Adapt or Die: The Dangers of Women’s Authorship

Abstract

To date, Jane Campion is the only woman to have won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and Kathryn Bigelow is the only woman to have won the Best Director Oscar at the Academy Awards. They are two of the best known female directors in English-language cinema, and both have careers that span more than 30 years, a testament to their survival in an industry that, as I noted in the introduction, makes little room for women’s authorship. What they have to say about the status of women in filmmaking is worth taking into account. In a short piece in the Guardian, Campion declares,

My advice to young female filmmakers is: please do not play the lady card. Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Just do your work and let someone else deal with the politics … But we should mandate that 50% of films produced are made by women. That would be possible with public money. Instantly the culture would change. It can be done. (Wiseman, 2013)