers – A Piece of Work, directed by Ricki Stern, Annie Sundberg. (USA) – New York Premiere, Documentary. Joan Rivers is the undisputed queen of American comedy, and at 76 years old, with a career spanning five decades, she shows no sign of slowing down. Following Rivers over the course of a year, A Piece of Work reveals the fascinating combination of vulnerability and irreverence behind the public figure in this endlessly entertaining, quintessential profile of a New York icon. An IFC Films release.

Please Give, directed and written by Nicole Holofcener. (USA) – New York Premiere, Narrative. Death, materialism, liberal guilt, adultery, midlife malaise… writer/director Nicole Holofcener (Friends with Money, Lovely & Amazing) makes such topics sing with earnest emotion and devastating humor. Catherine Keener and Oliver Platt star as well-to-do Manhattanites waiting out the death of their crotchety neighbor so they can take over her apartment. Things get messy when they try to make nice with the old lady and her granddaughters (Amanda Peet and Rebecca Hall).A Sony Pictures Classics release.

Just so that you know that I am not the only one obsessed with the numbers, I got this an email from producer of forthcoming documentary, “a woman like that” directed by Ellen Weissbrod:

I was just curious, so I counted for the Tribeca Festival 2010:

ENCOUNTERS – 0 of 14 films
DISCOVERY – 2 of 18
CINEMANIA – 0 of 6
SPOTLIGHT 3 of 9
WORLD NARRATIVE FEATURE COMPETITION – 2 of 12
WORLD DOCUMENTARY FEATURE COMPETITION 4 of 12
SHOWCASE 0 of 7
SPECIAL EVENTS 0 of 3

christ.  11 out of 81 = 13.5%

Really this issue is about about women’s voices and women’s stories getting equal time.

I guess we are supposed to be satisfied w/ Christy Turlington and Joan Rivers.

Not that they aren’t good films or valid issues,  but when that’s THE ONLY thing – it feels . . .  stilted. Un-diverse.

end of lecture.

See earlier post: Tribeca Film Festival Lineup Part 1

At a time when women’s participation in the film industry continues to shrink, BEV’s role in redressing the balance is vital. Although the festival’s initial remit was to raise public awareness about women filmmakers, it is now so much more than that. In addition to screening features, documentaries and shorts made by women, the festival this year ran a series of networking events and heavily-subsidized training workshops. At one of the workshops it was a huge pleasure to be entertained and educated by three women who clearly were masters of their field: Paula Le Dieu, Margaret Robertson and Alice Taylor.

BEV also managed to lure Susanne Bier to give an informative masterclass to support a retrospective of her work. Interviewed onstage by Briony Hansen of the Script Factory, Bier generously shared her insights on how her work centers on  tiny incidents shattering lives, though she felt that at the end of her films there was usually a lot of hope for the characters.

Speaking on the eve of the closing gala, BEV marketing manager Juliana Zenker reflected that “filmmakers don’t want to be labeled females—that ghettoizes them and prevents them getting jobs.” She pointed to the fact that many men had attended the festival; probably around 15% of festival audiences have been male, which speaks against ghettoizing.

Juliana also emphasized the importance of venue; the festival has principally used the Institute of Contemporary Arts and the British Film Institute, both outstanding venues for film, separated by the Thames. The venues help to validate the importance of the festival and allow audience crossover.

The buzz of excitement as the crowd waited to be allowed into the largest NFT auditorium for the closing gala led judge Louise Jury, chief arts correspondent for the London Evening Standard, to hope that some of the attendees will want to make their own films with a female sensibility. She had judged the feature film section, praising the winner as “an astonishing bit of filmmaking.”

Festival founder Rachel Millward took the stage to introduce the awards ceremony before ceding the bulk of the presentation to new Managing Director Amy Mole, as Millward had been preoccupied with a production of her own: her first baby, born on International Women’s Day.

Amy announced three winners:

• Best feature: Lourdes, by Jessica Hausner
• Best documentary: Junior by Jenna Rosher
• Best short: awarded jointly to The Door, by Juanita Wilson, and Slaves, co-directed by Hanna Heilborn and David Aronowitsch.

Amy pointed out that Kathryn Bigelow’s historic win has “helped focus the international spotlight on the lack of women film-makers within the industry.” To help redress this imbalance, one of the most important ongoing functions of BEV is its First Weekenders Club. This encourages members to “vote with their feet”—attend opening weekend screenings of films made by women in order to ensure highest possible opening weekend figures, thus helping to widen the film’s distribution.

Bird’s Eye View

About the author: Hilary Hadley Wright writes screenplays and non-fiction, and teaches writing and presentation skills to business clients. She spent the last week cheering Kathryn Bigelow.

Listen live at 1pm EST or at your convenience.

Uncharacteristically, the issue of female directors working — though all too often not working — was being discussed in print and online, and without the usual accusations of political correctness, a phrase that’s routinely deployed to silence those with legitimate complaints. I don’t think I’ve read the words women and film and feminism in the same sentence as much in the last few months since Thelma and Louise rocked the culture nearly two decades ago.

But of course, a visible win like an Oscar has unleashed criticism especially because Kathryn Bigelow did not embrace her fellow directing sisters in a big bold, feminist rant.

For example a piece from NOW in Toronto said:

You got the sense she was embarrassed that Barbra Streisand acknowledged the achievement and then Bigelow made no reference to the significance. How she could get up there and not mention the likes of Ida Lupino is baffling.

You know that if she would have gotten up there and talked about women directors and how this was historic for women the next day all anyone would have talked about was how she shouldn’t define herself as a woman director cause that marginalizes women.  Either way she couldn’t please everyone.

The Times of London criticizes her win not as a step forward for women, but confirmation of her selling out and joining the boys club.  Can West News Service reporter Jamie Postman talks about his angry encounter with Bigelow 15 years ago when she was promoting Strange Days and how she has a short fuse and berated and yelled at a female reporter at a press conference because stood up and confronted Bigelow on the fact that her film perpetuated violence against women.

