Entertainment Weekly names top 25 film directors
And wouldn't ya know it, not one of them is a woman.
I know I shouldn't be shocked, but it's still fairly irritating. So I figure we can start a list here - who is your favorite woman director? Leave 'em in comments. (Mine is Jane Campion!)
Thanks to Chris for the link.
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I could understand if it was an all-time list... maybe Lina Wertmuller, Agnieszka Holland, Agnes Varda, Margarethe von Trotta, Chantal Akerman and Jane Campion could be included. My favorite of that group is Agnes Varda; Vagabond and Cleo from 5 to 7 are classics (and she's still making movies at age 80).
But that list that EW came up with is moribund, considering that Apatow and Cameron are basically producers (Cameron hasn't made a studio film in 12 years, and is adapting a Japanese animated series for his next release). Ron Howard is beyond boring, Favreau/Raimi lucked into Iron Man/Spiderman, Burton is creatively finished, etc. It looks like the list has more to do with box office, in which case it's more of a backhanded indictment of the opportunities given women in Hollywood.
In any event, this list seems to be a good start.
I agree--I feel like they managed to make a pretty terrible list either with or without men. Where is Woody Allen? Gus Van Sant? Sam Mendes? Wes Anderson? And why the hell is James Cameron on this list, when I don't think he's come out with a movie since Titanic? (I know there's one coming soon, but that doesn't very well make him accurate in terms of criticism...)
This list DEFINITELY concerns me more in the sense that Hollywood will always define a good movie by how much money it makes. . .
And on that note: Frozen River is one of the best movies I saw this year, and I adore Julie Taymor and Sofia Coppola.
Two of my favorites are Julie Taymor (Titus, Frida, Across the Universe) and Claire Denis (Beau Travail, Chocolat).
Also, I loved Waitress, directed by Adrienne Shelly, who tragically was killed before its release.
Also, two movies that I liked recently were Frozen River (which was EXCELLENT and dealt with a lot of feminist issues), directed by Courtney Hunt, and The Savages, directed by Tamara Jenkins.
Oh, and I forgot Liv Ullmann, who started as an actress in Ingmar Bergman's classic films of the 60s, but has turned into a great director in her own right. Her Kristin Lavransdatter is very haunting in the way that Bergman's films used to be.
I'd had no idea she directed! I'll have to check out her films. (I just watched Saraband and was again reminded of how brilliantly she acts, even in silent close-ups.)
Agnés Varda, Chantal Akerman and Lina Wertmüller have each made some of the greatest films in the history of the world. While they do show up on more informed lists like They Shoot Pictures Don't They? and the Voice's Best of the 20th Century, these still lack a great deal in terms of gender and color. Honestly though, everyone needs to see Cleo from 5 to 7; Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles; and Seven Beauties if they really want to know what film can do.
And that's not even to mention the many others I could or that Kelly Reichardt and Samira Makhmalbaf are doing some of the most daring things today.
Though, honestly, it makes me uncomfortable for this list to get attention as I feel like it is knowingly bad (especially since the 26-50 of the list looks far more conventionally respectable and even has Mira Nair) and designed just to garner this such attention.
Dorothy Arzner is a favourite of mine. Classic director from the 30s/40s, but is sadly all but ignored today.
Sofia Coppola
This.
Sarah Polley
I watched Away From Her all the way through and then saw that she directed it. It blew my mind that a young women directed such a great movie about having Alzheimer's.
Catherine Hardwicke anyone? Directed AND wrote Thirteen.
I HATED Thirteen when I saw it, but maybe I should give it another chance. I was only about 16 at the time.
......But didn't she also direct Twilight?
Yes, she did, which I'm trying to forget because I liked her work in Thirteen and Lords of Dogtown.
I only hope that Hardwicke took Twilight because it's a movie about teens, and that's what she's good at directing. Or perhaps I should say that I hope that the politics of Meyer which went into her books aren't necessarily shared by Hardwicke.
I really enjoy Mira Nair's movies. Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala, Fire, Hysterical Blindness, Namesake, Vanity Fair, and others.
Fire is Deepa Mehta's, btw. It's part of her Elements trilogy, the other 2 being Earth and Water.
