2020 has been the year of the female filmmaker. Of course, there is something bittersweet to that statement. While the asterisk that will haunt film revenue tabulations will never be the most significant data point of the year, there is a troubling and familiar story embedded in this year’s downsized economy.
As big budget films with big revenue expectations were pulled one by one from the release schedule, smaller-scale films with more modest financial aspirations found their way to the streaming sites. And, here, on the wrong side of the digital pay gap, the female filmmaker dominated.
Even if the circumstances are regretful, the attention has been long overdue. In the ninety-plus-year history of the Academy Awards, only five women have ever been nominated for Best Director, and only one woman has ever won, Kathryn Bigelow in 2009 for The Hurt Locker. This year’s awards are likely to see more attention given to female filmmakers, particularly Chloe Zhao for Nomadland and Regina King, a former Best Supporting Actress winner, for her directorial debut, One Night in Miami.
But, in retrospect, 2020 was absolutely overfull with worthy female-led fare. Across all genres — action, drama, comedy, documentary — women shone not just in front of the camera, but behind it. The output from female filmmakers was so strong this past year that every…
