I have been waiting for this film for a very long time. Originally scheduled to be released last year, Gravity will now open on October 4, 2013. Director Alfonso Cuarón is one of my go-to directors. He has an ability to capture a very real and gritty aspect of life and the “human condition” (there’s that term I hate so much). The director worked on this film with frequent collaborator, DP Emmanuel Lubezki, who just happens to be my favorite cinematographer. If only the film were pushed to a November/December release it might stand a better shot at Oscar gold. Here’s hoping it resonates with voters.

Official Logline:

Astronauts attempt to return to earth after debris crashes into their space shuttle, leaving them drifting alone in space.

Residents of a coastal town learn, with deathly consequences, the secret shared by the two mysterious women who have sought shelter at a local resort.

It’s not often that I watch a movie and feel compelled to write about it (unless I have to)—that is, write beyond the 140 characters allowed by Twitter. But I recently watched Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond the Pines and instantly knew that I had to get the word out. Without knowing much about the film, I knew I wanted to see it (despite a trailer that did not interest me) for two reasons: 1. It’s Derek Cianfrance, and I LOVE Blue Valentine (which topped my annual Top 20 list in 2011), and 2. It stars Ryan Gosling, who, in my opinion, is one of the most talented actors alive today. Now, I watch a lot of movies. A LOT. And it’s hard to come by a truly great film nowadays that can compete with the purity and heart of those from the Golden Age of cinema. So rest assured that I am not half-heartedly slinging around superlatives when I say that The Place Beyond the Pines is one of my all-time favorite movies.

The epic story, which spans two generations and a 140-minute runtime, starts its focus on Luke (Ryan Gosling), a loner motorcycle stunt rider who returns to Schenectady, New York for a show and meets up with his old flame Romina (Eva Mendes), only to learn that despite a quick fling with her a year earlier, he has a son. With a sense of responsibility in mind, Luke is moved to provide for Romina and little Jason, all the while competing with Romina’s new live-in boyfriend (actually, it’s she who lives in his house) and Luke’s empty pockets. Taking a new friend’s advice to heart, Luke turns to robbing banks. After a heist goes wrong, he encounters police officer Avery (Bradley Cooper). Though the encounter is brief, it’s just enough to change the course of both Romina’s and Avery’s lives, and those of their children.

Despite working on opposite sides of the law, Luke and Avery have much in common. They both have newborn sons, and despite the challenges they face, they’re both basically good people. Luke thrusts himself into a life of crime, but he does it to provide for the family he wants for himself. Avery is thrust into a slew of corruption within his police force, but he tries to do what’s right. And due to political interests and “other stuff” (no spoilers here), neither of their sons really has a father to look up to. And that’s where the story picks up 15 years later. The circle that was started by Luke and Avery is completed by their sons (unknowingly). And that’s what makes this film epic.

Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine boasts a nonlinear structure, which I fully appreciate. Pines is linear, but it plays with time in a different way. It’s three distinct movies—set in different times—colliding into one, but they do so in a harmonious way that holds your attention and leaves you in awe. The on-the-surface story is simple, but the characters are complex. The writing by Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, and Darius Marder is tight and sincere. The pacing is spot-on. The performances (all of them) are phenomenal.

This is the perfect movie.

This Women’s History Month, we’ve spotlighted just some of the contributions to film made by some of the industry’s most interesting and powerful female voices. The first part of the “Film’s Female Powerhouses” series covered some of “The Hollywood Hitmakers,” including such heavyweights as Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight, 2009) and Nancy Meyers (It’s Complicated, 2009). The second part turned attention to “The Indie Darlings,” celebrating the contributions of such directors as Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker, 2008) and Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, 2003) to the independent film scene. In this third—and final—installment, we look at “The International Cineastes,” just some of the contemporaries of famed international female directors as French-born Alice Guy (regarded as the first female filmmaker) and Italian Lina Wertmüller (the first woman nominated for a Best Director Oscar).

Among the 16 women we’ve covered throughout the duration of this series, their films have netted a combined 55 Academy Award nominations and 13 wins, among countless other nominations and wins. More important than awards are the points of view these and so many other female filmmakers bring to the situations and characters that grace our movie and TV screens. It just goes to show us all, “sisters are doin’ it for themselves.”

