What Winning Means

At a surface level, of course we’re excited about Kathryn Bigelow’s wins for Best Director and Best Picture at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards on Sunday.  After 81 years, more than 400 total nominees and only three other nominations for women, finally seeing a woman at the podium was the highlight of the three hour show.

However, Kathryn’s win means a lot more than that. In many of our programs, we discuss media literacy and show movies to our girls about women characters who are doing amazing things. And while it is important for films to have a positive portrayal of women, it is infinitely more powerful for women to be on the other side of the camera – telling the story and deciding how stories get told.

Historically, women have not been directors. We’ve been award-winning screenwriters and editors.  We’ve increasingly been producers and cinematographers. But rarely are we directors. And this means that we rarely have the power to tell our story and share our vision.

Our excitement around Kathryn’s win is coupled with excitement about the number of movies that were directed by women last year.  In 2009, seven films were directed by women: “ Julie and Julia,” “Amelia,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Bright Star,” “The Proposal,” “It’s Complicated,” and “An Education.” The range of these films, in budget and subject matter, shows that women can tell many different stories. In fact, what was remarkable about “The Hurt Locker” is that it is a movie about war, with no women warriors, and few women characters at all. Kathryn’s success shows that women do not only have to tell stories to women about women. Regardless of the subject of the films, all of these women-directed films were successful during this most recent awards season. While Kathryn was honored for her directing, all of these movies received nominations or awards for acting or other creative elements.

In a recent New York Times article, a Hollywood insider remarks that “there are about four women directors in the business, only two of whom are working.” That is an exaggeration, of course, but the same article remarks that “the fact remains that in Hollywood, the glass ceiling is more shatterproof than in many other industries, giving way only when the pressure of accumulated evidence is brought to bear.” The success of Kathryn and others provides the accumulated evidence that women can direct films, win awards for it, and be commercially viable.  They show our girls that they don’t have to strive to be the next Cameron or Lee – our girls can be the next Bigelow.