Our recent piece on film stars who also direct has elicited requests for a follow-up piece on female screen luminaries who’ve megged movies, aside from acting in them.
We’ve already mentioned Natalie Portman and Angelina Jolie, who are Janes come lately to the most challenging art and craft, but it turns out that they bring up the rear of a very long and acclaimed line of determined women.
This determination is urgently needed for female directors to succeed in the United States, because the industry is still dominated by men—with movies megged by women making up only 10 percent of the industry’s annual output.
This is the height of irony, especially when we learn that fully half of all film school graduates in the United States are women!
Women working in the Filipino movie industry have their own problems to contend with, but at least in terms of annual film output, they’re decidedly more democratically and demographically “represented!”
Back to our focus on female directors in Hollywood: Among the earliest stars to break through the industry’s glass ceiling was Ida Lupino, whose 1953 film, “The Hitchhiker,” was described as “the only true film noir directed by a woman.”
It took decades for another female star to be cited for direction—in 1988, comedienne Penny Marshall directed Tom Hanks in the “sleeper” hit, “Big”—and went on to meg charmers and winners including “Awakenings,” “A League of Their Own” and “The Preacher’s Wife.”
In 2003, it was Sofia Coppola’s turn to bowl viewers and critics over with her directorial acumen.
Yes, Sofia had the right genes for it, being the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola. But many scions of acclaimed directors have flopped at the family biz, so Sofia’s achievement is still exceptional.
Fact is, she began her film career not very auspiciously by acting in her dad’s “Godfather” film. But, despite her beauty and lineage, her acting career failed to fly. So, years later, she made her comeback to the film scene as the writer-director of “Lost in Translation” (2003).
Its great critical success was capped by Coppola’s Oscar win for best original screenplay. She also became the first American woman to be nominated as best director.
Other female stars who have directed TV-film productions include Jodie Foster, Debbie Allen, Barbra Streisand and Amy Heckerling.