SUSANNE BIER

by Janice Y. Perez

While the world knows that Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director, not many are aware that the year following that historic moment saw another female achieve a historic feat; Susanne Bier of Denmark was just the third woman to direct a film (In a Better World, 2010) to the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.

Bier credits her Jewish parents’ harsh experiences eluding the Nazis as inspiration for her stories that mostly center on family tragedies. She has been a celebrated director in her native Denmark since her breakout film, The One And Only, in 1999. Bier started off as a set designer after having studied art and architecture, but after reading screenplays for her design assignments, she slowly realized she had the potential to direct her own works.

Her fascination for family dynamics has led her to co-write and direct films about tragedies within families that ultimately affect society as a whole. The filmmaker crossed into the American market with the Halle Berry/Benicio Del Toro picture, Things We Lost in the Fire(2007), which flopped at the box office. She will give Hollywood another shot with Serena, a Depression-era drama set in North Carolina that reunites Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper following their starring roles in last year’s Silver Linings Playbook. The film is slated for a September 2013 bow.

For her next release this May, however, Bier will unveil a comedic film that’s very different from her usual oeuvre of drama, but will still focus on the family unit. Set in Italy, Love Is All You Need stars Pierce Brosnan as the lead character’s love interest.

JANE CAMPION

by Saidah Russell

Jane Campion was born in Wellington, New Zealand into a family heavily influenced by the arts. Her mother was an actress and her father worked as a director of theatre and opera. In her early life and education, Campion was somewhat hesitant about pursuing a career in the arts, choosing to focus instead on studying anthropology in college. As moviegoers, critics, or simply admirers of the industry and art of cinema, we should consider ourselves lucky that she changed her mind.

Campion has come to establish herself as an incredibly poetic, challenging, and fearlessly truthful director. The stories she relates to her audience tend to address deeper, universal themes of family, love, and gender politics. In her early work especially the theme of familial relationships is pervasive. Her first short film, “An Exercise in Discipline – Peel” (1982), about a family road trip from hell, won Campion the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at Cannes, making her the first woman to receive the honor.

Campion’s feature film breakthrough came in 1993 with the release of the romantic drama The Piano. A deeply haunting, but also fiercely romantic film, The Piano brought Campion back to Cannes for a repeat performance. She was awarded the Palme d’Or and was once again the first woman to claim such an accolade. The filmgained much critical attention in the US, as well. For her writing, Campion won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay; she was also only the second woman to be nominated for the Best Director prize. Her most recent film, Bright Star (2009), the biographical story of poet John Keats and his star-crossed relationship with Fanny Brawne, regained critical attention and favor. Her next project is an HBO mini-series, entitled Top of the Lake, which is to premiere in 2013.

MIRA NAIR

By Daniel Quitério

Although Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire (2008) ignited interest in Indian culture on the big screen, Mira Nair (last name rhymes withfire) has been gracing us with the vibrant colors and rhythms of the subcontinent since the ’80s. Originally from the Indian state of Odisha, the filmmaker now calls New York City home, but she hasn’t forgotten her roots. Nair’s earliest works were in the form of documentaries before making her debut narrative feature, Salaam Bombay! (1988). The story of a boy left at a circus by his mother received international accolades, including awards at Cannes and an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film—only the second Indian film to achieve this feat.

Nair’s sophomore effort was Mississippi Masala (1991), an interracial love story starring Denzel Washington as an American who falls in love with a Ugandan Indian woman. A decade later, the director brought us the story of a wedding day gone awry, with Monsoon Wedding (2001). Nair continued exploring Indian themes, characters, and settings with follow-up films Vanity Fair (2004) and The Namesake(2006). But her prowess expands beyond her national roots. She released the critically lauded HBO movie Hysterical Blindness in 2002 and the not-as-successful Amelia in 2009.

Perhaps feeling a sense of responsibility to give back, Nair has demonstrated her altruism towards her homeland and emerging filmmakers. Using the proceeds earned from Salaam Bombay!, she established the Salaam Balak Trust, an organization benefitting Indian street children. In 2004, she founded Maisha, a film lab that teaches filmmaking to East Africans and South Asians. That same year, Nair took on a protégé for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. Finally, Nair has served as an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University, imparting her knowledge to young filmmakers in the making.

The director’s next film is The Reluctant Fundamentalist, based on the novel by Mohsin Hamid. It’s scheduled for an April 26 limited release.

