When I first read about The Greatest at last year’s Sundance I knew it was something I wanted to see.  It has Susan Sarandon, Pierce Brosnan and the “it” girl of that year’s festival Carey Mulligan. 

The Greatest is the story of how a family reconnects after the loss of a child.  It is a meditation on grief.  Susan Sarandon is a pro at these types of flicks, but I also found Pierce Brosnan’s performance very moving.  These types of films — the family film — especially one imbued with such sadness are hard to get done so it is a testament to first time writer and director Shana Feste that we are even seeing this film at all.  And if you wondering whether Carey Mulligan was a one hit wonder in An Education, this will help prove that she is going to have a long, successful and diverse career.

Shana Feste answered some questions about the film for Women & Hollywood.

Women & Hollywood: This is your first writing and directing effort.  How you you able to
secure such a stellar cast?

Shana Feste: The financing would only be triggered if we secured A-list talent so we were determined to get actors attention. Pierce and Susan were always dreams of ours but totally unrealistic dreams – we were a low-budget film with a first time director – not really an actor magnet. With the help of CAA we got the script to Pierce’s producing partner Beau St. Clair and she convinced Pierce to read the script.  Susan read it at
about the same time (through her agents at ICM) and they both responded to the roles and wanted to work together. I met with them and pleaded my case very passionately and they said yes. It was pretty amazing and a testament to them as artists because not many actors at their level would take such a big risk on a first time director.

We got really lucky with Carey – at the time we were casting she was not well known – she had just finished “An Education” but we hadn’t seen it – we had only spoken with one of the producers who said she was brilliant. We saw a lot of girls for this role – girls with a lot more experience than Carey – but no one could touch her as an actress. She is truly gifted and we were lucky enough to get her at a time when she would have us!

W&H: Not many people are drawn to family dramas especially ones that focus on grief.  What made you want to tell this type of story?

SF: I’m pretty odd in that I am drawn to family dramas, I guess. I love watching them — writing them — making them. I think as a writer you have to prepare yourself for a really solitary experience and the characters you write are going to be your only company so you better like them. I loved writing these characters and without sounding totally
nuts – they became my friends and I wanted to take care of them – to see them through this heartbreaking journey. The most important thing in a family drama is character so the genre seems like a natural fit for me.

I think as a writer you also set out to fix the problems within your own family and this was an opportunity to show a family that stays connected during a very difficult time.

W&H: Did you always have it in mind that you were going to direct the film?  Was that a hard sell to investors?

SF: I did always know and say that I would direct this film. That’s the advantage to writing your own material – you can attach yourself to your script and no one can take it away from you. It’s why I will always try and write my own material. I also prepared a large visual scrapbook inspired by Bruce Block’s book on visual storytelling which I showed to the investors and producers. It had photographs of all of my ideas on tone, camera movement, color, space and lines. It gave them confidence in me as a filmmaker.

W&H: Some of the strongest moments in the film are the silent ones- how hard was it to keep those moments in?

SF: It was difficult. There is one shot in the film that lasts for over two minutes and we never cut away from it. I met a bit of resistance to it for sure but I was very steadfast in my reasons for wanting it in the film. For me the actors body language alone set up their broken family dynamic – it was also some of Pierce’s best work. I pushed really hard for that shot to stay in the film and it was a risk. As a first time director it’s hard to make passionate cases for things when you really have no idea if it will work or not – you’re just going off your gut. I’m just thankful my producers supported me and let me keep it in the movie. I’ve been studying directing with Judith Weston and we did a wonderful exercise in her class where we had actors perform one of our scenes without using dialogue – it was very surprising to see how much could be accomplished with just looks and how tempting it is as a writer to overwrite scenes.

W&H: How bizarre must it have been to have your film get into Sundance the year that your star Carey Mulligan became the “it” girl of the festival. Did it help your film?

SF: I think Carey helped our film tremendously. It was incredibly gratifying to watch people fall in love with her at Sundance. She so deserves it. We went into Sundance with two movie stars and came out with three which was wonderful.

W&H: It’s been over a year since the film debuted at Sundance.  Talk a bit about how you sold the film and the decision to release it now.

