Women's cinema
Encyclopedia
The term women's cinema usually refers to films made by women. Above all, it designates the work of women film director
s and, to a lesser degree, the work of other women behind the camera such as cinematographers and screenwriter
s. Although the participation of women film editors, costume designer
s, and production designer
s is usually not considered to be decisive enough to justify the term "women's cinema", it does have a large influence on the visual impression of any movie.
Some of the most distinguished women directors have tried to avoid the association with women's cinema in the fear of marginalization
and ideological controversy.
made the very first narrative film La Fée aux Choux
in 1896. More than 700 films followed, working in France and the U.S. http://www.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=32905 Lois Weber
was among the most successful film directors of the silent era. Actresses like Lillian Gish
, Mary Pickford
, and others were the stars. Women screenwriters were highly sought after including Frances Marion
, Anita Loos
, and June Mathis
. June Mathis was the first female executive in Hollywood and produced and wrote several silent films.
was the only women film maker to survive in this unfriendly environment. She did so by producing well made but formally rather conventional films. Nevertheless, she succeeded in smuggling in feminist elements into her films.
was a leading member of the French avant-garde film movement after World War I
, and Maya Deren
's visionary films belong to the classics of experimental cinema.
Shirley Clarke
was a leading figure of the independent American film scene in New York in the fifties. Her work is unusual, insofar as she directed outstanding experimental and feature films as well as documentaries. Joyce Wieland
was a Canadian experimental film
maker. The National Film Board of Canada
allowed many women to produce non-commercial animation films. In Europe women artists like Valie Export
were among the first to explore the artistic and political potential of video
s.
started, the New Left was at its height. Both movements strongly opposed the 'dominant cinema', i.e. Hollywood and male European bourgeois auteur cinema. Hollywood was accused of furthering oppression by disseminating sexist, racist and imperialist stereotypes. Women participated in mixed new collectives like Newsreel
, but they also formed their own film groups. Early feminist films often focused on personal experiences. A first masterpiece was Wanda
by Barbara Loden
, one of the most poignant portraits of alienation ever made.
was still very controversial in many western societies and feminists opposed the control of the state and the church. Exploring female sexuality took many forms: focusing on long-time censured forms of sexuality (lesbianism, sado-masochism) or showing heterosexuality from a woman's point of view.
Birgit Hein
, Elfi Mikesch, Nelly Kaplan, Catherine Breillat
and Barbara Hammer
are some of the directors to be remembered.
A film notable for its empathic portrayal of prostitution is Lizzie Borden's Working Girls
(1986). Molly, a white lesbian in a stable mixed-race relationship, is a Yale-educated photographer who has chosen to augment her income through sex work in a low-key urban brothel. We accompany Molly on what turns out to be her last day on the job, understanding her professional interactions with her "johns" through her perspective, a completely original point of view, since, until Borden's film, prostitutes had largely been depicted sterotypically. The story's sympathetic, well-rounded character and situation humanizes prostitution, and the film itself combats the anti-pornography stance touted by many Second-Wave feminists, which Borden rejects as repressive.
's Daughters of the Dust
(1991) was the first full-length film with general theatrical release written and directed by an African American
woman. Since then there have been several African women who have written, produced or directed films with national release. Neema Barnette
(Civil Brand
), Maya Angelou
(Down in the Delta
), Kasi Lemmons
(Eve's Bayou
), Cheryl Dunye
(My Baby's Daddy
), Stephanie Allain
(Biker Boyz
), Tracey Edmonds
(Soul Food
), Frances-Anne Solomon
(A Winter Tale
) and Dianne Houston
(City of Angels) are among these filmmakers. In 1994 Darnell Martin became the first African American woman to write and direct a film produced by a major studio when Columbia Pictures backed I Like It Like That.
To date, Nnegest Likké is the first African American
woman to write, direct and act in a full-length movie released by a major studio, Phat Girlz
(2006) starring Jimmy Jean-Louis
and Mo'Nique.
For a much fuller accounting of the larger history of black women filmmakers, see Yvonne Welbon's 62-minute documentary Sisters in Cinema (2003) (http://www.sistersincinema.com/).
n woman film director to gain international recognition was the Senegal
ese ethnologist
Safi Faye
with a film about the village in which she was born (Letter from the Village
, 1975). Other African women filmmakers include Sarah Maldoror
, Anne Mungai, and Fanta Régina Nacro (The Night of Truth, 2004).
, Aparna Sen
, Deepa Mehta
, Gurinder Chadha
, Manju Borah are among the best known Indian women filmmakers, partly because of commercial success of their films. However there are a number of other Indian women filmmakers who have made some remarkable films that address a variety of issues. Other noteworthy Indian women filmmakers include Nisha Ganatra, Sonali Gulati
, Indu Krishnan, Eisha Marjara
, Pratibha Parmar
, Nandini Sikand, and Shashwati Talukdar.
In Japan for a long time Kinuyo Tanaka
was the only woman to make feature films. She was able to do this against fierce resistance because she enjoyed a status as star actress. Using genre conventions her films showed women "with a humorous affection rare in Japanese cinema of the period" (Philip Kemp).
Currently, the best-known women filmmaker of Japan may be Naomi Kawase; 2007 she won the Grand Prix in Cannes
, while Memoirs of a fig tree, the directorial debut of well-known actrice Kaori Momoi, saw the light of the day in 2006. The sociocritical adventure film K-20: Legend of the Mask
by Shimako Sato's was a breakthrough into a bigger budget; it starred Takeshi Kaneshiro
and was released all over the world.
Similarly in South Korea
, Lim Soon-rye landed a box-office-hit with Forever the Moment
, while So Yong Kim got some attention for her film In Between Days
and Lee Suk-Gyung made the women-themed and subtly feminist The Day After.
One of the important 5th generation filmmakers of China is Ning Ying, who won several prices for her films; in contrast to the controversy over some of her sixth-generation colleagues such as Zhang Yimou
, who got accused of having sold out their ideals, Ning Ying has gone on to realize small independent films with themes strongly linked to Chinese daily life, therefore also being a link between the 5th and 6th generation. The 6th generation has seen a growing number of women filmmakers such as Liu Jiayin
, best known for her film Oxhide
, and Xiaolu Guo
; in 2001 Li Yu
caused quite a stir with her lesbian love story Fish and Elephant
.
The most famous women filmmaker from Hong Kong
is undoubtedly Ann Hui
, who has made a wide array of films ranging from the wuxia
genre to drama; Ivy Ho
and Taiwanese Sylvia Chang
also are known names in the Hong Kong industry, while in Taiwan
queer filmmaker Zero Chou
has gotten acclaim on festivals around the world.
In Pakistan
, where film industry is not very big, some prominent and brilliant directors are working. Conventional film industry has directors like Sangeeta
and Shamim Ara
who are making films with feminist themes. Specially on Sangeeta's credit there are some issue-based films. Now some new directors from television industry are also coming towards the medium of films. Sabiha Sumar
and Mehreen Jabbar
are two new names for films in Pakistan and are making brilliant films. Both of these directors has made films which are not only issue based addressing national issues but also these films have won international awards at different film festivals.
directed her first film The Apple when she was only 17 years old and won Cannes
Jury Prize in 2000 for her following film The Blackboard.
Brazilian Cinema has an expressive number of women directors whose works date from the 1930s. Brazilian women directors' most prolific era unfolds from the 1970s. Some contemporary names include: Ana Carolina, Betse De Paula, Carla Camurati, Eliane Caffe, Helena Solberg, Lucia Murat, Sandra Kogut, Suzana Amaral, Tata Amaral.
was a pioneer of Italian cinema, and she was followed by other prominent female directors as Lina Wertmüller
and Liliana Cavani
.
During the "golden age" of "Classical" French cinema Jacqueline Audry
was the only woman to direct commercial films. In 1959 writer Marguerite Duras
wrote the script for Alain Resnais
' Hiroshima Mon Amour
. She turned to directing with La Musica in 1966. Among the best known French women film makers are Agnès Varda
, Claire Denis
, Nelly Kaplan and Catherine Breillat
. The work of many more French female directors is rarely screened outside France.
German woman filmmaker Helke Sander
was also one of the pioneers of the feminist movement. Other prominent female film-makers include Margarethe von Trotta and Helma Sanders-Brahms
. Monika Treut
has also won recognition for her depictions of queer
and alternative sexuality.
In Hungary Marta Meszaros
has been making important films for decades.
In Britain Jane Arden
(1927–82), following up her television drama The Logic Game (1965), wrote and starred in the film Separation
(Jack Bond
1967), which explores a woman's mental landscape during a marital breakup. Arden went on to be the only British woman to gain a solo feature-directing credit for The Other Side of the Underneath
(1972), a disturbing study of female madness shot mainly in South Wales. Arden's overtly feminist work was neglected and almost lost until the British Film Institute
rediscovered and reissued her three features, and the short Vibration
(1974), in 2009.
Cinenova
is a London based organization that distributes women produced films.
Sally Potter
is a prominent British feminist film maker.
British filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah
explores the legacies of colonialism.
Edith Carlmar
was a prominent Norwegian
film director, working in a variety of genres (crime, melodrama, comedy).
Portuguese editor and director Manuela Viegas
' 1999 film Gloria
, premiered at the 57th Berlinale, is considered in her country the climax of a cinema of feminin sensibility.
). Though directed by men, Thelma & Louise and The Color Purple
showed the acceptability of feminist themes.
Kathryn Bigelow
works in male-dominated genres like science fiction, action, and horror. Dörris Dörrie landed a box office hit with her satire Men. Italian Lina Wertmüller
has directed a great number of popular films on the war of the sexes, with various artistic success.
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
s and, to a lesser degree, the work of other women behind the camera such as cinematographers and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...
s. Although the participation of women film editors, costume designer
Costume Designer
A costume designer or costume mistress/master is a person whose responsibility is to design costumes for a film or stage production. He or she is considered an important part of the "production team", working alongside the director, scenic and lighting designers as well as the sound designer. The...
s, and production designer
Production designer
In film and television, a production designer is the person responsible for the overall look of a filmed event such as films, TV programs, music videos or adverts. Production designers have one of the key creative roles in the creation of motion pictures and television. Working directly with the...
s is usually not considered to be decisive enough to justify the term "women's cinema", it does have a large influence on the visual impression of any movie.
Some of the most distinguished women directors have tried to avoid the association with women's cinema in the fear of marginalization
Marginalization
In sociology, marginalisation , or marginalization , is the social process of becoming or being made marginal or relegated to the fringe of society e.g.; "the marginalization of the underclass", "marginalisation of intellect", etc.-Individual:Marginalization at the individual level results in an...
and ideological controversy.
Silent films
Alice Guy-BlachéAlice Guy-Blaché
Alice Guy-Blaché was a French pioneer filmmaker who was the first female director in the motion picture industry and is considered to be one of the first directors of a fiction film.-Early years:...
made the very first narrative film La Fée aux Choux
La Fée aux Choux
La Fée aux Choux is one of the earliest narrative fiction films ever made. It was probably made before the first Méliès fiction film, but after the Lumière brothers' L'Arroseur Arrosé. The confusion stems from the uncertainty in the dating of these three films...
in 1896. More than 700 films followed, working in France and the U.S. http://www.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=32905 Lois Weber
Lois Weber
Lois Weber was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, producer, and director, who is considered "the most important female director the American film industry has known", and "one of the most important and important and prolific film directors in the era of silent films". Film historian...
was among the most successful film directors of the silent era. Actresses like Lillian Gish
Lillian Gish
Lillian Diana Gish was an American stage, screen and television actress whose film acting career spanned 75 years, from 1912 to 1987....
, Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
, and others were the stars. Women screenwriters were highly sought after including Frances Marion
Frances Marion
Frances Marion was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the twentieth century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos.-Career:...
, Anita Loos
Anita Loos
Anita Loos was an American screenwriter, playwright and author.-Early life:Born Corinne Anita Loos in Sisson, California , where her father, R. Beers Loos, had opened a tabloid newspaper for which her mother, Minerva "Minnie" Smith did most of the work of a newspaper publisher...
, and June Mathis
June Mathis
June Mathis was an American screenwriter and one of the highest paid Hollywood executives in the 1920s. Mathis was the first female executive for Metro/MGM and at only 35, she was the highest paid executive in Hollywood. In 1926 she was voted the third most influential woman in Hollywood, behind...
