Female-driven films about more than 'getting the guy' are almost impossible to finance, say indie producers

Cate Blanchett implored Hollywood to see that 'the world is round' in her 2014 Oscars acceptance speech

Rooney Mara and Cate Blanchett as lovers Therese and Carol in Carol

Indie producers have spoken out about the struggle to get female-driven films financed despite growing spotlight on the dire visibility of women in Hollywood.

Heather Rae, Alix Madigan and Lydia Dean Pilcher hosted a panel discussion on the shifting roles of women in the film industry at a private screening for Tallulah. The new movie tells the story of a disillusioned Beverly Hills housewife whose toddler is stolen by a stranger. It stars Juno actresses Ellen Page and Allison Janney but has still taken ten years to reach the big screen.

“This film was deemed not commercially viable because it was a woman’s story and it wasn’t about getting the guy,” Rae said, according to Variety, adding that executives told her so directly. Fast-forward a decade and, with attitudes slowly changing, Tallulah’s film rights were bought by Netflix for $5 million before its Sundance premiere last year. It will be released on the streaming service on 29 July, as well as in select cinemas.

Rae’s experience was backed up by Pilcher and Madigan, with all three women insisting that films directed by, starring and about women are tricky to get off the ground due to studio concerns about their box office potential. The Hunger Games franchise, driven by Jennifer Lawrence and one of the highest-grossing of all-time, is considered an exception rather than the rule. Disney live-action movie Maleficent, led by Angelina Jolie, grossed over $758 million worldwide to become the fourth biggest film of 2014 while the year before, Frozen fever took over as the animated film about sisterly love became the highest-grossing of its genre ever. Frozen made nearly $1.3 billion at the global box office and won two Oscars but still, ‘stories about women don’t sell’.

Just last week, analysis undertaken by The Wrap revealed that there are no female-directed films on the upcoming slates of both Paramount and 20th Century Fox (not counting Fox Searchlight). That’s a big fat zero movies directed by a woman from two of the biggest studios until 2018. It’s 47 consecutive films with no female director. Somehow in 2016, women are still not given an equal voice to men in Hollywood.

Rae praised Netflix for supporting smaller films led by women, stating her belief that the company “believes the audience is a wide audience and [Tallulah] is not just a women’s film”. Madigan, meanwhile, apportioned some of the blame to foreign sales markets which she claims are “very, very male-driven”. It seems, she says, that women’s films face an uphill battle.

Recently a study carried out over seven years by the European Women’s Audiovisual Network found that just one in five films made in Europe is directed by a woman despite female directors making up 44 per cent of film school graduates. The report also found that women are considered “high risk”, with studios biased towards male-led films and action movies. Women remain underrepresented at film festivals despite female-directed movies tending to win more awards.

Cate Blanchett called upon Hollywood execs to embrace female-driven films after winning Best Actress in 2014 for her role in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. “To those of using the industry who are still foolishly clinging to the idea that female films with women at the centre are niche experiences. They are not,” she said in her acceptance speech. “In fact, they earn money. The world is round, people.”

Sadly, the Hollywood suits are yet to come round to her modern, feminist way of thinking.

Here’s a reminder of the other women, and a few men, speaking out about sexism and ageism in Hollywood