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As the year draws to a close here is A Year in Review: the most notable news about women directors in 2020:
Women sweep the directing awards at Sundance 2020: Garrett Bradley for Time, Maïmouna Doucouré for Cuties, Iryna Tsilyk for The Earth Is Blue as an Orange and Radha Blank for The 40-Year-Old Version,
Despite making some of the most prominent, critically acclaimed movies of 2019 women directors are shut out of Directing category at the Oscars. Natalie Portman celebrates them by wearing a cape bearing the names of some of the directors to the awards ceremony.
2020 was supposed to be an amazing year for woman directed studio films - and then it wasn't. Covid-19 disrupts the film industry pushing Black Widow, Candyman and The Eternals to 2021 and Mulan and Wonder Woman 1984 into online release models: https://www.indiewire.com/2020/12/2020-female-filmmakers-blockbusters-1234603677/
Among the wonderful directors we lost this year: French director Sarah Maldoror, to Covid-19. French director Nelly Kaplan, to Covid-19. American director Lynn Shelton to complications from leukemia.
Chloé Zhao wins the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, only the 5th woman to do so after Margarethe von Trotta, Agnès Varda, Mira Nair, and Sofia Coppola (pretty illustrious company!)
For the first time in @TIFF_NET history the People's Choice winners were all directed by women - women of colour!
The winners were Nomandland (Chloé Zhao), One Night in Miami (Regina King), and Beans (Tracey Deer)
The winners were Nomandland (Chloé Zhao), One Night in Miami (Regina King), and Beans (Tracey Deer)
Not all news is good news: Cuties director Maïmouna Doucouré received death threats after a promotional image of her film went viral. Discussions over the film trended multiple times on Twitter even attracting the attention of U.S. senator Ted Cruz: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-53846419
Disney and the team behind Mulan faced anger after it was revealed parts of the film was shot near Uighur concentration camps in Xinjiang: https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/9/9/21427978/mulan-disney-controversy-explained-uighurs-xinjiang
Prominent Canadian filmmaker Michelle Latimer was found to have misrepresented her Indigenous roots drawing widespread criticism not only for Latimer herself but also Canada's filmmaking grant system: https://nowtoronto.com/movies/michelle-latimer-indigenous-identity-elle-maija-tailfeathers
Wonder Woman 1984 is a theatrical smash (by covid-19 standards) but draws criticism for racism and other problematic plotlines: https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/film/wonder-woman-1984-criticised-for-racist-depictions-of-egypt-1.1135546
@tcm hosts #WomenMakeFilm, a four month extravaganza showcasing 100 films directed by women!
(if you missed out the full screening list is still available on their website offering a good primer of films you should track down) https://womenmakefilm.tcm.com/schedule/
(if you missed out the full screening list is still available on their website offering a good primer of films you should track down) https://womenmakefilm.tcm.com/schedule/
Maria Schrader wins the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special for the miniseries Unorthodox!
Finally (kind of a 2020 trend, no?) the Gotham Awards Best Picture lineup is made up entirely of films directed by women:
The Assistant (Kitty Green), First Cow (Kelly Reichardt), Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman), Nomadland (Chloé Zhao), Relic (Natalie Erika James).
The Assistant (Kitty Green), First Cow (Kelly Reichardt), Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman), Nomadland (Chloé Zhao), Relic (Natalie Erika James).