SF: We were lucky enough to multiple offers at Sundance and we decided to go with Senator because of Mark Urman’s incredible passion for the film.  Senator went out of business a few months later which was heartbreaking, but luckily, Mark formed a new company, Paladin, and we kept the film with him. The ironic thing is that even at Sundance we wanted to release “The Greatest” in March or April. We felt that the fall was too congested and if we waited until after “An Education” was released we could capitalize on Carey’s incredible performance and budding success.

W&H: Do you think that Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar win will open up more opportunities for female directors?

SF: I hope so. I think part of the reason it took me so long to publicly call myself a director was because I didn’t have many female directors as role models. When I was in high school Steven Spielberg , James Cameron and Spike Lee were the household names.  Hopefully now Kathryn Bigelow will be one and young girls will start calling themselves directors a lot sooner than I did. Because that’s half the battle.

W&H: What are you doing next?

SF: I just finished shooting a drama about country music starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Leighton Meester and Garrett Hedlund in Nashville.  It will be released in the fall of this year by Sony Screengems.

W&H: What advice do you have for female directors?

SF: I think the smartest thing I did was to work with other women. I’ve only worked with women producers and it has always been an amazing experience. So my advice to the women reading this would be to work with and support other women!

More info: The Greatest

With all the hoopla over Kathryn Bigelow (as well the nomination for An Education as best picture) I missed another women directed film — The Milk of Sorrow directed by Claudia Llosa — which is up for the foreign film Oscar.

Not only is this film directed by a woman, it is about sexual violence against women in Peru.  Here is the description from IMDB:

Fausta is suffering from a rare disease called the Milk of Sorrow, which is transmitted through the breast milk of pregnant women who were abused or raped during or soon after pregnancy. While living in constant fear and confusion due to this disease, she must face the sudden death of her mother. She chooses to take drastic measures to not follow in her mother’s footsteps.

So here’s an example of a movie raising important issues — about women’s lives — that clearly works and is resonating.

It can be done.  I’ve got it saved in my netflix queue.

Peru film on sexual violence nominated for Oscar (AP via Yahoo)

This morning I have such a feeling of relief over Kathryn Bigelow’s nomination.  Since the Academy has such a shitty track record of honoring women, I thought in back of my mind that they just might give her (and us) the big finger.

But those thoughts have now been displaced, and the good news is that she got nominated.  The better news is that her film, The Hurt Locker — a film directed by a woman — got the same amount of nominations as Avatar — 9. I’m gonna go out on a limb (not very far out though) and say that no other female directed film has ever garnered that many nomination.

But in my joy and relief, I am still reminded of how far we have to go when I got these headlines in my in box describing the nominations:

From CNN: “Avatar,” “Up in the Air” among leading nominees at this year’s Academy Award nominations.”

From the Hollywood Reporter: “James Cameron, ‘Avatar’ among Oscar nominees”

The Hurt Locker got more noms than Up in the Air and was equal to Avatar.  So why doesn’t it rate a headline?

I know I’m nit picking but come on, when is this going to happen again?  When is a movie that is directed by a woman going to match nomination for nomination to the man who calls himself the king of the world?

So beyond her nod for directing which is momentous, lets look at the bigger picture in that her leadership, and yes it is leadership (which is always one of the reasons why women have a hard time with directing — men can’t see them as leading the troops aka the crew) has been rewarded with NINE nominations.

The narrative this morning has already been about the battle of the exes which is so gross and condescending to both of them.  So here is my thought on what the narrative should be: how a woman directed film can match a male directed film nomination for nomination and that gender shouldn’t matter.

Other thoughts:

3 of the 10 best picture nominations — Precious, An Education, The Blind Side — were for movies about women.

2 of the 10 best picture nominations were directed by women — An Education, The Hurt Locker.

3 of the 10 best picture nominations have female producers — District 9- Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers; An Education – Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers; Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire – Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers, and the producers on The Blind Side and The Hurt Locker still have to be determined.

4 Women were nominated in the best documentary feature category, though only one is nominated by herself.  Burma VJ – Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller; Food, Inc - Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein; The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers - Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith; Which Way Home – Rebecca Cammisa

Only one of the five nominees for best adapted screenplay has a woman: District 9 – Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell.

NO woman was nominated for original screenplay.

