5 Favorite Womxn Filmmakers

We agree to the fullest that the future is bright, because it will be empowered by females in all genres. In the film industry, one that is so severely typecasted as a male dominant workforce, we should not let another year go by of women being forgotten for their directorial talents. But, is it forgetfulness? That question remains to be, like an onion peeled until we can get to the core of the problem. Or maybe we are already there and it's just time to shine a big strobe light on the many successes that women directors have had in the last few decades.

EMERALD FENNELL

(Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) Her dialogue and narratives speak to me. I feel like we went to private school together and she’s the rare one that I chose to stay. (She also gets extra credit for her acting skills in The Crown and Barbie.)

NICOLE HOLOFCENER

(Friends With Money, Can You Ever Forgive Me) Since the 90’s she has been the Martin Scorsese of independent filmmaking. Holofcener writes and directs authentic characters that you would know in real life.

CELINE SONG

Admittedly, she has won meover with her directorial debut of Past Lives that I bumped Greta Gerwig off the list. She wrote and directed the most intimate ending scene of just walking and no talking that’s likely to stay with me for a long time.

Credit: Cinémathèque Royale, Brussels, 1974

CHANTAL AKERMAN

(Jeanne Dielman, News From Home) This Belgium writer and director showed the inner workings of women’s lives like no other filmmaker has. Most of her film style resembles today’s YouTube day-in-the life vlogs.

SOFIA COPPOLA

(Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, Priscilla) Actually, I think she’s a better storyteller than a director, but an excellent creative director above all. A friend once questioned whether she’d be the kind of filmmaker she is if she wasn’t Francis Ford Coppola’s daughter. Growing up on the industry’s most iconic film sets had to have influenced her cinematic eyes. While that could be true, I feel her unique specialty is finding a good story and writing it from her perspective, which of course is a huge part of filmmaking.