I’m not really down with bringing up stories form 15 years ago to illuminate anything about anyone today, but the comment does bring up one one of the questions that will continue to plague her and this win.  Do women have more of an obligation to women not to perpetuate female stereotypes?  And do women directors have a moral imperative not to make films that put women in situations where they are assaulted, murdered and victimized? Is that part of the responsibility of having a vagina when you are a director?

That is an interesting conversation.  I don’t believe that a woman director should be handcuffed on any topic precisely because a woman could handle those topics differently.  Finally it feels like people have finally awakened to the fact that women directors have been getting the short end of the stick for decades.  Welcome to the party.  I implore you not to just talk and rant but do your part.  Go and see films by women directors.

Another issue that has been illuminated in this conversation — one that I find just as vital and important — is the discussion that movies about women don’t generate the same interest, passion and gravitas that movies about men do especially if they are directed and written by women.  TV writer Sarah Fain wrote on her blog:

My annoyance at Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar win is rooted in the man-off conundrum, which is basically this:  to garner attention and respect, women in Hollywood have to act like/write like/direct like men.

Is this an absolute rule?  No.  (And by no, I mean pretty much yes, unless you’re Nancy Meyers, and even that’s debatable.)

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that Bigelow didn’t deserve her Oscar— she certainly did.  So did Randa Haines, who wasn’t even nominated for Children of a Lesser God in 1986, despite the movie’s nomination for Best Picture.  And so did Niki Caro, whose 2002 film Whale Rider is still one of the most stunning pieces of artistic achievement I’ve ever seen.

This is where we need to focus energy on in the future and I’m afraid that it might even be just as hard — if not harder — to get respect in this area as it is for women directors.  But again, people can do their parts in this fight.  When there is a film about women that gets dismissed by your friends and partners as just a plain old stupid chick flick and it is one that you know deserves better than that — because lord knows some are really crappy — stand up for them.  Have some ammunition in your conversation.  Talk about why films about women don’t get taken seriously.   This is where we can all make a difference.  This is why awards matter.  Because it causes people to talk and consider and question.

Kathryn Bigelow, the absentee feminist (NOW Toronto)

Kathryn Bigelow’s great leap forward — or was it? (The Times of London)

Kathryn Bigelow And The Man-Off Conundrum (Sarah Fain Has Starfish Envy)

Kathryn Bigelow is no ‘bad boy’ (The Guardian)

How Oscar Found Ms. Right (NY Times)

The Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow: Don’t mess with her (Vancouver Sun)

They note in the that Betty Thomas (former actress on Hill Street Blues) who has been a director since the late 80s first on TV and then in films, had her latest film, Alvin and the Chipmunks – The Squeakquel recently cross the $200 million mark at the US box office.  In fact, as of March 11, according to boxofficemojo the film has grossed $217,501 here and pratically the same amount overseas.

Betty Thomas is also a very interesting director to look at because she has never been relegated to the girl director ghetto.  She’s always made commercial mainstream family comedies (Dr. Dolittle and the Brady Bunch movie) with a little raunch thrown in with the Howard Stern film Private Parts.

Her venture into traditional drama — 28 Days with Sandra Bullock — did not fare as well but it is an interesting film.  I’m guessing she got that film made post the success of Dr. Dolittle.  Wondering what film she’s going to do next.

Just another reminder of the diversity of female talent out there.

This roundup includes: Martha Coolidge, (Rambling Rose); Gina Prince-Bythewood, The Secret Life of Bees; Maria Maggenti, The Incredibly True Adventures of Two Girls in Love; Sarah Walker, The Underdog Club; Arlene Bogna, Patriot Johnny; Ela Thier, Foreign Letters

Martha Coolidge

It’s great that she won!  I was at the DGA and the Oscars.  You could feel the swell of enthusiasm in the room at the Oscars.  It felt like a stampede.  She did a terrific film that has a special meaning to the country right now and walked a fine line politically.  On so many levels it worked to push her over the top.  Jim (Cameron) was thrilled!  Now the question is what will it do for women getting jobs?  I certainly hope it improves her choices.

Gina Prince-Bythewood

My thoughts are pretty simple — watching her walk up to the stage to collect her oscar, I just felt good.

Maria Maggenti

I was really happy when Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar. She’s been working a very very long time as a director. And The Hurt Locker was a beautifully directed film, even if it was more of a character study than a conventional narrative. Do I think it will have an impact on the industry and the dreams of other female directors? No. I don’t. If you have as many meetings as I do, every week, with studios and financiers who are responsible for helping you make your next feature, you realise that the blind, matter-of-fact sexism that informs executive decisions is still there. Bigelow has never once done a studio film — no one would hire her. All her films have been negative pick-ups, which means she’s had to take them onto the marketplace after they’ve been financed. I kind of wish that I could say to some of the execs I meet (mostly female by the way) “Hey, look what Kathryn Bigelow did – why not trust that I can do the same thing?” but quite frankly, the answer will be: “You’re no Kathryn Bigelow.”  A singular voice will always be seen as a singular voice. And Bigelow herself didn’t exactly hold up the feminist mantle in her win — in fact, I was more moved by Barbra Streisand who’s “it’s about time” was the most that seemed to be made of Bigelow’s triumph as a woman director. Hey, maybe I’m wrong. If the picture I’m trying to get off the ground goes, and I get financing, a studio behind me, a big P&A commitment and the kind of behind the scenes political push that make awards go one way or the other, I’ll let you know.

Sarah Walker

Kathryn Bigelow I believe in you. Your magic is real.

Arlene Bogna

I can still hear Barbra Streisand’s words “Well, the time has come,” and I agree with Kathryn Bigelow’s statement about being a filmmaker without a gender modifier.

History has been made, and from this day on it is possible for a woman to win an Oscar for Best Director.  A door has been unequivocally opened, and perhaps it is a chance for more and more talented lady directors to contribute to cinema and be recognized for their work. Future audiences may even take for granted how long it took for all this to happen. And that would be great.

Ela Thier

I admire Bigelow’s talent and thrilled that she be recognized! I look forward to a culture in which half of the films in the theater are directed by women.