1 out of the 5 nominees for best actress is a woman of color:  Gabourey Sidibe for Precious.

2 out of the five nominees for best supporting actress are non-white: Penelope Cruz for Nine; Mo’Nique for Precious.

3 of the 5 best actress nominees are over 40: Meryl Streep; Sandra Bullock; Helen Mirren.

3 of the five films in the best documentary short subject and directed by women:
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant - Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert; Music by Prudence – Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett; Rabbit à la Berlin -Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

2 of the five film nominated for best achievement in editing have women: The Hurt Locker -Bob Murawski and Chris Innis; Inglourious Basterds – Sally Menke

No women were nominated as directors of animated features (or animated shorts), but two of those films Coraline and the Princess and the Frog were about girls.

Women got recognized in the areas of art direction, costume design, live action short film, sound editing, sound mixing,

Women were snubbed in the areas of cinematography, visual effects

Snubs: Bright Star only got a single nomination for costume design, and no Agnes Varda for The Beaches of Agnes

Other news: Meryl Streep just got her 16th nomination, the most ever for an actor

What are you happy or mad about?

Full list

Carey Mulligan

The National Board of Review (NBR)  handed out its awards for 2009 and Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air (which is opening in limited release today) took top honors.  NBR is a mysterious group.  Some film people, some folks not in the business at all.  Here’s how the Hollywood Reporter describes the group: “Voted by the 108-member organization, composed of film enthusiasts and academics,  the NBR Awards are an imprecise indicator of eventual Oscar-worthiness.”

Anna Kendrick

As for the other winners: Carey Mulligan was named best actress for An Education and Anna Kendrick was named best supporting actress for Up in the Air.  (Both are about 23)  Gabourey Sidibe got an “Breakthrough” award for Precious.

The list of the top ten included two women directed films, An Education (Lone Scherfig) and The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow.)

The group also made a list of their top 10 indie films and included on that were: Amreeka (Cherien Dabis) Humpday (Lynn Shelton) and Sugar (co-directed by Anna Boden.)

Up in the Air Wins NBR Best Picture (Hollywood Reporter)

If you read this blog regularly, you know that only three women have been nominated for a best directing Oscar in the 81 years that the Oscars have existed.  Zero wins, three nominations.  Based on a wikipedia count there have been 396 (one year 2 men were nominated together) total nominations and three for women.  That’s .75%.  Not even 1 percent.  Women have been nominated less than 1 percent of the time.  Shameful.

I wanted to learn a little bit about how the nomination process work in order to understand if and how we can get a woman — or multiple women — nominated this year.

First, in order to get a best director nomination you need to be nominated by that branch.  According to the folks at the Academy right now there are 367 members of that branch.  They of course do not share the names and also tell me they don’t do demographic breakdowns.  The winners are voted by the full Academy which currently has 5785 members.

Now there are a couple of ways to become a voting member.  According to the Academy site:

Danish director Lone Scherfig is one of several women being mentioned this year for a potential best director nomination for her critically acclaimed film An Education.  Here’s what I wrote earlier about the film.  She took some time to answer some questions on the road while doing publicity for the film.

Women &Hollywood: So here we are in 2009 and the issue of women directors is still a big issue.  Do you believe that work family balance is as big an issue for male directors in the same way as female directors?

Lone Scherfig: I think as a director you need to have such a strange combination of skills and no one can have all of them.  One is an ability is to be able to leave home for a while, stay up very late or do things that would harm your family life no matter what sex you are.  And maybe it’s easier for men to compromise more but it must be a big loss to them as well.  But the thing for me is that I started out very young and had my daughter quite late so it meant I had a career that was strong enough.  One regret is that I didn’t have my child earlier and had more children.  I’d encourage everyone to do that but you obviously have to pay a price for it.

W&H: Another thing I read is that you said you make films to maintain the language- please explain.

LS: In Denmark we have a state supported system in order to maintain out language so that’s how those films are financed.  It’s a privilege for a director because you are expected to do something that’s not primarily commercial — quality is the first priority — and that’s been really lovely for me because it has meant that I have gotten chances I would not have been able to get in a different system.  It’s also a handicap that the films cannot be seen by very many people because they would have to be subtitled like Italian for Beginners.

