5 female directors

Jodie Foster:

In 1975, Jodie was offered the role of the prostitute 'Iris' in the movie Taxi Driver (1976). This role, for which she received an Academy Award nomination in the "Best Supporting Actress" category, marked a breakthrough in her career. In 1980, she graduated as the best of her class from the College Lycée Français and began to study English Literature at Yale University, from where she graduated magna cum laude in 1985. One tragic moment in her life was March 30th, 1981 when John Hinckley attempted to assassinate the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Hinkley was obsessed with Jodie and the movie Taxi Driver (1976), in which Travis Bickle, played by Robert De Niro, tried to shoot presidential candidate, Palantine. Despite the fact that Jodie never took acting lessons, she received two Oscars before she was thirty years of age. She received her first award for her part as Sarah Tobias in The Accused (1988) and the second one for her performance as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

Her films:

Flora Plum (2010) (pre-production)
Home for the Holidays (1995)
Little Man Tate (1991)

"Tales from the Darkside" (1 episode, 1988)

Stella Stevens:

Stevens was first under contract to 20th Century Fox, then dropped after six months. After winning the role of "Appassionata Von Climax" for the musical Li'l Abner (1959), she gained a contract with Paramount Pictures (1959-1963) and later Columbia Pictures (1964-1968). She shared the 1960 Golden Globe Award for, "Most Promising Newcomer - Female," with Tuesday Weld, Angie Dickinson and Janet Munro for, Say One For Me. Throughout her career, Stevens appeared in dozens of TV shows and was a regular on the 1981-1982 prime-time soap opera Flamingo Road. She teamed with the late Sandy Dennis in a touring production of an all-female version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple, playing the messy one. She produced and directed two films, The Ranch (1989) and The American Heroine (1979).

Her films:

American Cowslip (2007) (pre-production) (attached)
Popstar (2005)
Hell to Pay (2005)
Glass Trap (2005)
Blessed (2004)
The Long Ride Home (2003)
Size 'Em Up (2001)
Invisible Mom (1997) (V)
Bikini Hotel (1997)
Virtual Combat (1996)
Body Chemistry 4: Full Exposure (1995) (V)
The Granny (1995)
Illicit Dreams (1995)
Star Hunter (1995) (V)

Maria Maggenti:

Maria Maggenti (born c. 1962) is a film director and screenwriter for film and television.
She has been the script editor and has written many episodes of the American television series, Without a Trace (2003), but is perhaps best known for her feature film, The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995). Her film Puccini for Beginners was in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2006. She was also an activist with ACT UP for many years. She attended Smith College and majored in Philosophy and Classics.

Her films:

Puccini for Beginners (2006)
The Love Letter (1999)
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love (1995)
La Donna è mobile (1994)
Name Day (1993)
Waiting for War (1991)
The Love Monster (1990)
Doctors, Liars & Women (1988)

Diane Keaton:

Diane Keaton (born Diane Hall on January 5, 1946) is an Oscar-winning American film actress, director and producer. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970. Her first major film role was as Kay Adams in The Godfather (1972), but the films that shaped her early career were those with director and co-star Woody Allen, beginning with Play It Again Sam (1972). Her next two films for Allen were Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975) and they established her as a comic actress. Her fourth film for Allen, the semi-autobiographical Annie Hall (1977) won her the Academy Award for Best Actress

Her Films:

Unstrung Heroes

The First Wives Club

Hanging Up

Kimberly Peirce:

Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Peirce grew up in a trailer park. She graduated from Miami Sunset High School in Miami, Florida and attended the University of Chicago earning a degree in English and Japanese Literature. She moved for several years to Kobe, Japan, working as a photographer and model. Upon returning to America, she enrolled at Columbia University, earning an MFA in film. Initially, Peirce pursued a story about a female soldier in drag during the American Civil War for her thesis, but eventually nixed the plan due to a lack of personal connection with the story. While attending Columbia, Peirce read a Village Voice article about Brandon Teena, a transman raped and murdered in Falls City, Nebraska. Switching from her original thesis project, Peirce traveled to Falls City, where she researched and attended the trial of the two homicide suspects. The subsequent film short she made for her thesis in 1995 was nominated by Columbia faculty for a Princess Grace Award, and received an Astrea Production Grant. That grant and her involvement with the Sundance Institute;'s 1997 Sundance Filmmakers, Writers and Producers Labs helped her develop the short into the 1999 feature film Boys Don't Cry.

Her films:

"The Last Good Breath" (1994) (16mm short - director & writer)
Leopard of Tomorrow Program at 1994 Locarno International Film Festival
Boys Don't Cry (1999) (director & writer)
The L Word (2006) (director - 1 episode (Lifeline - 3x05), TV series)
Stop-Loss (2008) (director & writer)