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Oscars: A record year for women, but is it progress?

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Oscars: A record year for women, but is it progress?
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Oscars: A record year for women, but is it progress?

2019-02-21 02:06 Last Updated At:02:30

At the glad-handy Oscar nominees luncheon earlier this month, film academy president John Bailey proudly told the 171 nominees in the room that there were a record number of women nominated for Academy Awards this year. The statement seemed to take everyone a moment to process, or calculate, but soon Lady Gaga, Amy Adams, "Black Panther" costumer Ruth E. Carter and others were applauding.

Numbers-wise, women did have a comparatively good year. In the 20 non-gendered categories, 52 individual women were nominated, up eight from last year's 44.

And yet why does it feel like progress is not being made? Perhaps because there have still only ever been five women nominated for best director (none this year), and only one who has won. There's also the fact that none of the films nominated for best picture this year had a female director.

Look closer at the individual categories and the gaps become abundantly clear. It's been 21 years since a woman has won for original score (Anne Dudley for "The Full Monty"), 13 years since one has won for adapted screenplay (Diana Ossana for "Brokeback Mountain"), 12 years since the last original screenplay win (Diablo Cody for "Juno"), nine years since the first and only female best director win (Kathryn Bigelow for "The Hurt Locker"), and eight years since a woman won for best foreign film (Susanne Bier for "In a Better World") or sound mixing (Lora Hirschberg for "Inception").

In addition to director, this year there are no female nominees for cinematography, editing, score, or visual effects. There's only ever been one woman to get a cinematography nod (Rachel Morrison just last year), and only three women in history have ever gotten a visual effects nomination — although they have a pretty great track record as two out of the three won. The only category that has always had a female nominee is costume design.

The gender divide becomes clearer when comparing the number of women nominated to their male counterparts. The Women's Media Center reported earlier this month that over 75 percent of the nominees this year were men.

"A nomination for an Academy Award can open doors," said Jane Fonda, co-founder of the Women's Media Center. "With three out of every four non-acting nominations going to men, women, again, are missing that stamp of approval."

Melissa Silverstein, the founder of website Women and Hollywood, said it "doesn't feel like a record year."

"Women continue to be shut out of the top categories," Silverstein said. "The fact that no films directed by women are nominated for best picture says it all."

Yet women could take the stage at the end of Sunday's ceremony and carry home an Oscar if the best picture winner is "The Favourite," ''Roma," ''A Star Is Born" or "Vice"; all have at least one female producer.

This year's Oscars will spotlight the achievements of several female directors. Lebanese director Nadine Labaki's "Capernaum" is competing for best foreign language film, while the documentary feature category includes Julie Cohen and Betsy West for "RBG" and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi for "Free Solo." Several female directors are also nominated for short films.

Yet the best director category remains frustratingly elusive for women. Awards blogger Sasha Stone, who wrote the Women's Media Center report, thinks that in the current landscape, women can only break through when there is a consensus choice to push, like last year with Greta Gerwig and "Lady Bird." This year, attentions were split between Debra Granik ("Leave No Trace "), Chloe Zhao ("The Rider "), Marielle Heller ("Can You Ever Forgive Me?") and Lynne Ramsay ("You Were Never Really Here ").

"The problem is the Oscar race is a machine and it's a very tightly controlled machine, controlled by publicists, bloggers, critics," Stone said. "If there isn't one person that all of those people have rallied around to push into the race, then that person is not going to get in."

The directing category is subject to so much scrutiny because of the power that position holds both on a film set and in the industry.

A directing Oscar nomination, and win, Stone noted, proves to the industry that a person is a "legitimate power player ... somebody who can get projects made."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences itself has for the past few years been taking steps to diversify its largely white and male membership. Forty-nine percent of the invited 2018 class were women, and if all accepted it would bring the film academy's overall percentage of women to 31 percent.

But nominations can only come from what the industry puts in theaters, and what the largely male run studios choose to put millions of awards marketing dollars toward.

Bailey, for his part, told the audience of power players at the nominees' luncheon that the numbers are far from equal.