. June Mathis was the first female executive in Hollywood and produced and wrote several silent films.
Classic Hollywood
In the twenties large banks had assumed control of Hollywood production companies. Production supervisors began to standardize film making. The introduction of sound demanded new investments which further increased the control of the banks. In 1929 Hollywood accepted a list of taboos which was later to become the Hays Code. Any unconventional film maker had a hard time. Women film makers could afford economic failures even less. Dorothy ArznerDorothy Arzner
Dorothy Arzner was an American film director. Her directorial career in feature films spanned from the late 1920s into the early 1940s, a time period in which there were very few—if any—other women working in the field.- Biography :Born in San Francisco, California, Arzner grew up in Los...
was the only women film maker to survive in this unfriendly environment. She did so by producing well made but formally rather conventional films. Nevertheless, she succeeded in smuggling in feminist elements into her films.
Experimental and avant-garde cinema
Germaine DulacGermaine Dulac
Germaine Dulac was a French filmmaker, film theorist, journalist and critic. She was born in Amiens and moved to Paris in early childhood. A few years after her marriage she embarked on a journalistic career in a feminist magazine, and later became interested in film...
was a leading member of the French avant-garde film movement after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, and Maya Deren
Maya Deren
Maya Deren , born Eleanora Derenkowsky, was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist of the 1940s and 1950s...
's visionary films belong to the classics of experimental cinema.
Shirley Clarke
Shirley Clarke
Shirley Clarke was an American independent filmmaker.-Early life:Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, Shirley Clarke was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother was the daughter of a multimillionaire Jewish manufacturer and inventor. Her...
was a leading figure of the independent American film scene in New York in the fifties. Her work is unusual, insofar as she directed outstanding experimental and feature films as well as documentaries. Joyce Wieland
Joyce Wieland
Joyce Wieland, OC was a Canadian experimental filmmaker and mixed media artist.-Life:Joyce Wieland was an experimental filmmaker and artist, whose work challenged and bridged boundaries among avant garde film factions of her time...
was a Canadian experimental film
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
maker. The National Film Board of Canada
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...
allowed many women to produce non-commercial animation films. In Europe women artists like Valie Export
Valie Export
Valie Export is an Austrian artist...
were among the first to explore the artistic and political potential of video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
s.
Impact of second-wave feminism
In the late sixties, when the Second Wave of FeminismFeminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
started, the New Left was at its height. Both movements strongly opposed the 'dominant cinema', i.e. Hollywood and male European bourgeois auteur cinema. Hollywood was accused of furthering oppression by disseminating sexist, racist and imperialist stereotypes. Women participated in mixed new collectives like Newsreel
Newsreel
A newsreel was a form of short documentary film prevalent in the first half of the 20th century, regularly released in a public presentation place and containing filmed news stories and items of topical interest. It was a source of news, current affairs and entertainment for millions of moviegoers...
, but they also formed their own film groups. Early feminist films often focused on personal experiences. A first masterpiece was Wanda
Wanda (film)
Wanda is an independent 1970 drama film that was written and directed by Barbara Loden, who also stars in the title role. It is set in the anthracite coal region of eastern Pennsylvania.-Plot:...
by Barbara Loden
Barbara Loden
Barbara Loden was an American film and stage actress and film director....
, one of the most poignant portraits of alienation ever made.
Representing sexuality
Resisting the oppression of female sexuality was one of the core goals of Second-Wave Feminism. AbortionAbortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
was still very controversial in many western societies and feminists opposed the control of the state and the church. Exploring female sexuality took many forms: focusing on long-time censured forms of sexuality (lesbianism, sado-masochism) or showing heterosexuality from a woman's point of view.
Birgit Hein
Birgit Hein
Birgit Hein is a German film director, producer and screenwriter who has made experimental films with her husband Wilhelm Hein since the 1960s.-Biography:...
, Elfi Mikesch, Nelly Kaplan, Catherine Breillat
Catherine Breillat
Catherine Breillat is a French filmmaker, novelist and Professor of Auteur Cinema at the European Graduate School.-Life and career:Breillat was born in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres, but grew up in Niort...
and Barbara Hammer
Barbara Hammer
Barbara Hammer is an American filmmaker in the genre of experimental films and a professor at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee.-Biography:...
are some of the directors to be remembered.
A film notable for its empathic portrayal of prostitution is Lizzie Borden's Working Girls
Working Girls
Working Girls is a 1986 independent film, written, produced and directed by Lizzie Borden, depicting a day in the life of upper class prostitutes in a small Manhattan bordello...
(1986). Molly, a white lesbian in a stable mixed-race relationship, is a Yale-educated photographer who has chosen to augment her income through sex work in a low-key urban brothel. We accompany Molly on what turns out to be her last day on the job, understanding her professional interactions with her "johns" through her perspective, a completely original point of view, since, until Borden's film, prostitutes had largely been depicted sterotypically. The story's sympathetic, well-rounded character and situation humanizes prostitution, and the film itself combats the anti-pornography stance touted by many Second-Wave feminists, which Borden rejects as repressive.
Resisting violence and violent resistance
Resisting patriarchal violence has always been a key concern of Second Wave Feminism. Consequently many feminists of the second wave have taken part in the peace movements of the eighties, as had their foremothers in the older pacifist movements. Nevertheless the patriarchal cliché of the 'peaceable' woman needed to be criticized. Women film directors documented the participation of women in anti-imperialist resistance movements. In their Kali films Birgit and Wilhelm Hein assembled found footage from 'trivial' genres, the only domain of cinema in which the portrayal of aggressive women was allowed.African American women's cinema
Julie DashJulie Dash
Julie Dash is a United States filmmaker. She directed Daughters of the Dust, which in 1991 became the first full-length film with general theatrical release in the United States by an African American woman...
's Daughters of the Dust
Daughters of the Dust
Daughters of the Dust is a 1991 independent film written, directed and produced by Julie Dash. It tells the story of three generations of Gullah women at the turn of the 20th century and focuses on the family's migration from the Sea Islands to the American mainland.Featuring an unusual narrative...
(1991) was the first full-length film with general theatrical release written and directed by an African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
woman. Since then there have been several African women who have written, produced or directed films with national release. Neema Barnette
Neema Barnette
Neema Barnette is an American film director, and the first African American woman sitcom director. Barnette was the first African American woman to get a three picture deal with Sony....
(Civil Brand
Civil Brand
Civil Brand is a 2002 film written by Joyce Lewis and Preston A. Whitmore II and directed by Neema Barnette. It features N'Bushe Wright, Da Brat, Mos Def, LisaRaye McCoy, and Monica Calhoun. The film is about a group of female inmates fighting back against their abusers and taking over Whitehead...
), Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...
(Down in the Delta
Down in the Delta
Down in the Delta is a 1998 drama film directed by Maya Angelou. The film stars Alfre Woodard, Al Freeman, Jr., Esther Rolle, Loretta Devine, and Wesley Snipes.-Cast:* Alfre Woodard ... Loretta Sinclair* Al Freeman Jr. ... Earl Sinclair...
), Kasi Lemmons
Kasi Lemmons
Kasi Lemmons is an American film director and actress, most notable for her work on the films Eve's Bayou, The Caveman's Valentine and Talk to Me....
(Eve's Bayou
Eve's Bayou
Eve's Bayou is a 1997 American drama film written and directed by Kasi Lemmons, who made her directorial debut with this feature. Samuel L...
), Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye
Cheryl Dunye is a film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. Dunye is a lesbian and her work often concerns themes of race, sexuality and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians.Dunye was born in Liberia...
(My Baby's Daddy
My Baby's Daddy
My Baby's Daddy is a 2004 comedy film, directed by Cheryl Dunye.-Plot:Childhood friends Lonnie , Dominic , and G have a rude awakening when they find out their girlfriends are pregnant....
), Stephanie Allain
Stephanie Allain
Stephanie Allain is an African American producer of independent movies in Hollywood, California.-Personal life:Stephanie Allain was born to Dr. Charles Allain, a biochemist, and Gwen Allain Miller, an educator. Although born in New Orleans, her family moved near Los Angeles, California in 1965...
(Biker Boyz
Biker Boyz
Biker Boyz is a 2003 film about a group of underground motorcycle drag racers. It stars Laurence Fishburne, Djimon Hounsou, Derek Luke, Meagan Good, and Larenz Tate and is written and directed by Reggie Rock Bythewood...
), Tracey Edmonds
Tracey Edmonds
Tracey Edmonds is the CEO of Edmonds Entertainment Group Inc and COO of Our Stories Films.- Education :...
(Soul Food
Soul Food (film)
Soul Food is a 1997 American comedy-drama film, produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, Tracey Edmonds, and Robert Teitel, and released by Fox 2000 Pictures. Featuring an ensemble cast, the film stars Vanessa L. Williams, Vivica A. Fox, Nia Long, Michael Beach, Mekhi Phifer, Jeffrey D. Sams, Irma...
), Frances-Anne Solomon
Frances-Anne Solomon
Frances-Anne Solomon is a Trinidadian-Canadian-British filmmaker, writer, producer, and entrepreneur.Born in England of Trinidadian parents, she began her professional life at the BBC in England, where she built a successful career as a Producer first with BBC Radio then with BBC television drama...
(A Winter Tale
A Winter Tale
A Winter Tale is a 2007 Canadian dramatic feature film, written, directed and produced by Frances-Anne Solomon, featuring Canadian actor Peter Williams and Caribbean stars Leonie Forbes and Dennis "Sprangalang" Hall...
) and Dianne Houston
Dianne Houston
Dianne Houston is an American director and screenwriter.She became interested in theater while attending Howard University with her first plays being produced around 1977...
(City of Angels) are among these filmmakers. In 1994 Darnell Martin became the first African American woman to write and direct a film produced by a major studio when Columbia Pictures backed I Like It Like That.
To date, Nnegest Likké is the first African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
woman to write, direct and act in a full-length movie released by a major studio, Phat Girlz
Phat Girlz
Phat Girlz is a 2006 comedy film released in North America on April 7, 2006. The DVD and its soundtrack was released on August 22, 2006.-Box office:...
(2006) starring Jimmy Jean-Louis
Jimmy Jean-Louis
Jimmy Jean-Louis is a Haitian actor and model best known for his role as The Haitian on the NBC television series Heroes. Born in Pétionville, he moved to Paris at a young age to pursue a modeling career. His early roles were in French musical theatre and television commercials...
and Mo'Nique.
For a much fuller accounting of the larger history of black women filmmakers, see Yvonne Welbon's 62-minute documentary Sisters in Cinema (2003) (http://www.sistersincinema.com/).
Africa
The first AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n woman film director to gain international recognition was the Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
ese ethnologist
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
Safi Faye
Safi Faye
Safi Faye is a Senegalese film director and ethnologist. She was the first Sub-Saharan African woman to direct a commercially distributed feature film. She has directed several documentary and fiction films focussing on rural life in Senegal.-Early life and education:Safi Faye was born in 1943 in...
with a film about the village in which she was born (Letter from the Village
Kaddu Beykat
Kaddu Beykat is a 1975 Senegalese film directed by Safi Faye. It was the first feature film made by a Sub-Saharan African woman to be commercially distributed and brought international recognition for its director...
, 1975). Other African women filmmakers include Sarah Maldoror
Sarah Maldoror
Sarah Maldoror, born Sarah Ducados in Gers, France, is a French film director.Maldoror choose her artist's name in remembrance of The Songs of Maldoror by Lautréamont. She attended a drama school in Paris. Together with her companion Mário Pinto de Andrade she received a scholarship and studied...
, Anne Mungai, and Fanta Régina Nacro (The Night of Truth, 2004).
Asia
Mira NairMira Nair
Mira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...
, Aparna Sen
Aparna Sen
Aparna Sen is a critically acclaimed Bengali Indian filmmaker, script writer, and actress. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and eight international film festival awards.-Biography:...
, Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta, LLD is a Genie Award-winning Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, most known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire , Earth , and Water , among which Earth was submitted by Indian government for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film...
, Gurinder Chadha
Gurinder Chadha
Gurinder Chadha , OBE, is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the United Kingdom. She is best known for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach , Bend It Like Beckham , Bride and Prejudice and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging...
