- Title: 'Women in Film' Oscars pre-party honors female nominees
- Date: 23rd February 2019
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (FEBRUARY 22, 2019) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** BEST ACTRESS NOMINEE GLENN CLOSE (LEFT) WITH HER ARM AROUND FELLOW NOMINEE YALITZA APARICIO (RIGHT) WHILE POSING FOR PICTURES ON THE RED CARPET PHOTOGRAPHERS TAKING PICTURES VARIOUS OF BEST ACTRESS NOMINEE GLENN CLOSE WEARING A WHITE COAT POSING FOR PICTURES VARIO
- Embargoed: 9th March 2019 05:52
- Keywords: Women in Film Oscars female filmmakers gender partiy MeToo Roma Glenn Close
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- City: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA001A2SX0EF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Women both in front and behind the camera gathered in Beverly Hills, California, on Friday night (February 22) at the annual Women in Film cocktail party to honor the 52 individual women nominated for non-gendered categories in the 2019 Oscars, the highest number of women ever nominated in Oscars history.
Among the nominees at the red carpet were seven-time Oscar nominated actress Glenn Close who is up for Best Actress for her role in "The Wife". Close posed for photographers with fellow nominee Yalitza Aparicio who charmed critics with her performance in "Roma".
"The film on the one hand, celebrates ordinary women but it's also true that at this very moment we're celebrating women who act in film (AND) for whom those women then feel they identify with as well," Aparicio told Reuters from the red carpet.
A year after best actress winner Frances McDormand used the 2018 Oscars stage to advocate for more women in front of and behind the camera, Hollywood is celebrating some progress - but remains far from reaching parity with men.
McDormand urged powerful celebrities to insist on inclusion riders: contractual provisions that require producers to interview female candidates for jobs ranging from gaffer to director.
"That's what we really want to see. We want to see 50 percent, 51 percent, women in front of the camera, behind the camera and behind the desk," said Kirsten Schaffer, executive director of Women In Film.
The publicity around the riders kick-started a nascent effort to pressure filmmakers into boosting female representation.
The industry is taking other steps to promote gender diversity.
The 4 Percent Challenge asks for a commitment to announcing at least one feature film with a female director in the next 18 months. Four percent refers to the pool of women-directed films among the top 1,200 movies of the past 10 years.
Actors and professionals from behind the camera said on Friday that they had seen an increase in efforts to get behind more women in the industry but that there was still a long way to go.
Actress Kate Bosworth, who launched on Friday her "She Directed" campaign which aims to help women in the industry, said the MeToo movement created a turning point for women in film.
"All of a sudden this collective united energy is barreling through and I don't know anything more ferocious than a woman," Bosworth told Reuters. "You get a lot of them together and there's just no stopping it. So, it's going to be some work and I think some time. But we're not going backwards, that's for sure."
A study released this month showed some gains. Forty of the top 100 films in 2018 featured a female as a lead character, the highest number since tracking began 12 years earlier, according to University of Southern California's Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. Those movies included best picture nominees "A Star is Born", "The Favourite" and "Roma."
"I think the words 'inclusion' and 'diversity' have been two of the words that I have heard most," said veteran Singaporean actress Tan Kheng Hua who appeared in the hit-film "Crazy Rich Asians". "All the doors are open. Now it's for solid people with their hearts in the right places ... and good vision to start doing something about it," she said. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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