The Hollywood Reporter – 28.02.2018

Photographed by Christopher Patey

Women now hold the most seats ever on the Academy board — 39 percent — as 18 of 21

female governors, along with CEO Dawn Hudson, sit for a class photo

By Gregg Kilday

TOP ROW

(From Left)

Christina

Kounelias

Public Relations

Laura Dern

Actors

Carol Littleton

Film Editors

Robin Swicord

Writers

Mandy Walker

Cinematographers

Lora Kennedy

Casting Directors

Jan Pascale

Designers

Teri E. Dorman

Sound

Dawn Hudson

Academy CEO

Sharen K. Davis

Costume Designers

Laura Karpman

Music

Kimberly Peirce

Directors

BOTTOM ROW

(From Left)

Deborah

Nadoolman Landis

Costume Designers

Kate Amend

Documentary

Lois Burwell

Makeup Artists and

Hairstylists

Isis Mussenden

Costume Designers

Kathryn L. Blondell

Makeup Artists and

Hairstylists

Nancy Utley

Public Relations

Jennifer Yuh

Nelson

Governors-at-Large

NOT PICTUREDWhoopi Goldberg

(Actors)Kathleen Kennedy

(Producers)Rory Kennedy

(Documentary)

T

he Academy of Motion Picture Arts

and Sciences is undergoing a makeover. Critics

carp that it remains a bunch of old white guys,

but even before the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag

greeted the 2015 (and 2016) nominations, the

Academy had begun a concerted effort to diversify mem-

bership, extending invitations to more women and people

of color. By its count, women now comprise 28 percent

of the 8,300-member Academy (up from about 23 percent

in 2012), but on the 54-member board of governors — the

ruling body that oversees the group’s activities — a record

21 women now occupy seats (39 percent). Throughout

much of the Academy’s 90-year history, female board

members were a rarity. In the ’50s, just two women,

both actresses — All About Eve’s Anne Baxter and Key

Largo’s Claire Trevor — held seats. Their numbers began

to increase in the ’90s (Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy,

from the producers branch, was first elected in 1994) and

have escalated in recent years. Each of the Academy’s

17 branches elects three board members to staggered,

three-year terms, and in July, six women were elected for

the first time, among them Whoopi Goldberg and Hidden

Figures cinematographer Mandy Walker. “The tenor and

content of the conversation has definitely changed in

the seven years I’ve been at the Academy,” says CEO Dawn

Hudson. “The board as a whole has been willing to take

on more complex and controversial issues facing our film

community. Is that a result of more women on the board?

I don’t know. But it’s a fact.”

“I don’t know if it’s a function of

having more women on the board or the

fact that women speaking out now feel

empowered,” says AMPAS president John

Bailey, “but it doesn’t feel like a male

enclave anymore.” The board members were

photographed Feb. 5 at the Beverly Hilton.

that, finally, women have realized
that there’s no way to win this game
by staying quiet about how they are
treated, how much they are paid and
how often they are or are not hired.
Staying quiet has gained us nothing.”

28 MARILYN BERGMAN
“When [Bergman’s husband and
songwriting partner] Alan and I would
have a meeting with a producer or
director, they shook hands with Alan
and although my hand was extended,
they would kiss me on the cheek. Then,
throughout the meeting, they —
always men — would only look at Alan
and hardly acknowledge that I was
even there. Today, though the kissing
may continue, women are on a much
more equal footing.”

66 VE NEILL
“You know what I would like to see?
More women DPs. I’ve only ever
worked with one woman director of
photography, and every time I see
a woman in the camera department,
the boys have her schlepping cases.
I think that’s a crying shame. That’s
definitely still a boys’ club.”

49 LILI FINI ZANUCK
“I’ve noticed that this whole
issue is really divided by generation.
Millennials feel that this is going to
effect a huge change. Older women,
like myself, feel differently. Part of
it is because feminism as it is today
started in my youth. It was all about

2018

Lili Zanuck, who won for producing Driving

Miss Daisy with her husband, Richard D.

Zanuck, also produced the 72nd Academy

Awards and directed the 1991 film Rush.

‘Hear me roar.’ For the millennials,
they aren’t looking at it the way the
older generation is — which is: You
need to know how to take care of
yourself. On my crews, where I try to
hire a lot of women, if a woman came
to me, I would say, ‘I’ll take care of
it this time, but you are going to have
to learn to handle this because I’m
not on every picture with you.’ I’m glad
all these people were outed and I do
think there will be a code of conduct
now, but I’m not as optimistic that
it’s a new day in the way that a lot of
young people are.”

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 180 FEBRUARY 28, 2018

SET DESIGN BY WARD ROBINSON AT WOODEN LADDER. HAIR AND MAKEUP BY SU HAN, APRIL BAUTISTA AND CHECHEL JOSON AT DEW BEAUTY AGENCY.

ZANUCK: ARCHIVE PHOTOS/GETTY IMAGES.

‘It Doesn’t Feel Like a

Male Enclave Anymore’