At Tubi TV we’re celebrating International Women’s Day by giving a nod to the directors that are forging new paths in storytelling and filmmaking and creating more opportunities for feminine voices to be heard in Hollywood.
1. Ava DuVernay
Considering the fact that she didn’t pick up a camera until she was 33, DuVernay has wasted no time becoming one of the most exciting and respected names in Hollywood. At the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, DuVernay won the Best Director Prize for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere, and in 2014, DuVernay was the first black female director to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her film Selma. In 2016 she made the acclaimed Netflix documentary 13th, and now, she’s set to helm Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time, becoming the first black female filmmaker ever to helm a $100 million film.
2. Jill Soloway
Jill Soloway is an American comedian, playwright, writer and director. They won the Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival for the film Afternoon Delight, but they are best known for their acclaimed Amazon original series Transparent, about the lives of a Los Angeles family after the person they call “Dad” reveals to them that he is a transgender woman. With the success of Transparent, Soloway has brought greater visibility and sensitivity to the stories of gender and sexual minorities like never before. Let’s hope this opens the door for even more diverse stories in entertainment.
3. Andrea Arnold
Andrea Arnold is being praised as one of today’s greatest directors. Arnold won an Academy Award for her short film Wasp in 2005, and her unique style shines in her electrifying 2009 drama Fish Tank. In 2016, Arnold directed the critically-praised film American Honey, which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Most recently, she helmed three episodes of the Emmy-winning series Transparent.
4. Karyn Kusama
You may not recognize her name, but Karyn Kusama has been in the directing game (and killing it) for years now. It started with her 2000 debut with the boisterous girl-meets-boxing film Girlfight and the sci-fi action flick Aeon Flux and continues with her latest triumphs The Invitation and TV shows like hows like Masters of Sex and The Man in the High Castle. While Kusama is clearly making good use of her technical skill and distinctive style in TV, we were excited to see her take her talent to the big screen again in the innovative horror anthology film XX.
5. Lily Wachowski
As part of the famous Wachowski directing duo, Lily Wachowski created The Matrix, which forever changed the way sci-fi and action films are made when it came out in 1999. While the blockbuster film set a high bar for success, neither she nor her directing partner and sibling Lana Wachowski are slowing down. They’ve continued to create stories that push the boundaries of sci-fi and fantasy storytelling, from the screen adaptation of the novel Cloud Atlas to the Netflix series Sense8.
6. Mira Nair
Through her production company Mirabai Films, Mira Nair creates films for international audiences that focus on Indian society and cultural issues. Some of her most well-known and beloved films include The Perez Family, Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, New York, I Love You, Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding and Salaam Bombay!, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
7. Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Jennifer Yuh Nelson is a groundbreaking director and storyboard artist. For her work on 2011’s Kung Fu Panda 2, which was shown at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and even garnered an Oscar nomination, she became the the first woman to get sole directing credit for a big-budget animated feature. In July 2016, it was announced that Nelson is going to direct Darkest Minds. We can’t wait to see what she creates!
8. Kathryn Bigelow
A director, producer and writer, Bigelow has a long track record of telling pulse-pounding, weighty stories, from the classic action movie Point Break to the explosive thrillers The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty. For her directing work on The Hurt Locker, she is the first (and currently only) woman to ever win an Academy Award for Best Director. With the wave of talent that has swept through Hollywood in recent years, we know she won’t be the last.
These are only a few people from the long list of directors we love. Who are yours?
