Five great female directors

On the heels of PROVOKR’s recent profile of Sofia Coppola and her historic Best Director Win at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival for The Beguiled, we realized that much as we love her, she’s not the only female director making news.  Here’s a look at four other multi-hyphened women (director-writer-producer) who are doing it not for themselves but for the very lucky movie going public.

Patty Jenkins

Director Patty Jenkins started her career by working with real life wonder woman, Charlize Theron, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Jenkins’ 2003 crime drama Monster. Fast-forward to 2017 and the release of Wonder Woman, starring Gal Gadot in the title role with Chris Pine, Robin Wright, and David Thewlis, among others, in supporting roles. Jenkins is credited as the first female director of a studio superhero movie, a choice that paid off…big time. On its release, Wonder Woman set records for the biggest domestic opening for a female director ($103.3 million) and the biggest opening for a female-led comic book film. As we write, it is the eighth highest-grossing film of the year. Oh, and P. S., the film has been highly praised with many critics calling it the best film in the DC Extended Universe.

Amma Asante

Never one to shy away from tough subjects, award-winning director Amma Asante’s newest project Where Hands Touch is generating controversy… even before its release. Amandla Stenberg (Rue in The Hunger Games) and George MacKay (Captain Fantastic) star in this coming-of-age romance set against the background of World War II Berlin. Young love, always complicated, becomes even more so when the protagonists are a mixed race girl and a Hitler youth. In responding to backlash over the release of an image from the film, Asante didn’t pull any punches: “My passion has been to shine a light on the existence of the children of color who were born and raised under Hitler.” You keep going girl.

Kathryn Bigelow

With a list of credits that includes Blue Steel, Point Break, and Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow has rethought the action genre and taken it to higher ground. In 2009 with the release of The Hurt Locker, she became the first and only woman to win the Oscar for Best Director and the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. Next up is Detroit, her take on the 1967 Algiers Motel Incident, which took place during the racially charged 12th Street Riot. The film stars John Boyega, Will Poulter, Jacob Latimore, Jason Mitchell, Hannah Murray, Kaitlyn Dever, Jack Reynor, Ben O’Toole, Joseph David-Jones, John Krasinski, and Anthony Mackie. The film will be released this August to coincide with the 50th anniversary of that very sad and violent summer.

Ava DuVernay

In 2012 director Ava DuVernay won the Best Director Prize at Sundance for her second feature Middle of Nowhere, making her the first African-American woman to receive the award. This drama tackled some tough stuff in telling the story of a woman who drops out of medical school after her husband is sentenced to eight years in prison.  2014 saw the release of DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated historical drama Selma. With her newest film, A Wrinkle In Time, DuVernay tackles a different kind of challenge…a much-loved children’s book. The stellar cast includes Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, and Oprah Winfrey as Mrs. Watsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which respectively. According to the Los Angeles Times, in directing this film, DuVernay will be the first woman of color to direct a live action film with a budget over $100 million.