Natalie Portman: Here are the all-male nominees

Natalie Portman points out male dominated Hollywood with her salty comment when presenting the award for “Best Director” at Sunday night’s Golden Globes alongside Ron Howard. A recent study released by San Diego State University supports Portman’s pointed remark. The Oscar winner, who is also one of the founders of “Time’s Up” said in her speech, “And here are the all male nominees for Best Director,” nodding at the Globes’ snub of Greta Gerwig, whose film “Lady Bird” went on to win Best Comedy and Best Actress that night. New data from the annual “Celluloid Ceiling Study” shows the extent of disparity between male and female directors. Women made up only 18% of writers, producers, directors (11%), executive producers, editors and cinematographers working on the top 250 grossing films in 2017, just 1% higher than the 17% stat back in 1998. Studios complain about women being too inexperienced to handle big-budget films. Yet they hand massive franchises to male film-makers with only one film under their belt, like Gareth Edwards (“Monsters to Godzilla”), Josh Trank (“Chronicle to Fantastic Four”) and Colin Trevorrow (“Safety Not Guaranteed to Jurassic World”). With the commercial success of “Wonder Woman,” directed by Patty Jenkins, studios may start to rethink their position on hiring female directors for big budget films in the future.