Kristen Stewart, the US actress and director, has expressed her profound dismay at the apparent regression in progress for female filmmakers in Hollywood, especially after the post-MeToo surge. The Twilight star, who is also directing the upcoming film The Chronology of Water, delivered a fiery speech at a women's luncheon in Los Angeles, hosted by the organization behind the Oscars.
"The backsliding from a fleeting moment of progress is statistically devastating," she told the audience. "A pitiful number of films from the past year have been made by women."
The Celluloid Ceiling, an annual report that monitors the number of female filmmakers, revealed that only 11 of the top 100 grossing films in 2024 were directed by women, down from 16 in 2020. The MeToo movement of 2017 had brought about a reckoning in Hollywood about men in power and female representation both in front of and behind the camera. While the following year, 2018, saw only four of the top 100 films directed by women, that number had risen to 16 by 2020, fueled by the momentum of the MeToo movement. However, no figures are yet available for 2025.
During her speech, Stewart spoke of the "bare-knuckle brawling" that female filmmakers face every step of the way when their content is too dark or taboo, and when their frank observations about experiences routinely experienced by women provoke disgust and rejection. "We can discuss wage gaps and taxes on tampons and measure inequality in lots of quantifiable ways," she added. "But the violence of silencing is like we're not even supposed to be angry. But I can eat this podium with a fork and [expletive] knife. I'm so angry."
The guests listening to Stewart's speech included Sarah Paulson, Julia Louis Dreyfuss, Tessa Thompson, Riley Keough, Zoe Deutch, Claire Foy, and Kate Hudson. Stewart received several rounds of applause over the course of her seven-minute speech, according to Hollywood trade publication Variety, which was also present. "I am thankful to you," she said. "I am not grateful to a boys' club business model that pretends to want to hang out with us while siphoning our resources and belittling our true perspectives. Let's try and not be tokenized. Let's start printing our own currency."
New films from Chloé Zhao, Kathryn Bigelow, and Mona Fastvold are among those in the running for the upcoming Oscars race, but the best director category is once again expected to be dominated by males.