But this year begins with a bang and Zoe gets her own film.  She stars as the Exploding Girl in Bradley Rust Gray’s new film.  He wrote it for Zoe after they spent a lot of time walking and talking together.  Zoe plays Ivy a young college student home for spring break.  She’s at the beginning of a new relationship with a guy at school and this week away has made Ivy unsure of how they feel about each other.  Ivy is a typical 20 year old and spends a lot on time on the phone.  The cell phone is basically a character in the film.  The conversations with Ivy and the boyfriend are full of awkward silences and remind us that while we might be more connected to people, at the same time it’s even harder to truly connect.

The emotions of a young woman not yet an adult and no longer child are written all over Zoe’s face.  She’s at the stage where everything feels slippery and unsure.  She doesn’t yet know where she fits into the world and to complicate matters she also has to deal with a chronic medical condition that has made her grow up much faster than others around her.  For example, she might have a hard time having children because of the medication she takes.  That’s just her reality.  She also can’t take a bath alone because she could have a seizure and drown.  But she manages this chronic condition with the help and understanding of her long time friend Al (played by Mark Rendall), and their week together (his parents rented out his room so he sleeps on Ivy’s mom’s couch) brings to the fore feelings she really never knew she had.

Zoe Kazan is the real deal.  She’s going to have a long career in film and theatre as an actor and a writer since she is also a playwright.  I am excited to keep watching her work.  Count me as a big fan.

But now it looks like Hardwicke has gotten the green light from Warner Brothers for The Girl with the Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried (who will be feted next week as Showest’s breakthrough star.)

The premise for the red riding hood redo came from Leonardo DiCaprio and his production company will produce along with Warner Brothers.

Here’s a description from EW:

[The film] is about a girl who tries to uncover the true identity of the wolf that’s been terrorizing her village for the  two decades. She must also resolve her feelings for her wealthy fiance and the town’s bad boy.

I guess that Warner Brothers has seen the writing on the wall and has moved on from the days not too long ago when they supposedly did not want to see any scripts with female leads.  I’m sure it helped to have Leonardo DiCaprio’s name attached to this one.  According to Screen Daily, the budget is a little over the budget of Twilight which was $37 million so Warners commitment is contained.

Hardwicke will receive the Honorary Director Award from the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto later this month.  Here’s what she said about the award:

“Thank you, Female Eye Film Festival, for honoring me with this award.  It’s such a privilege to be a part of a festival that recognizes what all the women filmmakers around the world have to offer. Looking forward to chilling with my northern sisters!”

Details on the Female Eye festival.

Hardwicke set to shoot Riding Hood in Vancouver (Screen Daily)

Film opens next Friday, March 19.  Writer/director Floria Sigismondi will be our next guest on In Conversation- Women & Hollywood’s online radio show next Tuesday, March 16th at 1pm EST.  Listen here.

What do you think?  Does the trailer make you want to see the film?

Well thanks to the statistics that we released by the MPAA with barely a blip yesterday, (thanks David Poland for the heads up) the news is that not only do women go to movies, we go more than men.  Yes, folks — women go to the movies more than men do.

This news should rock each and every executive in Hollywood more than the Bigelow Oscar win.  Cause this is something they understand.  This is money and women are delivering the money.  Big time.

So I am officially holding a funeral for the term “women are not a film market.”  I never want to hear it uttered again.  I am going to keep these statistics next to my computer (or maybe make them my screensaver but that would mean removing my picture of Kathryn Bigelow holding two Oscars) because every time someone says that women don’t go to the movies I’m just going to throw the stats in their faces.

I know exactly why the 2009 numbers increased.  If you follow the business it’s not too hard to figure it out.  The reasons are New Moon and The Blind Side with a side of The Proposal (now Sandra Bullock’s Oscar makes even more sense.)  Maybe folks are going to try and say that it is a fluke because there were two female centric successes and we don’t have those frequently.  Friends, that is the whole fucking point.  It’s like that line from Field of Dreams – “if you build it they will come.”  It is only looked at as a fluke because of the shortsightedness of people who won’t believe that women will continue to go to the movies.  There is nothing in any of the data that I have looked at the gives me any indication that women won’t go to the movies in the future.  In fact, I would venture to say that if they continue to make movies that attract women we will continue to be there.

Another line that I want to bury for good is that young men go to the movies more than anyone else.  That’s just bullshit.  Younger men don’t go to the movies more than younger women.  Younger people in general go to the movies more, but based on the MPAA numbers of frequent moviegoers (ones who go more than once a month) in the coveted demographic of 18-24, women make up 3.4 million filmgoers while men make up 3.1 million.  Suck on that Hollywood!

Don’t believe me, check out the numbers from the MPAA:

See the yellow?  That’s the women.

Here are the other stats:

• In 2009 there were 217 million moviegoers.  The total admissions was 1.4 billion dollars.
• Women are 113 million of the moviegoers and bought 55% of the tickets.
• Men are 104 million of the moviegoers and 45% of the tickets.

Here’s the money quote from the MPAA:

“A higher percentage of women than men are moviegoers in all categories of frequency.”

In. All. Categories. of. Frequency.

Women make up 9 million more filmgoers than men.

Bottom line: The future is female.  The upside is great.  The market is there ready to be tapped.  The only issue is who will take advantage of it.

World Narrative Feature Competition (Women directors account for 3 out of 12)

Paju, directed and written by Chan-ok Park. (South Korea) – North American Premiere. Joongshik and Eunmo live in Paju: a gray town where the urban landscape is as bleak as the fate of its residents. In writer/director Chan-ok Park’s emotionally intense follow-up to award-winning Jealousy Is My Middle Name (TFF ’03), the personal travails of two antiheros are delicately unveiled through an anachronistic period of eight years, demonstrating how easily the lines of development and destruction are sometimes blurred. In Korean with English subtitles.

Snap, directed and written by Carmel Winters. (Ireland) – World Premiere. With a fresh and intense style, playwright-turned-director Carmel Winters composes a gripping psychological drama about three generations of a family poised to repeat the mistakes of the past. Aisling O’Sullivan (The War Zone) commands the screen as a calloused mother who will do anything to protect her son—even deny her own past. From the producers of TFF award winner Eden and the Academy Award® winner Once.

