ON ON9 TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2017 TORONTO STAR⎮E5

SPECIAL REPORT: WOMEN IN FILM

A female superhero movie packedmultiplexes this year and brought in$821.8 million internationally. ThePatty Jenkins-directed WonderWomanalso marked the highest box-office take ever for a female-directedmovie.

Just as important, says HeatherWebb, executive director of Womenin Film & Television Toronto, Jen-kins has been signed to make thesequel.

“That doesn’t always happen withwomen directors when they’ve donewell,” says Webb, citing directorCatherine Hardwicke, who didn’t re-turn to the franchise after makingthe blockbuster Twilight.

While this year has seen an uptickin strong female-director and female-protagonist movies, Webbpoints out that women are still lag-ging behind male filmmakers.

She cites San Diego State Universi-ty’s annual Celluloid Ceiling report,which shows women made up only 7 per cent of directors of major filmsin 2016, down from 9 per cent theprevious year.

“So, I’m always a little bit hesitant toput on the rose-coloured glasses,”Webb says.

Yet, Hollywood is showing encour-aging signs of change, making moremovies centred on female charactersin compelling stories.

Take Star Wars: The Last Jedi, em-braced by critics and fans alike. Themassive blockbuster turns on ayoung woman, Rey (Daisy Ridley), asshe fulfils her Jedi destiny. Indeed,women are onscreen throughoutThe Last Jedi — from heroic fighterpilots and capable ship’s officers, tohigh-ranking commanders Gen.Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) andvice-admiral Amilyn Holdo (LauraDern).

Onscreen exchanges in The Last Je-di pass the feminist benchmarks ofthe Bechdel Test: Two women in ascene talking about something otherthan a man.

The trend continues as power-house studio Disney releases threefemale-directed films, each with a$100-million-plus budget, in the next

two years: Ava DuVernay’s A WrinkleIn Time, based on Madeleine L’En-gle’s young adult novel, opens in2018; the following year, Anna Bodenwill co-direct Captain Marvel forMarvel Studios with Ryan Fleck; andRoom’s Brie Larson takes the titlerole of superhero Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel.

“This is what I want to dedicate mylife to,” Larson told me in a 2016Toronto Star interview. “When theopportunity came to play this sym-bol of feminism, to play this empow-ering role for women on arguably thebiggest platform we have right now— it’s undeniable that this is an im-portant step and I want to be part ofit.”

Award dominanceAs awards season ramps up, there’s agood chance writer-director GretaGerwig’s Lady Bird will be a signif-icant part of the conversation. TheGolden Globes may have snubbedGerwig in the Best Director categoryearlier this month, but the Toronto

Film Critics Association honouredher in this category.

Other female-directed, written andproduced films that could show up inOscar’s list include Canadian co-production The Breadwinner. TheGolden Globe Best Animated Fea-ture Film nominee is directed by No-ra Twomey, with Angelina Jolie as anexecutive producer.

Jolie’s First They Killed My Father,Cambodia’s entry in the Best ForeignLanguage Film Oscar race, didn’tmake the short list of nominees. Butthe drama, directed and produced byJolie, has been nominated for a Gold-en Globe.

Dee Rees could get a Best Directornomination for Mudbound.

Sofia Coppola, who won the BestDirector prize at Cannes in May (on-ly the second woman to do so) couldalso be an Oscar contender for TheBeguiled.

Meanwhile, cinematographers Ra-chel Morrison (Mudbound) andCharlotte Bruus Christensen (Mol-ly’s Game) are being mentioned as

possible nominees. They would bethe first women ever nominated forOscars in this male-dominated cate-gory.

In addition to Lady Bird, potentialBest Picture Oscar nominees TheFlorida Project, The Post, The Shapeof Water and Three Billboards Out-side Ebbing, Missouri centre onwomen’s stories.

The post-Weinstein eraIf we are on the cusp of a female-centric era in the entertainment in-dustry, it’s coming at a time whenwomen are increasingly speakingout about sexual assault and harass-ment.

The list of boldface names addingtheir voices to those with complaintsabout producer Harvey Weinsteinand others continues to grow. Asdoes the list of men accused of vic-timizing women grew with the #MeToo social media campaign,which had such far-reaching impact,Time magazine named “The SilenceBreakers” its 2017 Person of the Year.

