Oscars .. The Men's Club, which is difficult for women to membership

Menna Jameel - Istanbul

Ten years ago, director Catherine Ann Bigelow has accomplished what her female American directors have been unable to do since the announcement in 1929 that the Academy Awards for Animation Arts and Sciences (Oscar) was started.

"Bigelow" is the first and only woman to have won the award for Best Director, which has long been monopolized by men, with her ninth film in her career "Treasury of Pain". The list of candidates for this category is also free this year from any female name.

But what is the secret behind Bigelow’s victory .. Have you presented a cinematic recipe that has not occurred to a woman? Or luck accompanied her without others? Or was it alone that it managed to escape deliberate discrimination against female directors practiced by the Oscars?

Technical excellence
Mohamed Kamel (an Egyptian film critic and researcher) suggested the hypothesis of "luck and mastery of tools" to be the reason behind Bigelow's victory, ruling out any motives that discriminate against women, a view that has become prevalent in the international press and among a number of filmmakers in line with the women's empowerment movements.

He said to Al-Jazeera Net "In (Treasury of Pain) we have a director who is literally capable of all his tools and style, clear and expressive, so Bigelo surpassed the fierce rival at the time, James Cameron, with his movie Avatar, because Avatar provided a new and great cinematic technology, but at the level of artistic style not new; just a trip A regular hero like Greek mythology.

He highlighted the full capabilities of Bigelow, saying that "despite my political stance on the film (as against the war on Iraq and against portraying the Americans as victims or loyalists), the film was able to convey the reality of the American hellish soldiers in Iraq, especially the bomb disposal squad."

Kamel continued, "The director used a method of photography similar to police car cameras (as if it was realistic shooting from the heart of the event), rapid cutting and shots very close to the faces of the actors. They were all elements that made me always in a state of stress, such as that of a deminer."

Oscar Women's History
Despite praising Bigelow's abilities, and rejecting the idea of ​​the Oscar practicing intentional racism against female filmmakers, Kamel is inclined to the idea that the lack of female directors is "behind the absence of women names from the list of best-performing Oscar nominees, and only five female directors have been nominated since the launch of the Oscar."

Art critic Mohammed Kamel added that "the number of female directors is few compared to men, which explains why they are less likely to be nominated in the directing category", but he stressed that the bombing of the "Little Woman" movie (young women) for Greta Gerwig this year might push the Academy Academy to launch a better award. A director, as a newly created class, given that the academy always floats with the mainstream, which is now concerned with the empowerment of women, "as he described it.

Criticism
This year, sharp criticism emerged from the Oscar Nominations Committee to exclude the movie "Young Women", which is the third in the directing of Gerwig's directing from the list of the best directors. The list was limited to five males, Martin Scorsese for "The Irish", Todd Phillips for "The Joker", and Quentin Tarantino for “Once upon a time in Hollywood,” Mendes Medal for “1917,” and Pong John for “Parasite.”

On the crisis of "Young Women", Lebanese artist George Richani, Art Director, said that the comparison is unfair when it comes to talking about not nominating the film in the category of best director for the 92nd Oscar.

"Sure, Gerwig has made a good movie, but it can't be compared to directing Scorsese or Tarantino," he told Al Jazeera Net.

Richani called on filmmakers around the world "to persevere and not give up their passion, even if they release dozens of films without prizes."

"When Lebanese Nadine Labaki was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Award last year, he was proud of us, she is the daughter of my country, but when we look at her competitor in the list, which is the Mexican film" Roma ", we note the latter's superiority in all directing elements, which justifies the non-victory of the film (Kafr Nahum) ) To Nadine, not because there is racism against the outputs. "

Men's Club
For her part, Turkish director Ilam Kaftan described the Oscar as a "club for men" (a term used for groups whose membership is excluded from women).

She said to Al Jazeera Net, "Excluding women nominations for the directing category is a tradition that has been in practice for more than ninety years, and it is not surprising to us. Those who choose Oscar candidates are mostly men over sixty."

Kaftan - the only director in Turkey who presented a feature film last year called "The Beehive" - ​​said that the position of the Oscars based on women prompted them to form groups supporting each other, without directly indicating the existence of intentional racism against them.

"I agree with the criticism that indicates that the community does not look at the outputs as it does the directors, regardless of the good films they make."

"As filmmakers that are excluded from this male club, we form our own solidarity groups to support each other, because it is still difficult for us to break the invisible glass ceiling created by men who dominate institutions around the world," she added.

Kaftan considered that just talking about filmmakers in the world raises society’s awareness, adding that “we have a long way to go before we are fully recognized in the directing world, but I believe that the future will be for women, and we will tell our stories in any possible way.”

Voting in the Oscars will be by sending ballot papers by mail to members of the Academy of Image Arts and Sciences, who this year numbered 8,000 and 469.

In 2012, the American newspaper "Los Angeles Times" conducted an in-depth census that found that 94% of the voters were whites, and 77% were male, and their average age was 62 years.