When We Leave (Die Fremde), directed and written by Feo Aladag. (Germany) – North American Premiere. When young Turkish-German woman Umay can no longer stand her husband’s ill-treatment, she flees from Istanbul with her five-year-old son into the arms of her family in Berlin. But love, affection, and loyalty soon become irrelevant as they struggle to reconcile Umay’s willful self-determination with the social system that governs their lives. This passion piece on female flight from oppression builds its considerable dramatic intensity to a glowing payoff. In German, Turkish with English subtitles.

World Documentary Feature Competition (Women directors account for 6 out of 12)

American Mystic, directed by Alex Mar. (USA) – World Premiere. Set against a vivid backdrop of American rural landscapes, Alex Mar’s meditative documentary artfully weaves together the stories of three young Americans exploring alternative religion: a Wiccan in California mining country, a New Ager in upstate New York, and a Native American father and sundancer in South Dakota, all yearning for fulfilling spirituality in disparate but often strikingly similar ways.

The Arbor, directed by Clio Barnard. (UK) – World Premiere. Brilliantly blending the borders of narrative and documentary filmmaking, artist-cum-director Clio Barnard beautifully reconstructs the fascinating true story of troubled British playwright Andrea Dunbar and her tumultuous relationship with her daughter. Working from two years of audio interviews, Bernard uses classic documentary techniques, actors, theatrical performance, and Dunbar’s own neighborhood to generate a unique cinematic feast while unraveling the truths of a dark family past.

Budrus, directed by Julia Bacha. (USA, Palestine, Israel) – North American Premiere. In one of the most conflicted parts of the world, a Palestinian family man unites rival parties Fatah and Hamas, Western activists, and even groups of progressive Israelis in a nonviolent crusade to save his village from being destroyed. Award-winning documentarian Julia Bacha (Encounter Point, TFF ’06) captures with rawness and galvanizing intensity the power of ordinary people to peaceably fight for extraordinary changes. In Arabic, English, Hebrew with English subtitles.

Earth Made of Glass, directed by Deborah Scranton. (USA) – World Premiere. This powerful investigative documentary by the Oscar®-nominated director of The War Tapes (best doc, TFF ’06) skillfully weaves interviews with President Kagame of Rwanda and Jean-Pierre Sagahutu, a survivor of the horrific 1994 genocide. When a president and a citizen—bound together by a profound love of country and an unquenchable desire to see the truth revealed—fight to expose the truth behind a murder and France’s hidden role in the Rwandan genocide, their stories will inspire and uplift. In English, French, Kinyarwandan with English subtitles.

Monica & David, directed by Alexandra Codina. (USA) – North American Premiere. Monica and David are in love. Truly, blissfully in love. They also happen to have Down syndrome. Alexandra Codina’s affectionate and heartwarming documentary is an intimate, year-in-the-life portrait of two child-like spirits with adult desires. Supported (and, for more than 30 years, sheltered) by endlessly devoted mothers, Monica and David prepare for their fairy tale wedding and face the realities of married life afterward.

Sons of Perdition, directed by Jennilyn Merten, Tyler Measom. (USA) – World Premiere. In the polygamist community cultivated by the notorious (and now incarcerated) “prophet” Warren Jeffs, women are a commodity, children are reared to be ignorant, and free thought is surrendered. For a group of teenage boys, the desire for autonomy means banishment from their homes and families. This fascinating documentary explores the heartbreaking losses and hopeful determination of these exiles as they struggle to make new lives in mainstream America.

Showcase (Women directors account for one out of seven)

A Brand New Life (Yeo-haeng-ja), directed and written by Ounie Lecomte. (South Korea, France) – New York Premiere. When her father offers to take her on a trip, nine-year-old Jin-hee happily sings him a love song, the bittersweet notes inaudible to her own ear, until she realizes he has abandoned her at a Catholic orphanage. Celebrated from the Cannes to Berlin film festivals, Ounie Lecomte’s directorial debut, a semi-autobiographical portrait of 1970s South Korea, masterfully captures the emotional journey of loss, friendship, and starting anew. In Korean with English subtitles.

One of her quotes:

I think when you have strong powerful women standing up and speaking out about these issues, not to mention how many women represent us in the Senate and the House of Representatives, you’re going to start to see a major change in these areas,” stated the actress.

Here’s an interview she did with ET talking about the importance and the responsibility she has in doing this work.  She is in circus training getting ready to start her next film based on the best selling novel Water for Elephants, with Robert Pattinson and Christoph Waltz.

Here’s why they put together the list:

There are nowhere near enough women in positions of power and influence, whether it be in the cultural and creative industries or other sectors. We need to do everything we can to enable and encourage the next generation.

Nominees were submitted and were judged by a high profile panel of men and women heading by BBC radio’s Jenni Miller.

The list of women was released this week.  Check them out.

• Bridget Nicholls
• Claire Whitaker
• Carol Bell
• Cathy Woolley
• Claire Cunningham
• Clare Hudson
• Daisy Heath
• Delia Barker
• Emma Stenning
• Emma Underhill
• Freda Matassa
• Gail Parmel
• Geraldine Collinge
• Helen MacNamara
• Hermione Way
• Indy Hunjan
• Jane Finnis
• Jacqui O’Hanlon
• Jenni Lewin-Turner
• Juliana Farha
• Julie Tait
• Kate Bellamy
• Kate McGrath
• Laura Sillars
• Liz Pugh
• Lucy Worsley
• Dr Maria Balshaw
• Maria Oshodi
• Maxine Millar
• Melanie Abrahams
• Moira Buffini
• Nike Jonah
• Pim Baxter
• Purni Morell
• Rachel Holmes
• Rachel Millward
• Rebecca Dawson
• Roanne Dods
• Ruth Daniel
• Ruth Gill
• Ruth Gould
• Sally Goldsworthy
• Sarah Munro
• Seonaid Daly
• Sharnita K Athwal
• Sharon Watson
• Siobhán Bales
• Sophie Thomas
• Theresa Heskins
• Vanessa Reed

It’s not that women aren’t writing plays and trying to get them produced.  It’s impossible without an agent, and agents rudely ignore your query or send your letter back with a note scribbled, “Not interested without a professional recommendation.” There are a lot of closed doors.

