Spotlight on: Six women behind the scenes of great cinema

Women worldover have been writing and directing cinema for decades. We say it’s time they got their flowers.

Despite women worldover writing and directing candid, sensitive, hilarious and challenging cinema, prestige award ceremonies often fail to recognise them. 

In the Academy Awards’ 90-year history, only three women, compared to 77 men, have won the Oscar for Best Director. By percentage, women have made up only 18 per cent of individual Oscar nominees. Yikes. 

Interested to hear how others navigate the world? Head to our Life section.

Thankfully, the numbers are shifting year by year, making the Oscars more equitable and allowing us to celebrate incredible talent like Sinners cinematographer, Autumn Durald Arkapaw, and Hamnet director, Chloé Zhao. 

A determined few have broken the mould, earning long-overdue recognition as directors and screenwriters, and boy (girl?), do they have stories worth listening to.

Perhaps it speaks to the experience of womanhood that so many of these award-winning works are grounded in activism. Whether shaped by documentary roots or an instinctive sense of justice, these filmmakers bring an important perspective to their craft – one informed by lives lived beyond the frame, and enriched by a powerful sense of intersectionality.

So, let us introduce you to just a few of our favourite, boundary-breaking women in film. All the films listed below can be streamed on MUBI. 

Ava DuVernay

Ava DuVernay has one hell of a catalogue. When They See Us, 13th, A Wrinkle in Time, and the Best Picture-nominated Martin Luther King Jr biopic, Selma. Bringing American politics to the fore in her work, she challenges dangerous notions about race with candour, empathy and hope. 

A delightful fact for anyone tipping the scale toward their thirties – the heavily awarded director didn’t even try filmmaking til her early thirties, having been focused on journalism. Discouraged by the state of the industry, she moved into public relations and began her own PR agency. Connections with the film industry grew and in the early 2000s, DuVernay finally decided to begin telling the stories that mattered to her, both in documentary and narrative features. Within a decade, she was an Oscar nominee. 

Justine Triet

French director, screenwriter and editor Justine Triet has been turning heads with off-kilter dramas at award ceremonies for a solid 10 years. Before that, she was channelling a lifelong dedication to social justice into documentary shorts. 

While much of her work is known to French film fans, there’s one in particular that caught the wider world’s attention: Anatomy of a Fall. With a twisty mystery, a scene-stealing dog, and Sandra Hüller giving her all, the film is worth your attention. Oh, did we mention it took home Cannes’ Palm D’Or in 2023 and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2024? 

Tamara Kotevska

Macedonian filmmaker Tamara Kotevska and directing partner, Ljubomir Stefanov, shattered expectations at the 2020 Oscars when their film, Honeyland, became the first documentary ever nominated for Best International Feature. 

The dually harrowing and life-affirming portrait of a beekeeping family in rural Macedonia was applauded for its affective focus on environmental issues, with Variety highlighting its “strong geopolitical resonance and visual splendour.” No doubt the breathtaking cinematography will catch your eye, too. 

With three documentaries under her belt and one in production, it’s clear Kotevska is devoted to bringing audiences eye-opening stories. And at only 32, she’s got a long career ahead. 

Maren Ade

German screenwriter and director Maren Ade is yet to bring out an English-language film – but don’t let that stop you from seeking out her offbeat and often comedic dramas. We recommend 2017’s Best Foreign Language Film nominee, Toni Erdmann. 

Ade slowly climbed the ladder of success in her home country, building recognition for her unique and deeply intimate portraits of normal people whose lives unwind in various ways. Tragic, awkward and funny, Ade is all about the humanness in her fictional subjects. 

Marjane Satrapi

No one is combining whimsy, politics and heartbreak like Marjane Satrapi. The French-Iranian multidisciplinary artist was most known for her comic books (as she calls them), until she took on the challenge of adapting the autobiographic Persepolis into a feature film of the same name. 

Satrapi took on the role of co-director and screenwriter to bring her harrowing coming-of-age tale during the Iranian Revolution to the screen. The film gained major critical and commercial success, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature in 2008. To see why it wowed people, you can watch the film here, but be warned, animation doesn’t soften the brutal realities of persecution and personal strife that Persepolis explores.

Unsurprisingly, like the other brilliant women on this list, activism plays a significant role in her craft. Bravely sharing stories that need to be heard. 

Charlotte Wells

Scottish filmmaker Charlotte Wells doesn’t just have an Oscar nomination but a Master of Arts from Oxford University – yes, Saltburn-truthers, that Oxford. Though she didn’t jump from the arts to film straight away, working first in finance. However, lending a hand to a friend’s post-production agency led her to apply to study another Master’s in Fine Arts in New York. During the course, she made three short films that received festival attention. Then came Aftersun. 

If you find yourself on Letterboxd often, we imagine you’re already aware of Wells’ crushing debut. This film had every critic quivering with devastation and applauding the first-time feature director’s mastery. To see how the tale of a tween girl on holiday with her 20-something father (an achingly perfect Paul Mescal) plays out, you’ll have to see it for yourself. No spoilers here.

To watch films made by women, browse MUBI.