19 female film directors who've made Hollywood AWESOME
It's interesting times to be a woman in Hollywood - but then, when isn't it? Sofia Coppola has become only the second woman to win Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, while juror Jessica Chastain has made a plea for more female storytellers after noticing the "disturbing" portrayals of women in this year's festival entries.
Previously, a study showed that only seven percent of the directors of the top 250 films of 2014 were women. There is a lot to be achieved if Hollywood is to ever close its increasingly apparent gender inequalities, but here we celebrate the women who are at the top of the directing game, and some of their key films.
From Kathryn Bigelow, who was the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker, to Ida Lupino, who became the first actress to direct and write her own films, history has seen a host of impressive women create films that will long be remembered. If Hollywood studios can trust in women to make big-budget films, such as Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman, or Phyllida Lloyd's Mamma Mia! , then the field will be substantially improved.
Meet the women who have already made an indelible mark as directors:
Getty ImagesPhyllida Lloyd
Mamma Mia! and The Iron Lady
Mamma Mia! made a frankly insane amount of money at the box office (and until Beauty and the Beast, it was the most successful non-Star Wars/Harry Potter /Bond British production of all time) which makes it a bit of a shame that the producers have chosen a man to write and direct Mamma Mia 2 , tentatively titled The Y Chromosome Takes It All (this last bit might be a lie).
Rex FeaturesIda Lupino
The Hitchhiker; Hard, Fast and Beautiful and The Bigamist
Born in south London, Lupino trained at RADA before moving to Hollywood, where she acted for decades. Having got bored of other people having all the fun, she started writing, and moved into directing after the man in charge of a film she had co-written fell ill. She set up her own production company, and worked all through the 50s and 60s, before moving into television. Lupino used her wiles in a masculine world, saying: "Often I pretended to a cameraman to know less than I did. That way I got more cooperation."
PA PhotosJane Campion
Top of The Lake, Bright Star and The Piano
Campion is the only woman to have won the Palme d'Or; the most prestigious prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Rex FeaturesAmma Asante
A Way of Life; Belle and A United Kingdom
Another graduate from children's TV, Asante visited the White House as part of Grange Hill's anti-drugs Just Say No campaign. She wrote and directed her first film, A Way of Life in 2004, winning prizes from The Times and the London Film Festival where, 12 years later, her film A United Kingdom was honoured by opening the festival as its Opening Gala pick. Belle is absolutely banging, by the way, get it on Netflix.
Getty ImagesPatty Jenkins
Monster and Wonder Woman
Considering the acclaim won by her 2003 debut, Monster, (Charlize Theron won the Oscar for her portrayal of the serial killer Aileen Wuornos; Jenkins also wrote the film), it's staggering that it took 14 years for Hollywood to pony up the support for Jenkins to direct another film. Happily, Wonder Woman looks set to be a huge hit.
Rex FeaturesGina Prince-Bythewood
Love & Basketball, Beyond the Lights and Silver and Black
Prince-Bythewood is the first black woman to direct a superhero film when she takes on Silver and Black (which she is also rewriting). A Spider-Man spin-off, it will feature the mercenary Silver Sable and burglar Black Cat.
Getty ImagesMira Nair
Salaam Bombay, Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair, The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Queen of Katwe
Nair's films have been nominated at every major awards going, and critics raised an eyebrow when she was not nominated in the Best Director category at the Oscars for her successful chess biopic, Queen of Katwe, about a champion player who emerges from the slums.
Rex FeaturesSofia Coppola
Lost In Translation, The Virgin Suicides, Somewhere, Bling Ring, The Beguiled and Marie Antoinette
In 2017, Coppola became only the second woman ever to win the Best Director prize at Cannes.
Rex FeaturesAva DuVernay
Selma, 13th, Middle of Nowhere and A Wrinkle in Time
Having won Oscar nominations for Selma and her documentary 13th – but missing out on Director nods for both – DuVernay became the first woman of colour to direct a film with a $100 million budget (Disney's forthcoming adaptation of the children's novel,A Wrinkle in Time.)
Rex FeaturesAndrea Arnold
Fish Tank, Red Road, Wuthering Heightsand American Honey
Having started her career as a 90s children's TV presenter (remember Motormouth? That was her), Arnold changed gears and won an Oscar for her short film Wasp in 2005. Her feature-length films have won awards from Bafta, BIFA and Cannes, and she has sat on numerous film festival juries.
PA PhotosKathryn Bigelow
Zero Dark Thirty, K-19: The Widowmaker, The Hurt Locker, Point Break and The Miraculous Year
Specialising in action and thrillers – and arguably the world's most iconic surf movie in Point Break – Bigelow is the only woman to have won the Oscar for Best Director (for The Hurt Locker in 2009).
Rex FeaturesLone Scherfig
The Riot Club, One Day, Italian For Beginners, Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself, Their Finest and An Education
While the titles might not sound like a laugh a minute, Danish director Scherfig's films are often romantic comedies – Their Finest, Gemma Arterton as a woman who joins a propaganda film outfit during the Second World War, came out in spring 2017.
Rex FeaturesJulie Taymor
Frida, Titus, Across the Universe, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Best-known for her work on stage (Taymor was the first woman to win a Tony award for directing a musical, 1997's The Lion King), she has brought her stylish execution to the big screen – literally, in her adaptation of the very bloody Titus Andronicus.
Getty ImagesNancy Meyers
The Holiday, What Women Want, Something’s Gotta Give, The Intern and The Parent Trap
A comedy powerhouse, by the time she directed her first film in 1998, Meyers had already notched up writing and producing credits that included some of the biggest hits of the 70s and 80s – Private Benjamin and Father of the Bride among them.
PA PhotosAngelina Jolie
Unbroken, First They Killed My Father, By The Sea, A Place in Time and In the Land of Blood and Honey
Angelina Jolie has taken the step behind the camera for a series of dramas and documentaries that draw on stories from around the world.
PA PhotosSam Taylor-Johnson
50 Shades of Grey and Nowhere Boy
Artist Sam Taylor-Johnson changed medium for her work on the John Lennon biopic, where she met and later married its star, Aaron Taylor-Johnson. She declined to return for a follow-up after her work on the first Fifty Shades of Grey film.
Rex FeaturesClaire Denis
Bastards, White Material and 35 Shots of Rum
The French director Denis was nominated for both the Palme d'Or and first feature award for her 1988 debut Chocolat (not that one).
Rex FeaturesNora Ephron
Sleepless in Seattle, Bewitched, You’ve Got Mail and Julie and Julia
Ephron, a prolific author and screenwriter as well as director, was behind some of the world's favourite romantic comedies until her death in 2012.
Rex FeaturesCatherine Hardwicke
Lords of Dogtown, Miss You Already, Twilight, Red Riding Hood and Thirteen
Catherine Hardwicke made the Twilight books into a sensation on screen, but did not return for the sequels, saying the first one was her favourite and that would do fine.