LYNNE RAMSAY

by Stephanie Dawson

In 2011, the dark drama We Need to Talk About Kevin pushed Lynne Ramsay into the spotlight as a screenwriter/director/producer who prefers daring material, but she has been tackling the hard stuff from the start. Originally from Scotland, Ramsay graduated from the UK’s National Film and Television School. Her graduation film, “Small Deaths,” won the 1996 Jury Prize at Cannes. Her first feature,Ratcatcher (1999), won her the BAFTA Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer.

When her second feature Morvern Callar (2002) debuted at Cannes, critic Elvis Mitchell, then of The New York Times, wrote that it was “one of the most important pictures” of the year. Ramsay established a foothold as a visual director who adeptly uses images and sound—rather than relying on dialogue—to tell intense stories.

The director next embarked on an adaptation of The Lovely Bones, based on the novel by Alice Sebold. When the book became a best seller, the studio replaced Ramsay with Peter Jackson, leaving Ramsay bittered by the experience. In all, Ramsay spent nine years in development on projects that went nowhere until Kevin.

In February of 2012, the Harvard Film Archive featured Ramsay’s films and described her as “an uncompromising filmmaker fascinated by the tremendous power of cinema to appeal directly to the senses and awaken new depths in our audio-visual imagination.”

Recently, Ramsay made headlines upon her abrupt dropping out of directing indie western Jane Got a Gun, following a “three-day standoff with producer-financier Scott Steindorff,” as The Hollywood Reporter describes it. The beleaguered Natalie Portman-produced and starring film hit a roadblock when Ramsay failed to show up on the first day of shooting and dropped out, causing Jude Law to also back out of the project, just days after he stepped in following the earlier exit of Michael Fassbender.

LONE SCHERFIG

by John Lee

It’s hard to believe that Lone Scherfig had been working successfully in the advertising business for years before she directed her first film. The accomplishment of her work would lead you to believe she’s had years of experience, but it wasn’t until 1984, after she graduated from the Danish Film School, that she started her movie career. Her first project was directing a television film, with her feature debut coming shortly after, in 1990.

A decade later, after becoming involved in Dogme 95, a Danish avant-garde filmmaking movement, Scherfig wrote and directed Italian for Beginners (2000). Using the principles of Dogme, the film was set almost entirely on location within a small space, using sound only found at the source, and was shot on video. As opposed to other Dogme 95 films at the time, the mood of the film was upbeat and comedic. It became the most profitable film in Scandinavian history.

Scherfig’s most critically lauded film was An Education (2009). The story revolves around 16-year-old Jenny (Carey Mulligan) as she is picked up one night by David (Peter Sarsgaard) and brought into the bustling London society. It went on to win numerous awards on the festival circuit and was nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It was while filming the movie in London that she fell in love with the city. She said, “I love British actors, the scripts, the architecture, the nature! I would rather make films here than in America.”

Staying true to her word, Scherfig’s next project was the 2011 filmOne Day. The London-based story follows the lives of two romantically engaged individuals as they meet one day each year. The film received mixed reviews, but it was still a moderate success at the box office. The director’s next project is the Oxford University-setPosh, which is set to open next year.

LUCY WALKER

by Stephanie Dawson

“I’m really a failed narrative director,” said two-time Oscar-nominated documentarian Lucy Walker when she sat down withLimité.

Walker started directing theater while in high school in her native London, England. After graduating from Oxford University, she received her MFA in film from New York University on a Fulbright Scholarship. Her first directing gigs included a Cowboy Junkies music video and several episodes of the children’s favorite Blue’s Clues, for which she received two Emmy nominations.

Although a talented documentary filmmaker, Walker has also demonstrated her acumen for music, going as far back as college when she DJed to support herself. She continues to remix tracks for her film scores and enlisted good friend Moby for the soundtracks of her feature and short documentaries Waste Land (2010) and “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” (2011).

The filmmaker’s work has not gone unnoticed by some of the world’s most established film bodies. She is the first director to have two films in the same year at the Sundance Film Festival. She’s also the first director to win the Audience Award twice at the Berlin Film Festival with Blindsight (2006) and Waste Land. The latter, about how Brazilian contemporary artist Vik Muniz transforms garbage into art, is the first film to win the Audience Award at both the Sundance and Berlin festivals. In addition, Waste Land and “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” granted her Oscar nominations in consecutive years, while Blindsight was shortlisted in 2006.