As a person who believes fervently in equality, I’ve been working with advocacy groups through the Dramatists Guild and with 50/50 in 2020 to improve opportunities for women to have our work produced in theater and in films. We need your support. Here’s how you can help:

• If you are in NY, use this listing of plays by women from NYTheatre.com.  It has committed to cover as many plays by women playwrights this year as plays by men. They will team with 50/50 in 2020 to create online profiles of women playwrights and theatre companies that specialize in work by women.
• To show our appreciation for this initiative, please opt in to receive weekly updates via email, and a listing of plays by women in NYC.
• Tell theater party organizers (in any city) that you want to see plays by and about women.
• Mention this on Facebook, tell your friends, tell a theatre manager or board member, write letters to editors, tweet, spread the word.
• When a theatre calls asking you to subscribe, ask,”How many women playwrights? How many women directors? How many roles for women? How many women designers?”  Our  support should depend on how close they are to gender parity.
• Celebrate  SWAN DAY/ Support Women Artists Now Day, Saturday, March 27,  at a woman’s art exhibit, concert, film, play, or book reading.

What about women and films?

24% of women work in a key behind-the-scenes role (directors, writers, producers, cinematographers, and editors) on independent festival films, compared with 16% for high budget studio films.  YET WE ARE IN THE MAJORITY IN THE POPULATION. The first step to change is awareness.  Here are some things you can do:

• Attend opening week-end films by and about women to boost their commercial status.
• Subscribe to this blog’s newsletter that keeps you aware of films by and about women.
• Join your local women’s film organization.  In NY, NYWIFT (New York Women in Film and Television) has 2,000 women working in different aspects of filmmaking.  Happily, I’ve found a place where I can work with other professionals to improve the pathetic statistics.
• Check out my new online column, Where are the Women? which is aimed at Tracking coverage of women in the media for NYWICI (New York Women in Communications).

Be aware, be indignant, be pro-active. Onward and upward.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Barbara Sutton Masry is a playwright, screenwriter, producer, and activist whose independent feature film, “A Wake-up Call” is in development.

Here are the women who participated in alphabetical order (check out their sites to learn about their work):

Allison Anders, director Gas, Food Lodging; Anne Bass, director- Dancing Across Borders;  Tracy Lynch Britton, director, Melrose Place; Gabrielle Burton, Five Sisters Productions; Kathi Carey, director – Worth; Wendy Jo Carlton, director - Hannah Free; Jules Dameron; Katherine Dieckmann, director – Motherhood; Emily Dell, director- B-Girl;  Rachel Feldman, director – Beyond the Break and Sisters; Carey Graeber, director- Rediscovering Dorothy; Rhianon Elan Gutierrez, director- When I’m Not Alone;  Deborah Kampmeier, director-Hounddog; Aviva Kempner, director- Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg; Alex Kondracke, director- GirlTrash; Barbara Kopple, director – Shut Up and Sing, Harlan County USA (Oscar winner); Sue Kramer, director – Gray Matters; Alexis Krasilovsky, Director – Women Behind the Camera; Kasi Lemmons, director- Eve’s Bayou; Suzanne O’Keefe, director- Full Serve; Shamim Sarif, director – The World Unseen; Nancy Schwartzman, director- Where is Your Line?; Dawn Scibilia, director- Home; Nell Scovell, director- It Was One of Us; Therese Shechter, director- I Was A Teenage Feminist; Amy Sewell, director- What’s Your Point, Honey?; Karen Skloss, director- Sunshine; Juanita Wilson, director – The Door (nominated for an Oscar)

Allison Anders

Kathryn was a role model and inspiration several years before I directed my first movie.  And after I first met her, she became a warm beacon and comrade and big sister.  Now, with this Oscar, and the DGA win, she restored all the dreams I didn’t even realize I had allowed to get sidetracked over the years.   My happiness for her is complete, because she worked so very hard for it.  She never whined, even though she is privately well aware of our struggle as women in the industry.  She never became a victim, she did her best, always.

What has been incredible to me about Kathryn’s Oscar win is that women who are not even filmmakers, not in the industry at all, feel her victory is one for all of us.  And true to her nature, I knew she would not acknowledge her gender in her acceptance speech, but it was there, she was fully aware of how momentous her win was for all of us.  I love her and could not be happier for her.  And for every little girl and old girl who was watching with that same dream.

Anne Bass

I find it very interesting that Kathryn Bigelow started her career an artist before she became a director.  One sees it in her work. Her film has an unusually powerful and singular vision which provides an almost perfect expressive form for what is clearly a remarkable script.

Tracy Lynch Britton

Since I was 6 years old I have never missed the Oscars. I have been practicing ( and timing) my speech every year since.  I was shocked to discover as an adult that no woman had EVER won. But last night changed all that – Kathryn Bigelow punched through that glass ceiling with a gritty, realistic, riveting Action War story – a film that could never be called a “chick flick”.  God bless her and the Academy for recognizing talent for talent’s sake and not because she was or wasn’t a woman!  And to have Barbara Streisand be the one to give her the Oscar – WHAT A NIGHT !  FOR HER AND FELLOW FEMALE DIRECTORS ALL OVER THE WORLD – HALLEJUAH!!!!!!

Gabrielle Burton

This is a gamechanger.  We may not see the impact of that change tomorrow, or even this year, and it will continue to be a Promethean struggle for women, but this is a major crack to help shatter the glass ceiling.  It’s like the last Presidential race and what it did to shift people’s perspectives for what is possible.  No one can now NOT think of a woman in this position of honor/power/achievement, and that changes the future for us all.  This is also an inspiring triumph for all filmmakers: for women and men with dreams for films of any size, for artists with a passion, for people who keep at their craft.

Think of all the little girls and boys who saw Bigelow up there; this shifts the paradigm of power in our conscious and subconscious.  Now, new things are possible.

