Women's Fightback: The Oscars, and bigger things

After two back-to-back Academy Awards in which women won Best Director —Nomadland’s Chloé Zhao in 2021 and The Power of the Dog’s Jane Campion in 2022 — this year only men are shortlisted: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert forEverything Everywhere All at Once; Todd Field for Tár; Martin McDonagh for The Banshees of Inisherin; Ruben Östlund for Triangle of Sadness; and Steven Spielberg for The Fabelmans.

In 2022, women comprised 24% of directors, writers, producers, editors and cinematographers working on the top 250 grossing films, down 1% from 2021.

The last Oscar time nominations for best director excluded women was in 2020. The writer and actress Issa Rae ended her announcement of the nominees with “Congratulations to those men.” Concern about representation at the Oscars has been running for many years. #OscarsSoWhite, a social justice campaign, began in 2015. It highlighted that 92 per cent of top film directors were men and 86 per cent of top films featured white actors in the lead roles. Oscar voters were old, white (94%), male (77%).

Scottish director Charlotte Wells “deserved” a nomination this year forAftersun. It is probably the best film of the year, and if not is certainly better than five or six of the films receiving Best Director nominations. The Oscars are out of touch and corrupt.

Many people cite the Best Picture win for Shakespeare in Love as an example, when Harvey Weinstein bullied, lobbied and bribed for a Best Picture win. But many Oscars go to average or forgettable films. Driving Miss Daisy beat Mississippi Burning, Working Girl, Rain Man and Dangerous Liaisons to best picture in 1989. All, for different reasons, are better films that people still watch today. In retrospect, many of the nominations don’t hold up. Films and actors that win their categories often fail the test of time.

It was stupid of the Academy to allow an all-male shortlist for Best Director, further undermining the credibility of the Oscars. Representation at the top the film industry is one of the more obvious signs of sexism in Hollywood.

Clearly there is a problem with liberal feminism treating representation as the key issue of women’s oppression. Even within the debate of representation, the Oscars are not worth the attention they’re getting. It’s a big party held by a trade association celebrating insincerity. Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn...