The actress and director Expresses Fury Over The Film Industry's Regression for Women
Kristen Stewart has declared she is “furious” that progress for female directors in Hollywood have gone backwards after a short-lived surge of improvement following the #MeToo era.
The Twilight star, who helmed the upcoming film her latest project, delivered an emotional speech at a women’s luncheon in Los Angeles organized by the Oscars organization.
“The backsliding from a brief moment of progress is alarming by the numbers,” she told the audience. “Such a pitiful number of films from the previous year have been made by women.”
An annual report that tracks the presence of women directors revealed that eleven of the highest-grossing films of 2024 were helmed by female directors, a decrease from sixteen in the year 2020.
‘Male-Dominated Industry Model’
During her speech, Stewart remarked: “In a post-MeToo moment, it seemed possible that narratives made by and for women were finally getting their due. That we might be allowed or even encouraged to express ourselves and our common stories, all of our experiences unfiltered.
“But I can now attest to the bare-knuckle brawling that it takes every step when the material is too dark, too taboo, when the frankness with which it serves up observations about situations routinely experienced by women, frequently provokes disgust and rejection.”
She added: “We can talk about pay disparities and taxes on tampons and measure [inequality] in lots of quantifiable ways. But the violence of silencing, it’s like we’re not even supposed to be angry. But I can eat this podium with a fork and [expletive] knife. I’m furious.”
Attendees hearing Stewart’s speech featured a number of well-known female stars.
Stewart received several rounds of applause during the duration of her brief talk.
“I am thankful to you,” she stated. “I do not thank a boys’ club business model that pretends to want to associate with us while siphoning our resources and diminishing our genuine viewpoints. Let’s try and not be tokenised. It’s time to create our own value.”
New films from several female directors are in the running for the next Academy Awards, but the best director category is anticipated again to be male in majority.
