Female Directors Get a Boost From Anonymous 'Alice Initiative'
Would film studios hire more female directors if they had a list of talented women at their fingertips? That’s what the people behind the Alice Initiative are hoping. A list of 30 established female directors who have yet to helm a studio film, the Alice Initiative hopes to do for these women what the Black List has done for up-and-coming screenwriters: bring them to the attention of studio execs with hiring power. (The Black List, an annual survey of Hollywood executives’ favorite unproduced screenplays, has helped countless writers break into the business.)
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Like the Black List, the Alice Initiative is based on the recommendations of top Hollywood insiders. The inaugural list includes 20 feature film directors, along with 10 women who have yet to direct a feature but have established themselves in TV or short films. Among their picks: Diary of a Teenage Girl director Muriel Heller, Girl Walks Home Alone at Night director Ana Lily Amirpour, In a World… director Lake Bell, Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad director Michelle MacLaren, and Obvious Child director Gillian Robespierre. A master list on the Alice Initiative website seeks to index all working female directors, including established industry talent like Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow and indie favorites like Lynn Shelton (Your Sister’s Sister) and Leslye Headland (Sleeping with Other People).
Unlike the Black List (which is assembled by film executive Franklin Leonard), the Alice Initiative comes from an anonymous group of studio executives and producers, who want to avoid lobbying by agents to get their clients on the list. “By sharing this list, our hope is to shine a spotlight on this talented next wave of female directors,” they said in a statement to THR. “We hope producers and executives will use it as a reference as they build lists to fill open directing assignments to ensure no capable woman is left off.”
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The project is named for the first movie female director Alice Guy-Blaché, who made films in France and the U.S. from 1896 through 1920. Guy-Blaché’s work will be highlighted this month at New York City’s Anthology Film Archives, as part of the series “Women with a Movie Camera: Female Film Directors Before 1950.”
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