Kathi Carey

The breaking of the gender barrier in acknowledging a female as Best Director in the year 2010 is not dissimilar to Ernie Davis’ breaking the color barrier in winning the Heisman trophy in 1961.  But unlike Davis’ win that took only 26 years from the award’s inception, Kathryn Bigelow’s achievement took 83 years.  Davis’ landmark win was also meaningful because it was in the face of open discrimination against person’s of color.  Women directors have suffered an unspoken, but no less prevalent, attitude of discrimination.  This is not to say that women have not been afforded opportunities to direct major studio films.  They just haven’t been acknowledged by their peers as having the ability or vision to direct anything other than the softer, “women’s” fare — the romantic comedies, the lighter comedies, the romance dramas, etc.  It is my hope that acknowledging Kathryn with this award for this film will open the doors for women to be considered to direct ALL types of films.

Wendy Jo Carlton

This may sound trivial, but the music for the Helen Reddy song, “I am Woman” playing behind Bigelow and Streisand as they exited the stage felt patronizing, reductive and silly. Who was responsible for selecting that as music and why did they think it was appropriate? I’m glad Bigelow won the award, but playing “I am Woman” served to underscore the institutional sentiment of “Okay, maybe now those girls can stop complaining.”   If Lee Daniels had won, were they going to cue up the theme to “We shall Overcome”?  That would be equally condescending to do, as it diminishes the much more complex accomplishment of the skill, talent, effort, and devotion it takes to direct a successful feature film. I’m curious, when Scorsese was given his long overdue Directing Oscar, what did they play then?

Jules Dameron

I believe this is wonderful.  Women for a long time have not been recognized as equals in the film industry, and there is absolutely no reason for us to not be viewed as equals.  There is nothing involved in film that rejects females, physically speaking, so, what’s the point?  It’s time for us to get rid of the car mechanic can be males only mentality and move forward and tell our stories to the world.

My being deaf does add another minority to the challenge, but Kathryn Bigelow has broken one of the biggest challenges for minorities in the film industry– women.

Katherine Dieckmann

In her acceptance speech, KB said “the secret to directing is collaborating….” Has any male director ever said that in quite that way from the podium — e.g., completely shared that moment and acknowledged that no director can get there without the work and support of so many other creative individuals? I really had that sense all night watching “Hurt Locker” win its various awards, up to the two biggies at the end. Whenever one of her team started up to receive an award, and the camera cut to Bigelow, what you saw was such pure unadulterated delight in that win, a selfless kind of delight, a delight that was completely free of ego.

It wasn’t about “oh they worked on MY film,” it was more an aura of “that person worked so hard and was so brilliant and helped make my film great, and here’s his moment in the sun.” (Because, let’s face it, all of them were guys.) I was really struck by that  generosity of spirit and lack of grandstanding on Bigelow’s part — the complete antidote to a puffed-up king of the world stance.

This was one of my favorite aspects of that evening.

For me, Bigelow’s stress on collaboration and evident joy in same was as radical as Jane Campion explaining that it took her so long to make “Bright Star” because she took time off to watch the movie that was her daughter. Again, not really a comment one could imagine flowing freely from the lips of a Scorsese, Almodovar, Eastwood, Tarantino, etc etc. In that sense, let’s celebrate the gender divide, because there can be clear humanistic advantages to the way some women approach these jobs. Consider the way Streisand, so often slammed for her own directing, embraced Bigelow’s moment with a similar radiance and absence of self-interest. Just lovely.

Emily Dell

The sad truth is The Hurt Locker is an outlier, it was made for the Hollywood equivalent of bupkus, and so she was left alone to just work and make it the best it could be.  The people who are in charge of the big money are not going to put a woman at the helm of a multi-million dollar movie, and you’re kidding yourself if you think the people in charge of the money aren’t the people in charge of the whole shebang.

My take-away from the KB win:  we’ve got to control the money.  Please, for the love of God ladies, we’ve GOT to control the f-ing money!  I’m not trying to say “greed is good” but to control your projects you HAVE to understand the financials, you have to love them.  They are inextricably intertwined with all creative choices and when you know them you can maneuver within them, you will have a leg to stand on.  That goes for the film world and beyond.

Rachel Feldman

While I am personally thrilled for this director’s win and am deeply touched by the historic significance, I imagine very little will change in the life of we women directors.  I can only hope that with her win, along with Geoffrey Fletcher’s win for writer’s of color, consciousnesses will shift and awarenesses be made and that the world will see that talent and the ability to tell stories does not have a gender or a race.

Carey Graeber

Congratulations Kathryn, and all of us, what a great way to celebrate International Women’s Day!  To say this is long overdue is an understatement, but as we bash at the glass ceiling with battering rams, we do it for those women who started this struggle long ago and for those who come after, that they never know that being a woman was once “less than.”

Rhianon Elan Gutierrez

I went to order lunch in Hollywood this afternoon and, while waiting, asked the two male servers if they watched the Oscars last night.  They both replied that they had.  I immediately commented that I, as a female director, was pleased that Kathryn Bigelow won for Best Director.  They both agreed and offered positive comments.  I told them that the best part of her win wasn’t her acceptance speech, but what she said in the press room afterwards.  She mentioned how she saw herself as a filmmaker before anything else.  I can especially relate to that statement.  Female, male, black, Hispanic, white, disabled, non-disabled, gay, straight, deaf, or hearing—we are filmmakers before we are anything else.  Certainly any of these labels can inform our choice of subject matter and create communities of people who cheer for us.  These labels are powerful indicators of the desire for representation.  Kathryn’s win represented a victory for women in film—and she won by creating a film that she believed in.  Women everywhere are cheering because they won, too.

When I was presenting on a panel to parents of deaf and hard of hearing children last month, I was asked what I thought about being referred to as a deaf filmmaker.  Like Kathryn, I responded that I want to be seen as a filmmaker first.  My hearing loss is a part of me, but it does not define my identity as a filmmaker.  I won’t deny that it has helped me to not only be sensitive to people of many abilities, but it has also made me an advocate for accessibility and for dynamic, anti-pity representations of deaf and hard of hearing people and people with disabilities on and off screen.  When we add a label (or two) to the title of “filmmaker”, we create something much bigger than the individual.  We create a movement.  I think that Kathryn’s win offers the potential for all sorts of minorities to be active in the change towards Hollywood’s recognition of their filmmaking.

Deborah Kampmeier

GRATEFUL. GRATEFUL. GRATEFUL.

