GERTA GERWIG
Little Women
Cast : Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, Meryl Streep, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, and Chris Cooper.
Release date : December 2019.
Greta Gerwig was originally hired to write the script for Little Women but owing to her successful directorial debut with Ladybird, Gerwig was brought on as director as well. The film is about the adventures of Jo March and her sisters through love, career etc. The movie which had a 40 million dollars budget has since grossed over $205 million dollars from the box office since it was released in December 2019.
The film received six nominations at the 92nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress (Ronan), Best Supporting Actress (Pugh), and Best Adapted Screenplay, and won for Best Costume Design. It also received five nominations at the 73rd British Academy Film Awards, winning for Best Costume Design, and two nominations at the 77th Golden Globe Awards.
CATHY YAN
Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
Cast: Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Rosie Perez, Chris Messina, Ella Jay Basco, Ali Wong
Release date: January 2020
This movie was directed by Cathy Yan and written by Christina Hodson. It stared stars like Margot Robbie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jurnee Smollett-Bell and so on. The film follows Harley Quinn as she joins forces with Helena Bertinelli, Dinah Lance, and Renee Montoya to save Cassandra Cain from Gotham City crime lord Black Mask.
Cathy Yan truly had an all-women ensemble at hand. Being one of the most popular comic book characters in DC’s cinematic universe, the film was made with a production budget of $84 million. Margot Robbie served as one of the producers along side Bryan Unkeless and Sue Kroll. Yan’s deft work behind the camera has ensured ticket sales as the film scored a global haul of around $192 million.
AVA DUVERNAY
When They See Us
Cast: Jharrel Jerome, Asante Blackk, Jovan Adepo, Michael K. Williams, Logan Marshall-Green, Joshua Jackson, Blair Underwood, Vera Farmiga, John Leguizamo, Felicity Huffman,
Release Date: May 2019
Ava Duvernay’s When They See Us, was nominated for 16 Emmy awards, making her and Beyoncé the first African American women in Primetime Emmy history to receive multiple nominations in their careers for directing.
The limited series was based on the events from the 1989 Central Park jogger case and explores the lives and families of the five male suspects who were falsely accused then prosecuted on charges related to the rape and assault of a woman in Central Park, New York City.
Ava DuVernay was the first African American woman to win Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival. She was nominated for a Best Director at Golden Globe awards, directed a film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, and directed a film with a budget over a $100 million. Her work has made her the highest grossing Black female director in American box office history.
NIKOLA CARO
Mulan
Cast: Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Gong Li, and Jet Li
Release date: March 2020
Nikola Jean Caro is a New Zealand film director and screenwriter. Her 2002 film Whale Rider was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals.
Her latest project, Mulan is a story of a young Chinese woman disguised as a man so she can go to war. Niki Caro is (unfortunately) only the second woman to be hired by Disney for a feature project with a budget higher than $100 million. Niki Caro was hired in 2017 as the director of the film, which made Mulan the second Disney film with a female director and a budget above $100 million following
LORENE SCAFARIA
Hustlers
Cast: Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Lili Reinhart, Lizzo, and Cardi B.
The plot follows a crew of strippers in New York City who begin to steal money by drugging stock traders and CEOs who visit their club, then running up their credit cards.
Scafaria wrote and directed the crime comedy film Hustlers, based on a New York Magazine article from 2015, “The Hustlers at Scores,” by Jessica Pressler. The film was a critical and commercial success.
After being chosen to direct, Scafaria spent two years casting for Hustlers. In August 2018, it was announced that Jennifer Lopez would star in the film. Lopez was Scafaria’s first choice to play Ramona, stating: “as soon as I was done, I realized, oh my God, Ramona is Jennifer Lopez, it has to be her.
PATTY JENKINS
Wonder Woman 1984
Cast: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen
Release date: June 2020
Patty Jenkins returns to direct the sequel after her wonderful performance in Wonder Woman, to guide Gal Gadot’s new adventure as a DC superhero. It is the sequel to 2017’s Wonder Woman and the ninth installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). The film is directed from a script she wrote with Geoff Johns and David Callaham, and a story by John and Jenkins.
According to Variety, Jenkins explained her vision behind the upcoming superhero action film, which is set in the ‘80s. “Real wire-work, real locations, and now, with modern technology, so what you see today is real people doing real stunts in those locations.” The film is set to hit theatres on the 5th of June.