Flickographics
Best film Oscar Bechdel test infographic

The Bechdel Academy

I only discovered the Bechdel test recently. As is the way with these things, since learning of it, I then suddenly seem to spot it everywhere including making news in Sweden. So obviously what do I do about this? Make a graphic.

What is the test? It’s whether or not a film can pass these three requirements: 1/ it has at least two named female characters in it; 2/ who talk to each other; 3/ about something besides a man. Initially you might think it’s a pretty easy test for almost *any* film to pass. They shouldn’t even have to try right? Incredibly that doesn’t seem to be the case, as highlighted by this video about the 2011 Academy Awards. It certainly tells a story about the priorities of the Hollywood machine.

Inspired by this I decided to expand the sample size to include the best film nominees in the last 20 years of Academy Awards to see if there was any kind of pattern of change here (the year on my chart is the year the ceremony took place). I took my data from the appropriate source of bechdeltest.com where users rate films on the test. Those that I couldn’t find a clear decision on I counted as failures (cos the bar is pretty low to begin with).

To be certain this isn’t just some weird film phenomenon that actually has nothing to do with gender , the obvious comparison is the reverse Bechdel test. Do the best film nominees also have enough named male characters talking about something other than women? Perhaps unsurprisingly, the answer is almost always yes.

There’s no real pattern in the data here. Other than to point out two notable years: 2005, which was the strongest year with four out of five nominees making the grade and 2009, which was somewhat embarrassing with no films passing. And the four notable films that fail the reverse test – Amour (which actually has the honour of managing to fail both tests), The Help, Juno & The Hours.

Published on

12 November 2013