Hurrah for the Academy!

This year, the powers that be have decided to nominate the very, very independent film Frozen River in the Best Screenplay and Best Actress category.

Directed/written by Courtney Hunt, this nomination marks a very important step in the film-going community, not only for independent film, but for women filmmakers as well.

If you’d like to take a look at the genesis of the film-

http://www.indiewire.com/article/oscar_09_frozen_rivers_courtney_hunt1/

Women used to be extremely prominent in the industry.  In fact, in film’s early years (1910-20), women basically owned the writing process.  Names like Gene Gauntier, Mary Pickford, Anita Loos and more dominated the scene—Pickford was at one time the highest paid actor/writer in Hollywood (making absurd amounts—in today’s dollars, close to $173,000 a WEEK). 

Since then, and I mean that literally—since the 1920s—woman have taken an apparent back seat.  Sofia Coppola hit it big with Lost in Translation in 2003, but she is Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter (I don’t mean that quip to mean any ill-will towards her, it’s just a fact).

So here, in 2009, to have a film directed/written/conceived by a woman in the running for an Oscar is big news.  Even though it shouldn’t be, but that’s another matter entirely.

I just saw it a couple nights ago.  I wouldn’t give it the highest recommendation, but I really did enjoy it.  It felt more real to me than the rest of the Oscar fare. 

Give it a shot.  Then watch the Oscars.

Peace.