Wonderwomen

Ms. Duras was born in southern Vietnam and lost her father at age 4. The family savings of 20 years bought the family a small plot in Cambodia, but everything was lost in a single season's flooding. The disaster killed her mother as a result. After high school in Saigon, Ms. Duras left Indochina to study law in Paris. As a young woman, she worked as a secretary in France's Ministry of Colonies from 1935 to 1941, before becoming a writer. She wrote 34 novels from 1943 to 1993, and became an enduring part of Paris's intellectual elite. In addition to her writing, she also directed about 16 films. For the film India Song (1975), she won France's Cinema Academy Grand Prix. She claimed to have rescued French president François Mitterand during World War II, when he was a resistance fighter and remained a friend and unconditional campaigner. Her most noted novel is "L'Amant", the story of a girl, from a poor French family in Indochina, who becomes the mistress of a wealthy Indochinese notable's son.

Lynne Ramsay was born on 5 December 1969 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK. She is a director and writer, known for You Were Never Really Here (2017), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and Ratcatcher (1999). She was previously married to Rory Stewart Kinnear.

Danièle Huillet was born on 1 May 1936 in Paris, France. She was a director and editor, known for Class Relations (1984), Sicily! (1999) and The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968). She was married to Jean-Marie Straub. She died on 9 October 2006 in Cholet, Maine-et-Loire, France.

Maya Deren came to the USA in 1922 as Eleanora Derenkowsky. Together with her father Solomon Derenkowsky, a psychiatrist, and her mother Maria Fidler, an artist, she fled the Soviet Union. She studied journalism and political science at the Syracuse University in New York, finishing her BA at the New York University (NYU) in June 1936, and then received her MA in English literature from the Smith College in 1939.

In 1943, she made her first film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943), co-starring with Alexander Hammid. Through this association, at Hammid's suggestion, she changed her name to Maya, meaning "illusion." Overall, she made six short films and several incomplete films, including Witch's Cradle (1944) starring Marcel Duchamp.

Deren is the author of two books, "An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form, and Film" 1946 (reprinted in "The Legend of Maya Deren," vol 1, part 2) and "Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti" (1953)--a book that was made after her first trip to Haiti in 1947 and which is still considered one of the most useful on Haitian Voudoun. Deren wrote numerous articles on film and on Haiti. Maya Deren shot over 18,000 feet of film in Haiti from 1947 to 1954 on Haitian Voudoun, parts of which can be viewed in Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti (1993) made after her death by her then-husband Teiji Ito and his new wife Cherel Ito.

In 1947, Maya Deren became the first filmmaker to receive a Guggenheim grant for creative work in motion pictures. She wrote film theory, distributed her own films, traveled across the USA, and went to Cuba and Canada to promote her films using the lecture-demonstration format to teach film theory, and Voudoun and the interrelationship of magic, science, and religion. Deren established the Creative Film Foundation in the late 1950s to reward the achievements of independent filmmakers.

Moara Passoni is a Brazilian writer, director and producer living between São Paulo and New York City. "Extase", her first non-fiction feature film, premiered in the main competition of CPH:DOX 2020, which hallmarked Moara as "one of the great names of today". The film screened at MoMA Doc Fortnight 2021, Visions du Réel 2020 among others, receiving fabulous critiques and winning several awards, including the Prix D'Innovation Daniel Langlois at Festival du Cinema Nouveau, the Jury Award for best newcomers at the São Paulo International Film Festival and the Best Film Young Jury Award at Cinema Jove.

She served as a writer and producer for the Academy Award Nominee and Peabody winner "The Edge Of Democracy'', for which she was nominated for best narration/writing by The Critics' Choice Awards and the International Documentary Association.

Moara is New York State Council on the Arts fellow, an alumnus of La Fémis-Cannes Producing Atelier and La Fémis-Columbia TV Writing Atelier and Sundance Collab Writing Lab, and is developing her first narrative film with the support of ScriptLab-Torino Film Lab 2021. She was picked in 2020 as one of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine.

Moara graduated in Sociology, Anthropology, and Political Sciences at the University of São Paulo, studied Dance & Performance at PUC/SP in addition to Philosophy & Aesthetics at Paris 8. After finishing a master's in Film & Documentary at UNICAMP, she joined the MFA in Screenwriting-Directing at Columbia University where she is a current candidate.

Joanna Hogg was born on 20 March 1960 in London, England, UK. She is a director and writer, known for The Souvenir (2019), The Souvenir: Part II (2021) and Unrelated (2007).

Deborah Stratman is known for Last Things (2023), O'er the Land (2009) and The Illinois Parables (2016).

Tatyana Lioznova was born on 20 July 1924 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She was a director and assistant director, known for Three Poplars on Plyuschikha Street (1968), Karnaval (1982) and Konets sveta s posleduyushchim simpoziumom (1987). She died on 29 September 2011 in Moscow, Russia.

Yannick Bellon was born on 6 April 1924 in Biarritz, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. She was a director and writer, known for La femme de Jean (1974), Somewhere, Someone (1972) and The Cheat (1984). She was married to Henri Magnan. She died on 2 June 2019 in Paris, France.

Sofia Coppola was born on May 14, 1971 in New York City, New York, USA as Sofia Carmina Coppola. She is a director, known for Somewhere (2010), Lost in Translation (2003), and Marie Antoinette (2006). She has been married to Thomas Mars since August 27, 2011. They have two daughters, Romy and Cosima. She was previously married to Spike Jonze.

