Happy Women's Herstory Month! Join us in celebrating gender diverse filmmakers who have paved the way for us all towards building a more just film industry and world...

❤️🔥 Haifaa al-Mansour directed WADJDA, which is the first full-length feature to be shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the only feature-length film made in Saudi Arabia by a female director for years following its release.
❤️🔥 Dee Rees is the first Black woman to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2017 for her film MUDBOUND.
❤️🔥 The Wachowskis directed THE MATRIX, encouraging people to see the film "through the lens of transness", with its themes of identity and transformation. Their film BOUND is also seen as one of the first movies to include a same-sex couple.
❤️🔥 Julie Dash was the first African American woman to receive a wide theatrical release with DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST. She was also part of the "L.A. Rebellion", a group of Black film students at UCLA.
❤️🔥 Film Fatales member Sydney Freeland directed DRUNKTOWN'S FINEST, which combats negative stereotypes of her Navajo Community.
❤️🔥 Joey Soloway was the show runner of the series TRANSPARENT, which broke barriers in hiring trans talent (hiring over 80 trans people in its run).
❤️🔥 Chloé Zhao was the first woman of color to win Best Director at the Oscars for her third feature film NOMADLAND.
❤️🔥 Ava DuVernay was the first Black woman to be nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture as well as the first to direct a movie with a $100 million budget. Her distribution company ARRAY continues her legacy of promoting social justice.
❤️🔥 Patricia Cardoso was the first Latina director to receive a MacArthur Foundation grant for REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES, which won the Sundance Audience Award.

🔨 Film Fatales member Lulu Wang refused to let financiers whitewash her second feature THE FAREWELL. After its Sundance premiere, she landed a deal with A24 and won two Independent Spirit Awards, a Gotham Award, and a Golden Globe.
🔨 Greta Gerwig is the first woman director to helm a billion dollar film with BARBIE just last year. The movie is nominated for eight Oscars including Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.

🔨 Film Fatales member Isabel Sandoval is the first transgender director to compete at the Venice and BFI London film festivals with her third feature film LINGUA FRANCA.
🔨 Nia DaCosta is the first Black woman director to top the box office with her horror film CANDYMAN in 2021. She is also the youngest director and first Black woman to have directed a Marvel film with THE MARVELS.
🔨 Domee Shi is the first woman of color to direct a Pixar film with TURNING RED in 2022. She also directed the Pixar short film BAO in 2019.
🔨 Jane Campion is the only woman to be nominated twice for Best Director at the Academy Awards, and the first woman to win for both Screenwriting and Directing with THE PIANO and POWER OF THE DOG.
🔨 Angela Robinson is the third Black woman to direct a feature film produced by a major studio with HERBIE FULLY LOADED. She has also been awarded for her contributions to LGBTQ+ media visibility from OutFest.
🔨 Film Fatales member Ella Glendining is dedicated to telling authentic disabled stories. Her BAFTA nominated debut feature IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? gave audiences a view into living with rare a disability, and the search for others like herself.
🔨 Mattie Do is the first-ever female director and first horror director from Laos to direct a feature film with CHANTHALY.

📽️ Gina Prince-Bythewood is the first Black woman to direct a major comic book film THE OLD GUARD in 2020. She also directed the acclaimed THE WOMAN KING which grossed over $100M at the Box Office.
📽️ Dorothy Arzner was a lesbian filmmaker of Hollywood's "Golden Age" who often dressed unconventionally. She was the first woman to join the DGA and to direct with sound.
📽️ Film Fatales member Nikyatu Jusu is the second Black woman director to win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance with her debut feature NANNY. Her work often highlights the stories of displaced, immigrant, or Black female characters.
📽️ Tazuko Sakane was Japan's first female director and one of the world's first Japanese female documentary filmmakers with her debut HATSU SUGATA in 1936.
📽️ Paz Fábrega is the first Costa Rican director to screen a feature at the Tribeca Film Festival with VIAJE.
📽️ Film Fatales member Mira Nair is an activist and filmmaker whose debut SALAAM BOMBAY! was nominated for an Oscar and won 23 international awards including the Caméra d'Or at Cannes.
📽️ Safi Faye is the first Sub-Saharan African woman to direct a commercially distributed film with KADDU BEYKAT in 1975. Her work often addresses rural life and her community through an ethnological lens.
📽️ Justine Triet won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay this year and became the eighth woman overall to be nominated for Best Director with ANATOMY OF A FALL.
📽️ Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is the first Pakistani filmmaker to win an Oscar and the first female director to have won two Oscars for the documentaries SAVING FACE and A GIRL IN THE RIVER. Co-directing MS. MARVEL, she also became Marvel's first Pakistani director.

