The ongoing fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has forced significant changes to the 2021 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, along with the rest of the world. But for the fourth consecutive year, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) presented its panel this year titled: “Women Breaking Barriers: An Industry Shift” panel – in an exclusively virtual presentation on Saturday, January 30.

Hosted by HFPA members Elisabeth Sereda and Silvia Bizio, this year’s panelists represented a lively and intriguing cross-section of respected members of the entertainment industry, including three performers – actress Halle Berry, actress Robin Wright, and singer-songwriter Sia – each primed to see the release of their feature directorial debuts. Grammy Award-nominated singer Andra Day, who makes her onscreen debut as the titular legendary jazz and swing singer in The United States vs. Billie Holiday, and Zendaya, fresh off an Emmy Award win for Euphoria, completed the roster of professional talent for the hour-long conversation.

Bizio opened the panel with a brief Q&A with Sundance Institute Executive Director Keri Putnam, including an affirmation of the HFPA’s $175,000 grant to the Sundance Institute, with $50,000 of that total going to the support the organization’s women’s programs. Putnam acknowledged the unique challenges of this year’s festival, including its pivot to a mostly online event, but said that they were only very slightly down from the 15,000 cumulative submissions, between features and short films, which Sundance normally has. “We didn’t know at all what we’d receive once we started, but artists will find a way to create, and we’re extremely proud of the diversity in our program,” she said.

The focus then shifted to the aforementioned panelists, with Zendaya joining the group in progress, from her trailer on the set of the latest Spider-Man sequel, during a break in shooting. After some effusive expressions of mutual respect (“I’m going to try to keep myself from fan-girling out,” exclaimed Day), Berry talked about the difficulty in charting her way to Bruised, an MMA drama in which she stars.

“I finally came into my own power,” Berry noted, “not making apologies anymore, but instead demanding to have the same opportunities and the same rights as my white male peers. And it’s not to start arguments, but just to demand what we deserve. My whole focus now as a director is to tell stories … through our lens, because (as women) we really do have a different (perspective).”

While both Bruised and Wright’s Land, in which she also stars, filmed in late 2019, before the pandemic, each director found their respective post-production periods an enormous challenge. “My editor was in New York and I’m in L.A., so my biggest challenge was not being in the same room and creating that dynamic relationship,” said Berry. “I very much missed that collaboration, because (filmmaking) is about the people,” and in-person contact, Wright agreed. “So, I was on Zoom calls all day long, every day.”

An affable Sia, for her part, insisted Berry and Wright had still done yeoman’s work, because it took her three-and-a-half years to edit the musical drama Music, co-starring Kate Hudson and Leslie Odom, Jr. Sia also related an anecdote from development, when she was seeking financing for the script she co-wrote with children’s author Dallas Clayton. “I got told that I couldn’t cast a Black woman and Black man, because then it would be ‘a Black movie,’” she said. Thinking back on the moment, she characterized her acceptance of that logic – even though she was thrilled with Hudson and Odom – as being part of the problem, an outmoded way of thinking and viewing the world. ‘So, I’m learning,” she said, “and next time I’ll cast whomever I want.” 

For Day, stepping into the shoes of Billie Holiday wasn’t a challenge undertaken lightly. “I was nervous and said no multiple times, because I didn’t want to dishonor her legacy,” said the 36-year-old San Diego native. “Also, I really respect craft of acting. Sometimes you can jump into things and be good, but I feel like I’m a typical Capricorn, a researcher, and I wanted it to be great if I was gonna do it. I didn’t want to remake Lady Sings the Blues, I didn’t have the desire to retell a story that wasn’t a full picture of Billie Holiday’s life, because she truly is the godmother of soul, and, the way she was integrating audiences (at her shows), a genuine civil rights pioneer as well. So, I met with Lee (Daniels), and eventually the idea of vindicating her legacy became appealing to me.”

Zendaya’s latest project, Malcolm & Marie, a two-hander relationship drama in which she stars opposite John David Washington, was born “in the spirit of creativity but also gratitude,” according to its 24-year-old star and producer. Shot quickly and quietly during the COVID-19 lockdown last summer, “it was nerve-racking because this was the first time believing and investing in myself,” Zendaya said. “We wanted to get our Euphoria crew back to work, we felt if we could just take this small group of people and get them paid and taken care of, that would be ideal. So, I asked Sam (Levinson), ‘Can you write me something? Maybe we can even shoot it in my house,’ and then it was about finding ways to make sure that it was done safely, too, because that was the number one concern. It was a close-knit familial thing. …And crew members also received (profit participation) points on it, which is hopefully a model that can continue.”

One of the more interesting and heartening aspects of the panel was the embrace, both implicitly and explicitly, of the virtuous, pay-it-forward cycle of artistic expression – that the simple act of making personal work showcasing new and/or underrepresented points-of-view helps lead to more like-minded work getting made and seen by audiences, and thus inspiring new creators. “Art is reflective of what’s happening, but also … a precursor of what we desire for the future of the world to look like,” noted Day.

In one of several questions from online viewers wrapping up the panel, meanwhile, the directors all spoke to pushing themselves beyond ingrained self-doubts if not created then perhaps at least reinforced by entertainment industry attitudes. “I kept thinking, ‘Am I songwriter with just a few good ideas, or am I director?’” asked Sia. Berry and Sia both credited personal friends – and in the case of the former her relationship with producing partner Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas – with helping give them confidence to tackle directing. 

For Wright, it was her work as an actress, producer, and, eventually, episodic director on House of Cards that led to Land. “That show was my cinema school,” she said. “And it was the guys who encouraged me to do it. I had to prove myself for three seasons, starting with re-blocking scenes with directors who would come in, and in a sense co-directing some of those scenes.”