The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Added 52 Women to Their Director’s Branch Today
Why does this matter? AMPAS is the awards body responsible for the Oscars. Voters nominate by branch i.e. actors vote on the acting nominations and directors vote on the directing nominations etc. After the nominations are set ALL AMPAS members are able to vote on the winners.
The directing branch, made up of around 600 industry professionals has notoriously been mostly white and male and that’s shown in their nomination choices: only 4 women, all white, (Lina Wertmüller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow) have been nominated for Best Director and only one (Bigelow) has won.
This represents a seismic shift in the director’s branch that will hopefully bring about a shift in the nomination process.
Will women always vote for women’s work? Probably not. But unlike their male peers a lot of these women are more aware of their female contemporaries and have spent time supporting them and watching their films. And that can only be a good thing.
Click to read the names of the 52 women who are now part of AMPAS: