THE winning of the Oscar’s Best Director award by a woman will hopefully open up more opportunities for women in Hollywood, Bollywood, and other entertainment industries.  Women have made a lot of advancement in politics and other fields including in Guyana. In our own country, women have served in the highest levels of government and the present administration has several women as cabinet Ministers. So one’s sex is not an impediment to high achievement.
The conversation among Guyanese New Yorkers was the popular movie; “Avatar” would sweep the awards as Slumdog Millionaire did last year. But this was not to although it is on record as the biggest blockbuster of all time in terms of revenue grossing over one billion (US) dollars and still climbing.
It was nice to see a woman like Kathryn Bigelow winning the best director award this year for her film, the Hurt Locker, a first for a woman in that category in the Oscars’ 82-year history.
Women have been outstanding achievers in Hollywood, as well as Bollywood which influence almost every Indo-Guyanese. Many feel women have been shortchanged in getting a fair amount of prizes for their achievements with men generally looking at them as fashion queens rather than as achievers. Bigelow’s award may help change that stereotype and open up more opportunities for women.
Women should be encouraged to train their sights on ever higher achievements including in our own homeland. Director Bigelow won the award in directing a male-oriented film (dealing with male soldiers) in what is a male-dominated industry. Her movie, Hurt Locker, is about the difficulties of the Iraq war disposing bombs. It is about what war does to a soldier’s mind and thoughts especially those who have to dispose improvised bombs. It was a kind of a thriller with riveting scenes of near death bomb and the voters felt it was better directed although many Guyanese I spoke with feel Avatar had much more art and technical scenes than Hurt Locker. But the voters had spoken in favor of Bigelow.
As an aside, the awards are chosen by 5,777 individuals who work in the movie industry classified by their various disciplines or categories (about 15 in total). There are two rounds to the Oscars – first the nomination and second choosing the actual winners. Nominations are made only by members of their respective fields – for example, actors nominate actors and the top five moves forward on the ballot. The winners are then determined in a second round of voting where all members can vote. The counting and certification is done by the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Bigelow’s Hurt Locker, unlike Avatar, is a low budget film. It shows that one does not have to spend hundreds (or even tens) of millions (US dollars) to win Oscars.
Bigelow’s achievement is an example for all women. I hope her success can be carried over into Bollywood, the world’s largest movie industry.