, Manju Borah are among the best known Indian women filmmakers, partly because of commercial success of their films. However there are a number of other Indian women filmmakers who have made some remarkable films that address a variety of issues. Other noteworthy Indian women filmmakers include Nisha Ganatra, Sonali Gulati
Sonali Gulati
Sonali Gulati is an award-winning filmmaker and Professor in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of Photography & Film.Gulati is originally from New Delhi, India . She received her B.A. in Critical Social Thought from Mount Holyoke College in 1996 and M.F.A. in Film & Media Arts from...
, Indu Krishnan, Eisha Marjara
Eisha Marjara
-Career:Although her feature film The Incredible Shrinking Woman already achieved international recognition in 1994 and received an Honourable Mention at the Semana de Cine Experimental de Madrid, it was the feature documentary production Desperately Seeking Helen that put her name on a list of...
, Pratibha Parmar
Pratibha Parmar
Pratibha Parmar is a British filmmaker. She has worked as a director, producer and writer. Parmar is known internationally for her political and often controversial documentary film work as well as her activism within the global feminism and lesbian rights movements. She has collaborated with many...
, Nandini Sikand, and Shashwati Talukdar.
In Japan for a long time Kinuyo Tanaka
Kinuyo Tanaka
was a Japanese actress and director.Tanaka was born in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. She became a leading actress at an early age, appearing in Yasujirō Ozu's I Graduated, But... in 1929...
was the only woman to make feature films. She was able to do this against fierce resistance because she enjoyed a status as star actress. Using genre conventions her films showed women "with a humorous affection rare in Japanese cinema of the period" (Philip Kemp).
Currently, the best-known women filmmaker of Japan may be Naomi Kawase; 2007 she won the Grand Prix in Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....
, while Memoirs of a fig tree, the directorial debut of well-known actrice Kaori Momoi, saw the light of the day in 2006. The sociocritical adventure film K-20: Legend of the Mask
K-20: Legend of the Mask
at film festivals, The Fiend with Twenty Faces on home video in the United States and The Legend of the Black Mask in the United Kingdom) is a 2008 Japanese action feature film written and directed by Shimako Satō and based on a novel by Sō Kitamura and its sequel. The film released worldwide on...
by Shimako Sato's was a breakthrough into a bigger budget; it starred Takeshi Kaneshiro
Takeshi Kaneshiro
Takeshi Kaneshiro , born October 11, 1973, is a Taiwan-born Japanese actor and singer.-Name:...
and was released all over the world.
Similarly in South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
, Lim Soon-rye landed a box-office-hit with Forever the Moment
Forever the Moment
Forever the Moment is a 2008 South Korean film. It is a fictionalised account of the South Korea women's handball team which competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics...
, while So Yong Kim got some attention for her film In Between Days
In Between Days
"In Between Days" is a song by the English new wave/rock band The Cure....
and Lee Suk-Gyung made the women-themed and subtly feminist The Day After.
One of the important 5th generation filmmakers of China is Ning Ying, who won several prices for her films; in contrast to the controversy over some of her sixth-generation colleagues such as Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou is a Chinese film director, producer, writer and actor, and former cinematographer. He is counted amongst the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made his directorial debut in 1987 with Red Sorghum....
, who got accused of having sold out their ideals, Ning Ying has gone on to realize small independent films with themes strongly linked to Chinese daily life, therefore also being a link between the 5th and 6th generation. The 6th generation has seen a growing number of women filmmakers such as Liu Jiayin
Liu Jiayin
Liu Jiayin is a Chinese independent filmmaker and educator, born in Beijing in 1981. She has made two experimental features combining documentary and narrative elements, Oxhide and Oxhide II , both of which received international awards....
, best known for her film Oxhide
Oxhide
Oxhide , directed by Liu Jiayin, is a 2005 narrative independent Chinese film that portrays the director's family and their apartment in Beijing...
, and Xiaolu Guo
Xiaolu Guo
Xiaolu Guo born 1973) is a Chinese novelist and filmmaker, who uses film and literary language to explore themes of alienation, memory, personal journeys, daily tragedies and develops her own vision of China's past and its future in a global environment....
; in 2001 Li Yu
Li Yu (director)
Li Yu is a female Chinese film director and screenwriter. Li began her career in entertainment at a young age, serving as a presenter at a local TV station...
caused quite a stir with her lesbian love story Fish and Elephant
Fish and Elephant
Fish and Elephant is documentary filmmaker and former TV hostess Li Yu's feature film directorial debut. The film is also often referred to as the first Chinese mainland film to broach the topic of lesbian relationships in China....
.
The most famous women filmmaker from Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
is undoubtedly Ann Hui
Ann Hui
Ann Hui On-Wah is a Hong Kong film director, film producer and occasional screenwriter, one of the most critically acclaimed amongst the Hong Kong New Wave.-Early life:...
, who has made a wide array of films ranging from the wuxia
Wuxia
Wuxia is a broad genre of Chinese fiction concerning the adventures of martial artists. Although wuxia is traditionally a form of literature, its popularity has caused it to spread to diverse art forms like Chinese opera, manhua , films, television series, and video games...
genre to drama; Ivy Ho
Ivy Ho
Ivy Ho Sai-Hong is a Hong Kong screenwriter and film director.Ho's work has received high critical acclaim in Hong Kong. Perry Lam of Muse Magazine wrote, 'As a writer, Ho excels as a miniaturist...
and Taiwanese Sylvia Chang
Sylvia Chang
Sylvia Chang is a Taiwanese actress, writer, singer, producer and director. In 1992, she was a member of the jury at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival.- Actress :...
also are known names in the Hong Kong industry, while in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
queer filmmaker Zero Chou
Zero Chou
-Life:Chou was born in Keelung, Taiwan in 1969. She earned a B.A. in Philosophy from National Chengchi University in 1992. She worked as a journalist before becoming an indie film director....
has gotten acclaim on festivals around the world.
In Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, where film industry is not very big, some prominent and brilliant directors are working. Conventional film industry has directors like Sangeeta
Sangeeta
Sangeeta is a successful Pakistani film actor and director. Her work includes Society Girl, Tarap and her latest film Gulabo.-Early life:...
and Shamim Ara
Shamim Ara
Shamim Ara is a Pakistani film actress, director and producer. Her real name is Putli Bai. She was a famous film actress of the 1950s till the early 1970s. She is most famous for her leading role in the first ever West Pakistan's color motion picture Naela...
who are making films with feminist themes. Specially on Sangeeta's credit there are some issue-based films. Now some new directors from television industry are also coming towards the medium of films. Sabiha Sumar
Sabiha Sumar
Sabiha Sumar is a Pakistani film-maker.Born in Karachi, Sabiha Sumar studied Filmmaking and Political Science at Sarah Lawrence College in New York from 1980–83 and then read History and Political Thought at Cambridge University....
and Mehreen Jabbar
Mehreen Jabbar
Mehreen Jabbar , is a noted Pakistani film-maker and television director/producer. Mehreen is the daughter of well known media-person and businessman Javed Jabbar, she was born in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan....
are two new names for films in Pakistan and are making brilliant films. Both of these directors has made films which are not only issue based addressing national issues but also these films have won international awards at different film festivals.
Iran
Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, a writer and a director, is probably Iran's best known and certainly most prolific female filmmaker. She has established herself as the elder stateswoman of Iranian cinema with documentaries and films dealing with social pathology. Contemporary Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad (1935—1967) was also a filmmaker. Her best known film is The House is black (Khane siah ast, 1962), a documentary of a leper colony in the north of Iran. Samira MakhmalbafSamira Makhmalbaf
Samira Makhmalbaf is an internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker and script writer. She is the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the film director and writer. Samira Makhmalbaf belongs to the New Wave movement within Iranian cinema...
directed her first film The Apple when she was only 17 years old and won Cannes
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
Jury Prize in 2000 for her following film The Blackboard.
Latin America
Marta Rodriguez is a Colombian documentary film maker.Brazilian Cinema has an expressive number of women directors whose works date from the 1930s. Brazilian women directors' most prolific era unfolds from the 1970s. Some contemporary names include: Ana Carolina, Betse De Paula, Carla Camurati, Eliane Caffe, Helena Solberg, Lucia Murat, Sandra Kogut, Suzana Amaral, Tata Amaral.
Europe
Elvira NotariElvira Notari
Elvira Notari , Italy's earliest and most prolific female filmmaker, made over sixty feature films and about a hundred documentaries....
was a pioneer of Italian cinema, and she was followed by other prominent female directors as Lina Wertmüller
Lina Wertmüller
Lina Wertmüller is an Italian film writer and director of aristocratic Swiss descent. In 1976, she became the first woman ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing with the film Seven Beauties.-Biography:...
and Liliana Cavani
Liliana Cavani
Liliana Cavani is an Italian film director and screenwriter. She belongs to a generation of Italian filmmakers that came into prominence in the 1970s and includes Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Marco Bellochio. Cavani became internationally known after the success of her 1974 feature...
.
During the "golden age" of "Classical" French cinema Jacqueline Audry
Jacqueline Audry
Jacqueline Audry was a French film director who started making films in post-World War II France and specialised in literary adaptations. She was the first commercially successful woman director of post-war France....
was the only woman to direct commercial films. In 1959 writer Marguerite Duras
Marguerite Duras
Marguerite Donnadieu, better known as Marguerite Duras was a French writer and film director.-Background:...
wrote the script for Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais is a French film director whose career has extended over more than six decades. After training as a film editor in the mid-1940s, he went on to direct a number of short films which included Nuit et Brouillard , an influential documentary about the Nazi concentration camps.He began...
' Hiroshima Mon Amour
Hiroshima Mon Amour
Hiroshima mon amour is an acclaimed 1959 drama film directed by French film director Alain Resnais, with a screenplay by Marguerite Duras. It is the documentation of an intensely personal conversation between a French-Japanese couple about memory and forgetfulness...
. She turned to directing with La Musica in 1966. Among the best known French women film makers are Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda is a French film director and professor at the European Graduate School. Her movies, photographs, and art installations focus on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary — with a distinct experimental style....
, Claire Denis
Claire Denis
Claire Denis is a French film director and Professor of Film at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.-Early life:...
, Nelly Kaplan and Catherine Breillat
Catherine Breillat
Catherine Breillat is a French filmmaker, novelist and Professor of Auteur Cinema at the European Graduate School.-Life and career:Breillat was born in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres, but grew up in Niort...
. The work of many more French female directors is rarely screened outside France.
German woman filmmaker Helke Sander
Helke Sander
Helke Sander is a German feminist film director and writer.Sander attended a drama school in Hamburg. While married to Finnish writer Markku Lahtela, with whom she had a son, she worked as director at the worker's theatre and for Finnish television...
was also one of the pioneers of the feminist movement. Other prominent female film-makers include Margarethe von Trotta and Helma Sanders-Brahms
Helma Sanders-Brahms
Helma Sanders-Brahms is a German film director, screenwriter, producer and actress.She studied acting then German and English. She first worked in TV and then trained as a film director with Sergio Corbucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini making a large number of films often commissioned by German...
. Monika Treut
Monika Treut
Monika Treut is an openly lesbian German filmmaker.In the mid-1970s she began working with video. She founded Hyena Filmproduktion together with Elfi Mikesch in 1984, and began producing, writing, and directing independent feature films....
has also won recognition for her depictions of queer
Queer
Queer is an umbrella term for sexual minorities that are not heterosexual, heteronormative, or gender-binary. In the context of Western identity politics the term also acts as a label setting queer-identifying people apart from discourse, ideologies, and lifestyles that typify mainstream LGBT ...
and alternative sexuality.
In Hungary Marta Meszaros
Márta Mészáros
Márta Mészáros is a Hungarian film director. She worked as an English Teachersmeaning? filmmaker in the 1960s, but in the following decade began making films drawing on the oppression of both state and gender...
has been making important films for decades.
In Britain Jane Arden
Jane Arden (director)
Jane Arden was a Welsh-born film director, actor, screenwriter, playwright, songwriter, and poet.-Early career:...
(1927–82), following up her television drama The Logic Game (1965), wrote and starred in the film Separation
Separation
Separation may refer to:* Separation , the process by which a service member leaves active duty* Separation , rules to minimise the risk of collision between aircraft in flight...
