“Hollywood has gone backwards,” says Kristen Stewart -.

Twilight and Love Lies Bleking star Kristen Stewart gave an impassioned speech about a lack of progress for women in Hollywood, as she believes the film industry is in decline. Stewart noted that the industry has reverted to a “boys’ club business model.” following a contraction in the number of female directors at the helm of top 2024 films compared to 2020.

“The regression of a brief moment of progress is statistically devastating,” he said. Said Stewart at a women’s luncheon in Los Angeles (via BBC). “Such a pitiful number of films of the past year were made by women.”

“In a post-MeToo moment, it seemed possible that stories made by and for women might finally get their due. That we might be allowed or even encouraged to express ourselves and our shared experiences, all our experiences without filter.” she continued. “But I can now attest to the bare-knuckle nature of each step when the content is too dark, too taboo, when the candor with which it serves up observations about experiences routinely experienced by women often evokes disgust and rejection.”

“I am not grateful for the business model of a boys’ club that pretends to want to interact with us while siphoning off our resources and belittling our true perspectives. Let’s try not to be tokenized. Let’s start printing our own currency”, Stewart said. While it is true that most of a year’s top films are likely to be directed by men, that does not stop women from making powerful films. Greta Gerwig remains one of the biggest names among Hollywood directors today, and people like Kathryn Bigelow, Chloé Zhao and Sofia Coppola are never far behind. I hope that even in a Trump era where woke seems to be forgotten, we can still see some representation in Hollywood.