Earlier this year, when crowded red carpets were an everyday occurrence, Natalie Portman arrived at the Oscars draped in a cape embossed with names. Lorene Scafaria. Lulu Wang. Greta Gerwig. Mati Diop. Marielle Heller. Melina Matsoukas. Alma Har'el. Céline Sciamma. All female directors who had created impressive films in the previous twelve months. All ignored in the Best Director category. It was a quiet protest against sexism in the industry which makes it near impossible for a woman to gain a seat at the table, and then declines to hand out the just deserts to those who manage to enter the boys’ club. But things are shifting, and the BFI London Film Festival has long led the charge in recognising films by talented women.
In 2018, 38% of films at the festival were directed or co-directed by women. Last year, that figure crept up to 40%. In a year where coronavirus has derailed many plans – much of the festival will be virtual this year – the ratio is nevertheless impressive.
‘I’ve been working on the festival since 2013,’ says says Tricia Tuttle, Director of Festivals for the British Film Institute, ‘and shining the spotlight on female filmmakers has always been something I’m passionate about. Our commitment hasn’t changed, but every year the figures come up slightly.’
This seems to be thanks to a combination of the team’s hard work and a slow, steady improvement in the film landscape. ‘It has to start with great films, and great films start with investment,' says Tricia. 'We don't have quotas. So all of the pushing that people in the industry have been doing over the last ten years, but specifically the last three or four years, means we’re seeing more investment in female filmmakers.’
Beyond the festival, she cites Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, ‘which will be a film that I’m sure will be talked about all through award season’, and Regina King’s One Night In Miami, both of which were seen at Venice. At LFF, she’s excited for viewers to see Relic, from Natalie Erika James and starring Emily Mortimer, Fernanda Valdez’s Non Distinguishing Features, Farnoosh Samadi’s 180 Rule, and Talya Lavie’s Honeymood, an Israeli comedy with ‘something Nora Ephron-esque about it.’
‘Every time we make a decision, we think “are we already hearing from this voice?”’ she explains. ‘”Do we have a film already telling this story?” We are constantly stopping to take the temperature of the programme.’
With the industry changing, however slowly, it’s an exciting moment in film. But Tricia reminds us that it will all be for nothing if we don’t become more active in the way we consume these offerings. In short, money talks. ‘Audiences need to go to cinemas when they can, see these films, talk about them’, she says. ‘If you want to see female filmmakers supported, audiences need to make sure they’re seeking them out. It’s very easy to just pay attention to the biggest budget films, but I encourage readers to seek out films from female filmmakers, from all over the world.’
Budgets, and the way in which big movies are usually helmed by men, is a problem that director Phyllida Lloyd has noticed first-hand. Her moving drama, Herself, is on the schedule ahead of an October 16th release. ‘Where the economic stakes are not so high, things are always easier for women,’ she says. ‘ It’s the same in the theatre. There are a lot of women working in subsidised theatre, but it’s harder for them to get a commercial West End musical: not a lot of those have been directed by women. It’s the same in the film industry: In the indie world, there are more and more opportunities for women.’
She has seen both sides. Her stage work cemented her reputation as a talented director, but her work on Mamma Mia and The Iron Lady brought her to international attention.
‘I started in a not-quite-blockbuster, and ‘ve been trying to get down the scale ever since’, she laughs. ‘It sounds perverse. They don’t quote believe it when I say “Can we bring the budget down?” But I feel much more at ease, when I can see and know everyone on the crew. It’s an ensemble, a family. Everyone’s invested. I feel, somehow, more in my element.’ It’s a key reminder that we can campaign for bigger budgets for women as much as possible, but we also need to remember that this is not the right fit for everyone. Still, opportunities need to be there.
Jennifer Sheridan, whose film Rose: A Love Story is a timely depiction of a couple isolating in the woods – Rose has developed a parasitic blood-thirst, rather than coronavirus - screens on the 13th, downplays the impact of gender in moulding her career. ‘Personally I don’t feel that I have been held back as a woman’, she says. ‘The Catch-22 scenario with the media is that we need to be aware of the statistics and inequalities, but young women might get initially put off by the statistics before they even step out of the gate. Encouragement is key, as is representation, but you really need to have determination and develop a thick skin to be able to persevere in this industry.’ Nevertheless, she confesses that simply growing up exposed to films primarily by men poses a subtle roadblock. ‘I think the biggest obstacle I’ve faced is having a majority of my favourite directors be men,’ she explains, naming Michel Gondry and Tim Burton as particular favourites alongside American Psycho director Mary Harron, ‘especially the films I loved as a child that inspired me to get into the industry in the first place. I’m happy to be part of possibly changing that for future generations. I’m working on it anyway.’
Caroline Catz – whose film Delia Derbyshire: The Myths & The Legendary Tapes casts a spotlight on a composer who (among other things) came up with the Doctor Who theme - echoes the sentiment of a subtle system, rather than an explicit, anti-woman campaign. But that doesn’t make it any less difficult to manoeuvre. Asked if she felt her gender had provided difficulties, she cites ‘navigating implicit hierarchies, just a general feeling of having to work harder to be taken seriously, and often feeling outnumbered.’ She says she has been patronised and sexualist, but raising issues internally, she says, ‘means that you can be made to feel like you’re simply complaining or not getting on with the job.’
Has she sensed a turn in the tide? ‘Slightly’, she says, ‘but I don’t trust it altogether. Is it just virtue signalling? It’s very easy to make things appear that they’re changing on the surface. There is a heck of a lot more work to do here.’
‘There is still a long way to go, just not with gender, but diversity of all kinds,’ adds Phyllida.
That’s undoubtedly true. But with festivals like London’s working toward equality, hopefully we’re on the right track.
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