I'm hoping two female directors get Best Picture or Best Director nominations next year. The late Adrienne Shelley has a great chance for WAITRESS, and I'd like to see Sarah Polley get recognized for AWAY FROM HER. They are both terrific movies.

Where is the video that you click on to watch?

I see a headline and tease, and I see text for adding the link to your own page, but I don't see any video.

Am I missing something?

have made a FEW good movies.

Let's not get carried away here with the sub-title of the article.

Most movies I see women making are navel-gazing hate screeds against society or third rate knockoffs of flicks previously made by guys.

The few exceptions, Lost in Translation is the only one I can think of at the moment, prove the rule.

I think you can say the same thing about the vast majority of male directors.

But you just can't let an opportunity to show your misogyny pass by, can you?

For action directors, what about Kathryn Bigelow who did Strange Days, Point Break, K-19: The Widowmaker? Her portfolio isn't big but does go against the grain for the "typical" woman director.

Based on IMDB, in 2008 she's directing a war/drama film with Ralph Fiennes and Guy Pearce about Iraq.

Since I don't exactly know how directors get attached to pictures.

If you're a female director and you make an emotional movie, like Boys Don't Cry or a romantic comedy like Waitress and it works and is received well, then producers would think it would be safe to hand you similar projects. Hollywood is still a fairly conservative town when it comes to handing out money.

Are action flicks never ever offered to women directors? If you turn down work, any work, how likely are you to be offered more work when you don't have a large sucessful body of work behind you already?

All I can think is that if a female director wants a lot of work, she's probably going to have to do projects she's not very interested in. Then if she can make money on those, then she will have more artisitic freedom and more ability to find producers than waiting for producers to find her.

Is it similar to acting, that if you want to be particular about your projects, you are going to have to do a lot of crappy movies that make money, have name recognition then be picky about your work?

I cannot accept your comment

I think you can say the same thing about the vast majority of male directors.

But you just can't let an opportunity to show your misogyny pass by, can you?

Because you equate ANY criticism or commentary about women as being equal to hating women.

Sorry, but men and women are equal, women are not above men. Thus they are also open to criticism.

Does this bother you? If so, you need remedial training to correct your mental deficiency.

As for male directors, 95-100 of the top 100 films of all time have been directed by men. If you think this is because of some old boys club, may I remind you that many of the top 100 were from outside the traditional movie production system, independents as it were.

Also, there has not been an uptick in the number of female directed films of any note recently, even though there are scads of female directors and tons of very wealthy women who would gladly fund production of GOOD FILMS. That is the problem, name a good female director who someone is willing to bankroll. Even a rich FEMALE is not willing to bankroll crap.

I forgot Elizabeth Avellan, she is a very talented film producer for other women to emulate.

Sarah Polley's "Away From Her"

Catherine Breillat's "The Last Mistress"

Zoe Cassavates' "Broken English"

Kasi Lemmons' "Talk to Me"

Marjane Satrapi's "Persepolis"

That's just the last five months.

Notable women directors currently working or having made a film in the last few years: Claire Denis, Sofia Coppola, Gillian Armstrong, Lynne Stopkewich, Lynne Ramsay, Saana Hamri, Carine Adler, Mira Nair, Patty Jenkins, Joey Lauren Adams, Mary Harron . . .

You don't have to like all of these directors. But to say no women directors have done anything of note recently is just plain ignorance

She made some pretty good films -- though I didn't much care for the overhyped "The Piano." (I'm more of a "Sweetie" and "Angel at My Table" fan.) Plus, Campion's sister Anna made a really good movie ("Loaded") about a party where the people take LSD and then somebody accidentally dies.

I also think if you're going to make a deal about women directors, you really ought to discuss women screenwriters. Screenwriting is where fresh perspectives and stories begin. There are a ton of women screenwriters working in Hollywood.

I feel sorry for women directors who have this burden placed on them to tell "women's stories" from a "woman's perspective." Their first priority should be to TELL A GOOD STORY, not to deliver stylistic or sociological treatises on how a woman's point of view is different from a man's.

I am not a fan of Penny Marshall's "A League of Their Own," for example, because it seems like exactly the kind of movie that is going overboard trying to show how much a female director can bring to the table. (I kind of feel that way about "The Piano" as well.)

Then there's Mimi Leder. Anybody see "Pay It Forward"? Ugh... She borrowed it backward.

I see this as yet another one of Salon's manufactured controversies, trumped up for effect. Women directors have plenty of opportunities. They can thrive in Hollywood and beyond -- when they're good at what they do. There's sexism built into the system just like it's built in everywhere else, but there have been incrimental improvements. It's a fickle business, though, so the movies had damn well better make some money.

That's another potential problem with women directors: The genres they gravitate toward don't tend to be the stuff of big box-office. It's more nichey. "Waitress" made an excellent profit in the indie market, but that sort of thing would never sell out a multiplex. And good luck getting any guy to see anything directed by Nancy Meyers!

The film industry is big enough to provide opportunities to women, men, gays, blacks, Indians, Latinos and anybody else (even Canadians!) who has some talent and a story worth telling.

Here are some women-directed films I dig:

-- "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"/"Clueless": Amy Heckerling

-- "Me and You and Everyone We Know": Miranda July

-- "Point Break"/"Near Dark"/"The Weight of Water": Kathryn Bigelow

-- "Guinevere": Audrey Wells

-- "Love Serenade": Shirley Barrett (this movie KICKS ASS)

-- "Clockwatchers": Jill Sprecher

-- "I've Heard the Mermaids Singing"/"Mansfield Park": Patricia Rozema

-- "Vagabond": Agnes Varda

-- "Bride & Prejudice" (a girlfriend made me watch this 3 times! I think she was trying to brainwash me!): Gurinder Chadha

-- "Children of a Lesser God": Randa Haines

-- "Look at Ze Vunderful German Athletes Running Und Jumping for Der Fuhrer!": Leni Reifenstahl

-- "Bridget Jones Diary": Sharon Maguire

-- "Desperately Seeking Susan"/"Making Mr. Right": Susan Seidelman. (A lot of people hated the latter film, but it's worth seeing just for the insane Ann Magnuson/John Malkovich combination...plus Malkovich plays a robot who proves that the only good men are androids. Take that, Cherry 2000!)

-- "Dogfight": Nancy Savoca (a GREAT film)

-- "Entre Nous" ("Between Us"): Diane Kurys

-- "Europa Europa"/"The Secret Garden": Agniezska Holland

-- "Girlfight": Karyn Kusama (her action flick Aeon Flux didn't do so well though...)

-- "American Dream"/"Shut Up & Sing": Barbara Kopple (the latter film KICKS ASS)

-- "Heaven": Diane Keaton (really creepy movie about religion!)

-- "Monster": Patty Jenkins (I thought it was OK but Charlize "look! I can be ugly!" Theron was terrific)

-- "Ravenous": Antonia Bird (creepy-ass movie with really great soundtrack music)

-- "Orlando": Sally Potter (makes more sense if you're high or actually read the book, which I had to for a class)

-- "Whale Rider": Niki Caro -- wheeee! (nice music by Lisa Gerrard too)

-- "Thirteen": Catherine Hardwicke

-- "Big": Penny Marshall (she didn't always suck...)

-- most of Sofia Coppola's stuff, though with reservations

-- "Born Into Brothls": Zana Briskie

-- "Frida": Julie Taymor (bonus points for Salma Hayek nekkidness)

I've barely gotten started...

My point is there are a LOT of female directors out there. What does Stephanie Zacharek want? How many would be enough? (And has Zacharek seen even half of the above films?)