Something I had not thought about until the last few days was how many of the movies I own are directed by females. I was very distressed to find that out of my 36 movies I had zero that were directed by women. In researching female directors online I discovered that there are very few. In fact one statistic I found was that only three women had been nominated for the best director oscar and none of them won. With this in mind who are the best women directors? Two come to mind for me: Sofia Coppola and Agnes Varda. I'm hoping to make my collection more balanced and could use some advice on where to look.

I like Kathryn Bigelow's Near Dark (vampire road movie) and Point Break (action-adventure).

Agnieszka Holland made two of my faves, Europa Europa and Olivier Olivier, both about the mystery of identity.

There's Jane Campion's The Piano and An Angel at My Table, a couple of very personal biographies about women in her native New Zealand.

There are literally hundreds more, including Leni Riefenstahl, but I'll let somebody else comment first.

I think one director you would probably want to start with is Jane Campion. If there is an A list female directors list, she is probably near the top. Another is Lisa Cholodenko. Her two most notable are "High Art" and "Laurel Canyon." An up and comer you may want to keep your eye on is Catherine Hardwicke. She directed "13." There is also a Polish director named Agnieszka Holland. I'm not sure about your film tastes, but if you enjoy romantic comedies, some others include:
Nora Ephron
Penny Marshall
Amy Heckerling

Thanks for your help. I actually just bought "Europa, Europa". My favorite movies are The Sixth Sense, Adaptation, Memento, and L. A. Confidential.

The movies I am interested in so far by women are:

"Salaam Bombay!", "Proof", "Cleo from 5 to 7", "Vagabond", "Awakenings", and "The Virgin Suicides".

I would like to see movie sites such as IMD or Allmovie guide post list of the best movies by female directors. Hopefully the industry will start to accept more women in the director's role.

A couple other notable female directors:

Mary Harron - "I Shot Andy Warhol", "American Psycho"

Allison Anders - "Gas Food Lodging", "Grace of My Heart"

I should have said who the directors of the movies I am interested in are.

Agnes Varda directed "Cleo from 5 to 7" and "Vagabond". Penny Marshall directed "Awakenings". Sofia Coppola directed "The Virgin Suicides". Mira Nair directed "Salaam Bombay". Jocelyn Moorhouse directed "Proof".

As of right now my two favorite movies by women are: "The Woodsman" directed by Nicole Kassell and "Lost in Translation" directed by Sofia Coppola.

Liliana Cavani directed "Ripley's Game" (2002).
Claire Denis directed "Chocolat" (1988).
Nora Ephron directed "Sleepless in Seattle" (1993); "Michael" (1996); "You've Got Mail" (1998); and "Bewitched" (2005).
Jodie Foster directed "Little Man Tate" (1991).
Marleen Gorris directed "The Luzhin Defence" (2000).
Mimi Leder directed "Pay It Forward" (2000).
Penny Marshall directed "Jumping Jack Flash" (1986); "Big" (1988); "Awakenings" (1990); "A League of Their Own" (1992); "Riding in Cars with Boys" (2001).
Mira Nair directed "Vanity Fair" (2004).
Barbra Streisand directed "Yentl" (1993); "Prince of Tides" (1991); and "The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996).
Julie Taymor directed "Frida" (2002).
Betty Thomas directed "28 Days" (2000).
Audrey Wells directed "Under the Tuscan Sun" (2003).

um, is no one else offended that this Nathan guy is talking about female directors as though they are of a different genre of film directors. As in, "Mira Nair is a first-class FEMALE director" as opposed to "Mira Nair is a first-class director". It's like acknowledging beforehand that women directors are of a lower quality. I'm not really offended, I just think it's interesting that in this day and age, this conversation can go on without some feminist getting offended.

quote:

Originally posted by cheezmu19:
um, is no one else offended that this Nathan guy is talking about female directors as though they are of a different genre of film directors. As in, "Mira Nair is a first-class FEMALE director" as opposed to "Mira Nair is a first-class director". It's like acknowledging beforehand that women directors are of a lower quality.

No. Given the continuing glass ceiling in Hollywood (not to mention music, television, and just about everything else in the entertainment industry) it's an interesting question and an enlightening conversation so far.

quote:

Originally posted by cheezmu19:
I'm not really offended, I just think it's interesting that in this day and age, this conversation can go on without some feminist getting offended.

Nice. Some feminist? What is this, 1972?