"We need to do better," he said. "Gender parity is an industry matter, not just an academy matter."

Follow AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel this week briefed Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah aimed at rooting out Hamas militants, according to U.S. officials familiar with the talks.

The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive exchange, said that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the U.S. administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in Rafah would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to carry out a military operation in Rafah despite warnings from President Joe Biden and other western officials that doing so would result in more civilian deaths and worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.

The Biden administration has said there could be consequences for Israel should it move forward with the operation without a credible plan to safeguard civilians.

“Absent such a plan, we can’t support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what’s acceptable,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Friday at the Sedona Forum, an event in Arizona hosted by the McCain Institute.

Some 1.5 million Palestinians have sheltered in the southern Gaza city as the territory has been ravaged by the war that began on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.

The United Nations humanitarian aid agency on Friday said that hundreds of thousands of people would be “at imminent risk of death” if Israel moves forward with the Rafah assault. The border city is a critical entry point for humanitarian aid and is filled with displaced Palestinians, many in densely packed tent camps.

The officials added that the evacuation plan that the Israelis briefed was not finalized and both sides agreed to keep discussing the matter.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Friday that no “comprehensive” plan for a potential Rafah operation has been revealed by the Israelis to the White House. The operation, however, has been discussed during recent calls between Biden and Netanyahu as well as during recent virtual talks with top Israeli and U.S. national security officials.

“We want to make sure that those conversations continue because it is important to protect those Palestinian lives — those innocent lives,” Jean-Pierre said.

The revelation of Israel's continued push to carry out a Rafah operation came as CIA director William Burns arrived Friday in Egypt, where negotiators are trying to seal a cease-fire accord between Israel and Hamas.

Hamas is considering the latest proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release put forward by U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators, who are looking to avert the Rafah operation.

They have publicly pressed Hamas to accept the terms of the deal that would lead to an extended cease-fire and an exchange of Israeli hostages taken captive on Oct. 7 and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Hamas has said it will send a delegation to Cairo in the coming days for further discussions on the offer, though it has not specified when.

Israel, and its allies, have sought to increase pressure on Hamas on the hostage negotiation. Signaling that Israel continues to move forward with its planning for a Rafah operation could be a tactic to nudge the militants to finalize the deal.

Netanyahu said earlier this week that Israeli forces would enter Rafah, which Israel says is Hamas’ last stronghold, regardless of whether a truce-for-hostages deal is struck. His comments appeared to be meant to appease his nationalist governing partners, and it was not clear whether they would have any bearing on any emerging deal with Hamas.

Blinken visited the region, including Israel, this week and called the latest proposal “extraordinarily generous” and said “the time to act is now.”

In Arizona on Friday, Blinken repeated remarks he made earlier this week that "the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a cease-fire is Hamas.”

The Chahine family prepares to bury two adults and five boys and girls under the age of 16 after an overnight Israeli strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 3, 2024. An Israeli strike on the city of Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip killed several people, including children, hospital officials said Friday. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)

The Chahine family prepares to bury two adults and five boys and girls under the age of 16 after an overnight Israeli strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 3, 2024. An Israeli strike on the city of Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip killed several people, including children, hospital officials said Friday. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)

FILE - Palestinians line up for free food during the ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Jan. 9, 2024. A top U.N. official said Friday, May 3, 2024, that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine" after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali, File)

FILE - Palestinians line up for free food during the ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Jan. 9, 2024. A top U.N. official said Friday, May 3, 2024, that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine" after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali, File)

Palestinians rescue a woman survived after the Israeli bombardment on a residential building of Abu Alenan family in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, early Saturday, May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)

Palestinians rescue a woman survived after the Israeli bombardment on a residential building of Abu Alenan family in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, early Saturday, May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)

President Joe Biden walks across the South Lawn of the White House as he talks with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Washington, after returning from a trip to North Carolina. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Joe Biden walks across the South Lawn of the White House as he talks with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Washington, after returning from a trip to North Carolina. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

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