A few days ago, the Golden Globe winners were announced. With more women being nominated for traditionally male awards - such as composition - than ever, it appears that things might be moving in the direction of positive change.
One winner who has attracted much praise is Icelandic musician and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, winner of Best Original Score for the Joker soundtrack. Guðnadóttir's gleaming success was amplified by the fact that she is the first woman in the history of the awards to win, beating out a series of impressive nominees, such as Randy Newman (Marriage Story), Thomas Newman (1917), Daniel Pemperton (Motherless Brooklyn) and Alexandre Desplat (Little Women).
When asked by a reporter about her success as a musical composer, Guðnadóttir responded that
I've noticed a bit of weariness sometimes, in the last decade or so, to trust women for these bigger projects, but I believe [that] all the awareness that has been raised in the last couple of years about the position of women in the industry... I have... benefited from that.
And yet, as in other years, the award for Best Director has been strictly reserved for male nominees. In fact, since 2010, only two women have been so much as graced with a nomination for Best Director - Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and Ava DuVernay for Selma (2014). As for the Oscars, only one woman has ever won the award: Barbra Streisand for Yentl (1983). So, the question remains: have things really changed? By how much? Is all of this positive attention just smoke and mirrors, coaxing the general public into thinking that progress is being made, when in fact very little is being made at all? Are women like Guðnadóttir being used as vessels to deliver palatable political statements, while the work of female directors like Greta Gerwig (Little Women), Lorene Scafaria (Hustlers) and Anna Boden (Captain Marvel) continue to be overlooked?
Has the glass ceiling been smashed, or just reinforced by clever rhetoric?
Comment your thoughts.
BPx