Gender equality are unfortunately still a problem in our contemporary society. Throughout history, women’s work was not recognized and exalted enough. Unfortunately, with the film industry it could not be different. All the women involved in the filmmaking world have already been underestimated in some point of the career at least once.
In a high office, like being a director, we don’t even know all the incredible female directors that have made history. For example, no woman had never won an Oscar until 2010, when Kathryn Bigelow did it with her movie “The Hurt Locker”. But, what seems to be an advance, became a backlash, when no woman was even nominated for the prize in last edition that occured in 2020. With that on mind, we separated 6 female directors that you need to know.
- ALICE GUY BLACHÉ
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French director, Alice was probably the first woman to venture into this direct world. She worked from 1894 to 1922 and directed more of 700 movies like a recent recovered “The Girl In The Arm Chair”. She also develop a lot of techniques that are used until now. Alice was the first to introduce the use of the sound with the images on the screen with a device called “cronofone” and also the first to use special effects.
- CLÉO DE VERBERANA
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In 1931, Cléo became the first brazilian woman to direct a movie, with “O mistério do Dominó Preto”, in which she also acted. She launched the producer Épica Films, responsible for all of her work. Her name is definitely marked in brazilian movie history.
- AGNÈS VARDA
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One of the biggest names of art and cinema nowadays, Agnès died in 2019, leaving a huge and important legacy behind. Always portraying the feminine, the social classes, the racial issue and the real live in society, she showed how it is to be a woman in this world through decades.
- ADELIA SAMPAIO
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Not being a name so well known among people shows that black women have even a smaller place than others. Brazilian, daughter of a maid, coming from a poor family, Adelia revolutionized becoming the first black woman to direct a movie in Brazil with “Amor Maldito” in 1984.
- GRETA GERWIG
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Greta is the youngest on the list and made her debut in 2017 with “Lady Bird”, and runned at the Oscars, nominated for best director. She came back to the Oscars in 2020 with “Little Women”, both pretty well acclaimed. For “The Guardian”, Greta clearly put a lot of love in the production. For “Forbes”, Little Women it’s an amazing movie and a worthy adaptation.
- KATHRYN BIGELOW
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Since we already talked about her in the beginning of this article, Kathryn is the first – and only – woman that has won an Oscar for best director until now! In 2009 Kathryn took the prize home for directing “The Hurt Locker”. It was such a big conquest to female directors, but the late award just shows how underestimated women still are in this industry.
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The article above was edited by Mel Trench.
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