THREAD: There’s a reason Greta Gerwig’s being snubbed for her direction of LITTLE WOMEN - and it has everything to do with the way the art/craft of filmmaking have been masculinized from inception.

Male directors often like to show their work. From Eisenstein’s landmark montage in BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN to Inarritu’s one-take war scenes in THE REVENANT - we assume the more ambitious the craft, the greater the impact. But this often has the opposite effect.

Instead of immersing viewers in the moment, these innovations can have a tendency to call attention to themselves. They make us lean back in admiration when we should be leaning forward in awe. As technology advances, modern movies have turned into an auteur pissing contest.

Of course these moments are tailor made for awards season flacks and FYC campaigns. “It was all one shot!” “They sang everything live!” “The crew almost froze to death on location!” There’s nothing more traditionally masculine than suffering for your art.

Voters (who are mostly older, white, and male) identify with this. After all, if you can’t see the effort on display, how can you determine who did what? If a movie doesn’t feel DIRECTED, they have no interest in rewarding it - to them, everything onscreen simply “happened.”

But making things feel natural and effortless is a talent female directors have in spades. Gerwig, Olivia Wilde, Lulu Wang, Celine Sciamma, Lorene Scafaria, and Marielle Heller are exceptional for how they craft every shot in a way that’s full of purpose yet invisible.

Female directors work from the inside out, not the other way around. Why does LITTLE WOMEN reveal more on repeat viewings? Because Gerwig’s craft (cinematography, editing, design, music) emerges ONLY from her characters. Her technical mastery never calls attention to itself.

To me, there’s NOTHING harder than making the extraordinary effort it takes to direct a film look seamless. That’s exactly what Gerwig did with LITTLE WOMEN. It’s why the film is so rich and rewarding, and it’s also why the male establishment snubbed her...

...for the self-consciously grungy ‘70s vibe of JOKER, the epic length of THE IRISHMAN, the one-take gambit of 1917, and Tarantino’s recreation of vintage Hollywood. But no director’s form and content were as meticulously aligned as Gerwig’s this year.

There’s much to admire in the nominees, and judging art will always be subjective. But until our industry recognizes its unconscious bias around what constitutes great filmmaking, real innovators like Gerwig and others will be ignored in favor of the usual male “visionaries.” END

P.S. You could add Alma Har’el, Mati Diop, Kasi Lemmons, Joanna Hogg, Claire Denis, Jennifer Kent, Melina Matsoukas, and several more. Not all got fancy FYC campaigns (a separate issue with similar implications), but voters had plenty of female directors to choose from this year!