Natalie Portman hit the Sundance Film Festival to promote Cathy Yan’s “The Gallerist,” which is not getting good reviews—and that’s putting it mildly. Did anyone actually like this film?
Yan, the “Birds of Prey” helmer, has assembled a cast that includes Portman, Jenna Ortega, and—her again—Charli XCX. The film centers on a desperate gallerist who conspires to sell a dead body at Art Basel Miami.
“The Gallerist” is one of the bigger Sundance titles directed by a female filmmaker, and at the premiere—which took place less than a week after the Oscar nominations—Portman decided to call out the Academy for snubbing a handful of female-directed movies this year.
Sure, you had Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” earning eight nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, but yes, there aren’t too many other movies directed by women competing for Oscars this year. However, Portman seems to be hinting at sexism.
“So many of the best films I saw this year were made by women,” Portman said. “You just see the barriers at every level because so many were not recognized at awards time. Between ‘Sorry Baby’ and ‘Left-Handed Girl’ and ‘Hedda’ and ‘The Testament of Ann Lee.’ Extraordinary films this year that I think a lot of people are enjoying and loving, but are not getting the accolades they deserve […] we still have a lot of work to do.”
Are we still really doing this, Natalie? I thought we were done with these quotas—let the people choose the films they like, not the gender they prefer. Hell, the Academy completely reformed its voting body around the time of the #OscarsSoWhite and #MeToo movements, and with that, female membership grew by around 12%.
If you can believe it, after all the changes and improvements, in numerous voting bodies across the industry, there still seem to be people out there who truly believe in quotas at film festivals and awards shows. They want gender equality in the arts. They want us to yet again be swept up in “identity politics.”
Side note: Portman doesn’t even mention the two best female-directed films I saw last year: Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” and Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind.”