As we approach the holiday season, we are reminded of the Christmas movies that warm our hearts and have become movie classics.  Two specific examples are It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.  In this month’s newsletter, we focus on the actresses in the leading roles in those movies: Donna Reed and Natalie Wood.Read More

The first time that a woman was nominated for Best Cinematographer in the nine decades of Oscar history was in 2018.  In that year, Rachel Morrison finally broke the gender barrier and received, but did not win, the nomination for the movie Mudbound.  In 1980, Brianne Murphy became the first female cinematographer to be invited to join the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).  She remained the only woman member for fifteen years.  Today, only 4% of the members of ASC are women.  Let’s learn about these accomplished cinematographers.

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The Best Director Oscar was awarded for the first time at the inaugural Oscars in 1929. Since that time,
only five women have been nominated for Best Director, with just one win. The first woman wasn’t
nominated for Best Director until almost fifty years after the Academy Awards began – in 1977. That
was Lina Wertmuller. The first woman to win the Best Director Oscar was Kathryn Bigelow in
2010. Let’s learn more about these five amazing directors.

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Women film editors have excelled since the silent film era. One of the very first cutters (as editors were
known in the early days), Oscar contender Viola Lawrence started her editing work in 1912 and later
became supervising editor at Columbia Pictures. Oscar winner Anne Bauchens edited Cecil B.
DeMille’s films from 1915 until 1956. Many women followed in the footsteps of these film editing
legends.

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Early women directors Alice Guy-Blaché, Lois Weber and Dorothy Arzner developed significant techniques that are used in filmmaking today.  Let’s learn about these remarkable women in this month’s ENewsletter and their contributions to the movies.Read More