I think just like there are good male directors, there are many good female directors as well. However, you can't ignore the fact that most people in high places, in Hollywood are men. Actually let me rephrase that, "Caucasian Men". There is a glass ceiling in Hollywood, not only for women, but also for minorities. But I think that's just the way it is anywhere you go. Not just in Hollywood, but any large company or organization. The only thing that keeps us going is the dream that one day people will be recognized by the quality of their work, not by their appearance or gender. This sort of thing has always existed, even in literature. Back in the 1700’s, some women writers would even write under a male name so they could get their work published. In short, it took women and minorities hundreds of years to get where they are now, and even if it takes that much longer things will change.

As a female director, I agree that there is a permeating sense of chauvinism in Hollywood, but I also agree with John. They should hire the best directors, regardless of their sex. However, women directors should be encouraged. Women simply don't get into film because they know that people will favour men, and it's like fighting an uphill battle. Believe me, there are times when I just want to give up and throw the towel in and find a nine to five job, because people are just awful. However, directors like Caroline Link, inspire me to continue with film.

Something like 5 out of the top 7 studios are run by female execs. Hollywood is dominated by the "oppressed minorities", so don't blame "Caucasian males" for not hiring female directors.

By the way Caucasian does not actually mean white, if you mean white males please say so. I'm surprised you didn't add heterosexual to it.

If women won every single category, including best actor, you would still complain about sexism in the industry.

How much more encouragement, opportunities and handouts do women need? You have entire festivals devoted to women directors. Even festivals which aren't only female directors have special female only workshops. There are female only scholarships, free courses and quotas. University courses discriminate against males.

There are plenty of deserving men who don't win best director every year. I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find that no male under 4' has won an oscar, maybe Hollywood should award best directors only to midgets and pygmies to make up for it.

There is one simple solution have every single category split up into male and female. Then you would still whine, but at least it would be about something else for once.

I don't believe the average person looks at the director and goes gee that's a female, I better not watch that. Most of the time, unless it is a famous director, you don't know who the director is. Instead they look at the movie, and decide whether it's worth watching. For years I believed Ang Lee was female, due to a misprint in an article. I didn't avoid Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, even after the horrible The Ice Storm.

My old (1991) Guinness Book of Movie Facts & Feats advises me that 7332 films were produced by Hollywood between 1949 and 1979. Exactly 14 of those were directed by women. Conversely, 14 of the top 200 films just in the past year were directed by women. And from the same book, another statistic claims there were 36 female directors working in the US during the silent period, exactly *one* of whom (Dorothy Arzner) continued directing sound films after 1928. Things have made a pretty goddamn substantial improvement over past decades, although obviously the situation is a grim one in real terms.

I'm inclined to agree, mind you, that the choice of director for a given film should depend upon the skill of the person, not the shape of their genitals. If you pick a woman to direct purely because she's a woman, that's nothing more than tokenism. And I think this is the real problem here, because 1) the situation for women directors in Hollywood is poor and there's no reason why they shouldn't be encouraged, but 2) how can you do so without avoiding some degree of tokenism? In short, I don't know the answer either...

As far as the Oscar stats quoted go, it's worth noting at least two films directed by women have taken out Best Foreign Film ("Antonia's Line" and "Nowhere In Africa"). There may have been more nominated but I can't be bothered checking each one individually...

Correction: I can, and will find out. Oscars.org advises me that all of the following femme directors have also had films nominated for best foreign film Oscar: Maria Luisa Bemberg, Nana Djordjadze, Astrid Henning-Jensen, Agnieszka Holland, Agnes Jaoui, Diane Kurys, Caroline Link (for another one of her films before "Nowhere In Africa"), Mira Nair, Paula van der Oest, and quite possibly one or two others whose gender I couldn't determine (except for Kay Pollak, who actually turns out to be a bloke).

So women directors have done a lot better over the decades in the foreign film category than the main best director one. Which arguably proves the Guerilla Girls' point, or at least substantiates it...