In February of 2011, Walker told The Telegraph, “I like to take people into places they can’t access on their own … If you can get inside worlds that are closed to people, then it’s an opportunity to give audiences a window they can’t get somewhere else.”

Last week, we kicked off our three-part series honoring female filmmakers with some of Hollywood’s biggest hitmakers. This week, we continue our Women’s History Month tribute with some of independent cinema’s brightest stars.

Be sure to join us Friday, March 29 for the final part of our series, “The International Cineastes.”

KATHRYN BIGELOW

by Morgan Goldin

History was made in 2010 when Kathryn Bigelow won the Best Director Oscar for The Hurt Locker (2008), becoming the first woman to win this honor. For most of her career, Bigelow has worked in the arena of “masculine movies” and crafted some of the most impeccable action spectacles to hit the big screen. Despite some of her bigger action films, it was her success with breakout, low-budget film The Hurt Locker that places her on this list.

Her talent for crafting taut and lean imagery could be traced to her art school beginnings. She got her start in painting, and later studied film theory and criticism. “The Set-Up” (1978) was a 20-minute avant-garde deconstruction of cinematic violence that was Bigelow’s first short film. This piece lays down the themes that Bigelow returns to throughout her career. The aestheticization of violence is a mode in which Bigelow heavily operates. This style can be traced back to her first feature, The Loveless (1981), a biker-movie that showcased her taste for visual flourishes. Near Dark (1987), her sophomore film, is a neo-horror classic that successfully merges two distinct genres, the western and the vampire movie. A later success is Point Break (1991), about an FBI agent who goes undercover with a group of adrenaline junkie surfers who rob banks in ex-president masks.

Her most celebrated picture, The Hurt Locker, earned its accolades and rightly won Best Picture. An Iraqi war film that strips away the political subtext and focuses on the day-to-day struggles of a bomb diffuser, the film employs handheld camera work that expertly complements the fractured mental and physical states of its soldier protagonists. Her follow-up, Zero Dark Thirty (2012), is no less thrilling and chronicles the days leading up to the locating and killing of Osama bin Laden.

Kathryn Bigelow proves you don’t need a man’s touch when working on action films. Her muscular oeuvre speaks for itself. Future textbooks and scholars will recognize her as a female director succeeding in a typically male province.

LISA CHOLODENKO

by Curtis John

Although her 2010 dramedy The Kids Are All Right, about what happens when two children conceived by artificial insemination decide to bring their donor father into their lives and the lives of their lesbian mothers, won the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Comedy, writer/director Lisa Cholodenko’s non-Hollywood aesthetic still makes it difficult to get her distinct films made, separating her from her mostly male and straight peers.

Cholodenko is often lauded with kicking off the continual wave of “lesbian chic” movies with the release of her feature film High Art(1998). Starring Ally Sheedy as a once-famous, heroin-addicted photographer who meets an ambitious young female photo editor,High Art premiered at the Cannes Film Festival (as would Cholodenko’s next feature Laurel Canyon, 2002) and won numerous awards, catapulting the director into critical success. Yet, with her focus on life in the LGBTQ community, the filmmaker goes beyond visibility and representation to delve into how characters interact with one another. In doing so, her films are neither sentimental nor apologetic.

Cholodenko’s career kicked off during the 1990s resurgence in independent filmmaking, wherein she landed assistant editor jobs before further honing her craft at Columbia University’s MFA film program, where she was mentored by unconventional filmmaker Milos Foreman (One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1975) and won numerous short film awards. Her breakout hit, The Kids Are All Right, went on to be nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture (a rarity for a film directed by a woman) and Best Original Screenplay, the latter being an honor shared by both Cholodenko and writing partner Stuart Blumberg. The film stars Hollywood perennials Annette Bening, Julianne Moore, and Mark Ruffalo, as well as younger cast members Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland, 2010) and Josh Hutcherson (The Hunger Games, 2012), who were elevated into the mainstream with their starring turns.

