The Shake-up of Cinema Status Quo
A welcome sign of change in a male-dominated art form: the 2022 Sight and Sound Poll.
BY: Ausma Palmer
A marathon three-hour feminist domestic drama created by a then 25-year-old female director has finally dethroned the likes of Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, toppling the cinema hierarchy as we know it.
In December 2022, Sight and Sound released its once-a-decade poll of the 100 all-time greatest films, voted upon by 1,639 international film critics and curators. For the first time in the poll’s 70-year history, a film by a female director took the top spot: French filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s 1975 film, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. The eighth edition of the list also includes an unprecedented six women filmmakers in the top 30 and a total of eleven films directed by women.
The ascension of a woman-directed film to the top of the list and an increased number of films by women directors overall indicates a marked shift away from the white male voices that have dominated cinema — as both critics and directors — over the past 100 years. The fact that it is Akerman’s experimental feminist film in the number one spot is especially a radical choice by the voters that will undoubtedly shape the tastes of young film fans over the next decade. Jeanne Dielman is not just a portrait of a French widow as she goes about her domestic duties; its nearly three-and-a-half-hour runtime forces the viewer to fully inhabit mundane, ritualistic life lived in her dreary apartment, making the film an entirely sensual, physical experience.
Akerman broke from the form of the male-dominated, narrative-driven New Wave (Nouvelle Vague) movement of the 60s and 70s and instead became known for her unconventional, “slow,” observational films (her documentary News from Home, a series of images of New York City in the 1970s narrated by the director, also made the list). While she was a trailblazer for being one of few filmmakers at the time (like her contemporary Agnès Varda) tackling feminist issues on the screen, the way she played with the form of cinema itself also made her a technical pioneer.
Being a female filmmaker in the 20th century was in and of itself a revolutionary thing to be, given how male-dominated the industry has always been. Yet, the women filmmakers on the Sight and Sound list are also notable for how they redefined what a film could be while also challenging societal and political norms in their stories. Among those are Vera Chytilova, a Czech filmmaker whose highly experimental, cult-classic film Daisies is a scathing critique of Soviet ideology and hypocrisy; Celina Sciamma’s 18th century lesbian drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire; and the film Wanda, about the suffocating rural life of the titular character that independent filmmaker Barbara Loden both directed and starred in.
As any super subjective list of the supposed greats curated by a very select group of individuals would, the 2022 poll does have its faults and glaring holes. For example, only a single film directed by a woman of color made the list (Julie Dash’s 1991 film Daughters of the Dust, tied at #60) and a lopsided seven of the eleven women-directed films were made by European women (six of whom are French). Even so, the poll signals a radical shift away from the status quo and the typical, male-focused films that have long been considered the greats — the dethroning of Citizen Kane to the #3 spot alone illustrates the more diverse tastes of newer filmmakers and critics alike in the 21st century.
Much of this shift can be attributed to the advent of the internet and the increasing importance of online film archives and streaming services to shape viewer’s tastes. More than anything, the poll emphasizes just how much access and exposure to unique and diverse voices and global issues shapes culture, and how it is more crucial than ever. With Women’s Voices Now’s very own Voices for Change film collection of over 200 free films, we aim to open viewers up to global issues facing women in the hopes of illuminating just how much power film has to create social change.
While no list alone has the power to transform the film world or erase the inequality and lack of diversity that persists in the industry, the results of the 2022 poll are a welcome sign of change in a male-dominated art form. Over the next decade, perhaps films by and about men will no longer be considered the “default” of great cinema, and women-directed films, that have long been considered “niche”, will be viewed with the seriousness and artistic value they have always deserved.
Here is the full list of women-directed films on the 2022 Sight and Sound poll:
- #1: Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), dir. Chantal Akerman
- #7: Beau Travail (1988), dir. Claire Denis
- #14: Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), dir. Agnès Varda
- #16: Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), dir. Maya Deren, Alexander Hackenschmied
- #28: Daisies (1966), dir. Věra Chytilová
- #30: Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019), dir. Céline Sciamma
- =#48: Wanda (1970), dir. Barbara Loden
- =#50: The Piano (1992), dir. Jane Campion
- =#52: News from Home (1976), dir. Chantal Akerman
- =#60: Daughters of the Dust (1991), dir. Julie Dash
- =#67: The Gleaners and I (2000), dir. Agnès Varda
Ausma Palmer is a writer and editor based in Brooklyn. Formerly, she served as Women’s Voices Now social media coordinator.
To republish an article from The WVoice in its entirety or as a derivative work, you must attribute it to the author and Women’s Voices Now, and include a reference and hyperlink to the original article.
If you would like to contribute to The WVoice, please review the Submission Guidelines.