W&H: Some if the strongest female voices in directing have come from places where there is state sponsorship for films and here in the US we don’t have that system.  Do you believe that the state sponsored system has enabled you to have the type of career you have now?

LS: Yes I do.  I think it doesn’t only go for women it goes for anyone who is a minority when it comes to media access.  If you want films and media in general that reflect the real world you have to stay open for someone coming in the door to apply for that job who is not an obvious candidate.

W&H: Do you think it made a difference that there were two female producers on your film?

LS: No.  I know that they had talked about that because the writer is a man that it might make sense to have a female director.  But in general it doesn’t attract  me to a job at all when someone says that.  I am interested in projects where they want a good director rather than necessarily a female director.  I’m sure all women say that.  My films are not necessarily about my gender.  The reason why I am privileged enough to say that is that thank god there is a slightly older generation who have prepared that possibility for me.  I am very thankful to women who are 10 to 15 years older than I am that they stood up for someone like me to get those possibilities.

W&H: What women directors do you mean?

LS: Very often it’s women academics, female politicians, film writers.  It’s not the directors.  The directors I feel related to the most are male.  My mom would teach me to mend my dress and to cook like a proper mother and shared her love for the arts and films and literature, but it’s women who are slightly younger (than her) who fought the battle for women.  That combination is what I am really thankful for and that enriches my life immensely.

W&H: There were so many different educations happening and so I wanted to ask you which education do you feel closest to?

LS: I’m a bit like Jenny.  I totally share the appetite that she had for learning that might not be in the syllabus.  And that once she knows and can define what she loves then the education seems to be something that’s driven by appetite rather than duty or ambition.  The things you read and the things you see because you love them is the easiest and the best education to get.

The same thing happened to me.  When I was young when I found out that film was something I could make a career in and I got to university and later to film school and found myself surrounded by people who loved what I loved and that’s when I really got an education and finally did all my homework because I loved it.  That is a privilege.  Loving things does not necessarily mean you have a talent for it.  But I am trying to tell my own daughter that if she fnds something that she loves to do that the money will come.  That may be a false promse because not everyone has that privileged choice.

W&H: You talk a lot about your love for the character of David in the film played by Peter Sarsgaard.    I found him to be a transition figure because he opens doors to the coming revolution in terms of race and class and religion and he provides all the educations and never gets schooled in anything.  Why are you so fond of David?

LS: That’s a brilliant and interesting way you are putting it.  I didn’t think of that.  I think one key for me to all of the characters has been what is that person’s relation to an education.  That’s how I started all the conversations with all the actors and in David’s case he is someone who wants the life he could have had he had an education which he did not have access to.  He doesn’t feel he is lying, he’s just saying what he wants to say and what he believes is right at the moment.  I know that’s how Peter saw him as well.  Neither Peter nor I had any problems in liking him and I always feel that I want to defend David.  You get seduced the way Jenny and her parents are.  Peter says that when David is with Jenny he can get the childhood he never had.  That being said Peter is so experienced for his age and the way he plays his cards when we’ve shot the film out of sequence of course, the way more and more of David’s flaws are revealed is really elegant.  He’s technically and structurally such a skilled actor but the acting is completely emotional and spontaneous and of the moment.  I didn’t cast him.  It came as such a fringe benefit that I was able to work with the best actor.  He was on board the film before I was.

W&H: What is it like for women directors in Denmark?

LS: Much better that probably anywhere else.  I have directed the most commercial Scandinavian film except maybe now The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has done better.  Susanne Bier my friend and colleague has directed the most commercial Danish film.  She and I are very respected and we get many chances.  They’ve let me experiment sometimes to a degree of irresponsibility.  It’s our films that get into Sundance.  We get huge support compared to other countries but the money still ends up in the pockets of men.

W&H: What do you mean?

LS: It is still the men who own all the equipment, the men who make the money but there are a lot of female producers and production designers and directors in Denmark.  In Sweden there is a system where the state would add something like $200,000 to the budget if the director is a woman and we really disapprove of that.  We think it is humiliating.  Sweden is much more feminist and more political and less pragmatic and in Sweden you get a completely different kind of respect.  But we just don’t want that.  When I read interviews with some of the other women directors coming out of Denmark they react the same way.  We want to work because we know how to do the work.

