TRIVIA QUIZ
Women in Film - Questions and Answers

The Academy Awards – Men Without Women!

1)  In the 78 year history of the Oscars, how many women have ever been nominated for Best Director?
Answer: Three

2)  How many were women of color?
Answer: Zero!

3)  Who were the women nominated for Best Director and for which films?
Answer: Lina Wertmuller, Seven Beauties, 1977; Jane Campion,
The Piano, 1994; Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation, 2004

4)  Who was the first African-American female director nominated for a short-subject Academy Award?
Answer: Dianne Houston, for Tuesday Morning Ride, 1996

5)  How many women have won the award for Best Director?
Answer: Zero!

6)  Of the 40 full-length films nominated in any category in 2006,
how many were directed by a woman?
Answer: Two! North Country, directed by Nicki Caro: Charlize Theron, Best Actress; Frances McDormand, Best Supporting Actress; and Don't Tell, directed by Italy's Cristina Comencini for Best Foreign Language Film.

7)  Of the shorts nominated in 2006, how many were directed by a woman?
Answer: Two! God Sleeps in Rwanda, directed by Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman, is nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject and Badgered, directed by Sharon Coleman is nominated for Best Animated Short Film.

The Status of Women in Hollywood – Where the Boys Are!

1)  Of the 250 top-grossing films released in 2004, what percentage were directed by a woman?
Answer: 5%

2)  On those films, what percentage of all those working as directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, or editors were women?
Answer: 16%

3)  Is that an increase or a decrease since 2001?
Answer: Decrease! In 2001, the figure was 19%

4)  Of the 250 top-grossing films released in 2004, what percentage employed NO women as directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, or editors?
Answer: 21%

5)  What percentage failed to employ any men in these positions?
Answer: Zero!

6)  What percentage of the screenwriters working on these films were women?
Answer: 12%

7)  What percentage of the cinematographers working on these films were women?
Answer: 3%!

8)  Of all the speaking parts in the 101 top-grossing G-rated movies released between 1990 and 2004, what percentage are female?
Answer: 25%

The Critics – Me and You and Everyone We Know? Not!

1)  Of the members of the New York Film Critics Circle, what percentage is female?
Answer: 14%

2)  Of the 200 movies in Roger Ebert’s two books, The Great Movies and The Great Movies II, how many are directed by women?
Answer: Zero!

3)  Of the 139 films on the 2005 Top 10 lists by 61 major U.S. critics listed on Metacritic.com, how many were feature films directed by an American woman?
Answer: One! Me and You and Everyone We Know, directed by Miranda July, appeared on 10 Top Ten lists. Seven other films by international women directors and made outside the U.S. also appeared on some lists, as did two U.S. documentaries co-directed by a woman and a man.

The History of Women in the Film Industry –
The Way We Were

1)  Who is credited with directing the first narrative film? In what year?
Answer: Alice Guy, 1896

2)  Between 1912 and 1925, how many of Hollywood’s films were written by women?
Answer: Almost half!

3)  Who was the first woman to direct a full-length feature film?
Answer: Lois Weber, Merchant of Venice, 1914

4)  Who was the first woman of African descent to direct a major Hollywood studio film?
Answer: Euzhan Palcy, A Dry White Season, 1989

5)  Who was Universal Studios’ highest paid director in 1916?
Answer: Lois Weber

6)  Edith Head's name appeared in the credits of over 300 films between 1933 and 1982. What was her role?
Answer: Costume designer

7) Give the screen name of the actress whose real name is Frances Gumm (1922-1969)
Answer: Judy Garland

8)  What woman made her directing debut with a film that she wrote, produced and starred in as a young woman impersonating a young man?

Answer:  Barbra Streisand in Yentl (1983)

9)  In what 1930 film does Marlene Dietrich, dressed in a tuxedo, kiss a woman on the lips?
Answer: Morocco

10)  In what movie are these lines sung: “Our daughters' daughters will adore us / They will sing in grateful chorus / Well done, sister suffragettes”
Answer: Mary Poppins

Sources & Resources:

The Fund for Women Artists (www.WomenArts.org)
An alliance of artists and audience members dedicated to celebrating and supporting art that tells the truth about women’s lives. “The Celluloid Ceiling,” by Martha Lauzen: http://www.womenarts.org/advocacy/
CelluloidCeiling2004byMarthaLauzen.htm

Movies by Women (www.moviesbywomen.com)
A grassroots collective working to increase the awareness of women's contributions to film and television history. The site includes information on historical women directors, statistics on women directors, and  Director interviews. “The Women Behind the Camera in Early Hollywood,” by Cari Beauchamp: http://www.moviesbywomen.com/history.html

Sisters in Cinema (www.sistersincinema.com)
A resource guide for and about African-American women feature filmmakers. Sisters in Cinema is also a 62-minute documentary offering an overview of the lives and films of African-American women feature film directors from the early part of the 20th century to today.

See Jane (www.seejane.com)
“Where the Girls Aren’t,” a study commissioned by this organization founded by Geena Davis to dramatically increase the percentages of female characters, and to reduce gender stereotyping, in media made for children ages zero to 11.

Margaret Fulford’s Women in Film Quizzes:
http://probability.ca/mfulford/quizzes.html

Go to The Fund for Women Artists Home Page>>