The Oscars 2019: Mum’s the Word

This week saw Sound Editor Nina Hartstone win the Oscar for the film Bohemian Rhapsody alongside John Warhurst. Rather than hitting the headlines for this well-deserved accolade, she has been the topic of discussion after the BBC website referred to her as a "Sound Editor Mum". This dubious title has since been removed from their website, but, when you consider how ridiculous it would sound if you flagged up a man’s parental status in a similar headline, it’s pretty disappointing. Could you imagine Alfonso Cuarón being referred to as a 'Film Directing Dad', for example?

Although this year’s Oscars saw some great recognition for women, the exclusively male Best Director category reveals that we still have a long way to go in terms of equality in this field. In the 90-year history of the awards there has only been one female winner, Kathryn Bigelow for Hurt Locker, and only five female directors have even been nominated.

In light of this issue, and the statistic that between 2007 and 2018 only 4% of the directors of 1,200 top grossing films were women, the 4% challenge was launched. This campaign is asking members of the film industry to commit to working with a female director in the next 18 months.

At TellyJuice, 50% of our Creatives and Directors and 100% of our Producers are women. Not bad stats if we do say so ourselves.

We recognise there is still a long way to go to get this equality business right but we want to be at the forefront of championing talent regardless of gender.

TellyJuice Team enjoying the Promax UK Awards in 2018