Lights, Camera, Women!

 Lights, Camera, Women!

Hello and welcome to Cinema Wellman. I am your host David, and I’m going to begin today with a little trivia question.

What do the following films have in common?

American Psycho, Boys Don’t Cry, Thirteen, Bend it Like Beckham, The Decline of Western Civilization, Whale Rider, Monster, The Babadook, Persepolis, The Matrix, Wayne’s World, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Deep Impact, Twilight, Clueless, and dare I add, Saltburn!?!

Every one of those movies was directed by a woman, which is why we’re here today as we celebrate Women’s History Month by looking at some women behind the camera.

Here’s another list of films with something in common; Children of a Lesser God, Awakenings, The Prince of Tides, The Piano, Lost in Translation, Little Miss Sunshine, The Hurt Locker, An Education, The Kids Are All Right, Winter’s Bone, Zero Dark Thirty, Selma, Lady Bird, Little Women, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, CODA, The Power of the Dog, Women Talking, Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives, and Barbie.

That is a list of films directed by women that were nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. 

Although it may be alarming that there are only 22 films on that list and over 500 films have been Best Picture nominees since the Academy Awards began, 18 of those 22 Best Picture nominees directed by women have occurred in the last 21 years suggesting a serious upward trend.

Three of this year’s ten Best Picture nominees (Anatomy of a Fall, Past Lives, Barbie) were directed by women, and hopefully that trend will continue and increase in years to come.

In 1977, Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmuller became the first woman to be nominated for Best Director for her film Seven Beauties. 

A woman nominated for Best Director didn’t happen again until 1993 when Jane Campion was nominated for The Piano. 

So, women directors had to wait 50 “Oscar years” to be recognized by the academy, and then had to wait another 16 until it happened again. 

The good news is that it has happened 18 times since Campion’s Piano nomination, and with the women out there directing films today, these nominations will continue.

Today’s episode will highlight seven of the most celebrated female directors working today. They have already proven themselves with powerful, meaningful films and have earned the opportunity to helm more films in the future.

Such shifts in the film world occur at a glacial pace, but talented women like Bigelow, Campion, Coppola, DuVernay, Gerwig, Polley, and Zhao are making it possible for even more women to get the opportunity to direct.

I’d like to start by mentioning four women who paved the way for the women I just mentioned. 

Three were actresses turned directors, while the other is definitely the O.G. in this category.

Ida Lupino was an actress who got to direct some of the films in which she starred in the 50s, which was extremely rare for the time. 

She has 42 directing credits, 8 being films and the rest TV work including episodes of “Gilligan’s Island” and “The Twilight Zone.” 

Lee Grant is an Oscar winning actress and a four-time Oscar nominee who also went behind the camera. She directed mostly television movies and shows, but has eight theatrical films in her directing credits, including several critically acclaimed documentaries.

You may know Penny Marshall as Laverne on “Laverne and Shirley,” but she was also an accomplished director. Marshall directed four episodes of “L&S” before going on to direct popular films such as “A League of Their Own” and “Big.”

And the O.G.  previously mentioned is Alice Guy, and looking at her filmography is like looking at Jimmie Foxx’s stats in the Baseball Encyclopedia.

Alice Guy, or Alice Guy-Blache was a writer, producer, cinematographer, and director who made movies from the late 1890s through the 20s. 

Guy is credited as the first woman to ever direct a movie. She also was in the production business as she and her husband started the Solax Film Co. in 1910.

Guy has 463 directing credits!!!!!

Her Jimmie Foxx numbers include directing 60 films in 1900, 47 in 1904, 58 in 1905, 44 in 1906, and 42 in 1912!

Granted, many of these were what we’d consider shorts, but that’s what movies were at the time. She was a pioneer, nonetheless.

Guy once said, “My youth, my lack of experience, my sex all conspired against me.”

That may be true, but it didn’t stop her from accomplishing great things including being inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2013!

She went into the NJHOF with Thomas Paine, Whitney Houston, and Joe Piscopo!

That was one rabbit hole I could have done without descending.

Alice Guy was the subject of an excellent documentary that I highly recommend. It’s from 2018, narrated by Jodie Foster, and titled Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache.

It’s an amazing story, and she was an amazing woman.

The following women owe a debt of gratitude to Alice Guy for clearing the path for them to produce, write, and direct major motion pictures.

Thank you, Alice!

Kathryn Bigelow

WINNER: Best Director The Hurt Locker (2009)

It took 82 years, but a woman finally won a Best Director Oscar when Kathryn Bigelow took home the honor for her film The Hurt Locker in 2009. 

Bigelow also directed the Oscar nominated film Zero Dark Thirty. She produced both Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker. 

Non-Oscar films directed include the excellent horror film Near Dark, The Loveless, and, of course, Point Break.

Point Break is some phenomenal cheese!

Jane Campion

Nominee: Best Director The Piano (1993)

WINNER: Best Director The Power of the Dog (2021)

New Zealander Jane Campion became the 3rd woman to win a Best Director Oscar in 2021 for The Power of the Dog, a film she also wrote and produced.

 

Campion also wrote and produced The Piano in 1993 which won three Oscars and earned her a Best Director nomination (only the 2nd for a woman at that time).

Sofia Coppola

Nominee: Best Director Lost in Translation (2003)

WINNER: Best Original Screenplay Lost in Translation (2003)

Sofia Coppola’s father may be one of the most famous directors in film history, but she has proven herself to be much more than a mere “Nepo Baby.” 

Sofia earned a Best Director nomination for Lost in Translation in 2003. She won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for that same film, which is wonderful if you haven’t seen it. 

 She also wrote AND directed The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, and The Beguiled. 

I recommend all three of those films quite highly. I’m a fan of Coppola’s and trust films she’s involved in.

Unless she’s acting in The Godfather Part III, but that was NOT her fault!

Blame her dad for that one. 

Ava DuVernay

Nominee: Best Documentary Feature 13th (2017)

Ava DuVernay’s filmography isn’t as large as the other women on this list, but I wanted to include her because she directed one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. 

DuVernay wrote and directed 13th, which is, as only IMDb can describe, “An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation’s history of racial inequality.”

I think it’s one of the most important documentaries in the past decade and I was happy to see it nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar in 2017.

Duvernay also directed Selma, which chronicled the 1965 Civil Rights March from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

Greta Gerwig

Nominee: Best Director Lady Bird (2017)

I’ve said quite a bit about Greta Gerwig in the past couple of years since she’s become a trusted director here at Cinema Wellman.

I have not seen her directorial debut Nights and Weekends, but she is a big 3-3 in the other films she has written and directed.

That trio is Lady Bird, Little Women, and, of course, Barbie. 

I will see anything she directs going forward, which means some kind of Chronicles of Narnia thing for Netflix?!

Okay!

Sarah Polley

Nominee: Best Adapted Screenplay Away from Her (2006)

WINNER: Best Adapted Screenplay Women Talking (2022)

I first noticed Sarah Polley (and Timothy Olyphant!) in the 1999 film Go as an actress. 

Polley has since moved behind the camera as a writer and director. 

She has written and directed two exceptional films: Women Talking and Away from Her. 

Polley was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2006 for Away from Her and won that award in 2022 for Women Talking.

Her next project appears to be a Bambi reboot, of all things.

Chloe Zhao

WINNER: Best Director Nomadland (2020)

Lastly, only because this was alphabetical, is Chloe Zhao.

Zhao became the 2nd woman to win a Best Director Oscar in 2020 for the film Nomadland, which she also wrote and produced. 

As far as women winning a Best Director Oscar, it took 82 years to get to Bigelow’s win, then 11 years to Zhao’s win, then only 2 years to Campion’s win.

Maybe that glacial pace is speeding up a bit. 

Or is it climate change?

Well, that is a wrap from here at Cinema Wellman for our special salute to women in film.

Hopefully these seven talented filmmakers have finally shattered that glass ceiling beyond repair.

        Keep an eye out for films directed by these, and other women. They are great storytellers who have stories to tell, and a lot of those stories just can't be told by men.

We hope you’re back again next week as we take a look at the Best & Worst films we screened in the month of March.

Spoiler Alert: A bunch of them were made by women!

Until then, take care.