6 Sofia Coppola

     Paramount Pictures

Sofia Coppola has spent her entire life in the film industry. Her father is, of course, legendary director Francis Ford Coppola. In fact, Sofia made her film debut before she was a year old, appearing in her father’s film The Godfather. Sofia made a big splash with her directorial debut, 1999’s The Virgin Suicides. In 2003, she wrote and directed Lost In Translation and won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Stylistically, Coppola has said that every film she does influences the next one. Her upbringing in the film industry has also played a huge part in influencing the choices she makes in her films; according to her, she makes films that she would have wanted to see when she was younger. One thing is certain, Sofia has set herself apart from her father and become one of the best directors – man or woman – in Hollywood.

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5 Kathryn Bigelow

     Rolex and Cinema

Kathryn Bigelow secured her spot in history when she became the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director for 2009’s The Hurt Locker, but she had been directing iconic films since the ’80s, including the cult classic Point Break. In 1990, Bigelow talked about women as directors in Hollywood, saying, “If there’s specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle for two reasons: I can’t change my gender, and I refuse to stop making movies. It’s irrelevant who or what directed a movie, the important thing is that you either respond to it or you don’t. There should be more women directing; I think there’s just not the awareness that it’s really possible. It is.” Stylistically, Bigelow is known for highlighting social issues including gender, race, and politics in her films, regardless of the genre, though she excels at tense, psychological action films.

4 Chloe Zhao

     AP

Chloe Zhao became the second woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director in 2021 for her film Nomadland. Zhao said that adapting the book into a screenplay and directing Nomadland felt like a natural next step after her first two films. It is similar in its structure and storytelling and the intimate look it takes as a small subset of people. Zhao, a Chinese native who was educated in the U.K. and U.S., made her feature film debut with Songs My Brother Taught Me followed by The Rider. Her style of filmmaking highlights the intricacies of the relationships between her characters, especially contrasted with the beauty of nature and the vast empty spaces of Westerns. More recently, she filmed the MCU picture Eternals.

3 Greta Gerwig

     Focus Features

Greta Gerwig is still relatively early in her filmmaking career, but she has been an incredible actor for some time, helping to kickstart the ‘mumblecore’ movement. She had a massive hit right out of the gate with her directorial debut Lady Bird in 2017, for which she also wrote the screenplay. Next, she helmed 2019’s Little Women, and both films were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture – proving that Gerwig has a unique perspective that grabs audiences and holds onto them until the final credits roll. In 2018, she was named one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People; she was just 35 at the time. Stylistically, Gerwig’s films tend to be based on her own experiences. She also believes films are about the actors, and encourages her casts to bring a bit of themselves and their own experiences into their roles. Having been (and still being) an actor has helped her relate to her performers and bring out their best.

2 Ava DuVernay

     Vogue / Prakash Shroff

Filmmaker Ava DuVernay has a few “firsts” on her resume. In 2012, she was the first Black woman to win the Sundance Film Festival’s directing award, for her stunning second film Middle of Nowhere. Then, in 2018, her film A Wrinkle in Time became the first live-action film directed by a Black woman to break $100 million at the box office. She received critical acclaim for Netflix’s When They See Us, based on the trial and conviction of the Central Park 5, which was nominated for a whopping 16 Emmy Awards. She grew up in Los Angeles and spent summers visiting her father in Selma, Alabama, an experience she has said influenced the making of Selma. DuVernay came to directing in her 30s after a career as a journalist, notably covering the O.J. Simpson murder trial. DuVernay’s films explore the experience of being Black in America, particularly in the dynamic of families and of Black women’s experiences in an often racist, patriarchal society. She also frequently explores the injustices that affect Black families and communities, as seen in her documentary 13th.

1 Patty Jenkins

     Warner Media

These days, Patty Jenkins is known as the woman who made a blockbuster female-driven superhero movie that grossed nearly a billion dollars worldwide, with 2017’s Wonder Woman (a title which aptly describes Jenkins herself); she also helmed the sequel Wonder Woman 1984. However, her very first feature film was 2003’s Monster, the film that won Charlize Theron an Academy Award for her portrayal of serial killer Aileen Wuornos. Jenkins made a series waves with that provocative film, winning the Independent Spirit Award’s Best First Feature. In fact those three films are the only three features she’s directed so far, along with her incredibly strong television work mainly directing engaging pilots for shows like The Killing. Nonetheless, Jenkins has made an impression – she was ranked in sixth place on Time’s 2017 Person of the Year list. Stylistically, Jenkins’s ensures that her audience views the story through the main character (whether that’s Aileen Wuornos or Diana Prince), and themes of the strength of women and an exploration of feminism and ethics run throughout her films. Hopefully there won’t be another 14-year gap before her fourth film.