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An impressive lineup of women-directed films in 2019 may increase the critically low number of female directors who made it onto the 2018 list of top films.
(EMPIRE NEWS NETWORK—ENN)— Successful women-directed movies in 2018 dropped 3 percent from the previous year.
According to a report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, only 8 percent of the top 250 films at the domestic box office had female directors. This is even lower than the 9 percent of female directors who made into 1998’s list of top films.
However, a slew of promising women-directed movies scheduled for release this year may help turn this statistic around for 2019.
New female-directed films range from action to Indy and are led by familiar and up-and-coming directors.
Captain Marvel was one of the most anticipated movies of 2019 and comes from co-directors Ryan Fleck and female filmmaker, Anna Boden. The two have previously worked together on multiple films such as Half Nelson and It’s Kind of a Funny Story.
Their newest project hit theaters on March 8 and scored a solid 82 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. The film takes place in the 90s and centers around a strong female protagonist who becomes one of the most powerful heroes in the universe.
Other female-directed films scheduled for release this year include The Sun Is Also a Star, a romantic coming-of-age film by Ry Russo-Young, and The Kitchen, a comedy directed by Andrea Berloff about three women who take over their husbands’ mob empire in the 1970s.
Disney fans will be happy to know that the highly-anticipated sequel, Frozen 2 will premiere on November 22, 2019. The film was co-directed by Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck—the same filmmakers who created the first movie.
Thanks to this impressive lineup of releases, an increase in the number of female-directed movies that make it into this year’s list of top films are promising. However, only time will tell if there will be an improvement from the critically low percentage of successful women-directed films in 2018.