Liv Ullmann's father was a Norwegian engineer who used to work abroad, so as a child she lived in Tokyo, Canada, New York and Oslo. In the mid-1950s she made her stage debut and in 1957 made her film debut. She really became successful, however, when she began to work for Swedish director Ingmar Bergman in such films as Persona (1966), The Passion of Anna (1969) and Face to Face (1976). She also had a successful film career away from Bergman (The Abdication (1974), Dangerous Moves (1984).

Yuliya Solntseva was born on 7 August 1901 in Moscow, Russian Empire [now Russia]. She was a director and actress, known for Chronicle of Flaming Years (1961), Aelita, the Queen of Mars (1924) and Poem of the Sea (1958). She was married to Aleksandr Dovzhenko. She died on 29 October 1989 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia].

Anocha Suwichakornpong was born in 1976 in Thailand. She is a director and producer, known for Jao nok krajok (2009), By the Time It Gets Dark (2016) and Mekong 2030 (2020).

Larisa Shepitko was born on 6 January 1938 in Bakhmut, Ukrainian SSR, USSR [now Bakhmut, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine]. She was a director and writer, known for The Ascent (1977), Heat (1963) and You and Me (1971). She was married to Elem Klimov. She died on 2 July 1979 in near Redkino, Kalinin Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR.

Pascale Ferran was born on 17 April 1960 in Paris, France. She is a director and writer, known for Lady Chatterley (2006), The Age of Potential (1995) and Bird People (2014).

Having graduated from FAMU in Prague film (1971), Agnieszka Holland returned to Poland and began her film career working with Krzysztof Zanussi as assistant director, and Andrzej Wajda as her mentor. Her first feature film was PROVINCIAL ACTORS (1978), one of the flagship pictures of the "cinema of moral disquiet" and the winner of the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1980. Subsequently, she made the films FEVER (1980) and THE LONELY WOMAN (1981). In 1981, just before the declaration of the state of emergency in Poland, Agnieszka Holland emigrated to France.

She directed ANGRY HARVEST (1985) which was nominated for a foreign-language Oscar. Her film EUROPA EUROPA (1990) also received a U.S. Academy Award nomination (best screenplay) and IN DARKNESS (2011) was again nominated as best foreign-language film. She also collaborated with her friend Krzysztof Kieslowski on the screenplay of his trilogy, THREE COLOURS (1993).

Holland's other films include TO KILL A PRIEST (1988), OLIVIER, OLIVIER (1992), THE SECRET GARDEN (1993), TOTAL ECLIPSE (1995), WASHINGTON SQUARE (1997), THE THIRD MIRACLE (1999), SHOT IN THE HEART (2001), JULIE WALKING HOME (2001), COPYING BEETHOVEN (2006), IN DARKNESS (2011), BURNING BUSH (2013), SPOOR (2017), MR. JONES (2019) and CHARLATAN (2020). She also directed several episodes of many notable TV series, including THE WIRE, JAG, COLD CASE, TREME (for the pilot of the latter she was nominated for an Emmy) and HOUSE OF CARDS. Agnieszka Holland has also written or co-written screenplays for films made by other directors and directed plays for Polish television. She was elected chairwoman of the Board of the European Film Academy in 2014 and was elected as its President in 2021.

Dea Kulumbegashvili was born and raised in Georgia. Dea studied film directing at Columbia University School of the Arts and media studies at The New School in New York. Her debut short film Invisible Spaces was nominated for Palme D'Or at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2014. It was also the first film from independent Georgia to be part of the official competition at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Chantal Akerman was born on 6 June 1950 in Brussels, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for I, You, He, She (1974), The Meetings of Anna (1978) and Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975). She was married to Sonia Wieder-Atherton. She died on 5 October 2015 in Paris, France.

Angela Schanelec was born on 14 February 1962 in Aalen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. She is a director and actress, known for I Was at Home, But... (2019), The Dreamed Path (2016) and Music (2023). She was previously married to Juergen Gosch.

Margaret Tait was born on 11 November 1918 in Kirkwall, Orkney, Scotland, UK. She was a director and writer, known for Blue Black Permanent (1992), Where I Am Is Here (1964) and On the Mountain (1974). She was married to Alex Pirie. She died on 16 April 1999 in Firth, Orkney, Scotland, UK.

Itonje Søimer Guttormsen (b.1979) is a director and artist based in Oslo. She studied at the European Film College in Denmark, the Norwegian Film School, and the Valand Academy in Sweden. Her latest short film, Retract (2016) received acclaim at international festivals. Søimer Guttormsen has since 2014 led "Lilithistene", a performance group in which 11 women investigate the wake of Lilith - Adam's first wife who fled Eden to explore the unknown, their most recent performance was at Akershus Kunstsenter in 2020. She is the founder of the art film festival ByFlimmer, and of the Oslo based choir, "KORET - Ambition above ability". She has developed a "Lilithistic method of filmmaking" using neuroses as a compass for a more exploratory way of producing work. GRITT (2021) is her feature film debut.

Jazmín López was born in 1984 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is a director and actress, known for Lions (2012), If I Were the Winter Itself (2019) and Te amo y morite (2009).

Ana Vaz is known for It Is Night in America (2022), Apiyemiyekî? (2020) and Sacris Pulso (2008).

Agnès Varda was born on 30 May 1928 in Ixelles, Belgium. She was a director and writer, known for Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985) and Faces Places (2017). She was married to Jacques Demy. She died on 29 March 2019 in Paris, France.

Manuela De Laborde is known for Liminal (2020), Fictions (2021) and As Without So Within (2016).