director

In the summer 1947 Edward Dmytryk, known as Mr. RKO, was riding high on the wave of the recent success of his latest picture Crossfire.

“I grew up around a lot of women who have followed their dreams,” says Kitty Green, a previous AACTA winner for Best Feature-Length Documentary and now director and writer of The Assistant, starring Julia Garner and Matthew Macfadyen, which covers a day in the life of a young assistant working for an exploitive and predatory executive. Originally conceived as a project on consent and institutional power, the film shifted focus when the Harvey Weinstein story broke.

“Women head up 69% of key departments on the show,” says Workin' Moms' multi-hyphenate  Catherine Reitman, who conceptualized the idea of a series dealing with realistic, flawed women, struggling with the real issues that undo 51% of the population and make women feel alone and unworthy. She executes this task with humor and honesty.

“My closest allies are indispensable. My producing partner, Anne Rosellini, and I can communicate with honesty, so I don't have to compromise with what I tell her and what I really want to do.

“I’m a pusher,” says Pamela B. Green, director of the documentary: Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, the first director-male or female - to introduce the concept of fictional storytelling to moving pictures, and who went on to become the first woman studio head.

Of several European directors who parlayed their success in Europe after the Second World War into a Hollywood career, Forman was arguably the most prominent, successful and consistent. His signature early Czech movie, Loves of a Blonde (1967) was nominated for Best Foreign Language Motion Picture by both the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Academy of Motion Pictures.

“I am so excited to see women and women of color as directors, making strides, and getting to work,” says Zetna Fuentes, director of the 7th episode of Snowfall, the FX series that chronicles the proliferation of cocaine in LA’s inner city and the connection to the CIA in its quest to fund a proxy war in Central America. The series involves a diverse cast, and is in two languages, with subtitled Spanish dialogues.

“I felt more experienced and more correct for the job than many people before me. ” Notes Patty Jenkins, the director of Wonder Woman, which has already garnered $573 million world wide and established itself as benchmark for female driven blockbusters.

The opening of The Rider - winner, with A Ciambra, of the Directors Fortnight-  focuses on a horse’s mane, spreading and floating in slow motion as the animal bucks and whinnies. It’s an indication that this cowboy story is going to be told differently and hints at the visuals to come that capture the vast open spaces and rugged isolation of South Dakota.

I Love Dick. The very title titillates.