Ever since the publication of a USC Annenberg “Critic’s Choice?,” report highlighting the fact that film critics are predominantly white and male, Brie Larson made headlines when she announced that both Sundance and TIFF had committed to allocating at least 20 per cent of their press accreditation to underrepresented critics and journalists.
Joining her stance are “Ocean’s 8” stars Cate Blanchett and Sandra Bullock, who spoke out about the issue in a recent interview with The Telegraph.
“A studio can support a film and it’s the invisible faces on the internet, and often male reviewers, who can view it through a prism of misunderstanding,” said Blanchett. “I think that is a really big part of the equation.”
Bullock has similar feelings. “It would be nice if reviewers reflected who the film is for, like children should review children’s films, not a 60-year-old man. I guess his opinion would be kind of skewed.”
In making the announcement, Larson pointed out that filmgoers “are not allowed enough chances to read public discourse on these films by the people that the films were made for. I do not need a 40-year-old white dude to tell me what didn’t work for him about ‘[A] Wrinkle in Time.’ It wasn’t made for him. I want to know what it meant to women of colour, to biracial women, to teen women of colour, to teens that are biracial.”
While Larson took pains to point out she does “not hate white dudes,” Bullock made a similar declaration to The Telegraph: “I love men,” she said. “I want to be at the table with men but I also want to be invited to the table that the men are at.”
