It’s an acknowledged and much lamented fact that the film industry–like Wall Street and not a few others–is dominated by men. The problem with film is worse than the problem of Wall Street though, because while it’d be great to have equal pay and more women at the table trying to finance the next giant oil pipeline, it may not change the product much. But with film, it’s the voice, vision and perspective that matter–and if we, as a culture, get predominantly male visions, everybody loses. Men and women alike.
But while it’s an execrable truth that only “4.4 percent of the top 100 box-office domestic releases between 2002 and 2012 were directed by women,” (nytimes.com) it’s also true that outside the top 100–which naturally swerves away from bold voices anyway–women are most definitely in the game and making films. Ally the Manic Listmaker has dutifully (and with love, one senses) put together an incredible list of 1400 films directed by women–mostly within the last 20 years. Here are just the directors whose surnames begin with A:
Jennifer Abbott ( Auteurs )
Mona Achache ( Auteurs )
Maren Ade ( Auteurs )
Carine Adler ( Auteurs )
Anne Aghion ( Auteurs )
Peggy Ahwesh ( Auteurs )
Susana Aiken ( Auteurs )
Mania Akbari ( Auteurs )
Chantal Akerman ( Auteurs )
Desiree Akhavan
Haifaa Al-Mansour
Myriam Alaux
Barbara Albert ( Auteurs )
Karin Albou ( Auteurs )
Lexi Alexander ( Auteurs )
Natalia Almada ( Auteurs )
Mercedes Álvarez ( Auteurs )
Suzana Amaral ( Auteurs )
Ann Ambrose (no profile on Auteurs/IMDB)
Rachel Amodeo ( Auteurs )
Allison Anders ( Auteurs )
Jane Anderson ( Auteurs )
Laurie Anderson ( Auteurs )
Madeline Anderson ( IMDB )
Threes Anna ( Auteurs )
Emmanuelle Antille ( Auteurs )
Jane Arden ( Auteurs )
Asia Argento ( Auteurs )
Sara Kathryn Arledge ( Auteurs ) Experimental
Gillian Armstrong ( Auteurs )
Andrea Arnold ( Auteurs )
Karen Arthur ( Auteurs )
Leslie Asako Gladsjø
Dinara Asanova
Joana Ascensão ( Auteurs )
Patsy Asch
Katie Aselton ( Auteurs )
Nadia Attia
Jacqueline Audry ( Auteurs )
Caroline Avery – mentioned in the book Women & Experimental Filmmaking, edited by Jean Petrolle & Virginia Wright Wexman (University of Illinois Press, Urbana and Chicago), 2005.
Florence Ayisi ( Auteurs )
Anna Azevedo ( Auteurs )
Rita Azevedo Gomes ( Auteurs )
Myriam Aziza
Lisa Azuelos ( Auteurs )