(Jack Bond
Jack Bond
John David "Jack" Bond, born in Kearsley, near Bolton, Lancashire, on 6 May 1932, is a former cricketer who played for Lancashire and, for one season, for Nottinghamshire....
1967), which explores a woman's mental landscape during a marital breakup. Arden went on to be the only British woman to gain a solo feature-directing credit for The Other Side of the Underneath
The Other Side of the Underneath
The Other Side of the Underneath is a 1972 British feature film written and directed by Jane Arden and starring Sheila Allen, Liz Danciger, Penny Slinger, Ann Lynn, and Suzanka Fraey . Other members of the Holocaust Theatre Company appear in the film. It is the only British feature film in the...
(1972), a disturbing study of female madness shot mainly in South Wales. Arden's overtly feminist work was neglected and almost lost until the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
rediscovered and reissued her three features, and the short Vibration
Vibration
Vibration refers to mechanical oscillations about an equilibrium point. The oscillations may be periodic such as the motion of a pendulum or random such as the movement of a tire on a gravel road.Vibration is occasionally "desirable"...
(1974), in 2009.
Cinenova
Cinenova
Cinenova is a non-profit organisation based in London, dedicated to distributing films and videos made by women.Formed in 1991 from the merger of two feminist distributors, Circles and Cinema of Women, Cinenova...
is a London based organization that distributes women produced films.
Sally Potter
Sally Potter
Charlotte Sally Potter is an English film director and screenwriter.-Career:Having left school at sixteen to become a filmmaker, Potter joined the London Film-Makers' Co-op and started making experimental short films, including Jerk and Play...
is a prominent British feminist film maker.
British filmmaker Ngozi Onwurah
Ngozi Onwurah
- Early life :Ngozi Onwurah was born in 1966 in Nigeria to a Nigerian father, and a white British mother, Madge Onwurah.She has one sibling, Simon Onwurah. As children, Onwurah's mother was forced to flee with her children from Nigeria in order to escape a Civil War. They fled to England,...
explores the legacies of colonialism.
Edith Carlmar
Edith Carlmar
Edith Carlmar was an actress and Norway's first female film director. She is known for films such as Fjols til fjells , Aldri annet enn bråk , and Ung flukt . Her 1949 film, Døden er et kjærtegn , is considered to be Norway's first Film Noir...
was a prominent Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
film director, working in a variety of genres (crime, melodrama, comedy).
Portuguese editor and director Manuela Viegas
Manuela Viegas
Manuela Viegas is a Portuguese film editor and director.An influential film editor since the 70's, has edited dozens of films...
' 1999 film Gloria
Gloria (1999 Portuguese film)
Gloria is an independent Portuguese drama film directed by Manuela Viegas, produced at Portuguese independent production company Rosa Filmes.The poster of the film was designed by Portuguese artist Julião Sarmento.- Reception :...
, premiered at the 57th Berlinale, is considered in her country the climax of a cinema of feminin sensibility.
(Re-)entering the mainstream?
Since the beginning of sound cinema, with very few exceptions, the films of women had been absent from mainstream cinema for more than half a century. Sometimes actresses enjoying a star status turned to directing (like Barbra StreisandBarbra Streisand
Barbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
). Though directed by men, Thelma & Louise and The Color Purple
The Color Purple
The Color Purple is an acclaimed 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker. It received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction...
showed the acceptability of feminist themes.
Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Ann Bigelow is an American film director. Her best-known films are the cult horror film Near Dark , the surfer/bank robbery action picture Point Break , the science fiction/film noir Strange Days , the historical/mystery film The Weight of Water and the war drama The Hurt Locker...
works in male-dominated genres like science fiction, action, and horror. Dörris Dörrie landed a box office hit with her satire Men. Italian Lina Wertmüller
Lina Wertmüller
Lina Wertmüller is an Italian film writer and director of aristocratic Swiss descent. In 1976, she became the first woman ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing with the film Seven Beauties.-Biography:...
has directed a great number of popular films on the war of the sexes, with various artistic success.
Books
- Ally Acker, Reel Women. Pioneers of the Cinema. 1896 to the Present, London: B.T. Batsford 1991
- Attwood, Lynne, Ed., Red Women on the Silver Screen: Soviet Women and Cinema from the Beginning to the End of the Communist Era, London: Pandora 1993
- Jacqueline Bobo (ed.), Black Women Film and Video Artists (AFI Film Readers), Routledge 1998
- Russell Campbell, Marked Women: Prostitutes and Prostitution in the Cinema University of Wisconsin Press 2005
- Ellerson, Beti, Sisters of the screen : women of Africa on film, video and television, Trenton, NJ [u.a.] : Africa World Press, 2000
- Lucy Fischer, Shot/Countershot: Film Tradition and Women's Cinema, Princeton University Press 1989
- G.A. Foster, Women Film Directors (1995)
- Kenneth W. Harrow, ed., With open eyes : women and African cinema, Amsterdam [u.a.] : Rodopi, 1997 (=Matatu - Journal for African Culture and Society)
- Rebecca Hillauer, Encyclopedia of Arab Women Filmmakers, American University in Cairo Press, 2005, ISBN 9774249437
- Claire JohnstonClaire JohnstonClaire Johnston was a feminist film theoretician. She wrote seminal essays on the construction of ideology in mainstream cinema .-Writings:...
, "Women's Cinema as Counter-Cinema" (1975) in: Claire Johnston (ed.), Notes on Women's Cinema, London: Society for Education in Film and Television, reprinted in: Sue Thornham (ed.), Feminist Film Theory. A Reader, Edinburgh University Press 1999, pp. 31–40 - Julia Knight, Women and the New German Cinema, Verso 1992
- Denise Lowe, An encyclopedic dictionary of women in early American films, 1895 - 1930, New York, NY [u.a.] : Haworth Press, 2005
- Judith Mayne, The Woman at the Keyhole: Feminism and Women's Cinema, Indiana University Press 1990
- Janis L- Pallister, French-Speaking Women Film Directors: A Guide, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press 1998
- Sarah Projansky, Watching Rape: Film and Television in Postfeminist Culture, New York University Press 2001
- Quart, Barbara Koenig: Women Directors: The Emergence of a New Cinema, Praeger 1988
- Judith Redding, Victoria A. Brownworth, Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors, Seal Press 1997, based on interviews with 33 film makers
- Rich, B. Ruby. Chick Flicks: Theories and Memories of the Feminist Film Movement. Durham, N. C.: Duke University Press, 1998.
- Carrie Tarr with Brigitte Rollet, Cinema and the Second Sex. Women's Filmmaking in France in the 1980s and 1990s, New York, Continuum, 2001.
- Amy L. Unterburger, ed., The St. James Women Filmmakers Encyclopedia: Women on the Other Side of the Camera, Paperback, Visible Ink Press 1999
- Women Filmmakers: Refocusing, edited by Jacqueline Levitin, Judith Plessis and Valerie Raoul, Paperback Edition, Routledge 2003
Journals
- Camera Obscura
- Frauen und Film
- Women and Film
- Jump Cut
- New German Critique
- Vertigo and Vertigo Online
1890s-1940s
- 1896 La fée aux choux; director: Alice Guy-BlachéAlice Guy-BlachéAlice Guy-Blaché was a French pioneer filmmaker who was the first female director in the motion picture industry and is considered to be one of the first directors of a fiction film.-Early years:...
; one of the first narrative (fiction) films - 1911 Bufera d'anime; director: Elvira NotariElvira NotariElvira Notari , Italy's earliest and most prolific female filmmaker, made over sixty feature films and about a hundred documentaries....
- 1914 The Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
; director: Lois WeberLois WeberLois Weber was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, producer, and director, who is considered "the most important female director the American film industry has known", and "one of the most important and important and prolific film directors in the era of silent films". Film historian...
; the first full-length feature film directed by a woman - 1921 The BlotThe BlotThe Blot is an American silent drama film directed by Lois Weber with her husband Phillips Smalley in 1921. The film tackles the social problem of genteel poverty, focusing on a starving family. It stars Claire Windsor, Louis Calhern and Marie Walcamp....
; director: Lois WeberLois WeberLois Weber was an American silent film actress, screenwriter, producer, and director, who is considered "the most important female director the American film industry has known", and "one of the most important and important and prolific film directors in the era of silent films". Film historian... - 1921 The Love Light; director: Frances MarionFrances MarionFrances Marion was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the twentieth century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos.-Career:...
, starring Mary PickfordMary PickfordMary Pickford was a Canadian-born motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences... - 1922 La souriante Madame Beudet (The Smiling Madame Beudet); director: Germaine DulacGermaine DulacGermaine Dulac was a French filmmaker, film theorist, journalist and critic. She was born in Amiens and moved to Paris in early childhood. A few years after her marriage she embarked on a journalistic career in a feminist magazine, and later became interested in film...
; often cited as one of the first feminist feature films - 1923 The Song of Love; director: Frances MarionFrances MarionFrances Marion was an American journalist, author, and screenwriter often cited as the most renowned female screenwriter of the twentieth century alongside June Mathis and Anita Loos.-Career:...
, starring Norma TalmadgeNorma TalmadgeNorma Talmadge was an American actress and film producer of the silent era. A major box office draw for more than a decade, her career reached a peak in the early 1920s, when she ranked among the most popular idols of the American screen.Her most famous film was Smilin’ Through , but she also... - 1923–1926 Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince AchmedThe Adventures of Prince AchmedThe Adventures of Prince Achmed is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost...
); director: Lotte ReinigerLotte ReinigerCharlotte "Lotte" Reiniger was a German silhouette animator and film director.- Early life :Lotte Reiniger was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg, German Empire, on June 2, 1899...
— animated feature film - 1927 The Fall of the Romanov Dynasty; director: Esfir ShubEsfir ShubEsfir Ilyichna Shub , also referred as Esther Shub, was a pioneering Soviet filmmaker.Born in Surazh, Chernigov Governorate, part of Left-bank Ukraine within the Russian Empire, Shub began her career in film as a re-editor for Goskino; she edited several Western films according to Goskino...
- 1931 Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in uniform); director: Leontine SaganLeontine SaganLeontine Sagan was an Austrian actress and theatre director.Born in Budapest, Sagan trained with Max Reinhardt. The first and most widely known of her two films is Mädchen in Uniform...
- 1933 Christopher StrongChristopher StrongChristopher Strong is a 1933 RKO film, directed by Dorothy Arzner and starring Katharine Hepburn in her second screen role. The screenplay by Zoë Akins is adapted from the novel by Gilbert Frankau.-Synopsis:...
; director: Dorothy ArznerDorothy ArznerDorothy Arzner was an American film director. Her directorial career in feature films spanned from the late 1920s into the early 1940s, a time period in which there were very few—if any—other women working in the field.- Biography :Born in San Francisco, California, Arzner grew up in Los...
, a Hollywood studio feature film starring Katharine HepburnKatharine HepburnKatharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies... - 1935 Robin HoodRobin HoodRobin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
(animated film); director: Joy BatchelorJoy BatchelorJoy Batchelor was an English director, producer, writer, art director and animator. As a director, she primarily worked in television, directing series, including variety shows like The Jackson 5ive , and in animated films... - 1935 Triumph des WillensTriumph of the WillTriumph of the Will is a propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at the Congress, including portions of...
(Triumph of the Will); director: Leni RiefenstahlLeni RiefenstahlHelene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens , a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party... - 1937 The Bride Wore Red; director: Dorothy ArznerDorothy ArznerDorothy Arzner was an American film director. Her directorial career in feature films spanned from the late 1920s into the early 1940s, a time period in which there were very few—if any—other women working in the field.- Biography :Born in San Francisco, California, Arzner grew up in Los...
, a Hollywood studio feature film starring Joan CrawfordJoan CrawfordJoan Crawford , born Lucille Fay LeSueur, was an American actress in film, television and theatre.... - 1938 Olympia (1938 film)Olympia (1938 film)Olympia is a 1938 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. The film was released in two parts: Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker and Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit . It was the first documentary feature...
; director: Leni RiefenstahlLeni RiefenstahlHelene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens , a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party... - 1943 Meshes of the AfternoonMeshes of the AfternoonMeshes of the Afternoon is a short experimental film directed by wife and husband team, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. The film's narrative is circular, and repeats a number of psychologically symbolic images, including a flower on a long driveway, a key falling, a door unlocked, a knife in a...
