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2014 another bad year for female filmmakers

'Selma' director Ava DuVernay, pictured in December 2014. Craig Barritt / Getty Images

TORONTO — Even though Ava DuVernay earned a Best Director nomination at the Golden Globes for Selma, 2014 was another bad year for female filmmakers.

Only two of the 100 top-grossing movies of 2014 were directed by women — Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken and Shana Feste’s Endless Love.

This mirrors 2013, in which only Frozen (co-directed by Jennifer Lee) and the Toronto-shot Carrie (directed by Kimberly Peirce) cracked the Top 100.

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Statistics for 2014 have not yet been published but, according to San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, only six per cent of the Top 250 movies of 2013 were directed by women — down from nine per cent in 2012.

READ MORE: Familiar stories – The 10 top-grossing movies of 2014

It’s no wonder that in the history of the Academy Awards — where more than 75 per cent of voting members are male — only four women have been nominated in the Best Director category and only Kathryn Bigelow has won (for The Hurt Locker in 2010).

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At the 2013 Academy Awards, there were no female nominees in the directing, cinematography, film editing, original screenplay and original score categories.

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