Netflix’s The Old Guard, a tale of immortal soldiers travelling through time to solve injustices, has already been watched by 72 million households in barely a month and looks likely to become a franchise hit. But that’s not the only success story worth mentioning. It is also notable for having a strong female presence behind the camera, including 85% of the post production team. As well as Director Gina Prince-Bythewood, the first Black woman to direct a Hollywood comic-book-themed movie, Terilyn A. Shropshire is the first Black woman to edit one.
VFX supervisor Sara Bennett, a partner at Milk, is one of only two women to win a VFX Oscar, for Ex Machina in 2014. Then there’s cinematographer Tami Reiker, SFX supervisor Hayley Williams and costume designer Mary Vogt. It is very unusual for this many women to occupy key craft roles on an action film. According to San Diego State University’s ‘Celluloid Ceiling’ report, only 23% of editors, 13% of directors, 6% of VFX supervisors and 5% of cinematographers working on the 250 top-grossing films of 2019 were women.
We will be looking into the role of women in the industry and how the last few months might have changed things for them in a future Informed Sauce podcast. In the meantime, send us any examples of productions with particularly strong female or diverse crews that we can include in that discussion.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter