At FemaleDirectors.com, you can browse through a library of movies exclusively directed and/or co-directed by women:  read synopses, look at images and ratings, search within genres, as well as gather other relevant information about the movies.  Only a small percentage of movies are female directed, and they are hard to find; FemaleDirectors.com helps you find them; you can view them on Netflix or purchase them on Amazon.com.  FemaleDirectors.com is a website produced by North Star Imageworks, LLC, and was launched in November, 2010.

You might say, “Who cares who a movie is directed by?...I just want to watch a good movie!”

We say that female directors make particularly entertaining movies for women because women filmmakers ‘get’ the female perspective; they will emphasize aspects of a movie that women would find interesting and men would completely miss.  As they say: men are from Mars and women are from Venus (“Men go to their caves and women talk”). How many men will be able to create a movie that can truly entertain you when you have PMS and want to curl up on the couch with a bowl of ice cream, or a glass of wine; when you have had a long and stressful day at work?  

If you are a woman, try watching a few of the movies on our website; we think you will be surprised by lost gems that strike a chord with your experience, movies ignored by the primarily male critics. If you are a man, this website will help you choose a movie to watch with that special someone, and by paying careful attention while watching (if you don’t fall asleep), you can gain new understanding of the female psyche.

Women Behind The Camera: Some Statistics FEATURE FILMS: In 2009, women comprised: 16% of all directors, executive producers, producers, writers, cinematographers, and editors working on the top 250 domestic grossing films. Women accounted for: 9% of directors, 12% of writers, 16% of executive producers, 20% of producers, 17% of editors, and 4% of directors of photography

Lois Weber, first female director to direct a feature film in 1914 Kathryn Bigelow, first female director to win an Oscar in history, 2010

It is well documented that female directors are under represented in Hollywood; here are some statistics for feature films: in 2009, women accounted for 7% of directors, 8% of writers, 17% of executive producers, 23% of producers, 18% of editors, and 2% of directors of photography.  We make it easier for you to discover and support the female directors who are struggling to be heard and known. We hope that women will find themselves more easily and joyfully projected into a movie as the subject (the protagonist hero: mission-minded and multi-dimensional), rather than the object (the silent half-dressed, under 40-year-old, side-character eye candy). 

We all need to pay more attention to female directors, as well as writers, producers and directors of photography because these are people who redress the balance in the shaping of our media experience, and provide us with positive societal role models. It is important that we are aware of and choose who influences us.  The underemployment of women in the film industry and in film criticism perpetuates the male gaze and male preference in story, visuals and character in our media entertainment, and this in turn projects a tainted vision of women and men in the world, as well as cultivating gender steriotyping.  

We hope you will treat yourself, your partner, your family and your friends to a refreshing movie-watching experience where you can open your eyes to an alternate world of cinema with this special selection of movies!. Come and visit our website at www.femaledirectors.com !

- Frances Melvin, North Star Imageworks, LLC

References:
Report compiled by Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, Executive Director, Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, School of Theatre, Television and Film, San Diego State University
Results from a USC/Annenberg study on 100 Top-Grossing films from 2007
Women Make Movies - Film & Entertainment Industry Facts
International Women's Day: some depressing statistics
Sex Doesn’t Sell—Nor Impress! Content, Box Office, Critics, and Awards in Mainstream Cinema
Women @ the Box Office: A Study of the Top 100 Worldwide Grossing Films
Thumbs Down - Representation of Women Film Critics in the Top 100 U.S. Daily Newspapers - A Study by Dr. Martha Lauzen
The Celluloid Ceiling: Behind-the-Scenes Employment of Women on the Top 250 Films of 2009

WOMEN IN MOVIES RESOURCES

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For more information, or to recommend movies or directors not found on this site, please email us here:
   frances 'at' femaledirectors.com