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I am by no means saying women and men are in different classes. My whole reason for starting this topic was to highlight the fact that female directors have been overlooked and held back by a sexist industry.

Maybe it's not the place of a male to start this conversation, but it is something that has bothered me quite a bit. Also I consider myself a feminist. I may not be great at articulating that viewpoint, but it's where I stand.

I support you Nathan25, as a male of minority descent, I carefully through your posts and did not find any sexist language except for the usual controversy about identifying minority labels and types -like racial profiling and requiring police officers to keep track fo the racial background of people they arrest. It's a real Catch-22, some people want a world with no labels, but unfortunately in order to discover the true state of the world without the labels in the first place we are blind to know if there is a problem or not. I think for thread of female directors is an important one and exposes the lack of equity in the numbers and perhaps opportunities for female directors to get into the film industry in a serious way. I always look forward to movies with female directors, hoping to see if they have any different approaches to directing and expand the narrow vision that left-brained males have.

Thanks for the support LinnTate and tabuno. Let me try to explain where I'm coming from.

I believe that everyone should have an equal opportunity for any job. When people are not getting that equal opportunity it should be noted so that things can change. If we continue to just talk about directors as a whole, so as not to discriminate, we will still discriminate because the system is unfair. Men, from statistics I've seen, make up around 90% of movie directors. I'm hoping that through recognizing female directors and supporting their movies we can start to change a system that has so far suppressed their efforts.

Hello everyone

for my project at college i have to research female directors and what it is like for them in the filmmaking industry.....i just wandered if anyone had any information they could give me or any views! even a debate...that s be great?

hello guys!
im a student recently studying this topic for an exam piece, and come across some shocking discoveries about the history and recent conditions of being a female film director. BUT was wondering whether you think the 'glass ceiling' in the near future will shatter or whether it will be a slow progression?!
thanks alot
Quyen x

Based on my review of female directors and the few movies they have made, it's real clear to me that they have a long, long ways to go before they really begin to make much headway into film directing. There may be one or two of them that might be allowed to join the club but not many - Nora Ephron and Penny Marshall.

I don't know tabuno, since your choices seem to be way past their prime. Has anyone researched Dorothy Arzner? She at least got Kate Hepburn in that silver lame suit in Christopher Strong.

quote:

Mark f Posted 04 November 2005 11:51 PM

I don't know tabuno, since your choices seem to be way past their prime. Has anyone researched Dorothy Arzner? She at least got Kate Hepburn in that silver lame suit in Christopher Strong.

If I didn't know better your choice of the words "past their prime' would also sound sexist. It's ok for Woody Allen who directed movies since 1966 to not be past his prime. I find it hard to believe that the longivity of a female director might be counted on a person's lenght of time in the industry, their age, the number of movies they made. I hope you have a better explanation of what you mean by "past their prime" than what people most commonly mean by this term. I really don't want to go there.

"Past their prime" means seemingly unable to make their best films anymore. Many male directors are past their prime, including Woody Allen. Now, that doesn't mean they CAN'T make better movies. It just means that they SEEM to be PAST their better movies.

None of my posts are personal. I'm glad YOU ARE posting. I ENJOY your posts. I'm just commenting on them. Keep posting, and if you want, I'll shut up.

You talk as if directing were something like being a physicist or mathematician, tennis player or figure skater that there is some point where one's ability just shuts down, that perhaps when it comes to creativity it dries up - unlike Isacc A. Asimov or Philip K. Dick.

I think a possible trend could be gleaned from Nora's work to support your case but again it's almost impossible to separate out the bigger environmental picture - how much chance to they get to select and pick and choose the best material? How much independence do they really have? If the industry is so hostile to female directors, can they really get a fair shake and direct to the level they are capable of? I would agree that Nora's final products may not shine anymore, that she may have had the one great movie. But past her prime could be easily thought of as past her power-base to be in control of her own creation and script. We'll need to wait for some investigative report to come out on female directors. I would hazard a guess that it's much more complicated than just a female director being past their prime.

Well, yes, I'm pretty sure that Nora Ephron has been directing her own scripts, all the time, so maybe her material is past its prime. I don't know. Has she made a good movie lately? I don't really want to hold her up as an icon, but I don't begrudge her any success either. I think I should shut up because I don't really care one way or the other. But Leni Riefenstahl, a well-established pariah, could direct circles around MOST directors of this or any other day.