SOFIA COPPOLA

by Daniel Quitério

With a last name like Coppola, it should be a foregone conclusion that you might end up working in the film industry. For Sofia Coppola, that realization came perhaps earlier than most would expect. She had her first taste of the industry before she could even form her first words, appearing as baby Michael in her father Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 “greatest film ever made,” The Godfather. The “infant actor” would find herself making appearances in several more of her father’s films as she grew, but despite her experiences in front of the camera, it’s her acumen behind it that allowed her to step out of her father’s hefty shadow and create a name for herself.

The 41-year-old filmmaker was born in New York City to father Francis and mother Eleanor, a documentarian and artist. No doubt it was her upbringing in a creative household that influenced her decision to later study fine arts at the California Institute of Arts. She said, “I was going to art school and trying different things. I was interested in a lot of, mostly visual arts. I didn’t know what I wanted to do and then I made a short film and felt like it was a combination of all these interests of mine … But it was really when I read the book The Virgin Suicides that made me wanna make a movie.” This 1999 debut feature about a group of troubled sisters stars Kirsten Dunst, who later starred as the title character in Coppola’s 2006 effort Marie Antoinette. But it was Lost in Translation (2003) that put the filmmaker in the Hollywood eye. This character study of loneliness in a foreign world earned the filmmaker the distinction of being the first and youngest American woman (at age 32) to be nominated for the Best Director Academy Award. She won an Oscar for the film’s screenplay.

This year, Coppola releases her fifth film, The Bling Ring, about a group of teens who rob celebrities’ homes.

DEBRA GRANIK

by John Lee

Debra Granik has only directed two features, but with each she’s carved out star-making performances and earned critical acclaim. The Massachusetts native was raised in Washington DC and entered a career in politics after college. It was through politics that she became interested in documentary film. She made educational films for trade unions before her interest turned to narrative filmmaking, which lead her to enrolling in NYU’s graduate film program.

While at NYU, Granik directed her first short film, “Snake Feed,” which was accepted into the prestigious Sundance Screenwriters and Directors Labs. It was during this time that she realized what “an organic, incremental process filmmaking is. The Labs were my training ground that really formed who I am as a filmmaker,” she said. The short went on to win the Short Filmmaking Award at the Sundance Film Festival (1997) and eventually grew into her first feature, Down to the Bone (2004). The film tells the story of an upstate New York mother (played by then unknown actress Vera Farmiga [The Departed, 2006]) who goes to rehab to kick her cocaine addiction.

It wasn’t until Granik’s next film, Winter’s Bone (2010), that she broke through to mainstream audiences and really caught Hollywood’s eye. She adapted the story with partner Anne Rosellini from a 2006 novel. The film tells the story of Ree Dolly, an Ozark teenager who is the sole caretaker of her two younger siblings and her catatonic mother. The film displays Granik’s remarkable skill at conveying atmosphere and location. Once again, she cast relatively unknown actors—Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes—who turned in star performances that earned them both Academy Award nominations. The film was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. With so much success after just two films, the 50-year-old Granik is primed to continue making waves and shatter the proverbial glass ceiling.

LYNN SHELTON

by Saidah Russell

Last summer was an epic one for epic movies, but it was also full of small gems, one of them being Your Sister’s Sister, directed by Lynn Shelton. The director was a bit of a late bloomer in her filmmaking career, but she’s long been surrounded by the arts. In her early years, she studied acting, painting, poetry, and photography. She took part in theatre productions before enrolling in the photography MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in New York. She claims that her decision to seriously pursue a career in film came after attending an event with French director Claire Denis, who began her film career at 40. Shelton came to the conclusion that age was not a factor and she jumped into directing head first. She worked as a freelance editor and made experimental shorts before she was invited by film studio The Film Company to write and direct her first feature, We Go Way Back (2006).

Shelton’s breakout film was the 2009 comedy Humpday, starring Mark Duplass (a frequent collaborator) and Joshua Leonard as two straight friends who are dared to star together in an adult movie. For its low budget, small cast, and mostly improvised dialogue, Humpday would come to epitomize Shelton’s trademark style. Her films defy the stereotype that “low budget” must mean sloppy and unpolished, or that improvised scenes and an outline (rather than a script) can’t translate to sophisticated filmmaking. The director claims that as a filmmaker she is “looking for the humanity in everybody,” and in her films she attempts “to reveal that humanity.” Her latest film isTouchy Feely (2013), about a massage therapist who finds herself in an unusual circumstance when she develops an aversion to bodily contact. The drama stars Your Sister’s Sister actress Rosemarie DeWitt.

