By Michelle von Hershko, Indie film writer-producer-director ~

Countless happy descriptions, throughout the past few days of “Women win lots of Oscars” and “a male actor in a gown!” on supposedly feminist sites, have left me saddened, angered and confused. See, I am a woman director and I suffer daily from misogyny in the film industry. I am the one not getting jobs because I am a woman director, a non existing animal almost, only rare ones of us actually get jobs in this male-dominated field.

Why are so many feminist sites ignoring the discrimination against women directors by celebrating some dude in a dress?

Me, other directors like me, and women viewers are suffering from the fact that in the Oscars of 2019 and 2018 and every year, nothing else mattered but the awfully misogynist fact that no women directors were nominated, and no film by a woman was nominated. Not last year during the so called “Me Too” revolution and not this year either. Women directors are discriminated against yearly by the Oscars, making them a ceremony celebrating male cinema…yet everybody ignores it, clapping to a win for women in the doco section, still thinking “change takes time”, closing their well makeuped eyes, not realizing that not including women directors in the far most important categories of the ceremony, is a knowingly misogynist and discriminatory act, that is saying to young women across the globe- you cannot be a film director, there are no women film directors.

Only 3 women have been nominated for best director in 92 years of the Oscars ceremony! Two of these three are a daughter and a wife of male Oscar winning directors.

When we watch a film we are not usually aware of the director behind it but the director is the mind behind the story we are watching. He or she is telling us a story through their point of view on the world and society.  It’s not only the scriptwriter who writes a movie, the final word of making a film, on every aspect, is the director’s. The director is the one putting together the sentences in a cinematic work or film. Whether this role is taken on by a man or a woman , is critical to the sculpturing of what a movie says and how it feels to its viewers.

A lot of men like blowing up cars in films. This begs the question; should women directors be in charge of action films because they are less likely to produce satisfying “action” scenes? What would woman-directed action scenes look like? Leaving women directors out of the movie business is shutting out women’s taste in cinema.  The end result is male culture, aesthetics and tastes dominate the over-arching culture of cinema. Women’s realities and ways of thinking are shut-out from mainstream media- allowing only men to direct their  portrayals on film, to their own male understandings. The end result is that we never truly get to see women represented by and for other women in mainstream, male-dominated films.

That’s why women directors are so important. They bring the authentic  voice of women, different women, a lot of women, every kind of women, a lot of them like there are a lot of them in the world- 51% of them on the planet, to the screens, they also bring their point of views on men, society, their ideas- where little girls and older women, can enjoy and identify with themselves, and boys and men viewers may be bored or even insulted, or enjoy.  This is just  like women are with most of the cinema offered to us in male oriented films- directed mostly by men. When almost only men get to control this amazing tool called cinema we get a patriarchal society. One of its ways of asserting male power are ceremonies like the Oscars. The Oscars in its 92 years have made sure to shut out women’s point of views on cinema.

Ignoring women characters written and directed by women, is ignoring , erasing, and  silencing of women’s storytelling and existence as artists of the screen.

Every director on this planet has had a dream, at some point, to stand at the Oscars podium as a winner and give a speech. It’s a dream most directors ditch when they realize that movie making and the Oscars are not a natural combination but a publicity stunt mostly, and not every film is destined to be a Hollywood styled one.

The ones who cling to this dream have a long way to go,  and mostly, in vain. Hollywood is not an easy place for directors to get into, especially when you are a woman director.

Some may argue that today, with the emergence and prominence of social media, film and TV are half way dead anyways, who really needs the Oscars? But that’s a whole different subject. As long as mainstream media takes the Oscars seriously, it’s a relevant issue and an issue of misogyny.

As hard  to achieve as this Oscar dream may be to any male director, especially directors not based in L.A,  it is absolutely an impossible dream to achieve as a woman director.

Let’s talk the numbers.

The Academy Awards board, the ones who decide who will be nominated and eventually who will win the Oscar, are made out of a committee of “Presidents.”

There are eight “presidents” on this board and in 2018 and ’19, five of the members were men and three were women.

Some women would think it’s a great achievement there are three on the board, yet what is it good for? Where are the  results?  Remember 95% of the time, no women directors are ever nominated.

After the “Presidents” comes a committee of “Governors” who are divided by the categories of the award itself- Actors/Actresses, Make Up Artists, Directors and so forth.

Here we have a slightly better situation, yet the power, as always, remains in male hands.

Of the 54 “Governors”, 23 are women and 31 are men.

The power balance remains this way, favorable to men, because men want to make sure their cinematic taste and norms are followed with no interference. This cultural norm makes the few women sitting with them on those committees- a bunch of puppets who go along with male culture. These women are willing to not include women directors at all in the ceremony they are in charge of.

I believe men are not used to including women in the film industry (or in any other industry for that matter), and women are grateful , at least to some extent, to be a part of their game, especially when considered so prestigious. Women also really like showing up in gowns to well reported events, but in 2019, after the #MeToo movement, you can’t say anymore that “it’s ok” to discriminate against women directors, wear your gown and smile like everything is cool. In 2019 the biggest cinematic event in the world, can’t be satisfied with just giving women the short documentaries  award and giving Lady Gaga the stage in a puffy dress, and say…”oh well, things change slowly.” They are NOT changing. “Things” are staying misogynistic as ever before. Pretending there is an inclusion of women today adds insult to injury. It is clear that powerful men in the film business hire women who obey them and won’t threaten their power. Basically, they are women who do nothing to make those committees even the same amount of women as men, and nothing to bring justice to the film business.

But women directors’ voices are important if we, as a society, truly value girls and women, which clearly patriarchal society does not. Women directors should not be ignored and erased, and they should not to be left out of the Oscars year after year. Girl children are watching and young women directors are being discouraged, not seeing themselves as nominated for best directors. This is not ok- this super misogynistic film bizz making our world hold fewer authentic voices, faces and culture of women, and continuing to build the culture and tastes of patriarchy.