(experimental film); director: Maya DerenMaya DerenMaya Deren , born Eleanora Derenkowsky, was an American avant-garde filmmaker and film theorist of the 1940s and 1950s...
; selected by the Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
1950s-1960s
- 1950 Outrage; director: Ida LupinoIda LupinoIda Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...
, the first Hollywood studio feature directed by a women after Dorothy ArznerDorothy ArznerDorothy Arzner was an American film director. Her directorial career in feature films spanned from the late 1920s into the early 1940s, a time period in which there were very few—if any—other women working in the field.- Biography :Born in San Francisco, California, Arzner grew up in Los...
's films; the story of a rape - 1953 The Hitch-HikerThe Hitch-Hiker (1953 film)The Hitch-Hiker is a film noir directed by Ida Lupino about two fishing buddies who pick up a mysterious hitchhiker during a trip to Mexico....
; director: Ida LupinoIda LupinoIda Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...
, the first film noirFilm noirFilm noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
directed by a woman; selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry - 1959 Bridges Go-Round; director: Shirley ClarkeShirley ClarkeShirley Clarke was an American independent filmmaker.-Early life:Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, Shirley Clarke was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother was the daughter of a multimillionaire Jewish manufacturer and inventor. Her...
- 1961 The Connection; director Shirley ClarkeShirley ClarkeShirley Clarke was an American independent filmmaker.-Early life:Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, Shirley Clarke was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother was the daughter of a multimillionaire Jewish manufacturer and inventor. Her...
- 1961 Cléo de 5 à 7 (Cleo from 5 to 7); director: Agnes VardaAgnès VardaAgnès Varda is a French film director and professor at the European Graduate School. Her movies, photographs, and art installations focus on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary — with a distinct experimental style....
- 1964 The Cool World; director: Shirley ClarkeShirley ClarkeShirley Clarke was an American independent filmmaker.-Early life:Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, Shirley Clarke was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother was the daughter of a multimillionaire Jewish manufacturer and inventor. Her...
; the cruel reality of street life in the U.S. - 1964 Älskande par (Loving Couples); director: Mai ZetterlingMai Zetterling-Early life:Zetterling was born in Västerås, Västmanland, Sweden to a working class family. She started her career as an actress by the age of seventeen at Dramaten, the Swedish national theater, and appeared in war-era film starting in her teens.-Career:...
- 1966 SedmikraskyDaisies (film)Daisies is a 1966 Czech film directed by Věra Chytilová considered a milestone of the Nová Vlna movement and the modern surrealist cinema....
(Daisies); director: Věra ChytilováVera ChytilováVěra Chytilová is an avant-garde Czech film director and pioneer of Czech cinema. Banned by the Czechoslovakian government in the 1960s, she is best known for her Czech New Wave film, Sedmikrásky...
— the story of two young girls who explore the world without taking it too seriously - 1966 Blood BathBlood BathBlood Bath is a 1966 horror film directed by Jack Hill and Stephanie Rothman. William Campbell stars as an artist with vampiric tendencies who kills beautiful women and dumps their bodies into a vat of boiling wax in his studio...
; director: Stephanie RothmanStephanie RothmanStephanie Rothman is a film director, producer and screenwriter, known for her low-budget independent exploitation films made in the 1960s and 1970s. She was the first female to be awarded the Directors Guild of America fellowship... - 1967 Portrait of Jason; director Shirley ClarkeShirley ClarkeShirley Clarke was an American independent filmmaker.-Early life:Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, Shirley Clarke was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother was the daughter of a multimillionaire Jewish manufacturer and inventor. Her...
- 1967 SeparationSeparationSeparation may refer to:* Separation , the process by which a service member leaves active duty* Separation , rules to minimise the risk of collision between aircraft in flight...
; writer and leading actor Jane ArdenJane ArdenJane Arden was an internationally syndicated daily newspaper comic strip which ran from 1927 to 1968. The title character was the original "spunky girl reporter," actively seeking to infiltrate and expose criminal activity rather than just report on its consequences and served as a prototype for... - 1968 Rat Life and Diet in North America; director: Joyce WielandJoyce WielandJoyce Wieland, OC was a Canadian experimental filmmaker and mixed media artist.-Life:Joyce Wieland was an experimental filmmaker and artist, whose work challenged and bridged boundaries among avant garde film factions of her time...
- 1969 La fiancée du pirate (A very curious girl); director: Nelly Kaplan
1970s
- 1971 The Woman's Film; directors: Louise Alaimo, Judy Smith
- 1971 L'aggettivo donna; directors: Ronny Daopolus, Annabella Miscuglio; a radical feminist documentary which analyses the double exploitation of women workers and the isolated situation of housewives and children
- 1971 WandaWanda (film)Wanda is an independent 1970 drama film that was written and directed by Barbara Loden, who also stars in the title role. It is set in the anthracite coal region of eastern Pennsylvania.-Plot:...
; director: Barbara LodenBarbara LodenBarbara Loden was an American film and stage actress and film director....
; an innovative, influential independent American film - 1971 Für Frauen: 1. Kapitel (For Women: Chapter 1); writer and director: Cristina PerincioliCristina PerincioliCristina Perincioli is a Swiss film director, writer, multimedia producer and webauthor. She lives in Berlin, Germany since 1968.-Life and career:...
- award winning documentary fiction on a women's strike in Berlin - 1972 Sambizanga; director: Sarah MaldororSarah MaldororSarah Maldoror, born Sarah Ducados in Gers, France, is a French film director.Maldoror choose her artist's name in remembrance of The Songs of Maldoror by Lautréamont. She attended a drama school in Paris. Together with her companion Mário Pinto de Andrade she received a scholarship and studied...
— feature film about the liberation movement in Angola - 1972 The Heartbreak KidThe Heartbreak Kid (1972 film)The Heartbreak Kid is a 1972 dark romantic comedy film directed by Elaine May, written by Neil Simon, and starring Charles Grodin, Jeannie Berlin, and Cybill Shepherd...
; the first Hollywood studio film directed by a woman after Ida LupinoIda LupinoIda Lupino was an English-born film actress and director, and a pioneer among women filmmakers. In her 48-year career, she appeared in 59 films and directed seven others, mostly in the United States. She appeared in serial television programmes 58 times and directed 50 other episodes...
's The Trouble With Angels (1966), starring Hayley MillsHayley MillsHayley Mills is an English actress. The daughter of John Mills and Mary Hayley Bell, and sister of actress Juliet Mills, Mills began her acting career as a child and was hailed as a promising newcomer, winning the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for Tiger Bay , the Academy Juvenile Award...
; director: Elaine MayElaine MayElaine May is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She achieved her greatest fame in the 1950s from her improvisational comedy routines in partnership with Mike Nichols... - 1972 The Other Side of the UnderneathThe Other Side of the UnderneathThe Other Side of the Underneath is a 1972 British feature film written and directed by Jane Arden and starring Sheila Allen, Liz Danciger, Penny Slinger, Ann Lynn, and Suzanka Fraey . Other members of the Holocaust Theatre Company appear in the film. It is the only British feature film in the...
; director Jane ArdenJane ArdenJane Arden was an internationally syndicated daily newspaper comic strip which ran from 1927 to 1968. The title character was the original "spunky girl reporter," actively seeking to infiltrate and expose criminal activity rather than just report on its consequences and served as a prototype for... - 1972/73 Es kommt darauf an, sie zu verändern; director: Claudia von Alemann — organised women workers discuss the possibilities for change
- 1974 Il portiere di notte (The Night Porter); director: Liliana CavaniLiliana CavaniLiliana Cavani is an Italian film director and screenwriter. She belongs to a generation of Italian filmmakers that came into prominence in the 1970s and includes Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Marco Bellochio. Cavani became internationally known after the success of her 1974 feature...
- 1974 VibrationVibrationVibration refers to mechanical oscillations about an equilibrium point. The oscillations may be periodic such as the motion of a pendulum or random such as the movement of a tire on a gravel road.Vibration is occasionally "desirable"...
(short) ; co-director: Jane ArdenJane ArdenJane Arden was an internationally syndicated daily newspaper comic strip which ran from 1927 to 1968. The title character was the original "spunky girl reporter," actively seeking to infiltrate and expose criminal activity rather than just report on its consequences and served as a prototype for... - 1975 Kaddy Bekat — Lettre Paysanne (Letter from My Village); director: Safi FayeSafi FayeSafi Faye is a Senegalese film director and ethnologist. She was the first Sub-Saharan African woman to direct a commercially distributed feature film. She has directed several documentary and fiction films focussing on rural life in Senegal.-Early life and education:Safi Faye was born in 1943 in...
- 1975 The Lost Honor of Katharina BlumThe Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (film)The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum is a 1975 film adaptation by Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta of the novel of the same name by Heinrich Böll...
(Die Verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum oder: Wie Gewalt entstehen und wohin sie führen kann); directors: Margarethe von Trotta and Volker SchlöndorffVolker SchlöndorffVolker Schlöndorff is a Berlin-based German filmmaker who has worked in Germany, France and the United States... - 1975 Hester Street; director: Joan Micklin SilverJoan Micklin SilverJoan Micklin Silver is an American director.She was born in Omaha, Nebraska and received her B.A. From Sarah Lawrence College....
; Academy Award nomination for Carol KaneCarol KaneCarolyn Laurie "Carol" Kane is an American actress. Kane has worked on the stage, on the screen and in television. She appeared on the television series Taxi in the early 1980s, as the wife of the character played by Andy Kaufman. She received two Emmy Awards for her work...
as best actress - 1975 Anna und Edith; writers: Cristina PerincioliCristina PerincioliCristina Perincioli is a Swiss film director, writer, multimedia producer and webauthor. She lives in Berlin, Germany since 1968.-Life and career:...
and Cäcilia RentmeisterCäcilia RentmeisterCäcilia Rentmeister is a German art historian, culture scientist and researcher of cultural conditions of women and of gender...
- first feature film in German TV ZDFZDFZweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
on a lesbian relationship - 1976 Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 BruxellesJeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 BruxellesJeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is a 1975 film by Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman.Upon its release, The New York Times called Jeanne Dielman the "first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of the cinema." Chantal Akerman scholar Ivone Margulies asserts the picture is a...
; director: Chantal AkermanChantal AkermanChantal Anne Akerman is a Belgian film director, artist, and professor of film at the European Graduate School. Akerman's best-known film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles , exemplifies a dedication to the ellipses of conventional narrative cinema.-Early life:Akerman was born to...
— the daily life of a housewife - 1976 Pasqualino settebellezze (Seven BeautiesSeven BeautiesPasqualino Settebellezze is a 1975 Italian language film written and directed by Lina Wertmüller and starring Giancarlo Giannini in the main role. Fernando Rey and Shirley Stoler are also featured...
); director: Lina WertmüllerLina WertmüllerLina Wertmüller is an Italian film writer and director of aristocratic Swiss descent. In 1976, she became the first woman ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing with the film Seven Beauties.-Biography:...
; the first time a woman was nominated for an Academy Award for directing a feature film - 1976 Harlan County, U.S.A.; director: Barbara KoppleBarbara KoppleBarbara Kopple is an American film director, primarily known for her work in documentary film.-Biography:She grew up in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of a textile executive and studied psychology at Northeastern University, after which she worked with the Maysles Brothers.Kopple has won two...
; Academy Award winner for best documentary feature; selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry - 1977 First LoveFirst Love (1977 film)First Love is a 1977 romance film. It stars Susan Dey and William Katt and was directed by Joan Darling. The movie is based upon the story Sentimental Education by Harold Brodkey...
; director: Joan DarlingJoan DarlingJoan Darling is an actress, film and television director and a dramatic arts instructor.Joan "Joni" Kugell began her career with the New York improvisational theater troupe "Premise Players", and soon graduated to off-Broadway and Broadway productions. She gravitated to feature films and... - 1978 Die allseitig reduzierte Persönlichkeit (The Universally Reduced Personality); director: Helke SanderHelke SanderHelke Sander is a German feminist film director and writer.Sander attended a drama school in Hamburg. While married to Finnish writer Markku Lahtela, with whom she had a son, she worked as director at the worker's theatre and for Finnish television...
