And best director goes to...A WOMAN?!

It’s that time of year again – award ceremonies coming out of your ears. But I’m not so frustrated this year after a woman finally won the best director Oscar, Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. I almost couldn’t believe it when I read it, that after 82 years of the awards – that’s 82 directors congratulated for their work – that not ONE woman had been acknowledged as a worthy director. Shocking, I know. Surely there must have been some sort of vendetta against women and this most coveted award?! Looking back through the years, it seems the answer to this puzzle is quite simple really – how has a woman got any chance of winning the award when only men are ever nominated for it? Answer: They haven’t. If you look at the facts, only four women have ever been nominated in 82 years. And it can’t be that there aren’t female directors out there that are good enough. Twilight proves that. Directed by Catherine Hardwicke, Twilight was one of the biggest films of 2008 and proved you didn’t need a big budget to make a big hit. It also proved you didn’t need a man behind the camera too. And to mention just a couple of others...Lost In Translation, Something’s Gotta Give, Monster, Little Miss Sunshine, What Women Want, I could go on. In fact, before Avatar came along, the highest-grossing film in the UK was directed by a woman. Mamma Mia, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, took more money when it was released in 2008 than Titanic – the holder of the title at the time. The situation is bittersweet, although Bigelow winning is a breakthrough, it shouldn’t need to be. It shouldn’t have taken this long, but I suppose at least we’re getting somewhere.