March is Women’s History Month, so it’s only fitting that we turn our attention to some of the most notable female filmmakers working today. A rarity among the ranks of Hollywood filmmakers, women represent only 7% of the field (according to the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University). Though there’s still much room to grow, women have come a long way since the days of Alice Guy (b. 1873), the French pioneer who’s considered the first female director. With Guy paving the proverbial way, women like Julie Taymor, Phyllida Lloyd, Sarah Polley, Brenda Chapman, Dee Rees, and Lena Dunham have come up through the ranks, imprinting their unique stamps on some of the most interesting films today. In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) became the first woman to win the Oscar for Best Director, and in 2011, two of the 10 Best Picture-nominated films were helmed by women (Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right and Debra Granik’s Winter’s Bone). But the road is still long.

Beginning today, Limité launches its three-part series on female filmmakers, paying tribute to just some of the women representing three categories of filmmakers: “The Hollywood Hitmakers,” “The Indie Darlings,” and “The International Cineastes.” This week, we focus on those women who have made their mark in big studio releases. Join us next Friday for Part 2.

–

This series is dedicated to the memory of trailblazer Nora Ephron, beloved writer-director of such romantic comedy classics as Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You’ve Got Mail (1998), and writer of When Harry Met Sally… (1989). Her valuable contributions to the genre—and to filmmaking, as a whole—are no doubt felt in the works of so many female directors working today.

THE HOLLYWOOD HITMAKERS

CATHERINE HARDWICKE

by Saidah Russell

Catherine Hardwicke is something of a rock star. Her films, which are often beloved by the teenaged and angst ridden, display an edginess that Hardwicke, herself, embodies. Raised in McAllen, Texas, a town near the border of Mexico, the filmmaker describes her youth as “wild.” Perhaps her childhood spent on the border influenced the development of her voice as a filmmaker, given that Hardwicke—especially in the beginning of her career—is often drawn to emotionally intense and fast-paced subject matter.

Hardwicke’s path to becoming one of the most commercially successful female filmmakers began after she abandoned her original career as an architect and moved to LA. As a result of her background, she was able to quickly put her talents to use as a production designer and ended up working side by side with a number of well-known and influential filmmakers, including Cameron Crowe, David O. Russell, and Richard Linklater. During her time behind the scenes, Hardwicke was encouraged to direct her own films. She was inspired to write the film Thirteen (2003) after talking with the film’s co-star and co-writer Nikki Reed (Twilight series) about her experiences as a young teenager. Hardwicke went on to direct Lords of Dogtown (2005) and The Nativity Story (2007) before she was chosen to help bring the remarkably successful Twilightnovel to the big screen. What followed can only be described as fangirl/fanboy mayhem as Hardwicke is mostly to blame for introducing the pop culture juggernauts Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart into mainstream consciousness. Twilight (2009) was a huge commercial success, but the filmmaker chose to focus her attention on new projects instead of continuing with the franchise. Her next film was Red Riding Hood (2011), a darker, more adult take on the classic fairytale. She’ll next take the helm of thriller Plush, which is due for a 2013 release.

PENNY MARSHALL

by Curtis John

When it comes to female filmmakers, Penny Marshall and her body of work always makes the top of the list. As an actor, alone, she has had tremendous success, starring for eight seasons as Laverne DeFazio on the lauded television sitcom Laverne & Shirley. But after being prompted by her brother Garry Marshall, creator/writer of Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, and innumerable other hits, it was with her directing talents that the female Marshall achieved even more success. Following 1986′s Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Big (1988) was her sophomore film. It starred a then barely known Tom Hanks as a boy who wishes to be a grown-up and wakes up the next morning to find himself in an adult body. A box office success, Big was the first film directed by a woman to gross over $100 million.

Marshall followed up Big with the Robert De Niro-starring Awakenings(1990), and she reunited with Hanks for A League of Their Own (1992), the mega-hit fictionalized account of the real-life 1940s All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. League also grossed over $100 million.

Though she has not directed a film in over 11 years, Marshall remains busy occasionally directing television shows, as well as making several movie guest appearances. But be on the lookout for Effa, her newest directorial project about Effa Manley, a white woman passing as black during segregation who crashes through barriers in the male-dominated world of sports as the first woman to own and manage a professional sports team.