- 1978 The Mafu Cage; director: Karen ArthurKaren ArthurKaren Arthur is an American film director, producer, and actress. She has directed two feature films, Lady Beware and The Mafu Cage , but the majority of her work has been in television, where she has had a long and prolific career directing television movies and series...
- 1978 Mais qu'est ce qu'elles veulent? (But what do they want, after all?) — director: Coline SerreauColine SerreauColine Serreau is a French actress, film director and writer.-Early life and education:She was born in Paris, France.In Paris, Serreau studied literature, music and theatre as well as the circus.-Career:...
- 1978 Rabbit TestRabbit Test (film)Rabbit Test is a 1978 comedy motion picture about the world's first pregnant man, directed by Joan Rivers and starring Billy Crystal.Its title is derived from the rabbit test previously used to determine pregnancy.-Plot:...
; director: Joan RiversJoan RiversJoan Rivers is an American comedian, television personality and actress. She is known for her brash manner; her loud, raspy voice with a heavy New York accent; and her numerous cosmetic surgeries... - 1978 Die Macht der Männer ist die Geduld der Frauen (The Power of Men is the Patience of Women); writer, director, producer: Cristina PerincioliCristina PerincioliCristina Perincioli is a Swiss film director, writer, multimedia producer and webauthor. She lives in Berlin, Germany since 1968.-Life and career:...
- (ZDFZDFZweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...
TV) feature film/documentary fiction on domestic violence - 1979 Daughter Rite; director: Michelle CitronMichelle CitronMichelle Citron is a feminist film, video and multimedia producer, scholar and author. She taught at Northwestern University from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s, but recently took the position of Chairperson of the Interdisciplinary arts department at Columbia College Chicago. She grew up in...
— a feminist pseudo-documentary which deconstructs the conventions of Direct CinemaDirect CinemaDirect Cinema is a documentary genre that originated between 1958 and 1962 in North America, principally in the Canadian province of Quebec and the United States... - 1979 Bildnis einer Trinkerin (Aller jamais retour; Portrait of a Female Drunkard); director: Ulrike OttingerUlrike OttingerUlrike Ottinger is a German filmmaker, documentarian photographer and professor at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.-Biography:From 1959 she was a visiting student at the Academy of Arts in Munich and worked as a painter...
- 1979 Killing Us Softly; directors: Margaret LazarusMargaret LazarusMargaret Lazarus is an American film producer/film director known for her work in documentary film. She and her partner, Renner Wunderlich, received an Academy Award in 1993 for their documentary Defending Our Lives, about battered women who were in prison for killing their abusers.- Biography...
, Renner WunderlichRenner WunderlichRenner Wunderlich is an American film producer/film director known for his work in documentary film. He and his partner, Margaret Lazarus, received an Academy Award in 1993 for their documentary Defending Our Lives, about battered women who were in prison for killing their abusers...
— the effects of advertising on women - 1979 Deutschland bleiche Mutter (Germany Pale MotherGermany Pale MotherGermany, Pale Mother is a 1980 West German drama film written and directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms. It was shown at the 30th Berlin International Film Festival in 1980, where it was nominated for a Golden Bear award...
); director: Helma Sanders-BrahmsHelma Sanders-BrahmsHelma Sanders-Brahms is a German film director, screenwriter, producer and actress.She studied acting then German and English. She first worked in TV and then trained as a film director with Sergio Corbucci and Pier Paolo Pasolini making a large number of films often commissioned by German... - 1979 My Brilliant CareerMy Brilliant Career (film)My Brilliant Career is a 1979 Australian drama film directed by Gillian Armstrong and based on the book of the same name by Miles Franklin....
, starring Judy DavisJudy DavisJudy Davis is an Australian actress best known for her roles in Husbands and Wives, Barton Fink, A Passage to India and in the TV miniseries Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows....
; director: Gillian ArmstrongGillian ArmstrongGillian May Armstrong is an award-winning Australian director of feature films and documentaries.- Career :Born in Melbourne, Victoria, Gillian Armstrong grew up in the eastern suburb of Mitcham. She graduated from Swinburne Technical College in 1968 where she studied theatrical costume design and... - 1979 Anti-ClockAnti-ClockAnti-Clock is a 1979 film written and directed by Jane Arden, and co-directed by Jack Bond. The film, which stars Arden's son Sebastian Saville, was shot on film and video in colour and black and white sequences...
; writer and co-director Jane ArdenJane ArdenJane Arden was an internationally syndicated daily newspaper comic strip which ran from 1927 to 1968. The title character was the original "spunky girl reporter," actively seeking to infiltrate and expose criminal activity rather than just report on its consequences and served as a prototype for...
1980s
- 1980 The Life and Times of Rosie the RiveterThe Life and Times of Rosie the RiveterThe Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter is a 1980 documentary film by Connie Field about the American women who went to work during World War II to do "men's jobs"...
(documentary); director: Connie Field; selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry - 1981 Eight Minutes to Midnight: A Portrait of Dr. Helen CaldicottEight Minutes to Midnight: A Portrait of Dr. Helen CaldicottEight Minutes to Midnight: A Portrait of Dr. Helen Caldicott is a 1981 documentary film directed by Mary Benjamin. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature....
; director: Mary Benjamin; Academy Award nomination for best feature documentary - 1981 The Decline of Western CivilizationThe Decline of Western CivilizationThe soundtrack was released in December 1980 by Slash Records on LP. In the late 1990s it was released on CD as well. It is currently out of print. Germs singer Darby Crash appears on the soundtrack album cover. He died shortly before the film was released, though the promotional images for the...
; director: Penelope SpheerisPenelope SpheerisPenelope Spheeris is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She is best known as a documentary film director whose works include the trilogy titled The Decline of Western Civilization... - 1981 36 Chowringhee Lane36 Chowringhee Lane36 Chowringee Lane is a 1981 film written and directed by Aparna Sen and produced by Shashi Kapoor. The film was very well received upon release. It stars Jennifer Kendal in a critically acclaimed role and Debashree Roy.-Plot:...
; director: Aparna SenAparna SenAparna Sen is a critically acclaimed Bengali Indian filmmaker, script writer, and actress. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and eight international film festival awards.-Biography:... - 1982 Fast Times at Ridgemont HighFast Times at Ridgemont HighFast Times at Ridgemont High is a 1982 American coming-of-age teen comedy film written by Cameron Crowe and adapted from his 1981 book of the same name...
, starring Sean PennSean PennSean Justin Penn is an American actor, screenwriter and film director, also known for his political and social activism...
; director: Amy HeckerlingAmy HeckerlingAmy Heckerling is an American film director, one of the few female directors to have produced multiple box-office hits.-Early life:... - 1983 YentlYentl (film)Yentl is a 1983 romantic musical drama film from United Artists, and directed, co-written, co-produced, and starring Barbra Streisand based on the play of the same name by Leah Napolin and Isaac Bashevis Singer, itself based on Singer's short story, "Yentl the Yeshiva Boy".The dramatic story...
; director: Barbra StreisandBarbra StreisandBarbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,... - 1983 Born in FlamesBorn in FlamesBorn in Flames is a 1983 documentary-style feminist science fiction film by Lizzie Borden that explores racism, classism, sexism and heterosexism in an alternative United States Socialist Democracy.-Plot:...
; director: Lizzie BordenLizzie Borden (filmmaker)Lizzie Borden is an American filmmaker. Originally named Linda Elizabeth Borden, she took on the name of the American folklore figure Lizzie Borden in the early 1970s.... - 1983 Le Grain de sable (Grain of Sand); director: Pomme Meffre — the gradual disintegration of a woman (played by Delphine SeyrigDelphine SeyrigDelphine Claire Beltiane Seyrig was a stage and film actress and a film director.-Early life:...
) - 1983 "Variety"; director: Bette Gordon, starring Sandy McLeod
- 1985 Desperately Seeking SusanDesperately Seeking SusanDesperately Seeking Susan is a 1985 American comedy-drama film directed by Susan Seidelman and starring Rosanna Arquette and Madonna.-Plot:...
, starring MadonnaMadonna (entertainer)Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
; director: Susan SeidelmanSusan SeidelmanSusan Seidelman is an American director, producer, writer, and actress.-Career:Susan Seidelman belongs to the first wave of female independent film makers in the American cinema of the 1980s. She graduated Abington Senior High School in 1969 , and went on to study fashion and arts at Drexel... - 1985 Verführung: die grausame Frau (Seduction: The Cruel Woman); directors: Elfi Mikesch, Monika TreutMonika TreutMonika Treut is an openly lesbian German filmmaker.In the mid-1970s she began working with video. She founded Hyena Filmproduktion together with Elfi Mikesch in 1984, and began producing, writing, and directing independent feature films....
- 1986 Children of a Lesser GodChildren of a Lesser GodChildren of a Lesser God is a 1986 American romantic drama film directed by Randa Haines and written by Hesper Anderson and Mark Medoff. An adaptation of Medoff's Tony Award-winning stage play of the same name, the film stars William Hurt and Marlee Matlin as two employees at a school for the deaf:...
; director: Randa HainesRanda HainesRanda Haines is a film and television director and producer. She is perhaps most famous for directing the critically acclaimed feature film Children of a Lesser God , which starred William Hurt and Marlee Matlin, for which Matlin won the 1987 Academy Award as best actress...
; Academy Award for Marlee MatlinMarlee MatlinMarlee Bethany Matlin is an American actress. She is the only deaf actress to win the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, which she won for Children of a Lesser God. Her work in film and television has resulted in a Golden Globe award, with two additional nominations, and four Emmy...
as best actress - 1988 BigBigBig is a 1988 romantic comedy film directed by Penny Marshall and stars Tom Hanks as Josh Baskin, a young boy who makes a wish "to be big" to a magical fortune-telling machine and is then aged to adulthood overnight...
, starring Tom HanksTom HanksThomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
; director: Penny MarshallPenny MarshallPenny Marshall is an American actress, producer and director.After playing several small roles for television, she was cast as Laverne DeFazio in the sitcom Laverne and Shirley... - 1988 Salaam Bombay!Salaam Bombay!Salaam Bombay! is a 1988 Hindi film directed by Mira Nair, and screenwritten by her longtime creative collaborator, Sooni Taraporevala. The film chronicles the day-to-day life of children living on the streets of Bombay...
; director: Mira NairMira NairMira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...
; nominated for an Academy Award as Best Foreign Language Film (India) - 1988 Love, Women, and Flowers (AmorR, Mujeres, y Flores); directors: Marta Rodriguez and Jorge Silva (Colombia)
- 1988 Little Dorrit (film)Little Dorrit (film)Little Dorrit is a 1988 film adaptation of the novel Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens. It was written and directed by Christine Edzard, and produced by John Brabourne and Richard B. Goodwin. The music, by Giuseppe Verdi, was arranged by Michael Sanvoisin.The film stars Derek Jacobi as Arthur...
; director: Christine EdzardChristine EdzardChristine Edzard is a film director, writer, and costume designer. She is best known for her critically acclaimed film adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel, Little Dorrit , for which she was nominated for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay... - 1988 Die Jungfrauenmaschine (Virgin Machine); director: Monika TreutMonika TreutMonika Treut is an openly lesbian German filmmaker.In the mid-1970s she began working with video. She founded Hyena Filmproduktion together with Elfi Mikesch in 1984, and began producing, writing, and directing independent feature films....
- 1988 Kali-Filme (Kalih Films); directors: Birgit HeinBirgit HeinBirgit Hein is a German film director, producer and screenwriter who has made experimental films with her husband Wilhelm Hein since the 1960s.-Biography:...
and Wilhelm Hein - 1989 A Dry White SeasonA Dry White SeasonA Dry White Season is a film released in 1989 by Davros Films and Sundance Productions and distributed by MGM. It was directed by Euzhan Palcy and produced by Paula Weinstein, Mary Selway and Tim Hampton. The screenplay was by Colin Welland and Euzhan Palcy, based upon André Brink's novel of the...
; director: Euzhan PalcyEuzhan PalcyEuzhan Palcy is a film director writer and producer from Martinique, French West Indies. She is notable for being the first black female director produced by a major Hollywood studio , for A Dry White Season; as well as being the only female filmmaker who directed Marlon Brando .- Early life and...
1990s
- 1990 Europa, Europa; director: Agnieszka HollandAgnieszka HollandAgnieszka Holland is a Polish film and TV director and screenwriter. Best recognized for her highly political contributions to Polish cinema, Holland is one of Poland's most prominent filmmakers.-Personal life:...
