Edit desk: Lights, camera…action?

Meghan Barwick, B&W Staff

On Feb. 22, television will be filled with the hottest stars, the most expensive couture and a lot of white men for the Oscars. At the end of the night, lots of these dudes will be holding little golden dudes.

Only one out of eight best picture nominees was directed by a woman, and she is a black woman, so the Academy can kill two birds with one stone. Women only take the majority in the costume design category (four out of five nominees).

Of all the directors, producers, cinematographers, writers and editors who worked on films in 2013, only 16 percent of them were women. This number has actually decreased since 1998, according to the Celluloid Ceiling Report.

In Oscar history, only four films with female directors have been nominated for best picture, and only one has won.

This makes sense when you look at the demographics of the Academy Awards voters: old, white men. An LA Times study in 2012 showed that voters were 94 percent white and 77 percent male. 86 percent are above 50 years old.

The film industry in America is dominated by white males, and so are the Academy and most movie critics.

What’s the deal with all the dudes? Women have been an important part of film history, but are mainly known for looking glamorous on the big screen. Still, only one-fourth of all lead characters are female.

The film industry has often been at the forefront of cultural change, unabashedly confronting taboo or risky issues. When films are not doing anything notably progressive, they’re still being viewed by millions and sending messages about our society.

When women direct films, the number of women employed raises over 20 percent. There’s a good chance that statistics would be the same with other minority directors or producers.

Director and cinematographer Elle Schneider wrote in an article for Indiewire, “Dudes are more likely to have a friend with a RED they can borrow than girls are — and while I have seen amazing camaraderie between men in this business over the last 10 years, I can’t recall a single instance in my personal experience of a guy loaning a camera to a female shooter.”

She also explained that women tend to only apply to jobs they feel completely confident about, where men will apply to many more. The ways that women gain experience in this industry affect how successful they will be in the future.

In order for women to have the support and aspirations to be a producer or director, they need to see it happening in the film industry.

Jane Campion was the first woman to win the Palme D’Or in 1993 for her film The Piano. In an interview with The Guardian, she said, “Filmmaking is not about whether you’re a man or a woman; it’s about sensitivity and hard work and really loving what you do. But women are going to tell different stories — there would be many more diverse stories in the world if women were making more films.”

There are so many negative movie tropes about women that it is obvious that there is a representation problem in Hollywood. Dumb blondes, crazy girlfriends, the damsel in distress, the manic pixie dream girl.

In 1985, Alison Bechdel created what is now known as the Bechdel Test. There are three rules that must be satisfied in order to pass: the film must have at least two women in it (1) who speak to each other (2) about something other than a man (3).

The website Bechdeltest.com, a user generated list of Bechdel-rated films, has over 5,700 films, but only about 58 percent have passed the test.

Think back on the last film you watched. Did it pass?

Best picture nominations reflect a poorer statistic: only half pass the Bechdel Test, and all leading roles are men.

There’s nothing inherently wrong about making films about white men. After all, directors and writers make characters that they know the best.

If we want to see more women-centric, people of color-centric, LGBT-centric films, we need to get those people into the directing chairs and other positions of power.