NANCY MEYERS

by Janice Y. Perez

When she was 18 years old, Nancy Meyers caught Mike Nichols’s breakthrough comedy-drama film, The Graduate, a moving experience which started her journey into screenwriting. Born and raised in Philadelphia as the younger of two daughters, Meyers, who acted in local stage productions since she was 12, had a shift of interest to film when she saw the fateful movie.

Before becoming one of Hollywood’s most bankable female writer-directors, Meyers first worked as a production assistant on the CBS game show The Price Is Right in 1972 in Los Angeles. She eventually quit so she could study filmmaking and hone her craft as a screenwriter, while baking and selling cheesecakes on the side to support herself.

Meyers’s film What Women Want (2000) became the most financially successful film directed by a woman at the time, raking in over $370 million upon its release. Her 2003 film, Something’s Gotta Give, had trouble finding a studio at first because of the fear that the lead characters, played by Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton, were too old. It ultimately grossed over $266 million worldwide.

The secret to the shattering success of the latter film was with Meyers herself, a storyteller noted for her stylistic ability to craft stories about mature women who are strong, independent, and nothing like your typical romantic comedy damsels. The filmmaker’s filmography spans 30 years of remarkable female characters, such as Goldie Hawn in Private Benjamin (1980), Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap (1998), and Meryl Streep in It’s Complicated (2009).

PENELOPE SPHEERIS

by Morgan Goldin

Beginning her career documenting the punk rock scene on the streets of LA to then helming comedy vehicles for SNL’s most bankable stars, Penelope Spheeris has carved a niche for herself in the entertainment industry. Few who watched her gritty exploration of the burgeoning subculture in the seminal “rock doc” classic The Decline of Western Civilization (1981) would have pegged her to direct such light-hearted fare as The Beverly Hillbillies (1993) andThe Little Rascals (1994). However, Spheeris is showing that transitioning from independent filmmaker to Hollwood hitmaker doesn’t have to entail the oft-cried moniker of “sell-out.”

The filmmaker spent her youth with a traveling carnival troupe. Her father owned The Magic Empire Shows circus carnival and was, himself, a sideshow attraction, the circus strong man. The family traveled all over the United States, where Spheeris was exposed to people from all walks of life. Perhaps it was this kind of unconventional upbringing that gave Spheeris a certain empathy and compassion towards society’s outsiders. She imbues a humanistic touch in portraying the gutter punks in Decline. After that breakthrough, she kept working on edgier films like Suburbia (1984) and The Boys Next Door (1995). The market for aggressively bleak fare would’ve been cornered by Spheeris if she didn’t land the assignment for Wayne’s World (1992).

Wayne’s World was a massive hit, and its success paved the way for other comedies like Black Sheep (1996), Senseless (1998), and The Kid & I (2005). However, Spheeris never betrayed her rock ‘n roll roots. She followed up Decline with two more entries and another rock doc,We Sold Our Souls for Rock ‘n Roll (2001).

As the godmother of celluloid punk and the one who brought Wayne and Garth to the big screen, Spheeris has made a career for herself that is unheard of in the Hollywood echelon.

JENNIFER YUH NELSON

by John Lee

A future in animation seemed to be in the stars for Jennifer Yuh Nelson. Born and raised in South Korea before immigrating to the United States with her family, Nelson spent her childhood in Lakewood, CA watching martial arts movies, playing with cars, and drawing. As a girl, she would sit at the kitchen table for hours and watch her mother draw, copying her every stroke. Nelson traces the start of her career to those early family experiences.

The filmmaker attended Cal State Long Beach and graduated with a degree in illustration. She had no animation experience and began her career making photocopies for an animation house. She spent a brief time in television before joining DreamWorks Animation in 1998 as a storyboard artist on Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), quickly moving through the ranks to become head of story on Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003) and work as a storyboard artist on the 2005 animated feature Madagascar. As a fan of martial arts movies, Nelson asked to work on Kung Fu Panda (2008). After the success of the film, DreamWorks head Jeffrey Katzenberg approached her to direct the sequel, Kung Fu Panda 2, becoming only the second woman to solely direct an animated feature from a major Hollywood studio. The film was released in 2011 and was a critical and box office success, becoming the highest-grossing film ever by a female, earning $663 million worldwide.

