The most wonderful time of the year is nearly upon us! Now that the fall movie season has come to a close and the awards-hopeful holiday releases have begun rolling out, we’re taking a hard look at how Hollywood did with women in film this fall. Here’s hoping these grades don’t earn Tinseltown a spot on the naughty list!

Hollywood just barely maintained its performance from our summer report card when it comes to women behind the camera; for the second time in a row, women directed only two out of the 25 highest-grossing films of the season. Hollywood, please. Arguing that there are no female directors to hire is even weaker than claiming the dog ate your homework. We’ll make it easy for you: here’s a cheat sheet for next time.

This fall has been unlike any other season that’s gotten a report card. Hollywood has graduated to a new level—not because its grades are always so stellar, but because it’s reached a point where the story of women in the industry has developed into a prominent ongoing conversation that’s greater and more complex than a series of isolated incidents. Congrats, Hollywood! Welcome to interdisciplinary academics!

A prime example of this is the ever-growing club of celebrities who speak out against industry sexism—a group we’ve recognized in our past two report cards. Gold stars to all of them, including this A-list group who spoke to the New York Times about it!

A to Jennifer Lawrence
Speaking of A-listers: America’s sweetheart and Hollywood’s Girl on Fire Jennifer Lawrence joined the conversation this fall when she penned an essay addressing the Sony hack revelation that she was paid less than her male co-stars on 2014’s American Hustle. Lawrence wrote that she “failed as a negotiator” partly because she didn’t want to be viewed as a “spoiled brat”—a label, she observed, that is rarely applied to men.

C to The Emmys
The 2015 Emmy Awards, which took place in September, get credit for recognizing the feminist satire of Amy Schumer, the sensitive portrayal of trans characters in Transparent and Viola Davis, whose historic win for her performance in How to Get Away with Murder makes her the first black woman to win an Emmy for lead actress in a drama. However, that progress is undermined somewhat by the findings of a recent study (there’s always another cruel recent study!) analyzing Emmy statistics. In all writing, producing, directing and editing categories over the past 10 years, only 22% of nominees have been women—for directing alone, only 8%.

D to Late Night TV
In more bad news for television, a recent story in Vanity Fair looks at the ten biggest current late night talk show hosts. Guess what? They’re all men! “How gobsmackingly insane is it that no TV network has had the common sense…to hand over the reins of an existing late-night comedy program to a female person?” the article asks. Gobsmacking indeed.

A to Amazon Studios
But wait! A glimmer of hope! For Amazon’s next batch of pilots—which are all made available on the site at once, and then series orders are made based on viewing numbers and audience response—three of the six new series were created by women (and half of the pilots were directed or co-directed by women), including one executive produced by Tig Notaro and Diablo Cody. Looks like A stands for Amazon!

D+ (projected) to Awards Season
For its yearly actress roundtable, in which awards season contenders get together to discuss their craft, The Hollywood Reporter gathered a truly incredible group of performers, including Cate Blanchett, Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lawrence—and exactly zero women of color. Obviously, the group is all female, so nobody can complain about a lack of women, numbers-wise—but what’s female representation when there’s no diversity among the females being represented? Come on, Hollywood. Let’s not have a repeat of last awards season.

A to Female-driven Indies
Women were tearing up the indie box office this fall. Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, starring a badass Emily Blunt, came out in September and is 2015’s highest-grossing indie to date; John Crowley’s breathtaking period romance Brooklyn, starring awards contender Saoirse Ronan, had a healthy limited opening in November and is still expanding; and both David Gordon Green’s Our Brand Is Crisis, which stars Sandra Bullock in a strong role originally written for a man, and Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette, a historical drama made by women and about women’s issues, broke the top 25 highest-grossing films of the season. Who says there’s no audience for female-driven films?

Mary Sollosi / Film Independent Blogger