GRATEFUL to Kathryn Bigelow and all of the women directors who have inspired me over the years…Jane Campion, Allison Anders, Catherine Breillat, Mira Nair,  Kimberly Peirce, Niki Caro, Agnes Varda, Nancy Savoca, Kasi Lemmons, Julie Taymor, Sofia Coppola, Lina Wertmuller, Lisa Cholodenko, Chantal Ackerman, Sally Potter, Marguerite Duras, Claire Denis, Martha Coolidge, Barbara Kopple, Julie Dash, Maggie Greenwald, Lizzie Bordon, Catherine Hardwicke, Kelly Reichardt, Lone Scherfig, Courtney Hunt, Maya Deren, Deepa Mehta, Mary Harron, Tamara Jenkins, Patty Jenkins, Gillian Armstrong…I know I’m forgettingsome…

GRATEFUL to ALL women who have made a film.

GRATEFUL to ALL women who have tried to make a film.

GRATEFUL to ALL women who will make a film.

GRATEFUL that we are getting our voices out there. The world needs them. May it be easier for our daughters.

Aviva Kempner

Today on March 8th is International Women’s Day, a celebration for women’s economic, political and social achievements.  Female directors around the world have great news to celebrate. A few minutes before this celebration commenced Kathryn Bigelow became the first women in 82 years to win an Oscar for directing a film.  And after midnight, which was already March 8th, she won another one for producing Hurt Locker, a brilliant war film.  We are all bursting with pride. Kathryn Bigelow is so talented and her speech was so gracious and caring for those soldiers at war.

As female directors celebrate around the world for her victory we can only wish for is that it won’t take another 82 years for a female feature director to win again. After all women have been winning Oscars for directing documentaries for years.  And may Hollywood start green lighting the film projects of so many women directors that nominations for Oscars become the norm instead of a breakthrough phenomena.

Alex Kondracke

A little shot in the arm for all of us.

Barbara Kopple

Kathryn’s win is so exciting and so well deserved, she made such an incredible film.  To me it’s more proof of something I’ve known for a long time – that women are brave, willing to take risks, passionate about the work and committed to great storytelling.  Kathryn and so many other women who direct films have such perseverance, such strong visions and so many important and unforgettable stories to tell.  I hope it inspires women of all ages to take charge, to be visionary artists and let no one stand in their. way.  Kathryn’s wonderful achievement goes to show that gender doesn’t really matter – it’s all about the passion for storytelling.

Sue Kramer

The glass ceiling has been broken or should I say the 50mm lens! It’s been a long time in the waiting but our time is come and this is only the beginning! Women filmmakers should be popping champagne all over the world to celebrate Kathryn Bigelow’s achievement and use this as a launching pad to say…WE ARE HERE, WE ARE TALENTED, WE ARE UNITED, AND WE EXPECT TO BE TREATING LIKE EQUAL—MOVE OVER BOYS AND MAKE ROOM!

Alexis Krasilovsky

This is indeed a much-awaited, monumental achievement.  However, before we finish cheering (and believe me, here at London’s Bird’s Eye View Film Festival, a woman’s film festival with 11,000 attendees- where my film and many others directed by women — the cheering has been long and loud), let’s make sure this win isn’t a token win, and that other deserving women filmmakers — as well as women cinematographers, who have as yet to win an Oscar — are recognized by the Academy and other male-dominated festivals.  If enough women women awards, they, too, will be able to vote for future Academy Award-winners.  If enough women are hired by the mainstream media as film reviewers, that should also help to bring enough attention to more films by women to have them nominated in the first place.  Once these components are in place, we can expect to see much more gender equity in terms of who gets to make the “important” films.

Kasi Lemmons

I went to bed last night and woke up this morning in a glow. Words cannot express how incredibly inspired and uplifted I am by the image of Katherine Bigelow with an Oscar in each hand…It’s a great day!

Suzanne O’Keefe

When I was growing up, the thought of being a movie director never entered my mind. I loved films, but I thought I’d have to write them if I wanted to have anything to do with making them. I even went to film school and directed and produced a short film that was nominated for best student film (Leo Awards, Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television) , but didn’t consider directing a career path.

Katherine Bigelow’s win IS a critical breakthrough. It is time for women to tell stories in a much larger way. It is time for them to step onto the biggest soap box there is — making movies — and tell things how we see them. I believe the world needs to hear our voices now.

For all the young women growing up now, it’s now obvious that not only is it possible to be a movie director, but also it’s possible to be the best at it in the world. My heart just beams at that thought shifting all those young women’s dreams right now.

Shamim Sarif

It’s been a much-anticipated, and much-appreciated moment. We’d all like to live in a world where it isn’t necessary to comment on the fact that the Best Director is a woman, or to have a Women’s Day, but the fact is, we are not there yet, even in the US and Europe, so a win like this for Kathryn Bigelow is meaningful because it suggests to people that yes, women can be known and successful directors.

Nancy Schwartzman

I’m thrilled that Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar for best director last night, she is a fierce and talented filmmaker that sure knows how to shoot an action sequence! She’s been at it for 30 years, and she deserves recognition, but I’m also disappointed that they chose to honor her for this film.

We celebrate “The Hurt Locker”, which is a film about war that remains “a-political” and by doing so, tacitly accepts our invasion and occupation as fact, and war as an inevitable reality. We celebrate a female director telling stories about men – men as heroes, men as flawed adrenaline junkies, men who have fear, men who die, men who care about each other. We celebrate “The Hurt Locker,” a film by a woman about men.

Let’s be revolutionary. Let’s celebrate stories about women, that celebrate their risk-taking, their flaws, their losses and their joys. Let’s tell stories about women that are entertaining, thought-provoking, sexy, smart and all things that we women are. Let’s be revolutionary and reflect our visions on a screen of a world free from violence, rape, and full of sex, relationships, drama, and humanity. That’s my vote.

Dawn Scibilia

History has been made, but will it bring change? Although the glass ceiling is now broken, my fear is that this may not matter for female directors making films with female protagonists. That’s the reality we all have to face.

