Despite Rise in Female Directors Like Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell, Women Still Lack Opportunities in Hollywood (COLUMN)
Martha Lauzen For the first time in its 93-year history, the Academy has nominated two women for best director. Chloé Zhao and Emerald Fennell will compete with David Fincher, Lee Isaac Chung and Thomas Vinterberg for the coveted honor. But before we launch into a monthlong celebration about how “we’ve come a long way, baby,” we should consider exactly what has and has not been accomplished.Women comprised 18% of directors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films of 2020, up from 13% in 2019 and 8% in 2018, according to the latest Celluloid Ceiling study.