How well did the films competing — and winning — at last night’s Academy Awards represent girls and women? Much better than the overall movie environment! The Where Are the Women? ranking for 2015 isn’t quite finished yet (I have a handful of films still to add), but nowhere near half of those movies will have female protagonists, or will represent women in even a mildly positive way. But the Oscar contenders come closer to giving women parity onscreen. Here’s how it all breaks down.
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42 feature films received at least one nomination:
= exactly half (21) received a positive or neutral WATW score
= 17 have a female protagonist (though 3 of them share the spotlight with a male coprotagonist), including one film with no clear protagonist but a primarily female ensemble
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13 feature films won an award:
= 6 (or just under half) received a positive or neutral WATW score
= 5 have a have a female protagonist (though 2 of them share the spotlight with a male coprotagonist)
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23 feature films received at least one nomination in a major category (Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, Best Director, and in the four acting and two writing categories):
= 11 received a positive WATW score
= 9 have a female protagonist (though 2 of them share the spotlight with a male coprotagonist)
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7 feature films received at least one win in a major category (Best Picture, Best Animated Feature, Best Director, and in the four acting and two writing categories):
= 3 received a positive WATW score
= 3 have a female protagonist (though 2 of them share the spotlight with a male coprotagonist)
When it comes to winning a big award, it looks like representing women well — or at least not quite so badly as many films do — is a good move.
See the Where Are the Women? ranking for this year’s Oscar-nominated films for all the details.