🔥 Alice Guy-Blaché was the first female director and one of the first directors of all time. She made over 750 films, including what is considered to be the first with an all African-American cast.
🔥 Film Fatales member Cheryl Dunye is the industry's first "out" Black lesbian to direct a feature film with THE WATERMELON WOMAN, now in the Criterion Collection
🔥 Tunku Mona Riza is the first woman from Malaysia to have directed a film nominated for an Oscar for her debut feature REDHA.
🔥 Film Fatales member Jenni Gold is a "triple threat" director, editor, and screenwriter. An avid advocate for disability rights, she directed the award winning CINEMABILITY: THE ART OF INCLUSION
🔥 Madeline Anderson is the first Black woman to direct and produce a televised documentary with I AM SOMEBODY. The film follows 400 Black female hospital workers on strike in Charleston, South Carolina
🔥 Film Fatales member Diane Fraher created the first scripted film to be written and directed by a Native American woman with a lead female character. THE HEART STAYS is now in theaters. Her organization AMERINDA provides resources to Native American artists.
🔥 Film Fatales member Hanelle Culpepper is the first woman and first Black director to launch a STAR TREK series. She has also directed for similarly iconic franchises including 90210, CRIMINAL MINDS, REVENGE, HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER, LUCIFER, and more.
🔥 Věra Chytilová was the first woman to study directing at FAMU in Prague at age 28. In the following years, her projects faced heavy censorship from the Czechoslovakian government, yet she never wavered in her commitment to themes of gender, sex, and power.
🔥 Leslie Harris became the first African-American woman director, writer, producer and executive producer to win a Sundance Special Jury Prize for Best Feature Film for ANOTHER GIRL ON THE I.R.T.

💫 Kathleen Collins was one of the first Black women to create a film using popular narrative structure with LOSING GROUND. She was an activist in various areas, advocating for the Civil Rights Movement and discussing women's empowerment in her films.
💫 Film Fatales member Lesli Linka Glatter is an Oscar and Emmy nominated Director and Executive Producer renowned for work on shows such as HOMELAND. She is the also the second ever woman to be President of the DGA.
💫 Debbie Allen has been nominated for 20 Emmys, two Tonys, and a Golden Globe for her countless episodes of TV. She became the first Black woman to win a Governors Award at the Emmys.
💫 Lina Wertmüller was the first woman to be nominated for Best Director at the 1977 Oscars for SEVEN BEAUTIES.
💫 Euzhan Palcy fought for social change and accurate portrayals of Black people in film, becoming the first Black woman to direct a film produced by a major studio in 1989 with MGM for A DRY SEASON.
💫 Agnes Varda was the first woman to receive an honorary Palme d'Or from Cannes and the first female director to receive an Academy Honorary Award for her over 55 years of films.
💫 Film Fatales member Fanny Grande is a Venezuelan-American filmmaker working to transform the way Latinx people are portrayed in media. She co-founded Avenida Productions, which has raised millions of dollars for independent media content creators.
💫 Anna Biller is a feminist filmmaker, exploring themes of the female gaze with films such as the stylized cult classic THE LOVE WITCH.
💫 Film Fatales member Nyala Moon received NewFest's New Voices Filmmaker Grant, QueerArt Film's Fellowship, Hillman Grad's TV Writing Fellowship, and the Fatales Forward Fellowship.