There are always multiple narratives that come out of a festival as big as TIFF. This year, one of the through lines was the amazing films that had female directors.
TIFF consistently includes lots of films with women directors. Since the fest has many programs, there are a variety of sections where women-directed films can be shown. But this year it felt like there were many more higher profile movies with female directors than in the previous five years I’ve attended the fest. I’m not suggesting that there haven’t been great women-directed movies in previous years — there have. But we got some this year with bigger star-power and more attention and I think that people noticed.
The first film I saw at the fest was Dee Rees’ “Mudbound.” The ambitious drama premiered at Sundance, where it sold to Netflix in the biggest deal out of the fest. My understanding is that the streaming network will be opening the film in theaters as well, and plans to invest in the film during awards season. That feels like a great investment, as it was one of the best — if not the single best — film I saw at the festival.
Rees showed her tremendous talent with “Pariah” and “Bessie,” but with “Mudbound” she was able to elevate her storytelling to a whole different level. Rarely do women, and particularly women of color, have the opportunity to tell epic stories. But damn, this movie is epic, complemented with extraordinary acting all around. It’s a post-WWII period piece about race that feels so relevant to today.
Words will not do justice to my love for “Lady Bird,” written and directed by Greta Gerwig. She is such a natural talent and I have never seen Saiorse Ronan — who is always amazing — be better. We always expect girls to be nice young ladies, or to rise above, or to be quiet, and Lady Bird can’t and won’t fit into those boxes. She’s a hot mess and no matter what she does, she’s gonna be a beautiful, authentic hot mess because that’s what it’s like to be 17. Laurie Metcalf is stupendous as her mom and Tracy Letts does great work as her dad. “Lady Bird” is a joy to behold and Gerwig is an immense talent that will only continue to get better and better.
Two other period pieces that I enjoyed were “Mary Shelley,” directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, and “Woman Walks Ahead,” directed by Susanna White. Both were about female artists. The former stars Elle Fanning as the woman who conjured up the “Frankenstein” through her deep loneliness. She was not able to put her name on her novel when it was first published because no one would believe a woman, especially such a young woman, could write such a significant story. It was thought that her husband Percy Shelley wrote the book, but after some time her authorship was established and she was able to be acknowledged as the brilliant writer she was.
“Woman Walks Ahead” is the story of Catherine Weldon, a Brooklyn artist who traveled west to paint Sitting Bull. This movie is a slow burn as Catherine, played by a reserved Jessica Chastain, and Sitting Bull, played by Michael Greyeyes, become closer and begin to trust each other. Weldon uses her privilege as a white woman to intercede with the soldiers who are slowly starving the Native Americans and stealing their land. The film culminates right before the Battle of Wounded Knee where the Sioux were massacred by the U.S. Army.
“Battle of the Sexes,” co-directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, is the film that made me want to get up and protest. It retells the epic tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs, who are played amazingly by Emma Stone and Steve Carell. This movie brings us inside the struggles that Billie Jean was dealing with at the time — the personal, dealing with her sexuality, and the professional, starting a new tour for women in the fight for equal rights on the court.
There’s a lot of awards chatter surrounding “Mudbound,” “Lady Bird,” and “Battle of the Sexes,” and I’ve heard many speculate that they could each land Best Picture and Best Director nods. They’re all deserving, but this is an uphill battle since just four women have ever been nominated for Best Director at the Oscars: Lina Wertmüller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, and Kathryn Bigelow. Bigelow is the only woman who has won. The make up of the directing branch has changed over the last two years, but it will still be a big hurdle for one woman, let alone two or three, to get nominated.