W&H: Why do you think the film has touched such a nerve with people?

LS: I’m hoping it’s the integrity.  That it’s a film that is accessible and does invite you into a world where you haven’t been and makes you think thoughts you haven’t thought yet.  I am so happy that it seems there is space for this film.  I have to thank the press because we really need your help in explaining what the film is about because it’s not that easy to explain.

W&H: Now that you are getting such great notices for your work have you gotten a lot of offers for your next projects?

LS: My only hope is that because it looks like this film is going to land on both legs that means I will get better scripts.  My fuss is not where the script comes from or who produces it but the content and the characters.

W&H: Did you have to fight to get this script?

LS: Yes.  I had to fight pretty hard but it many be because I am Danish and not English.  I didn’t know the rules of the game.  I don’t sell myself very hard.  I think that Nick Hornby (film writer) and I have something tonally in common and that his novels and my films are related.  The good thing about being foreign is that when people hire you as a foreigner they expect that you will influence the film with something that comes from a different culture and that gives you more artistic freedom.

W&H: Lastly, the obligatory Carey Mulligan question.  Why has this young woman just taken off?  Is it that it just seems so like such a natural?

LS: She is a natural and the one main reason for casting her is that there is no phoniness about her.  She’s reached a point now where you can’t say she doesn’t have an acting education anymore- she’s worked so hard.  At that time (we made the film) she had done very little.  She makes good choices is super disciplined when it comes to preparing.  She’s strong and has the talent to be able to carry a film not just play a part.  I don’t think people will be disappointed when they see the film.  It’s tricky when there is such buzz around someone whose work you have not even seen yet.  But I am so happy because the film gets so much more attention.

An Education is now playing around the country.

One might not think that a story about a 16 year old girl’s seduction by an older man is a movie parents might take their 13 year old son to see, but I found AN EDUCATION, a great opportunity for complex, “coming-of-age” conversations in both life and fiction. It was fascinating to discuss the film with our son.  The lens through which he viewed the story is very different from that of an adult.  He brought no immediate  prejudice to the narrative since life experience has not yet taught him that the disparity in age alone was a sufficient indicator that the relationship was doomed, if not downright dangerous, from the onset.  Through his innocent eyes, he saw only David’s charms, beautifully played by Peter Sarsgaard, instead of the reptilian patience of a predatory deviant.  Only when our son saw the heartbreak that revealed David’s true character did he come to understand that all the generosities lavished upon Jenny, fully realized by Carey Mulligan, had been distractions from the truth.

As a feminist mom, my big ax to grind in popular culture is vulgarism.  I don’t want my son to grow up one more immature, boob-obsessed male with little understanding or appreciation of a female’s character or her anatomy and so I appreciated that the film did not weigh the impact of Jenny’s transgression on the loss of her virginity alone.  Yes, the headmistress, a wonderful Emma Thompson, alluded to the fact that a non-virgin would not have a place in her school, but no one else, including her own parents, highlighted the loss of her virginity as the sole focus of her misguidedness. We are a culture that had devoted entire movies to plots revolving around losing one’s virginity, often stories that minimize this precious bridge to adulthood as something a character wants to get or get rid of.  But in AN EDUCATION, betrayal was the true ruiner and I was glad for our son to see a movie that certainly did not make light of her loss but placed the emphasis on a broader set of values of which her virginity was only a part.

AN EDUCATION heartily has my Feminist Mom’s approval, however I don’t recommend it for every 13 year old and while I am often at odds with the rating system, I do believe that the MPAA got this PG-13 designation right. There is a significant amount of frank sexuality that is disturbing in the film.  David’s peccadilloes include behavior such as baby talk, voyeurism and and using an inanimate object to de-flower Jenny, in order to “get the icky part over with”.  These moments could be uncomfortable for some families yet I believe they are important to talk about. The tip-offs to David’s character flaws are not readily obvious to a teenager. They may not understand that his objectification, infantilization and fear of women is not healthy even though it is pervasive and often acceptable in media. This is exactly where I believe parents have the opportunity to talk to their kids about real intimacy and mature relationships.