Jessica Chastain, nominated for aGolden Globe for the title role ofMolly Bloom in Molly’s Game, toldthe New York Times she was sur-prised to be among Best Actressnominees after she spoke out aboutWeinstein on Twitter.

The drama, which focuses on thereal-life story of a woman who ran alegendary (and illegal) Hollywoodhigh-stakes poker game, opens Dec. 25.

“As an actor, I have a lot of fear,thinking that if I speak my mind, orsomething that feels like it deviatesfrom the norm as a woman, am Igoing to be made to disappear in myindustry?” she says

Known for her outspokennessabout gender inequality in film,Chastain says she worried she maybe “destroying my career right now,”when she tweeted about Weinstein.

“I was warned from the beginning;the stories were everywhere,” shesays.

“To deny that is to create an envi-ronment for it to happen again.”

Jessica Chastain, who stars in the upcoming Molly’s Game, champions gender equality in the film industry. She is nominated for a Golden Globe for the title role of Molly Bloom.STXFILMS

Women of Hollywood take controlFemale actors and directorsare breaking silence, recordsand celluloid ceilings in 2017

LINDA BARNARDSPECIAL TO THE STAR

Mary Pickford: There was far moreto this Toronto-born early film star,dubbed “America’s sweetheart,” thanher prolific work onscreen that madeher Hollywood’s highest-paid star.She was a savvy businesswomanwho made sure she got a big piece ofthe profits on her pictures. A studiohead, she became a producer andwas one of the founders of Oscar’sgoverning body, the Academy ofMotion Picture Arts and Sciences.She also co-founded studio UnitedArtists with Charlie Chaplin, D.W.Griffith and her husband, DouglasFairbanks Sr.

Hedy Lamarr: The release of thedocumentary Bombshell: The HedyLamarr Story this year helped revealthe remarkable other side of the1930s-1940s star called “the mostbeautiful woman in the world.” Withher friend, composer George Antheil,Lamarr invented “a secret communi-cation system” for the Allies duringthe Second World War to ensure theguidance system on torpedoescouldn’t be jammed. The random-switching frequency she helpedcreate was not only successful, it ledto technology used today in cell-phones, Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi.

Callie Khouri: Hollywood had nointerest in making movies aboutwomen for a long time. Then CallieKhouri wrote the screenplay forThelma & Louise. Starring Susan Sa-randon and Geena Davis, it followedtwo women whose road trip turnsinto a literal getaway, and it became amonster hit. Khouri won an Oscarand Sarandon and Davis have goneon to be powerful forces for womenin Hollywood. Davis, who establishedthe Geena Davis Institute On GenderIn Media, found Thelma & Louisedidn’t spark the onscreen revolutionmany were hoping for.

Sherry Lansing: An actress whoswitched from working in front of thecamera to the business side of mov-iemaking, Sherry Lansing wasdubbed the “most powerful womanin Hollywood.” The first woman tohead a major studio, she was namedpresident of 20th Century Fox in 1980and later produced Indecent Proposal,The Accused and Fatal Attraction. Shewent on to become chair of Para-mount Pictures’ Motion PictureGroup from 1992 to 2005. While shewas at the helm, the studio madeOscar-winning blockbusters ForrestGump, Braveheart and Titanic.

A history of female trailblazers who made their mark in show business and beyond the screen

Mary Pickford was one of thefounders of Oscar’s governing body.

Actress Hedy Lamaar co-invented“a secret communication system.”

Callie Khouri wrote the screenplayfor Oscar-winning Thelma & Louise.

Sherry Lansing became the firstwoman to head a major studio.

B A S E D O N A T R U E S T O R Y

IN SELECT THEATRES CHRISTMAS DAY

TM

Motion Picture Artwork © 2017 STX FINANCING, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

COARSE LANGUAGE,SUBSTANCE ABUSE

“SERIOUSFUN.”

VANITY FAIR

“JESSICACHASTAIN

AND IDRIS ELBAARE POSITIVELY

ELECTRIC.”

COLLIDER