There are now “progressive watchdogs” raging over four female directors — Little Women‘s Greta Gerwig, The Farewell‘s Lulu Wang, Hustler‘s Lorene Scafaria and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood‘s Marielle Heller — not being nominated for any Golden Globe awards.
This backlash started with “Honey Boy” director Alma Har’el’s complaints earlier in the day, which got the ball rolling for other vocal Twitter signalers such as Ava DuVernay and, even, Wang herself condemning the Globes. Har’el doubled-down on her previous comments later in the evening, telling Variety in an “exclusive” interview that she had a proposal, to create gendered categories as a way to reach parity.
“Unless we have a new category for women directors — the same way we have [separate] actor and actress categories — we won’t see any changes,” Har’el told Variety Monday after nominations were unveiled.
So now we’re going to split the sexes?
Har’el went on to add that “It’s obvious they [the Globes] have no awareness at all. They’re immersed in this perpetuated activity of basking in male excellence and overseeing this whole new world we’re trying to build with new voices of women and people of color being part of the conversation.”
She adds, “They don’t pay attention to new voices or value them in the same way they value men they are familiar with.”
After nominations were announced Monday, organization president Lorenzo Soria defended the shut-out, saying, “We don’t vote by gender. We vote by film and accomplishment.'”
Har’el quickly shut him down on Twitter, responding in a since-deleted tweet, “Oh please. If you only saw how these people get pampered with gifts, private concerts, and events over four months. They vote by comfort and star f—ing.”
She elaborated to Variety, “They dare to say they don’t judge by gender but that’s exactly what they do. There were so many films this year that connected with audiences and critics as well as performed at the box office, and this group is out of touch and doesn’t see any of us. Zero women scriptwriters. Zero best films by women. Zero women directors nominated. I will not live my life as a filmmaker who plans to keep working subjected to a group of voters that doesn’t see us.”
The fact of the matter is this, there seem to be people out there who truly believe in quotas when it comes to gender equality in the arts, but of the four directors most people are blabbering about should have gotten nominated for something, anything, only Lulu Wang truly deserved a nod. And so, am I disappointed that Wang didn’t get it? Yeah, kinda, but, then again, I can’t complain about who did get a nomination.
As I wrote earlier today, there are many out there that want not just film awards, but film criticism, in general, to be swapped up by “identity politics.” If that ever happens then the ethical nature of the field will be done for. The criteria for judging whether something is good or bad, at least as far as this younger generation goes, seems to stem from agenda-driven politics.
To them, it’s more about who made the movie, who stars in it, its message, rather than if it is a good or bad film. Of course, it is important to progress and have inclusion at the movies, but it should never be realized in a forced-upon way. Progression happens in baby steps, not by purposely being shoved into the equation. There is now a lack of patience, people want change NOW, but in art, it can never be achieved that way. 70% of filmmakers are still male and that means there stands a good chance that the best films and directors will be directed by old, white dudes.
HFPA president Lorenzo Soria to Variety: “What happened is that we don’t vote by gender. We vote by film and accomplishment.”
Globes exec producer Barry Adelman: “Every year, somebody gets left out. There’s so much talent going on, maybe we need to expand the categories so more people can be part of it. I also think that if you look at some of the other things…a lot of the big television shows are created by women, so I think across the board there is a good representation. Maybe in a couple of those categories, we wish it could be a little different. Who knows what will happen next year?”
The short version: "Woman Unknown" was a compromise. The jury deadlocked over "Possible Love" and "NAZA," not able to com to terms, fell back on their #3, May el-Toukhy's film.