Oscar's Lost His Head This Year -
It's Time to Take Action!
The Academy Awards are a snapshot of America's creativity, but when it comes to women's visions, the picture has been cropped.
The Fund for Women Artists is launching a campaign
to tell Hollywood that giving the male half of every story is
not enough. Please join us in sending the movie industry a message that
it's time to unleash the power of women's creativity and
Push the Envelope, Please!
Women were ignored again this year in the key Oscar categories
of Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original and Adapted Screenplays.
Best
Picture: Four of the five films nominated for Best Picture focused almost entirely on the male characters.
Capote - 1 Guy
Good Night and Good Luck - 1 Guy
Brokeback Mountain - 2 Guys
Munich - 5 Guys
Crash - At least Crash has some central women characters, but men still have more screentime.
Best Director: No women were nominated in the Best Director category - continuing the neglect that has been an annual tradition for 75 of Oscar's 78 years. Of the 40 full-length films that received nominations in any category, Niki Caro's North Country is the only English language nominee directed by a woman and Cristina Comencini's Don't Tell (from Italy) is the only full-length foreign film directed by a woman.
Best Writers: In the three closely-watched categories of Best Film, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Adapted Screenplay, Diana Ossana, the co-writer of Brokeback Mountain, is the only female writer nominated.
Here's How You Can Help
1) Sign Our Open Letter to Hollywood Executives
www.WomenArts.org/Hollywood.htm
It will take a long-term effort to turn this situation around, but it is important to remember that we have tremendous power as audience members. The movie industry is driven by sales, and
The Fund for Women Artists plans to mobilize our supporters and demonstrate that there is a large potential audience for films that reflect the diversity and complexity of women's lives.
We have drafted an Open Letter to Hollywood calling for more films written and directed by women. We plan to deliver it to leading film executives and the press. Please take a moment to sign the letter and ask your friends to do the same - the more signatures we get, the more impact we will have.
2) Do a Reality Check in Your Town
www.WomenArts.org/push/realitycheck.htm
Whose reality is playing at the theatres in your town? Help us document the lack of films directed by women in movie theatres around the country by doing a Reality Check and reporting the results back to us. It's easy to do - just pick a multiplex or theatre that you have attended recently, check your local listings and then complete our handy online form.
3) Buy A Ticket to the Future
https://secure.ga4.org/01/push
We need a system to support the women who are struggling to make the films we want to see. The Fund for Women Artists has been inspired by the success of organizations like MoveOn.org that are raising millions of dollars through small donations from large numbers of people. We want to create that kind of fundraising machine for women artists, and we can do it with
your help.
The Fund for Women Artists is asking you to "buy a ticket to the future" by making a gift to support our new grants program especially for women writers and directors in film and theatre.
For the price of a big-city movie ticket, you can start investing in women artists and be part of a new movement to bring women's visions to the center of our cultural life. We've made it easy to set up automatic gifts on your credit card, so think about buying a ticket or two every month or every quarter.
4) Express Yourself on Cool Guerrilla Girls Stationery
www.WomenArts.org/push/ggletters.htm
The Guerrilla Girls and Movies by Women have posted a giant billboard on Sunset Boulevard, just a few blocks from where the Oscar ceremonies will be held. Featuring King Kong in a pink dress, the billboard demands that Hollywood Unleash the Women Directors!
Now you can use stationery that features this fabulous billboard design to let your local theatre managers know that you want to see more films by women. Click the button at the right to download our sample letters, then just print them out, sign them, and drop them off at the box office the next time you go to the movies.
We Can Do It!
Since The Fund for Women Artists has over 20,000 visitors a month to our website, we know that lots of people care about women's visions. We just need to work together to make ourselves heard.
We want to thank Professor Martha Lauzen of San Diego State University, Tara Veneruso of Movies By Women, Jan Huttner of Women in the Audiences Supporting Women Artists Now, and
the Guerrilla Girls for sharing ideas for the development of the Push the Envelope, Please! campaign.
The Fund for Women Artists is also proud to be a partner with over 100 women's funds around the world in Fund>>Forward,
a bold initiative of the Women's Funding Network to shape the future of our communities by investing in more programs for women and girls.
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