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Anne Thompson on Women Directors in the US and Abroad

Anne Thompson (Archived Contributor)
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Pointing to the fact that 12 of the 61 foreign films submitted for 2007 Academy Awards consideration were directed by women, Anne Thompson notes in THR’s Risky Biz blog that women directors have an easier time getting films made abroad than they do in the US. In Hollywood, “the state of support for women directors remains woeful. Even when someone brilliant comes along like Karen Moncrieff, who wrote and directed the 2002 Sundance hit “Blue Car” and this year’s just-released “The Dead Girl,” it’s hard to summon up much optimism for her future,” writes Thompson. In comparison, the women who’ve helmed this year’s Academy Awards submissions from France and Denmark, have directed numerous films in their respective countries– and shun the idea of working in Hollywood because they fear creative controls execised by studios and producers.

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Anne Thompson (Archived Contributor)

At her daily Thompson on Hollywood blog, Anne Thompson does more than just break news; she provides an insider’s clear-eyed analysis of a business that defines American culture at home and abroad.Born and raised in New York, Thompson has been a contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, The Observer, and Wired. She has served as film columnist at Variety, and deputy editor of Variety.com, where she launched Thompson on Hollywood in March 2007. Thompson was the Deputy Film Editor at The Hollywood Reporter, the West Coast Editor of Premiere, a Senior Writer at Entertainment Weekly, and West Coast Editor for Film Comment. She wrote the film industry column Risky Business for L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times syndicate.A graduate of the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University, she hosts the fall semester of “Sneak Previews” for UCLA Extension, and teaches film criticism at USC.