However, I have confused Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta often times myself. :)
-anin
Mira Nair. Loved Monsoon Wedding and Namesake. The latter especially wins a big point from me because I never like move adaptations over literary work and I thought this one was way better than the book.
-anin
I second Mira Nair and add Deepa Mehta. Few movies have left me as emotionally drained as Earth and Water. Her movies are so beautiful and at the same time they can break your heart.
I agree about Deepa Mehta, Fire was soooo deep.
thank you for posting on this! i was sooo frustrated yesterday when i read EW's list. on top of the fact that none were women, 20 out of the 25 were white American men. so not only is the list not diverse by gender, but racially & nationally as well.
Maria Maggenti for her great non-heterosexist romantic comedies. For the more serious crowd, Argentines Lucrecia Martel and Albertina Carri are great at looking at the crisis of nation/family and memory of authoritarianism, respectively.
Great topic. I think Julie Taymor is just brilliant, an amazing creative visionary. Frida and Across the Universe were wonderfully original films and I've seen bits and pieces of Titus which was sick and twisted in the best way.
With other female directors it's funny, because I've really only seen or liked one of their movies, rather than their entire oeuvre. For example, Mary Harron-love, love, love The Notorious Bettie Page, but I've never seen American Psycho. Sofia Coppola-I'm in the minority here, but I really didn't care for Lost in Translation. The Virgin Suicides, on the other hand, is one of my favorite movies ever. I've not seen very many of Kathryn Bigelow's action films, but she directed one of the absolute best and most underrated vampire films Near Dark.
As for Catherine Hardwick--you know, she may have made some great movies, but she lost major points with me for agreeing to have anything to do with the trainwreck that is Twilight. (I know this isn't the place to bash, but I just had to bring that up)
Kimberly Peirce, for sure. The commentary for Boys Don't Cry is incredible and illuminating. And Kasi Lemmons, who did Eve's Bayou and Talk To Me.
Unfortunately, we study very few female directors here at UT's RTF program, but I have to say I really enjoyed Adrienne Shelly's "Waitress". I was pretty saddened to learn that she was murdered not long after the production wrap up. I would have loved to see more from her. However, I am currently infatuated with Sally Potter's "Orlando". I need to see more stuff from her.
Of course, gotta love some avant garde stuff like Maya Deren. I kind of like Sofia Coppola, but only a little bit. Idk, she just seems to be the female counterpart to Wes Anderson, who is okay, but a little too indie pretentious.
I aspire to be a famous and significant female director of awesome animated films in the future :) So, this shit matters to me
I'm seconding (or thirding) Sarah Polley, Deepa Mehta and Mira Nair.
I don't think anyone has mentioned Adrienne Shelly who directed Waitress. She was killed soon after the film was done so we never got to see how she would develop but the promise is so evident in that film.
I really didn't like Lost in Translation - and I watched it with the inclination to like it so Coppola had my goodwill going in but lost it completely. I thought the DVD special feature that showed her directorial style (ie. having her Japanese AD do everything while she sat there talking to Bill Murray) was very illuminating. I'm joining the Not That Impressed by Sofia Coppola's Movies Club.
Sandra: Have you seen The Virgin Suicides? Cause, honestly I felt the exact same way about LinT. I went into it thinking I was going to love it, and was puzzled and disappointed by it. But TVS is truly a stunning film and one of my favorites ever. It's just beautiful. I think it's at least partly because it had such wonderful source material, the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides.
I like TVS more then LIT but I still wasn't crazy about it. The film had moments when I thought it had the chance to be great but it just never got there.
Maybe I need to read the book -or watch the movie again - because I really didn't get the sisters' motivations at all.
You know, it's funny but that's actually what made the film so wonderful to me, the fact that the girls' motivations were so vague. I think in a sense the film was making a point about the ultimate tragedy of life, that we can't always understand why things happen, that they happen and we'll never truly understand it, no matter how obsessively we catalog and analyze the evidence.
From a more feminist viewpoint, I think an argument could be made that the film commented on, perhaps even subverted the "male gaze." The girls were only seen through the eyes of the neighborhood boys, and thus were more sanctified objects than flesh and blood girls. The film is open about that, and it also shows the limitations of such a viewpoint, in that the boys can never understand them, they can only view them, not truly empathize with them.
That's a bit of a ramble, hope it made sense.
