All true Stephen and I was trying to support Raquelle's point. But like Lindsay Brigman said in 'The Abyss': 'Don't be on my side!', ha!
My biases didn't help. What I consider 'serious' film to be that would greatly improve women director numbers would not be 'Clueless' or 'Sleepless in Seattle'. That's on me. I simply should have wrote what you did: women just aren't getting enough chances.
But then what needs to be done? Bigelow did 'Point Break' in what, '91? 'Hurt Locker' got her the Best Director nod. Did those decades of Bigelow films and Oscar improve the ranks? Her stories are male centric with a strong woman sprinkled in, leading or otherwise.
And what if 'Obsession' had been written and directed by a woman? Is the film stil received as a great scary movie or is it just 'women whining again about men just wanting women as sex slaves'?
I saw both 'Portrait of a Woman...' and 'Promising Young Woman' in the theater. I don't recall much of 'Portrait' and in 'Promising' Carey Mulligan's character died in her quest. Killed by a man.
Let me leave off with this: I am currently in film school (Miami Dade College). When my Film Production 1 class was asked what role we aspired to, none of the girls wanted to be directors. They all wanted to be cinematographers or writers. Huh?!
At least women are being given projects that have hundred million dollar budgets. Slow and steady I'm afraid.
Interesting article, but I do think the takeaway here isn’t really age. It’s why women directors have consistently worked on such few films over long stretches of time in Hollywood without meaningful improvement. I just published an article about this. In 2025 women directed films hit an ALL TIME LOW at 8.5% which means that male directors are getting hired 11 times more often than a women.
Surely age isn’t that big of a factor when we’re looking at 51 percent of the population?
It's a shocking state of affairs when it comes to women directors. I'm just responding off the top of my head but when you look at the women behind some of the big earning films say, 'Wonder Woman', that character was created by a man. 'Barbie' did great but there was a lot of focus on Ken's existential crisis. You look at Kathryn Bigelow; her films are male dominated stories. You could argue 'Zero Dark Thirty' was all about the preserverance of a woman intelligence officer chasing America's greatest villain but the climax and most tension filled part of the film involved the all male Seals team. Angela Bassett and Juliette Lewis mattered significantly in Bigelow's awesome 'Strange Days' but there was a horrendous rape scene and what we saw was the edited version! We'll forget that James Cameron wrote that story and that she was once married to him. You see 'Obsession' and think, 'Wow, what a powerful and horrifying message about consent and what that means to women' yet the story was written and directed by a man. Go back to the early 90's 'Thelma and Louise', perhaps one of the greatest 'sisterhood againist the patriarchy' films ever: directed by Ridley Scott (though written by a woman, so there's that at least). I'm sure I'm cherrypicking but I'm trying to rack my brain coming up with women directors that have succeeded with strong women stories or women led stories that were solely written and directed by women. Maybe 'Where The Heart Is'? Two women who overcome some serious setbacks and in the end pick the man they want (at least with Ashley Judd's character and assumed with Natalie Portman's) on their own terms even though that was only partly what the film was about. I just checked actually and that was directed by a man! I know I'm missing some big name amongst the women that counter the point of my reply but if I'm struggling I think that says something significant.
Just in the mainstream there's Jane Campion's The Piano (Palme d'Or, plus she got an Oscar for the screenplay), Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird and Little Women, Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman (another screenplay Oscar), Chloé Zhao's Nomadland (Best Picture), Patty Jenkins' Monster, Céline Song's Past Lives, Charlotte Wells' Aftersun, Coralie Fargeat's The Substance, Kasi Lemmons' Eve's Bayou, Gina Prince-Bythewood's Love & Basketball, Lulu Wang's The Farewell, Debra Granik's Winter's Bone, Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle, and Amy Heckerling's Clueless.
I think part of the reason they may be hard to summon off the top of the head is that as so few women direct films in any given year, memorable examples are, by definition, scarce. That's the point Raquelle is making.
The films with the largest marketing budgets and widest releases are overwhelmingly directed by men, so they dominate our memory too.
Also, judging women directors by whether they make "women's stories" is a double bind that male directors don't face. Nobody says ill of Ridley Scott for making Thelma & Louise, or Bigelow for her war films. Directors should get to make whatever films they want. The problem is that women get so few chances to make any.
