Your weekly news update is here!!!

• Straight off the bat we have an article here detailing an increase of live action films directed by women, in Canada. Although twenty two percent may seem like a small number, it is an increase from 2010 with just sixteen percent of films being directed by women. Quoting this article “statistics among American feature films are even worse” with only nine percent of the top two hundred and fifty top grossing films being directed by women. You can check out the full article here.
• The number of female TV directors is remaining annoyingly low according to this article. As we all know the number one name that springs to mind when thinking of female TV directors is Michelle MacLaren, having directed four episodes of Game Of Thrones, directed eight episodes of Breaking Bad (being an executive producer on over fourty three, yes fourty three, episodes) and two episodes of The X Files (executive producer on fourty six episodes). She comes across as a heavy weight in the realm of TV directing. My personal favourite out of the MacLaren directed episodes of Game Of Thrones has to be “The Bear and the Maidan Fair” in the third season, with its brutal torture scenes (also pointed out in the article, but I promise it really is my favourite).
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has a new clip out! The one minute long trailer has us all wanting more and more. Director Francis Lawrence has his work cut out for him to follow on from Gary Ross’ first instalment of The Hunger Games, based on Suzanne Collins’ best-selling YA novels .

• Swedish cinema is taking a massive leap forward with its rating systems by using the Bechdel Test, as highlighted in this article by The Guardian. The article fails to mention what the test actually is but to summarise it has three points, it has to have at least two female charecters, who talk to each other, about something besides males. The test itself has been around for since the mid 80’s and showcases the downfalls of major films such as Pacific Rim, Star Wars, Lord of The Rings and Pulp Fiction. Although these films are in their own rights amazing they all fail the Bechdel Test miserably. The rating has come under criticism as seen in the article it has been called a “blunt tool that does not reveal whether a movie is gender balanced”.
• This article right here highlights the formula for a successful female superhero movie, lets be honest, so far it’s not been great (does anyone remember Catwoman?) also apparently they’re not crediting Buffy I’m assuming because it was a TV show. Personally speaking I think a female orientated franchise as big as Iron Man or the Dark Knight Trilogy would be awesome and with the right ideas I think major studios could be easily persuaded into it.

by Chip