Karen Moncrieff is not very well known, but her Blue Car is well worth checking out, and it sidesteps a lot of the "awakening of a young artist" cliches.
I guess we can count Marjane Satrapi, since she co-directed Persepolis, right? I was a big fan of both the book and the movie, and I'd love to see her take on another film.
Yes, Marjane Satrapi!
Isabel Coixet, who directed Sarah Polley in The Secret Life of Words and in the beautiful My Life Without Me.
So there really is a Not That Impressed by Sofia Coppola's Movies Club? Count me in!
We can always make one - if only for the jackets and secret handshake!
Although at this point I'm just joining in, I'll also go with Mira Nair and Kimberly Pierce.
One of the interesting questions is also how female co-Directors often don't get equal credit when it comes to things like awards. For example, see Katia Lund for City of God, or this year Loveleen Tanden for Slumdog Millionaire. I just did a piece on that and some of the other race, class and appropriation issues with Slumdog Millionaire (http://www.canow.org/canoworg/2009/02/the-slumdog-millionaire-controversy-race-class-gender-and-colonialism.html), so it's on my mind.
Jane Campion and Mira Nair for sure, but my heart belongs to Miranda July. If you haven't seen You and Me and Everyone We Know... do it. :)
I too, would say Isabel Coixet. Mi vida sin mi is such a wonderful, hearbreaking movie. Female directors have much more prominence and respect in Spain. Also, Chus Gutierrez, another Spanish director. She did a documentary entitled "Oral Sex" which was several interviews with people about their sexual habits. Her film Poiniente is a great narrative film with social analysis about racism in Southeastern Spain.
/film geek.
I love this comment thread. I think Chantal Akerman, in particular, is one of the greatest filmmakers ever. It's too bad her films are barely distributed in the United States, and her most famous film (Jeanne Dielman) seems the only one that ever gets recognized.
I know that the EW list was for "active directors," but I'll add the following, only some of whom are still making movies:
-Barbara Loden
-Elaine May
-Marguerite Duras
-Lynne Ramsey: Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar are absolutely modern classics that aren't recognized as such because so many film writers an critics are men.
-Cheryl Dunye: I can't believe no one has mentioned her yet. Watermelon Woman is great. Her early films were just put out on DVD, and I'm really excited to see them.
-Allison Anders
-Barbara Kopple
-Very Chytilova: Daisies is the best film of the Czech New Wave
-Shirley Clarke, who was an absolute vital part of the so-called "birth" of American independent cinema
-Diane Kurys
-Gillian Armstrong
There are so many women whose work is not available on DVD, and I unfortunately haven't been able to see. Particularly politically radical work from the 1970s, from Geri Ashur, the Sydney Women's Film Group, Julia Reichert, Lorraine Gray, Jill Godmilow and others. Also, Kira Muratova, a Russian fiilmmaker who I hear is amazing.
I'm so glad someone mentioned Cheryl Dunye (The Stranger Inside is also excellent) and Allison Anders (especially Things Behind the Sun, though everything by her is really good)!
I'll second Claire Denis and Deepa Mehta and add Catherine Breillat.
And of course she's dead now, but let's not forget Ida Lupino -- as a director. After a director of a picture her company was producing had a heart attack, she took over and went on to direct her own movie about rape (and post-Code, too!), a noir (the first directed by a woman, says Wikipedia), a comedy about a Catholic girls' school (with Hayley Mills) and more. And she helped direct Nick Ray's On Dangerous Ground, an unsettling noir in which she costarred as a blind woman alongside Robert Ryan.
Unfortunately, some of these are hard to find on video or DVD, so I've only seen On Dangerous Ground.
Also, that EW list has plenty missing from it besides women. Were its makers unaware that movies get made outside of Hollywood or, God forbid, the United States?
Sally Potter is my favourite director. Jane Campion is a close second though.
Lina Wertmülle is my favorite but one director to watch is Peruvian Claudia Llosa, her film "La teta asustada/milk of sorrow" just won the Golden Berlin Bear for best film.
Jamie Babbit
Leni Riefenstahl!
...What?