All true Stephen and I was trying to support Raquelle's point. But like Lindsay Brigman said in 'The Abyss': 'Don't be on my side!', ha!
My biases didn't help. What I consider 'serious' film to be that would greatly improve women director numbers would not be 'Clueless' or 'Sleepless in Seattle'. That's on me. I simply should have wrote what you did: women just aren't getting enough chances.
But then what needs to be done? Bigelow did 'Point Break' in what, '91? 'Hurt Locker' got her the Best Director nod. Did those decades of Bigelow films and Oscar improve the ranks? Her stories are male centric with a strong woman sprinkled in, leading or otherwise.
And what if 'Obsession' had been written and directed by a woman? Is the film stil received as a great scary movie or is it just 'women whining again about men just wanting women as sex slaves'?
I saw both 'Portrait of a Woman...' and 'Promising Young Woman' in the theater. I don't recall much of 'Portrait' and in 'Promising' Carey Mulligan's character died in her quest. Killed by a man.
Let me leave off with this: I am currently in film school (Miami Dade College). When my Film Production 1 class was asked what role we aspired to, none of the girls wanted to be directors. They all wanted to be cinematographers or writers. Huh?!
At least women are being given projects that have hundred million dollar budgets. Slow and steady I'm afraid.
Interesting article, but I do think the takeaway here isn’t really age. It’s why women directors have consistently worked on such few films over long stretches of time in Hollywood without meaningful improvement. I just published an article about this. In 2025 women directed films hit an ALL TIME LOW at 8.5% which means that male directors are getting hired 11 times more often than a women.
Surely age isn’t that big of a factor when we’re looking at 51 percent of the population?
It's a shocking state of affairs when it comes to women directors. I'm just responding off the top of my head but when you look at the women behind some of the big earning films say, 'Wonder Woman', that character was created by a man. 'Barbie' did great but there was a lot of focus on Ken's existential crisis. You look at Kathryn Bigelow; her films are male dominated stories. You could argue 'Zero Dark Thirty' was all about the preserverance of a woman intelligence officer chasing America's greatest villain but the climax and most tension filled part of the film involved the all male Seals team. Angela Bassett and Juliette Lewis mattered significantly in Bigelow's awesome 'Strange Days' but there was a horrendous rape scene and what we saw was the edited version! We'll forget that James Cameron wrote that story and that she was once married to him. You see 'Obsession' and think, 'Wow, what a powerful and horrifying message about consent and what that means to women' yet the story was written and directed by a man. Go back to the early 90's 'Thelma and Louise', perhaps one of the greatest 'sisterhood againist the patriarchy' films ever: directed by Ridley Scott (though written by a woman, so there's that at least). I'm sure I'm cherrypicking but I'm trying to rack my brain coming up with women directors that have succeeded with strong women stories or women led stories that were solely written and directed by women. Maybe 'Where The Heart Is'? Two women who overcome some serious setbacks and in the end pick the man they want (at least with Ashley Judd's character and assumed with Natalie Portman's) on their own terms even though that was only partly what the film was about. I just checked actually and that was directed by a man! I know I'm missing some big name amongst the women that counter the point of my reply but if I'm struggling I think that says something significant.
Just in the mainstream there's Jane Campion's The Piano (Palme d'Or, plus she got an Oscar for the screenplay), Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird and Little Women, Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman (another screenplay Oscar), Chloé Zhao's Nomadland (Best Picture), Patty Jenkins' Monster, Céline Song's Past Lives, Charlotte Wells' Aftersun, Coralie Fargeat's The Substance, Kasi Lemmons' Eve's Bayou, Gina Prince-Bythewood's Love & Basketball, Lulu Wang's The Farewell, Debra Granik's Winter's Bone, Nora Ephron's Sleepless in Seattle, and Amy Heckerling's Clueless.
I think part of the reason they may be hard to summon off the top of the head is that as so few women direct films in any given year, memorable examples are, by definition, scarce. That's the point Raquelle is making.
The films with the largest marketing budgets and widest releases are overwhelmingly directed by men, so they dominate our memory too.
Also, judging women directors by whether they make "women's stories" is a double bind that male directors don't face. Nobody says ill of Ridley Scott for making Thelma & Louise, or Bigelow for her war films. Directors should get to make whatever films they want. The problem is that women get so few chances to make any.