The Alice Initiative, backed by a group of anonymous female film executives, has released its annual survey of up-and-coming female directing talent, ready for their first studio feature.
The Alice Initiative’s 2022 List of Emerging Female Directors is voted on every two years by executives and producers and is made up of 10 directors who have directed at least one, non-studio feature and another 10 directors that have yet to direct a feature but have garnered attention for their work on TV or in short films.
Past list honorees have included The Farewell’s Lulu Wang and Portrait of a Lady on Fire‘s Céline Sciamma. Feature film directors from The Alice Initiative’s 2020 list included Laure de Clermont-Tonnere, who helmed Netflix’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and Where the Crawdads Sing directors Olivia Newman.
The Alice Initiative is continuing its partnership with Women Wednesdays. Started by Carly Kleinbart, Women Wednesdays is dedicated to finding and empowering the voices of female filmmakers via events and a newsletter that is shared with over 2,000 executives, agents, coordinators, and assistants across the business. Women Wednesdays also runs a mentorship program for women of color and non-binary folks of color aspiring to have a career in the entertainment industry.
“While Hollywood has made significant progress in hiring women in the past year alone, there’s still a significant amount of work to be done,” read the announcement of this year’s Alice List.
See the complete list from the Alice Initiative below.
Women Who Have Directed a Feature (but not at a studio)
Jade Bartlett (Miller’s Girl)
Rep: UTA
Mimi Cave (Fresh)
Rep: CAA
Abbi Corbin (Breaking)
Rep: WME
DeMane Davis (Lift)
Rep: APA
Nikyatu Jus (Nanny)
Rep: CAA
Roseanne Liang (Shadow in the Cloud)
Rep: WME
Leah McKendrick (Scrambled)
Rep: UTA
Meera Menon (Equity, Farah Goes Bang)
Rep: WME
Channing Godfrey Peoples (Miss Juneteenth)
Rep: CAA
Ninja Thyberg (Pleasure)
Rep: CAA
Women Who Have Not Directed a Feature
Amy Aniobi (Rap Sh!t, Insecure)
Rep: UTA
Charlotte Brändström (Rings of Power)
Rep: UTA
Michaela Coel (I May Destroy You)
Rep: UTA
Meredith Dawson (Sex Lives of College Girls)
Rep: CAA
MJ Delaney (Call My Agent, Ted Lasso)
Rep: UTA
Ashley Eakin (Single)
Rep: UTA
Natalie Jasmine Harris (Pure)
Rep: GRLBND Media
Jessica Mendez Siqueiros (Pozole)
Rep: WME
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel)
Rep: CAA
Marielle Woods (Heart Shot)
Rep: WME