Actually, that's the problem right there--there haven't been enough women directors (because of lack of support in the industry), and the ones that have made it to the point where they can make feature films have been given less attention than they deserve, so that female directors are damn near invisible to the movie-watching public. I am a huge film nut and, I swear to god, Leni Riefenstahl was the only female director to spring to mind. That's incredibly depressing. (And no, she's hardly a favorite director, she's just the only woman director I could think of.)
I took a film course last year, and the first question my professor asked was for the names of female directors. I came up with Amy Heckerling (because I've seen Clueless about two hundred times), Sofia Coppola, Angela Robinson (I'd just seen D.E.B.S.), and "the lady that directed The Holiday." Sadly, I think I was the only student who came up with any. Of course, it was a French film class, so we ended up with a lot more women in mind.
She was a fun professor, though. Evidently films directed by males tend to fit the more "classic" view on story management: introduction, rising action, climax, denouement. Films directed by women tend to have smaller plots interspersed throughout the film followed by a larger climax toward the end. And, because everyone was already thinking it, she said that it probably had something to do with the way men and women think of sex.
Angela Robinson and her POWER-UP collective have done some excellent work. Beyond that, I'm happy to second Catherine Breillat, Alison Anders, Barbara Kopple and Mary Harron (though American Psycho was kind of disgusting). What about Martha Coolidge? Plus I'd definitely support some posthumous recognition of Adrienne Shelley.
Catherine Breillat what what.
If anyone is interested, Adrienne Shelly's friends and family started a foundation in her honor that supports women filmmakers (I believe that the emphasis is on young women in particular.) It's so very very sad that she's passed, but it seems that people are committed to continuing her legacy.
I looked at EW's top 25 and recognized all of them but one (Paul Greengrass), and then I looked through the comments here and failed to recognize all of the suggestions but one (Sofia Coppola).
Does the media just not discuss the role of a director when that director is a woman? Like, there's not really a good reason that I know who David Fincher and Danny Boyle are but not who the women named in these comments are, but that's how it is.
Two of my favorite woman directors are Maya Deren & Larisa Shepitko. Shepitko was a Soviet film director; unfortunately, her career was cut short when she died in a car accident in the late '70s. One of her films, Wings, is about an older (unmarried, working) woman who used to be a Soviet fighter pilot.
Ooh, I'd forgotten about Amy Heckerling. Fast Times at Ridgmont High and Clueless are awesome (and we just won't mention A Night at the Roxbury, 'kay?). And I love Mary Harron, American Psycho in particular -- one of my favorite movies.
I'm glad Amy Heckerling eventually cropped up because she not only cracked the director nut but the comedy one too! I am so pleased that I know, and like, the work of so many of the women listed here.
I will just add that if you haven't seen "Frozen River" you're missing out on a great film. I was disappointed, but unfortunately not surprised, that Courtney Hunt didn't recieve an Oscar nom for directing - at least she got one for writing. Great movie, great story about women who despite their differences help each other out. I kept dreading that it was going to take one of those awful "hollywood" turns and it never did. The two lead actesses are wonderful too Melissa Leo and Misty Upham.
That's a pretty terrible list if you disregard the lack of women and the near lack of ethnicities other than white.
Deepa Mehta is the first who comes to mind. Love her Earth, Fire, Water trilogy. Sarah Polley, whom someone mentioned, did a wonderful job as both writer and director of her debut Away From Her. I have loved work by Patricia Rozema. OK, I seem to be on a Canadian theme. :)
I wasn't that impressed with The Virgin Suicides, but Lost in Translation blew me away, so snaps for Sofia Coppola.
Penny Marshall.
I agree wholeheartedly with the intent of this post and the subsequent comments and suggestions for directors.
But can we PLEASE stop referring to professional roles filled by women as 'woman ________'? That shit happened all throughout the presidential campaign when we kept hearing about whether or not America was ready for a 'woman president'.
It's not just the grammatical inaccuracies of the word - you can't noun a noun and pass it off as a descriptor. But it continues to play into the idea that there are jobs performed by real people and then there are those same jobs performed by women. Obviously it's necessary to differentiate between the genders in a discussion like this, but at least by correctly using the grammar of adjective-noun you're not hammering home the point that this job is somehow different because it's performed by a woman.
'Female directors', please.
i agree with mira nair, deepa mehta, agnes varda, jane campion.
also sally potter and aparna sen.