- 1990 An Angel at My TableAn Angel at My TableAn Angel at My Table is a 1990 New Zealand-Australian-British film directed by Jane Campion. The film is based on Janet Frame's three autobiographies, To the Is-Land , An Angel at My Table , and The Envoy from Mirror City ....
; director: Jane CampionJane CampionJane Campion is a filmmaker and screenwriter. She is one of the most internationally successful New Zealand directors, although most of her work has been made in or financed by other countries, principally Australia – where she now lives – and the United States... - 1991 Point BreakPoint BreakPoint Break is a 1991 action film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and starring Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Lori Petty and Gary Busey. The title refers to the surfing term point break, where a wave breaks as it hits a point of land jutting out from the coastline.The film was a box office success upon...
; director Kathryn BigelowKathryn BigelowKathryn Ann Bigelow is an American film director. Her best-known films are the cult horror film Near Dark , the surfer/bank robbery action picture Point Break , the science fiction/film noir Strange Days , the historical/mystery film The Weight of Water and the war drama The Hurt Locker... - 1991 Daughters of the DustDaughters of the DustDaughters of the Dust is a 1991 independent film written, directed and produced by Julie Dash. It tells the story of three generations of Gullah women at the turn of the 20th century and focuses on the family's migration from the Sea Islands to the American mainland.Featuring an unusual narrative...
; director: Julie DashJulie DashJulie Dash is a United States filmmaker. She directed Daughters of the Dust, which in 1991 became the first full-length film with general theatrical release in the United States by an African American woman...
; selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry - 1991 A Place of Rage; director: Pratibha ParmarPratibha ParmarPratibha Parmar is a British filmmaker. She has worked as a director, producer and writer. Parmar is known internationally for her political and often controversial documentary film work as well as her activism within the global feminism and lesbian rights movements. She has collaborated with many...
- 1991 American Dream (film)American Dream (film)American Dream is a cinéma vérité documentary film directed by Barbara Kopple and co-directed by Cathy Caplan, Thomas Haneke, and Lawrence Silk....
; director: Barbara KoppleBarbara KoppleBarbara Kopple is an American film director, primarily known for her work in documentary film.-Biography:She grew up in Scarsdale, New York, the daughter of a textile executive and studied psychology at Northeastern University, after which she worked with the Maysles Brothers.Kopple has won two...
; Academy Award winner for best documentary feature - 1991 Proof (1991 film)Proof (1991 film)Proof is a 1991 Australian film by Jocelyn Moorhouse starring Hugo Weaving, Geneviève Picot and Russell Crowe. It was chosen as "Best Film" at the 1991 Australian Film Institute Awards, along with 5 other awards, including Moorhouse for "Best Director", Weaving for "Best Leading Actor", and Crowe...
; director: Jocelyn MoorhouseJocelyn MoorhouseJocelyn Denise Moorhouse is an Australian writer and film director born in Victoria, Australia on 4 September 1960.Moorhouse did her HSC year in 1978 at Vermont High School, which is the same high school that Gillian Armstrong attended a few years earlier. She went on to direct films such as Proof,...
; - 1991 The Prince of TidesThe Prince of TidesThe Prince of Tides is a 1991 romantic drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Pat Conroy; the film stars Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte. It tells the story of the narrator's struggle to overcome the psychological damage inflicted by his dysfunctional childhood in South Carolina...
; director: Barbra StreisandBarbra StreisandBarbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
; 7 Academy Award nominations including for Barbra StreisandBarbra StreisandBarbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
(producer) as Best Picture - 1992 Little NoisesLittle NoisesLittle Noises is a 1991 drama/comedy film. It follows the life of an awkward and unsuccessful writer who dates a playwright and shares a room with an unsuccessful actor . He steals the poems of a deaf-mute...
; director: Jane SpencerJane SpencerJane Spencer is an American Filmmaker who co-wrote and directed the film Little Noises, with lead actors Crispin Glover, Tatum O'Neal and Rik Mayall which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was screened at the Goteborg Film Festival , Wine Valley Festival and was distributed in the USA and... - 1992 OrlandoOrlando (film)Orlando is a 1992 film based on Virginia Woolf's novel Orlando: A Biography, starring Tilda Swinton as Orlando, Billy Zane as Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, and Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth. It was directed by Sally Potter....
; director: Sally PotterSally PotterCharlotte Sally Potter is an English film director and screenwriter.-Career:Having left school at sixteen to become a filmmaker, Potter joined the London Film-Makers' Co-op and started making experimental short films, including Jerk and Play... - 1992 A League of Their OwnA League of Their OwnA League of Their Own is a 1992 American comedy-drama film that tells a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League . Directed by Penny Marshall, the film stars Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Tom Hanks, Madonna, and Rosie O'Donnell...
; director: Penny MarshallPenny MarshallPenny Marshall is an American actress, producer and director.After playing several small roles for television, she was cast as Laverne DeFazio in the sitcom Laverne and Shirley... - 1993 Bhaji on the BeachBhaji on the BeachBhaji on the Beach is a 1993 film by director Gurinder Chadha with a screenplay by Meera Syal.-Plot synopsis:A diverse group of British women of South Asian descent go on a day trip to the beach in Blackpool; despite their differences—the older women are more traditional and conservative,...
; director: Gurinder ChadhaGurinder ChadhaGurinder Chadha , OBE, is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the United Kingdom. She is best known for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach , Bend It Like Beckham , Bride and Prejudice and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging... - 1993 Sleepless in SeattleSleepless in SeattleThe film was originally to have been scored by John Barry, but when he was given a list of 20 songs he had to put in the film, he quit.#As Time Goes By - Jimmy Durante #A Kiss to Build a Dream on - Louis Armstrong #Stardust - Nat King Cole...
; director: Nora EphronNora EphronNora Ephron is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, playwright, journalist, author, and blogger.She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in... - 1994 The PianoThe PianoThe Piano is a 1993 New Zealand drama film about a mute pianist and her daughter, set during the mid-19th century in a rainy, muddy frontier backwater on the west coast of New Zealand. The film was written and directed by Jane Campion, and stars Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin...
; director: Jane CampionJane CampionJane Campion is a filmmaker and screenwriter. She is one of the most internationally successful New Zealand directors, although most of her work has been made in or financed by other countries, principally Australia – where she now lives – and the United States...
, the second time a woman was nominated for an Academy Award for directing a feature film; Academy Award for Holly HunterHolly HunterHolly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
as best actress and Anna PaquinAnna PaquinAnna Helene Paquin is a Canadian-born New Zealand actress. Paquin's first critically successful film was The Piano, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1994 at the age of 11 – the second youngest winner in history...
as best supporting actress - 1994 Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter; director: Deborah Hoffman
- 1994 Black BeautyBlack Beauty (1994 film)Black Beauty is a 1994 film adaptation of Anna Sewell's novel by the same name directed by Caroline Thompson in her directorial debut. The film stars Andrew Knott, Sean Bean and David Thewlis. The film is also treated as an autobiography of the horse Black Beauty as in the original novel, and is...
; director: Caroline ThompsonCaroline ThompsonCaroline Thompson is an American novelist, screenwriter, film director, and producer. She wrote the screenplays for Tim Burton's films Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Corpse Bride... - 1995 Coûte que coûte (At all costs); director: Claire Simon — documentary
- 1996 Fire; director: Deepa MehtaDeepa MehtaDeepa Mehta, LLD is a Genie Award-winning Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, most known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire , Earth , and Water , among which Earth was submitted by Indian government for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film...
- 1996 Unstrung HeroesUnstrung HeroesUnstrung Heroes is a 1995 American comedy-drama film directed by Diane Keaton. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese is based on a memoir by journalist Franz Lidz.-Plot synopsis:...
; director: Diane KeatonDiane KeatonDiane Keaton is an American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970... - 1996 White Men Are Cracking Up; director: Ngozi OnwurahNgozi Onwurah- Early life :Ngozi Onwurah was born in 1966 in Nigeria to a Nigerian father, and a white British mother, Madge Onwurah.She has one sibling, Simon Onwurah. As children, Onwurah's mother was forced to flee with her children from Nigeria in order to escape a Civil War. They fled to England,...
- 1996 The Mirror Has Two FacesThe Mirror Has Two FacesThe Mirror Has Two Faces is a 1996 American romance film produced and directed by Barbra Streisand, who also stars. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese is based on the 1958 French film Le Miroir à deux faces written by André Cayatte and Gérard Oury, which focused on a homely woman who becomes a...
; director: Barbra StreisandBarbra StreisandBarbra Joan Streisand is an American singer, actress, film producer and director. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, a Peabody Award, and is one of the few entertainers who have won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy,...
; Academy Award nomination for Lauren BacallLauren BacallLauren Bacall is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks.She first emerged as leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in The Big Sleep and Dark Passage ,...
as best supporting actress - 1999 Boys Don't Cry (film)Boys Don't Cry (film)Boys Don't Cry is a 1999 American independent romantic drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and co-written by Andy Bienen. The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Brandon Teena, a transgender man played by Hilary Swank, who pursues a relationship with a young woman, played by Chloë...
; director: Kimberly PeirceKimberly PeirceKimberly Peirce is an American feature film director, notable for her debut feature film, Boys Don't Cry . Her second feature, Stop-Loss, was released by Paramount Pictures in 2008.- Early life and career :...
; Academy Award for Hilary SwankHilary SwankHilary Ann Swank is an American actress. Swank's film career began with a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then a major part in The Next Karate Kid , as Julie Pierce, the first female protégé of sensei Mr. Miyagi...
as best actress; nomination for Chloë SevignyChloë SevignyChloë Stevens Sevigny is an American film actress, fashion designer and former model. Sevigny gained reputation for her eclectic fashion sense and developed a broad career in the fashion industry in the mid 1990s, both for modeling and for her work at New York's Sassy magazine, which labeled her...
as best supporting actress - 1999 RomanceRomance (1999 film)Romance is a 1999 French movie written and directed by Catherine Breillat. It stars Caroline Ducey, pornographic actor Rocco Siffredi, Sagamore Stévenin and François Berléand. The film features explicit copulation scenes, especially one showing Caroline Ducey's coitus with Rocco Siffredi...
; director: Catherine BreillatCatherine BreillatCatherine Breillat is a French filmmaker, novelist and Professor of Auteur Cinema at the European Graduate School.-Life and career:Breillat was born in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres, but grew up in Niort... - 1999 TitusTitus (film)Titus is a 1999 film adaptation of Shakespeare's revenge tragedy Titus Andronicus, about the downfall of a Roman general. It was the first film of the play . The film was made by Overseas Filmgroup and Clear Blue Sky Productions and released by Fox Searchlight Pictures...
; director: Julie TaymorJulie TaymorJulie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song...
2000s
- 2000 American Psycho (film)American Psycho (film)American Psycho is a 2000 cult thriller film directed by Mary Harron based on Bret Easton Ellis's novel of the same name. Though predominantly a psycho thriller, the film also blends elements of horror, satire, and black comedy...
; director: Mary HarronMary HarronMary Harron is a Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter best known for her films I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho and The Notorious Bettie Page.-Overview:... - 2000 Luminous Motion; director: Bette Gordon, starring Deborah Kara UngerDeborah Kara UngerDeborah Kara Unger is a Canadian actress. She is known for her roles in the films Crash , The Game , The Hurricane , White Noise , Silent Hill and 88 Minutes...
- 2001 Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in AfricaNowhere in AfricaNowhere in Africa is a 2001 German film directed by Caroline Link and based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by Stefanie Zweig. It tells the story of a Jewish family that emigrates to Kenya during World War II to escape the Nazis and run a farm...
); director: Caroline LinkCaroline LinkCaroline Link , is a German film director and screenwriter.-Life and work:Caroline Link is the daughter of Jürgen and Ilse Link. From 1986 to 1990 she studied at the Munich Academy of Film and Television , and then worked as an assistant director and script writer.Link's early work includes the...
; Academy Award winner as Best Foreign Language Film (Germany) - 2001 Ophelia Learns to Swim; director: Jurgen VsychJürgen VsychJürgen Vsych , born in 1968, is the writer-director-producer of more than 30 films, including Son for Sail, Ophelia Learns to Swim, Tyrannosaurus Tex, and Pay Your Rent, Beethoven, which won the Prince's Trust Award. Her films have been shown in forty-three film festivals in thirty countries....
