It's maybe too late in the year to say "Happy New Year!" to people without air quotes around the word "new", but as we head into February there's still enough freshness to be reflecting upon the year ahead.
For me, this reflective time naturally turns to the year ahead in cinema.
![<i>Hidden Figures</I> opened to a much wider number of screens than the small-scale effort its modest budget and 'niche' ...](/web/20170201230401im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/3/2/8/k/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu37eo.png/1485990074079.jpg)
And while I love a thought-challenged bro movie as much as the next person doing supersets at the gym, as a woman working in film and a feminist, I also care about what 2017 will bring when it comes to stories that challenge, enlighten and help to dismantle some of Hollywood's rusted-on gender norms.
Can "diversity" and "equality" move from being the discussion topics that gathered steam in 2016 and bring about real change in 2017? Can we hope that #AskHerMore transforms into #HireHerMore? Here's hoping – and with that in mind, here are my feminist wishes for the year in film (and television).
![A forthcoming movie with women in mind sees Emma Watson play Belle in <i>Beauty and the Beast</I>.](/web/20170201230401im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/p/e/9/s/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu37eo.png/1485990074079.jpg)
1. More Women Front And Centre
It's now been well established that films featuring women provide the best investment when it comes to box office returns, yet films such as Pitch Perfect 2, Bridesmaids and even The Hunger Games trilogy are still looked upon as anomalies.
With a number of big movies on the horizon that have been made with women in mind – Wonder Woman, Beauty And The Beast, The Zookeeper's Wife, even Fifty Shades Darker – as well as some noted indie releases, it's not a stretch to assume that 2017 will be an especially huge box office year for movies by and about women. So, if directors keep 'em coming, make sure you keep watching 'em, good or bad. Money talks, and studios listen. So sign up for a challenge such as #52FilmsByWomen, and make sure you cough up at the ticket booth or DVD store when films directed or written by women open.
2. Different Kinds Of Women On Screen
It's well and good to lean back and say, "Well, there are at least six blockbusters featuring hot white women coming out this year, problem solved!" and take the rest of the afternoon off. It's another to continue to work towards a film landscape that gives a diverse range of women their close-up, too. Here's to more movies about and by women of colour, queer women, trans women, fat women, poor women, women with disabilities. This one's on all of us: funding bodies, directors, producers, writers and casting directors, and most importantly, the ticket-buying public: get a film festival pass and get among it.
3. Better Female Characters Written By Men
The failings of some male screenwriters were laid bare in 2016 as the "sexy but doesn't know it" screenwriting trope became a meme. (The Scriptnotes podcast had a lot of fun skewering sexist, cruddy writing.) And while there have been plenty of great female characters – some of the best – written by male screenwriters, such quality is not the norm, and things can always improve across the board. So, in 2017, I'd like to ask male screenwriters to think deeply about their female characters and to expand your imagination beyond worn-out character development techniques (please, no more "she was brutally raped and is out for vengeance" backstories). And don't forget Geena Davis' advice: specify the gender of your incidental characters with one or two lines of dialogue, and then make sure that 50 per cent of them are female.
![Felicity Jones' starring role in <i>Rogue One: A Star Wars Story</i> offers hope we may one day see a female director of ...](/web/20170201230401im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/d/7/9/w/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu37eo.png/1485990074079.jpg)
4. No More 'Kevin James Gets A Hot Girlfriend' Movies
Come on, people: read this list and weep. In fact, no more "average schlub scores the most beautiful woman on the planet" films, full stop. Or, at least make the average schlub a woman and cast Channing Tatum as her new boyfriend.
5. Fewer 'Tortured White Male Genius' Movies
If this season's awards fodder is any indication, we may have finally reached the twilight of the "smart white guy stares out window" era. What's more, films such as Hidden Figures – which details the life and work of the black women who made America's space program function – are not just garnering awards notice but box office success, too. With a 64 per cent female audience share, Hidden Figures beat Rogue One to the top spot on a weekend in January, and opened to a much wider number of screens than the small-scale effort its modest budget and "niche" topic initially secured. We're also likely to see a release for Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' Battle Of The Sexes, starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell as Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, which dramatises the "Battle Of The Sexes" mixed tennis match between King and Riggs, a crucial flashpoint in popularising the women's movement. So, given the time-honoured "we'll have what they're having" tradition of Hollywood unoriginality, let's hope that a bunch of female genius movies follow in its wake.
![A sausage protester at the AACTAs shows her feelings about the state of film and TV.](/web/20170201230401im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/6/7/m/p/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gu37eo.png/1485990074079.jpg)
6. No More Cis Men Cast As Trans Women
There's really no excuse for this. Get a better casting director and get real.
7. More Protest
After a few years of activism that leaned towards the "online petition" end of the spectrum, Women In Film & Television NSW's AACTA Awards red carpet "sausage party" protest was a breath of fresh, shouty air. It followed widespread protests by disability activists against the "might as well just die if I'm in a wheelchair" message of romantic drama Me Before You. In 2017, I hope to see more women – in sausage costumes or not – storming the red carpet and taking action to protest the state of film and TV.
8. A Female Star Wars Director
OK, this one may be more at home in the 2025 feminist film forecast, given the Disney/Lucasfilm release schedule, but listen, I can dream. Star Wars producer and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy clarified late last year that she has "every intention" of giving a woman the director's chair in a galaxy far, far away. The success of standalone "Star Wars story" Rogue One suggests the door may open sooner rather than later for a more diverse range of Star Wars filmmakers as well as cast members. Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman will do regular comic book numbers and should put paid to the notion that women can't or don't want to direct action blockbusters, and then it will (hopefully) be on for young and old.