Women of Cinema - Alice Guy-Blaché
I wonder who you think of when we talk about women in cinema.
Maybe legends like Meryl Streep, Helen Mirren, Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith? Or more recent breakthrough stars such as Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Lawrence and Mikey Maddison? I want to point you towards the women in cinema you won't have heard of.
In the last decade, there has been a long debate about the lack of women being nominated for certain awards, such as the Academy Award for "Best Director". So I've done a bit of looking into this. There is no lack of female directors, nor a lack of them working with big studios. It poses these questions: Would splitting the "Best Director" category into male and female be good for up and coming female directors, or detrimental? Is it fair to insist on at least on female nominee, if they are there out of necessity and not on merit? Why is it so difficult for female directors to be recognised at the highest level?
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, 2008), Chloe Zhao (Nomadland, 2020) and Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog, 2022) have all won the Academy Award for Directing, for the films mentioned. Zhao and Campion have nearly 350 awards between them, and 500 nominations (including wins) combined, so they are by far the most successful female directors.
Greta Gerwig is probably the biggest breakthrough name for women in directing at the moment - Barbie (2023), Little Women (2019) and her debut Lady Bird (2017) her three big films to date. Barbie was the summer blockbuster that took the world by storm and Little Women was a powerful and brilliant take on Louise May Alcott's famous novel, which I think deserved more than it got. Lady Bird made a big impact with its powerful message. The three mentioned films have all garnered hundreds of nominations (almost 100 per film), with dozens for Greta herself but very few for her directing. She was nominated for the Oscar for Lady Bird.
Actress Emerald Fennell has charged her way onto the directing scene with 2026's Wuthering Heights causing a stir, and Saltburn (2023) causing a wild storm of controversy. Emerald has written, produced and directed three films so far, Promising Young Woman (2020) being her debut, all with strong messages. They have all picked up huge numbers of awards and nominations, with Emerald being up for screenwriting and directing categories, but she isn't quite getting the attention of the highest level yet.
Nia DaCosta has been up there with the others since her major debut in 2018 with Little Woods and 2021's Candyman, when the MCU and Disney came calling in 2023 with The Marvels, which she co-wrote. Her 2025 drama Hedda wrought 13 award wins (one for Nia herself) among approximately 40 nominations across the globe, and it was voted third (3rd) best film of the year by the African American Film Critics Association. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, released at the beginning of 2026, has given her nominations but it isn't one the big award shows are interested in.
And they are just to name a few of many. Hollywood really started the ideal of where women should stand in the cinematic world - actors (male and female) had to have certain looks for certain roles, but this was particularly pushed on women. Notice how in the dramas of the 1940's and 50's, women are all incredibly pristine, glamorous and "made-up". During this period that ideal was taken on by society, and it didn't help women's already oppressed rights. The 1960's gave the rise to full-blooded feminism, and it is only very recently that women in filmmaking have been pushed to the forefront by those who aren't already Hollywood A-Listers.
But who was the first female director? When do you think she worked? Well...
Allow me to introduce you to Alice Guy-Blaché.
A French filmmaking pioneer, Alice made her first film, La Fée aux Choux (The Fairy of the Cabbages), in 1896 (remakes released in 1900 and a reimagining from 1902*) at 23 years old. The original is a lost film, sadly, as much of the silent era shorts are, but Alice is credited as the first female director and filmmaker. This is also credited as the "first fictional film with a scripted narrative".
*This video of Sage-Femme de Première Classe (Midwife to the Upper Class) is Alice Guy-Blaché's reimaged remake of La Fée aux Choux from 1902. Please be warned of the racial insensitivities within this film at 2:24. Please remember that this is a film of its time, and it may cause offence.
Alice would go on to create her own studio called Solax in 1910, which became the biggest pre-Hollywood era studio. This was after having worked for several years in another studio where she built on her experience. Her 1912 film, A Fool and His Money, is one of the earliest (if not the earliest) all African-American cast films in history. Records show she made around 1000 films, of which only 150 survive today. 22 are feature length. In a lot of cases, her male assistants or her business partner, cinematographer and husband Herbert Blaché, got the majority of the credit for her films, but she was the director and head of the business. Alice would go on to mentor and tutor the next major female director Lois Weber (1879-1939), who pioneered split-screen and double exposure and, alongside D. W. Griffith, became one of the silent era's biggest and most important directors.
Alice Guy-Blaché died in 1968, at 94 years old. She spent her retirement retelling her story to historians. Hers is a name that is not sung, and should be held high in the lights of Hollywood. Film studies and film history students, as well as any aspiring female filmmaker should read up on Alice and her career. It is a fascinating story, told in 2018's Be Natural documentary and I have barely touched the surface.
Sources and disclaimer -
I am not an expert, nor do I claim to be an expert. Opinions are mine and mine alone. I gather all my information and images from a variety of sources including, but not limited to: Google Searches, Youtube, ACMI, Wikipedia, San Francisco Silent Film Festival and IMDB.
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