- 2002 FridaFridaFrida is a 2002 biographical film which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican painter Frida Kahlo. It stars Salma Hayek in her Academy Award nominated portrayal as Kahlo and Alfred Molina as her husband, Diego Rivera....
; director: Julie TaymorJulie TaymorJulie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song... - 2003 Whale Rider; director Niki CaroNiki CaroNiki Caro is film director, producer and screenwriter who was born in Wellington, New Zealand. Her 2002 film Whale Rider was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals....
; Academy Award nomination for Keisha Castle-HughesKeisha Castle-HughesKeisha Castle-Hughes is a New Zealand film actress who rose to prominence at the age of eleven when playing Paikea "Pai" Apirana in the 2002 film Whale Rider...
as best actress - 2003 Te doy mis ojos (Take my eyes); director: Icíar BollaínIcíar BollaínIcíar Bollaín Pérez-Mínguez is a Spanish actress, director and writer.Her father was an aeronautical engineer and her mother was a music teacher. She made her début when she was 15 years old. She is a member of the Academia Española de Cinematografía.She began her work in cinema at the age of...
- 2003 ThirteenThirteen (film)Thirteen is a 2003 American drama film directed by Catherine Hardwicke, and written by Hardwicke and Nikki Reed, the film's co-star. The film also stars Evan Rachel Wood and Holly Hunter. It is a semi-autobiographical film inspired by Reed's life at age 12 and 13 with Wood's character "Tracy" being...
; director Catherine HardwickeCatherine HardwickeCatherine Hardwicke is an American production designer, film writer and film director. Her works include the independent film Thirteen, which she co-wrote with Nikki Reed, the film's co-star, the Biblically-themed The Nativity Story, the vampire film Twilight, and the werewolf film Red Riding Hood...
; Academy Award nomination for Holly HunterHolly HunterHolly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen...
as best supporting actress - 2003 Gujarat: A Laboratory of Hindu Rastra, Fascism; director: Suma JossonSuma JossonSuma Josson is an Indian-American journalist and filmmaker. Her documentary film Niyamgiri, You are still alive, on the ecological and human damage done by bauxitemining, won first prize in Short Film, Environment, at the 2010 International Film Festival of India.-Life:She was born in Kerala, India...
- 2003 Monster (2003 film); director: Patty JenkinsPatty JenkinsPatricia Lea "Patty" Jenkins is an American film director and writer. She grew up in Lawrence, Kansas and attended the AFI Conservatory. She graduated from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1993. The most famous film she has directed to date is Monster, a docudrama about...
; Academy Award for Charlize TheronCharlize TheronCharlize Theron is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules...
as best actress - 2003 At Five in the AfternoonAt Five in the AfternoonAt Five in the Afternoon is a 2003 film by Iranian writer-director Samira Makhmalbaf. It tells the story of an ambitious young woman trying to gain an education in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban...
; director: Samira MakhmalbafSamira MakhmalbafSamira Makhmalbaf is an internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker and script writer. She is the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, the film director and writer. Samira Makhmalbaf belongs to the New Wave movement within Iranian cinema... - 2004 Lost in Translation (film)Lost in Translation (film)Lost in Translation is a 2003 American film written and directed by Sofia Coppola; her second feature film after The Virgin Suicides and it stars Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson...
; director: Sofia CoppolaSofia CoppolaSofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing...
, the third time a woman was nominated for an Academy Award for directing a feature film; also nominated for best picture and best actor, Bill MurrayBill MurrayWilliam James "Bill" Murray is an American actor and comedian. He first gained national exposure on Saturday Night Live in which he earned an Emmy Award and later went on to star in a number of critically and commercially successful comedic films, including Caddyshack , Ghostbusters , and... - 2004 Dear FrankieDear FrankieDear Frankie is a 2004 British drama film directed by Shona Auerbach. The screenplay by Andrea Gibb focuses on a young single mother whose love for her son prompts her to perpetuate a deception designed to protect him from the truth about his father....
; director: Shona AuerbachShona AuerbachShona Auerbach is a British film director and cinematographer.Auerbach began her career as a stills photographer. She studied film at Manchester University and cinematography at Leeds before completing her Master of Arts at the Polish National Film School in Lodz...
, a 2004 British drama film set in a Glasgow suburb, starring Emily MortimerEmily MortimerEmily Kathleen A. Mortimer is an English actress. She began performing on stage, and has since appeared in several film and television roles, including Scream 3, Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl, and Shutter Island....
and Gerard ButlerGerard ButlerGerard James Butler is a Scottish actor who has appeared on film, stage, and television. A trained lawyer, Butler turned to acting in the mid-1990s with small roles in productions such as the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies , which he followed with steady work on television, most notably in... - 2004 Somersault (film)Somersault (film)Somersault is an Australian independent film, written and directed by Cate Shortland and released in September 2004. The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival...
; director: Cate ShortlandCate ShortlandCate Shortland is an Australian writer and director of film and television.She was born 10 August 1968 in Temora, New South Wales. She graduated from the Australian Film Television and Radio School, where she received the Southern Star Award for most promising student.She has created several award...
, a 2004 Australian coming of age drama, starring Abbie CornishAbbie CornishAbbie Cornish is an Australian actress. She is well known in Australia for a number of film and television roles, particularly her award-winning lead performance in 2004's Somersault, and internationally for her role as Fanny Brawne in Bright Star and her appearance as Sweet Pea in Sucker Punch.-... - 2005 Karov la bayit (Close to HomeClose to Home (film)Close to Home is a 2005 Israeli movie. It is the first film about the experience of women soldiers in the Israeli army.Smadar and Mirit , both 18 years old, are assigned to patrol the streets of Jerusalem together as part of their military service...
), directors: Dalia Hager, Vidi BiluVidi BiluVidi Bilu is an Israeli film director.- Biography :Vidi Bilu was born in Jerusalem in 1959. She studied between 1983 and 1985 at the photography department of Hadassah College. She began to study cinema in 1986, at the School of Beit Zvi, and specialised in direction in 1989... - 2005 Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (documentary); directors: Zana BriskiZana BriskiZana Briski is a photographer and filmmaker best known as the director of Born into Brothels, the 2004 winner of the Academy Award for Documentary Feature...
, Ross Kauffman; Academy Award winner for best documentary feature - 2005 North Country (film)North Country (film)North Country is a 2005 American drama film directed by Niki Caro. The screenplay by Michael Seitzman was inspired by the 2002 book Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler, which chronicled the case of...
; director: Niki CaroNiki CaroNiki Caro is film director, producer and screenwriter who was born in Wellington, New Zealand. Her 2002 film Whale Rider was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals....
; Academy Award nominated performances by Charlize TheronCharlize TheronCharlize Theron is a South African actress, film producer and former fashion model.She rose to fame in the late 1990s following her roles in 2 Days in the Valley, Mighty Joe Young, The Devil's Advocate and The Cider House Rules...
(best actress) and Frances McDormandFrances McDormandFrances Louise McDormand is an American film and stage actress. She has starred in a number of films, including her Academy Award-winning performance as Marge Gunderson in Fargo, in 1996...
(best supporting actress) - 2005 Sisters of '77 (documentary); producers and directors: Cynthia Salzman Mondell and Allen Mondell; executive producer Ed Delaney; produced in association with The Women's Museum
- 2005 Look Both WaysLook Both WaysLook Both Ways is a 2005 Australian independent film, written and directed by Sarah Watt, starring an ensemble cast, which was released on 18 August 2005. The film was supported by the Adelaide Film Festival fund and opened the 2005 festival. It won four AFI Awards, including Best Film and Best...
; director: Sarah WattSarah WattSarah Ann Watt was an Australian film director.Born in Sydney, Watt completed a Graduate Diploma of Film and Television at the Swinburne School of Film and Television, Melbourne in 1990. Her student film "Catch of the Day" was to reflect the style of future work...
, a 2005 Australian drama - 2006 Marie Antoinette (2006 film)Marie Antoinette (2006 film)Marie Antoinette is a 2006 biographical film, written and directed by Sofia Coppola. It is very loosely based on the life of the Queen consort in the years leading up to the French Revolution. It won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design...
, starring Kirsten DunstKirsten DunstKirsten Caroline Dunst is an American actress, singer and model. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories...
; director: Sofia CoppolaSofia CoppolaSofia Carmina Coppola is an American screenwriter, film director, actress, and producer.In 2003 she received the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation, and became the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing... - 2007 Feminine, Masculine (2007), director: Sadaf ForoughiSadaf ForoughiSadaf Foroughi is an Iranian film maker, video artist and film editor.Foroughi has a bachelor degree in French literature. After receiving her master degree in film studies from University of Provence in Aix-en-Provence, France, she continued her studies on PHD in film philosophy. She also...
- 2007 Across the UniverseAcross the Universe (film)Across the Universe is a musical romantic drama film directed by Julie Taymor, produced by Revolution Studios, and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film's plot is centered around songs by The Beatles. It was released in the United States on October 12, 2007. The script is based on an original...
; director: Julie TaymorJulie TaymorJulie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song... - 2007 The Savages (film)The Savages (film)The Savages is a 2007 American comedy-drama film, written and directed by Tamara Jenkins. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.-Plot:...
; director: Tamara JenkinsTamara JenkinsTamara Jenkins is an American screenwriter, actress and director. She is best known for her two feature films, Slums of Beverly Hills and The Savages .-Early life:... - 2008 Frozen RiverFrozen RiverFrozen River is a 2008 American drama film written and directed by Courtney Hunt. The screenplay focuses on two working-class women who smuggle illegal immigrants in the trunk of a car from Canada to the United States in order to make ends meet...
; director: Courtney HuntCourtney HuntCourtney Hunt is an American screenwriter and film director. She has received much critical acclaim for her debut film, Frozen River, for which she has gained an Oscar nomination, two Independent Spirit nominations, and a Satellite Award nod for the film...
, Academy Award nominations for Melissa Leo (Best Actress) and Hunt (Best Original Screenplay) - 2008 The Hurt LockerThe Hurt LockerThe Hurt Locker is a 2009 American war film about a three-man United States Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team during the Iraq War. The film was directed by Kathryn Bigelow and the screenplay was written by Mark Boal, a freelance writer who was embedded as a journalist in 2004 with a US bomb...
; director: Kathryn BigelowKathryn BigelowKathryn Ann Bigelow is an American film director. Her best-known films are the cult horror film Near Dark , the surfer/bank robbery action picture Point Break , the science fiction/film noir Strange Days , the historical/mystery film The Weight of Water and the war drama The Hurt Locker...
The first female to win an Oscar for direction (on the Hurt Locker).
Film festivals
- Ankara Flying Broom Women's Film FestivalAnkara Flying Broom Women's Film FestivalThe Flying Broom, Women's Film Festival is an annual event celebrating women's contributions to filmmaking. It is organized by an Ankara-based Turkish organization, was established by Halime Güner in 1996 to fight and raise awareness for women's human rights. The event began in 1997.The Flying...
- Asian Lesbian Film and Video Festival
- Créteil International Women's Film FestivalCréteil International Women's Film FestivalThe Créteil International Women's Film Festival is an annual event in Créteil, Paris, France founded by Jackie Buet in 1978 to showcase the directing talents of female filmmakers who, at the time, had difficulty getting their films adequately distributed. The first festival was held in 1979 in Sceaux...
- World of Women (WOW) Film Festival
See also
- Woman's filmWoman's filmThe woman's film is a film genre which includes women-centered narratives, female protagonists and is designed to appeal to a female audience. Woman's films usually portray "women's concerns" such as problems revolving around domestic life, the family, motherhood, self-sacrifice, and romance...
- Feminist film theoryFeminist film theoryFeminist film theory is theoretical film criticism derived from feminist politics and feminist theory. Feminists have many approaches to cinema analysis, regarding the film elements analysed and their theoretical underpinnings.-History:...
- List of female film and television directors
- Black women filmmakersBlack women filmmakersBlack Women Filmmakers are a group of underrepresented women that have contributed tremendously in the filmmaking industry. Geographically, these women come from all across the world including places such as the United States, Britain, Canada, countries within Africa, and more...