If, as expected, \u201cLa La Land\u201d wins the Oscar on Sunday, it would be the first best-picture winner since Clint Eastwood\u2019s \u201cMillion Dollar Baby\u201d to feature a woman nominated for lead actress.<\/p>\n
Let that rattle around your brain a minute.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s 12 years of kings and compromised cops, angst-ridden actors and Afflecks without a best-picture Oscar winner that focused on telling a woman\u2019s story.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re looking for a symbol of where women stand in movies right now, that\u2019s a pretty good place to start, particularly after the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced last week that it\u2019s now engaged in settlement talks with studios to settle allegations of systemic discrimination against female directors.<\/p>\n
While academy voters have long been fixated on giving the best-picture Oscar to movies telling the stories of great (or greatly compromised) men, there have been stretches where films spotlighting women have won too. (Look at the \u201990s run of \u201cThe English Patient,\u201d \u201cTitanic\u201d and \u201cShakespeare in Love\u201d or the five-year stretch that started with Vivien Leigh\u2019s Scarlett O\u2019Hara in 1939\u2019s \u201cGone With the Wind\u201d and ended with Ingrid Bergman\u2019s Ilsa in \u201cCasablanca.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Lately though, movies focusing on women \u2014 \u201cJackie,\u201d \u201cCarol,\u201d \u201cWild\u201d and \u201cGone Girl\u201d to name a few \u2014 have been overlooked in the best picture category, though their actresses have found favor with the academy.<\/p>\n
And none of these films was directed by a woman.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the latent sexism that\u2019s the biggest problem,\u201d says Angie Fielder, a producer on the Oscar-nominated drama \u201cLion.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s there. It\u2019s under the skin of everything.\u201d<\/p>\n