Women in Entertainment

Introducing western audiences to Indonesian culture is, in itself, fascinating. But there’s something unique about the way Kamila Andini sees her milieu.

With screenings at 160 film festivals worldwide and 23 awards wins already, Suzannah Mirghani, the filmmaker behind the short film Al-Sit, has catapulted onto the world stage of cinema. As she steps into the spotlight, Mirghani is bringing with her a team of actors and crewmembers from her home country of Sudan and potentially heralding a new dawn for Sudanese film.

She is a superhero, but she is a human being superhero because, of course, she cried. Who wouldn't have cried? And then she just decided to wipe her tears off and go to work.

Namibian producer/director Desiree Kahikopo-Meiffret’s Award-winning film, The White Line, is also her debut. It deals with a painful time in former Southwest Africa’s history when Namibia was ruled by Apartheid.

Women made up 39% of directors in 2020. While that number reflects gender gains in the field when placed in the perspective of the fact that women make up 51% of the general population – not so much.

Although women still face considerable challenges to get their movies greenlit, Joanna Hogg has made a sequel to her breakout hit, The Souvenir. The story is about a young film student whose love is not enough to save a charismatic addict.

The year is 1361, and a very young Margrete is witnessing the dead and wounded soldiers on the battlefield of Visby. Cut to 1402, Margrete (played by Danish actress Trine Dyrholm), has become Queen Margrete of Denmark and is negotiating with Norwegians and Swedes to create peace in the Nordic countries.

Biodun Stephen has a really big female fan base. But the Nigerian filmmaker does not intentionally tell stories to cater to a female audience.

Dakar-based Pamela Diop holds a Master’s degree in film and television production and management, she worked with director Jean Luc Herbulot, who is also the CCO of the company, to create Saloum. In the film’s opening scene three Africans with guns are escaping with a white man.

It was very clear to Gaby Chiappe that the lead character in AMC’s The Beast Must Die would have to be a woman. The screenwriter, who was about to adapt Nicholas Blake’s 1938 novel into a TV thriller series, felt that the story about a parent who loses a child to a traffic accident would be easier for her to relate to if the character were a woman.