Part of me hoped Bigelow was going to say something similar to what Mo’Nique said, thanking the academy for not letting politics get in the way and then saying something profound about the plight of female directors in the industry. In the end I’m glad she didn’t, and that she avoided any negativity or anger. I say this because I myself don’t like to acknowledge the disturbing numbers. I ignore it. I won’t believe it. I will stay true to why I’m in this in the first place, my love of cinema, and I will never give up. I consider myself a filmmaker, not a female filmmaker. It shouldn’t matter that I’m a woman. At the end of the day it’s not about black or white or male or female, it’s about green. It’s about money. Always was, always will be. Not so much for awards, but certainly for getting hired in the first place. The old adage still holds true, “You’re only as good as your last picture.” Bottom line, If you can make the studios money, you will get work.

Congratulations Bigelow! Congratulations to us all. And thank you Ida Lupino for paving the way!

That said, a female filmmaker shouldn’t have to make male films in order to be able to work or win awards. Unfortunately, it’s widely held that the male audience is where the money is. So, I suppose more women can direct more films, as long as they cater to the male audience. At the same time, it’s great that a woman can be allowed to make a film for the male audience. Years ago when I saw “Point Break” I remember being surprised to learn a woman directed it, that a woman was allowed to direct such a male film. And she did it better than many men could’ve. I loved it, and thought I too could have easily made that kind of film.

Nell Scovell

It’s not surprising that a great director who made a great movie won an Oscar.   If Kathryn Bigelow’s achievement ushers in a wave of opportunity for female directors, I will rejoice. But I do worry that her win merely assuages the industry’s guilt and now they’ll go back to their (white male) business as usual.   Still, I was encouraged by this piece of news.   Apparently, for a few moments during Bigelow’s acceptance speech, Chris Matthews forgot she was a woman.  Hope.

Therese Shechter

The message for me was that sometimes it IS truly about making good work, and believing in yourself and your vision, and pushing ahead, no matter what. We don’t hear that enough as women. I know I’ll be using the image of Bigelow clutching TWO Oscars as my inspiration for a good long time. (Without the “I Am Woman” background music, though. Lame.)

Amy Sewell

So glad it was based on merit and talent and NOT tokenism.  That is the BEST platform with which to now jump.  We need to now see a day when just as many women (of all colors) as men (of all colors) are nominated.  Onward!  Let’s keep keeping on.

Karen Skloss

Now, with the full advent of the 3-D spectacle picture, Bigelow’s win is an important signal about what’s still valued in Hollywood. The timing of this emphasis on story and craft couldn’t be more perfect. It makes me believe that the day might arrive when great storytelling makes gender just an interesting side note. We are not there yet, but what a great stride in that direction – a first tangible step.

Juanita Wilson

I am so delighted for Kathryn and hopefully this will be the first of many awards for women directors.

Mo’Nique

The woman rocks.  She did everything this whole season on her own terms and every time people tried to bring her down and shame her for it, she said I am not playing by your bullshit rules.  The fact that she won proves that art triumphs over bullshit.  She took all the shit that was shoved at her and rose above it, big time.  I really hope Hollywood learns a lesson from how Mo’Nique was treated.  There were racist quips, sexist shit (you know the crap about her shaving her legs) and in general a whole lot of you need to kiss some Hollywood ass if you think you are going to win this award.

Yesterday, on Oprah she talked about dedicating her win to Hattie McDaniel, the first African American woman to win an Oscar which she did for the 1939 film Gone With the Wind.  McDaniel, as Kate Harding at Salon reminds us, was not able to attend the opening of Gone with the Wind because the theatre was segregated.

Here’s what Mo’Nique said about the moment before they announced her name:

They are going through the nominees and I know this woman Hattie McDaniel had to endure so much in this industry.  And because of her is why you sit (talking to Oprah) where you sit and I sit where I sit because she did so much for all of us.

Sandra Bullock

So she beat Meryl and poor Meryl has not won in some 25 years which is unbelievable to me.  Part of it is that everything she does is Oscar worthy so that people think they don’t need to vote for her because she will be back again and again.  News flash people.  She’s taking some time off.  She made two movies this past year, both directed by women directors.  Both made $100 million.

But the thing about this year and the Sandra Bullock factor is that we all know that not everything that Sandra Bullock does is Oscar worthy.  She’s the first to admit it.  The Blind Side hit a chord in the country.  As did Sandra Bullock.  Remember, things suck out there (out here).  No matter how much they tell us the recession is over.  Things are still really hard and The Blind Side gave people a moment to feel better about things and themselves.  That’s why it has made a fortune.

And Bullock rode those waves all the way to the Oscar win. She was so funny talking about her kiss with Meryl that people can’t let go.  She talked about how during the awards season the group of nominees became a sorority and that they all liked and respected each other.  And she tore down some more bullshit about how women hate each other.  Here’s what she said to Oprah:

They pit women against each other all the time.  They don’t do it to the men.  I am so sick of it.

Here’s her wonderful acceptance speech.  I loved how she gave tribute to her mom It is worth watching again:

Barbra Streisand

How poignant must it have been for Barbra to have the honor to announce the first female directing winner when she has been so visibly snubbed by the Academy in the past.  There are of course women who directed great films before Barbra.  One, Lina Wertmuller, was nominated before Barbra made Yentl and The Prince of Tides which was nominated for best picture and best actor for Nick Nolte but she was not nominated for best director.  Barbra chose to direct when she was a gigantic huge acting and recording star.  She chose to direct and got shit for it.  She is a trailblazer and let’s not forget it.  Here’s what she said after she gave the award to Bigelow:

I hope there will come a time when it will not be about a woman director or a man director but will just be about who the best director is.  When there is no regard for gender.  That it’s just about the talent.

Other Thoughts:

I did love Geoffrey Fletcher winning for Precious.  Now I know people are upset because he forgot to thank Sapphire.  In his defense he was beyond shocked.  You could see it on his face and hear it in his voice.  The fact that Precious got that award over the film everyone (including me) expected Up in the Air really shows how much that film resonated within the Hollywood community.

I loved Gabourey Sidibe’s awesomeness on the red carpet.  She showed no signs of nervousness and has come through this Oscar season as the most unexpected and  success.  Every single time I see her I smile.