At the end of the film, Jenny visits her teacher and begs her to help get back on track with her education.  Seeing Miss Stubb‘s (a wonderful performance by Olivia Williams) sensual, bohemian apartment is a pivotal moment of awakening in Jenny, one in which she senses that “savoir faire” can be so much more than jazz clubs and sexy dresses.  I was impressed that our son commented about that scene and stated that he thought that the filmmakers might have gone further to alter the teacher’s school-marmish appearance as well.  He felt that the matronly glasses should come off, and that she might wear something pretty and feminine to further demonstrate hope and love of life.  But he doesn’t have history to clue him in that her slim, black pants and tight bun, were drenched in arty relevance and that any minute she might have let her hair down and danced to the primitive beat.  I was simply delighted that our baseball-playing,13 year old son, who would have much preferred seeing a film filled with blood and gore, grasped that delicate moment of Jenny’s transformation.

This wonderful film, directed by Ms. Lone Scherfig, was crafted with a delicate touch and a sophisticated, psychological sensibility. I was also dazzled by the performance and characterization of Helen, played by the transcendent Rosemund Pike, as a woman whose Barbie Doll looks don’t completely conceal her shorted circuitry. Along with Dominic Cooper as Danny, their characters enliven the film with a complicated resonance warranting a movie of their own.

My only slight quibble with the film are the very last lines of voice-over in which Jenny now makes herself the myth maker, delivering what boys want, the fantasy of the untouched female.  It tarnished my version of Jenny the truth-seeker, but perhaps that is exactly the point.  In any case, I’m thankful for a thoughtful, provocative film, one that provided many interesting conversations for his feminist mom.

The Toronto Film Festival kicked off this week and there are some very special and excellent films about young women that are getting a lot of notice.  It seems that young women coming of age has emerged as one of the themes of the festival.  The great thing is that all the films look so cool and are getting great notices.

Here’s what Cameron Bailey the festival’s co-director said to IndieWire last week:

“There’s been some really great films about the coming of age of young women,” he said. “It began probably at Sundance with films like ‘An Education’ and ‘Precious’ – two very different approaches to that turf – and then at Cannes in films like ‘Fish Tank.’  With ‘Cracks’ and ‘Tanner Hall’ – two new films that Toronto has – we see [those themes] picked up again.  It’s sometimes with women directors, and sometimes with men, but in every case you’re seeing a kind of new approach to the coming-of-age story. The coming-of-age story of a young man is kind of a staple in the movies, but I think we’re seeing filmmakers pay more attention to how young women come of age and what they’re going through.”

As he says- the coming of age for young men is so common and finally we are starting to pay attention to young women. FINALLY.

Even more important is that the conversation about both Precious and An Education are just beginning as they both get ready to roll out.  I am also going to throw Bright Star in here as a woman’s coming of age story.  Even though it’s basically a love story the growth of Fanny in the relationship and what she has to endure and live with after the death of her beloved is one of those life changing moments.  All three films are potential Oscar bait so I for one am psyched for these films and themes to be a part of our cultural conversation.

Another of the post-Cannes write ups include a supposition that 2009 might be a year where a woman could get a best director nod which would be the first since Sophia Coppola in 2003 for Lost in Translation.  (H/T to Guy Lodge from In Contention for even raising the question.)

Potential contenders include:

Kathryn Bigelow

Jane Campion (New Zealand) – Bright Star- being released by Bob Berney’s (Picturehouse) new company on September 18.  She’s the one with a pedigree and the movie fared quite well out of Cannes.

Lone Scherfig (Denmark) – An Education- did very well at Sundance starring this year’s “it” girl Carey Mulligan.  Will be release this fall.

Kathryn Bigelow (US)- The Hurt Locker- will an Iraq war film really work and will it be the one directed by a woman?  Opens on June 26.

Mira Nair (India) – Amelia- Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhardt.  Opens October 23rd.

Also mentioned are Nora Ephron (US) for Julia & Julia, Andrea Arnold (Scotland) for Fish Tank (didn’t know it had distribution.)  I would also throw Nancy Meyers (US) for her Christmas release with Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin.

Could this be a breakthrough year for women directed films?  If yes, will it have any long term effects or would it be dismissed as a fluke.  I don’t want to get up my hopes too early but just the fact that women are being thought of this way so early in the year is heartening.

Any other contenders I’m missing?

Could female directors hit Oscar paydirt this year?