The Oscars 2018: How many best picture nominees pass the Bechdel test?

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Harry Fletcher2 March 2018

The past year has seen Hollywood rocked by the reckoning of Harvey Weinstein, so this weekend’s Oscars ceremony feels like a chance to celebrate the great and good of those working in the film industry.

Notably, four female-led movies are nominated for the Best Picture award this year, with Lady Bird, The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Post all up for the top prize. But how representative of women are the most critically acclaimed films of the year?

One method often used to measure the portrayal of women in film is the Bechdel test, which has been used to judge equality in film since its introduction in 1985 by American cartoonist Alison Bechdel.

To pass the Bechdale test, films must feature at least two named female characters, and they must speak to each at least once, about something other than a man.

Of course, passing the test doesn’t always automatically mean a sincere commitment to gender equality – after all, one normal conversation between two women in a film is hardly groundbreaking stuff.

Still, a truly staggering number successful films down the years have ended up failing the test, which has only served as a reminder of Hollywood’s enduring culture of male privilege down the years.

Will 2018 be any different? Find out which of this year’s Oscar-nominated films passed and failed the Bechdel test below.

Call Me By Your Name

Call Me By Your Name is a prime example of the Bechdel test not always reflecting the true nature of a film. The movie passes the test, but only on a technicality. The mother character Annella and the maid Mafald speak very briefly and their conversation consists of a short discussion about smoothies and pasta.

Lady Bird

You only have to watch the trailer for Lady Bird to know that Greta Gerwig’s incredibly well received debut feature passes the test with flying colours. It’s no surprise seeing as the central relationship between Saoirse Ronan’s Lady Bird and her mother played by Laurie Metcalf is right at the heart of the film.

Dunkirk

Not only does Christopher Nolan’s war epic Dunkirk fail the test, there are no named female characters in the fim at all. However, it seems slightly unfair to criticise the film for this given it’s setting against the backdrop of the Dunkirk evacuation of 1940.

The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water passes the test within the first few minutes, despite the central premise of the film being a wordless love story between Sally Hawkins’ mute character Elisa and a sea monster. Female characters Zelda and Yolanda speak very early on in the film, meaning the film is Bechdel approved.

Get Out

Get Out might be one of the most acclaimed films of the year but it barely passes the Bechdel test. There are a number of female characters significant roles in the film, not least Allison Williams’ Rose and Catherine Keener’s Missy. However, these characters interact with each other surprisingly little and when they do it’s about male characters. The film still just about passes though.

Darkest Hour

Darkest Hour is one of the three films nominated for Best Picture to fail the test in 2018. There are two named female characters in the movie, one being Kristin Scott Thomas’s Clementime Churchill, but the single conversation the pair have together is concerned with Gary Oldman’s Winston Churchill.

Phantom Thread

While Paul Thomas Anderson’s elegant film Phantom Thread is full of named female characters, every single conversation had between them is preoccupied with Daniel Day Lewis’s fashion designer Reynolds Woodcock or his work. It's interesting to consider that despite the majority of characters seen on screen throughout the movie being women, it can still fail in this regard.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Three Billboards is one of the four nominated films with a female lead, and Frances McDormand’s movie passes the test with the help of a few flashback scenes. The sequences featuring her character Mildred and her murdered daughter Angela (played by Kathryn Newton) contain an argument between the pair, and constitutes one of the only conversations between named female characters.

The Post

The Post feels like one of the most Oscar-friendly films of the last few years, and it successfully passes the Bechdel test too. Meryl Streep’s newspaper heiress Katherine Graham speaks with her daughter Lally (played by Mad Men’s Alison Brie) in the film about the future of the Post.

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