Jena Friedman, a leading comedienne who used to work as a producer on The Daily Show and a writer for David Letterman, has launched a new petition.
Not just any old petition, mind you. It’s a petition to create a special category at the Academy Awards for Best Female Director.
Friedman, who is now a correspondent for National Geographic Explorer, recently released her stand-up comedy show American C*nt on Amazon. Something that might not be completely unrelated to her new proposal is that she also describes herself in her Twitter bio as ‘filmmaker’.
In the petition on change.org, headlined ‘Best Female Director Category at the Oscars”, Friedman writes: “In the 88 years of Oscar history, only four female filmmakers have been nominated for their directorial achievements: Lina Wertmüller (Seven Beauties), Jane Campion (The Piano), Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation), and Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker).
“Bigelow is the sole winner to this day. Instead of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences continuing to ignore the achievements of female filmmakers, they should just create category for women. ”
Friedman has over 20,000 followers on Twitter but so far the petition has attracted just 11 signatures.
Maybe that’s because it was overshadowed by this morning’s annoucement of the Oscar nominations. Or maybe it’s because it just wasn’t a good idea to begin with…
