A series by Juan Carlos Ojano. Previous Episodes: 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Introduction / Explanation
This year at the Oscars marked a landmark in representation. Barry Jenkins’s Moonlight became the first Best Picture winner to star an all-Black cast and the first that was LGBTQ+-themed. This win was even more remarkable as the film went up against the heavily nominated frontrunner La La Land, a romantic musical. This year also marked an unprecedented amount of racial representation in the acting categories, with seven out of 20 nominees being non-White, two of them winning.
However, this considerable victory in diversity did not extend to gender. In the directing category all the nominees were male. At the time, not much discourse and coverage was given to gender as the focus on representation was mostly around race, especially after the two-year run of the #OscarsSoWhite campaign...
Out of the 336 films included in the Reminder List of Eligible Films in 2016 (89th Academy Awards), 51 (15.2%) were directed/co-directed by women.
OSCAR-NOMINATED FEMALE-DIRECTED FILMS (in alphabetical order): 4.1 Miles*, 13th, Joe’s Violin*, and Toni Erdmann. (*not in the eligibility list for Best Picture)
AN ALTERNATIVE SET OF FIVE
Andrea Arnold - American Honey
Arnold wastes no time in this road drama, throwing us right in the middle of the chaos that its feisty protagonist Star thrives in. Poverty is at the center of her journey, and yet the film illustrates the specificity of Star’s experience. Abandonment on multiple levels is depicted with disconcerting proximity but without the lascivious interest in gratuitous detail. The film has lots of moments that linger, one that a filmgoer might expect to shorten but instead, the film dwells on these moments to expose its characters at their most unpretentious. But also, the film knows when to look away and when to realize that suggestion is sometimes more powerful than directness. Both these strategies reveal what makes this film shine: Arnold’s empathy towards her characters, particularly Star. Streaming on fuboTV, Showtime, Hoopla, Kanopy, and DirecTV.
Anna Rose Holmer - The Fits
Juvenile female physicality is at the core of Holmer’s startling drama about a young girl’s quest to fit in. Barriers and bars populate the corners of the frame to depict confinement. Doors and windows symbolize both passage and separation, to peek at the other girls dancing and as a potential avenue to be one of them. Holmer’s work crisply captures the relentless kineticism that edges on the blossoming of female sexuality. Holmer takes it up a notch once the plague of fainting spells starts to penetrate their group. The unknowability of this phenomenon masks the complex turmoil that the girls experience. The film refuses to give easy answers as to why such occurrences happen in the first place, but Holmer gives these moments their sturdy connective tissue. Streaming on fuboTV, Showtime, Kanopy, and DirecTV.
Lorene Scafaria - The Meddler
Before her much acclaimed work in the crime dramedy Hustlers, Scafaria helmed this film about an aging widow who reconnects with her daughter. Her approach in depicting her characters is quite noteworthy. Take Sarandon’s Marnie, the titular character. While she displays hints of not being able to read the room, Scafaria does not let her idiosyncrasy be the defining feature of that character. Instead, she captures Sarandon’s performance with enough distance for us to see the larger picture: a woman struggling and wanting to make a connection. This little detail gives a lot of scenes their tenderness, one of sharp calibration of humor and poignancy. Scafaria finds the intricacies of her protagonist and her relationships with other characters. The result is one of surprising emotional depth. Available to rent on various platforms.
Mia Hansen-Løve - Things to Come
Hansen-Løve followed up her critical hit drama Eden with another one, a story of a middle-aged woman whose seemingly stable life goes through a series of relationship complications. The youthful energy of a protest, the wrenching possibility of divorce after a long marriage, among other things - these strands of plot details are captured on camera with aplomb, making sure they add up to the milieu of its protagonist and their implications on her. The film is filled with conversations and yet the film finds the visual dynamic that demonstrates Ade’s sharp focus. A work meeting discussing planned book covers keeps shifting its focus - protagonist, other characters, door opening, book cover, and then back to the protagonist. It is in these moments that the film registers its clear-eyed grasp of human behavior. Streaming on AMC+ and DirecTV.
Maren Ade - Toni Erdmann
In this mammoth-sized comedy, Ade pushes discomfort to outrageous heights in telling the story of an estranged relationship between a workaholic woman and her prankster father. She utilizes the art of deadpan humor and wields it as the film’s piercing commentary on the human detachment that looms over the ever-tricky European geopolitics and its economic implications. Now, the lack of reaction feels like a manifestation of dehumanization in the corporate setting. Comedic setpieces are executed with varying levels of peculiarity and tension, making each interaction unpredictable yet indicative of strong characterization. The film also showcases impeccable physical humor; not on how big the gestures are, but on how keen it is on nuances which makes the humor even more effective. Available to rent on various platforms.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Ava DuVernay - 13th
Tunka Mona Riza - Beautiful Pain
Kelly Reichardt - Certain Women
Jocelyn Moorhouse - The Dressmaker
Kelly Fremon Craig - The Edge of Seventeen
What would your dream ballot look like for 2016?