Nelson hopes that her example will inspire young girls who dream of a future as a director or animator. She said, “Young girls tell me that they never envisioned themselves as directors, but after meeting me they can picture themselves doing it. That’s been the best reward from what I do.”

Dear Academy,

You get thanked an awful lot by Oscar winners, but you don’t always make the smartest choices (#justsayin). Allow us to help you along a bit so you don’t make another embarrassing blunder (Affleck, anyone?) come February 24^th. Here’s who we say should win in some of the key races.

Your friends,

Dan Quitério

Limité Film Editor

Stephanie Dawson

Senior Film Contributor

BEST PICTURE

Nominees: Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty

What Should Win:

Dan – Argo. Last year was a truly terrific year in filmmaking (one of the best in recent memory), but among all the great movies, there’s something about Argo that sticks with you. It’s got the perfect blend of humor, drama, and suspense—and to top it off, it’s based on a true story. Several months later, I’m still thinking about it and finding new reasons to love it.

Stephanie – Life of Pi. It becomes a visual and sensual feast once Pi sets to sea. The film is a solid marriage of story, character, and visual effects, though not without its faults. It was the most captivating film this year and should be awarded as such.

What Shouldn’t Win:

Dan – Silver Linings Playbook

Stephanie – Silver Linings Playbook

What Will Win:

Dan – Argo

Stephanie – Argo

BEST DIRECTOR

Nominees: Michael Haneke (Amour), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Ang Lee (Life of Pi), Steven Spielberg (Lincoln), David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)

Who Should Win:

Dan – Ben Affleck. But since he’s not nominated, I’ll go with Ang Lee for this one. He took on and mastered the holy trinity of filmmaking no-nos: working with kids, animals, and water. And he did it in 3D (for his first time). And he successfully adapted a book that most thought was not adaptable. And he made it compelling.

Stephanie – Ang Lee. Life of Pi was crafted by a master of story, character, and visual effects. P.S. Ben Affleck should have been nominated.

Who Shouldn’t Win:

Dan – David O. Russell

Stephanie – David O. Russell

Who Will Win:

Dan – Ang Lee

Stephanie – Ang Lee

BEST ACTOR

Nominees: Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook), Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), Hugh Jackman (Les Misérables), Joaquin Phoenix (The Master), Denzel Washington (Flight)

Who Should Win:

Dan – Daniel Day-Lewis. This role was made to win an Oscar. But Abraham Lincoln aside, it’s hard for any actor to outshine Day-Lewis, considered by many (deservedly) to be one of the finest actors of our time. Come Oscar night, he will make history as the first person to win three Best Actor Oscars.

Stephanie – Daniel Day-Lewis. It was very difficult to discern whether Lincoln, himself, had been resurrected for this film. Once again, Day-Lewis completely transformed for the role. As much as the other nominees were amazing in their roles, Daniel Day-Lewis once again proved why he is one of the most sought after actors of our time.

Who Shouldn’t Win:

Dan – Bradley Cooper

Stephanie – Bradley Cooper

Who Will Win:

Dan – Daniel Day-Lewis

Stephanie – Daniel Day-Lewis

BEST ACTRESS

Nominees: Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty), Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), Quvenzhané Wallis (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Naomi Watts (The Impossible)

Who Should Win:

Dan – Emmanuelle Riva. No other nominated performance comes close to what Riva did in Amour (save for maybe Naomi Watts). With few words, she took us through the various stages of dementia, and she did so with a delicate subtlety that could only be achieved by a master actor. Riva is the oldest nominee in this category’s history, and with her age comes a wisdom that shines through with such clarity in Amour. Here’s a perfect example that you don’t need a big screaming/emotional breakdown scene to get the Academy’s attention.

Stephanie – Quvenzhané Wallis. She carries the film. Beasts simply would not be worth watching without her performance. I can see no one else in that role. I cannot say that of the other nominees, save for Amour which I have not seen.

Who Shouldn’t Win:

Dan – Jennifer Lawrence

Stephanie – Jennifer Lawrence

Who Will Win:

Dan – Jennifer Lawrence (sad, because although she’s a talented actress, her performance is the least deserving among these nominees)

Stephanie – Jennifer Lawrence

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Nominees: Alan Arkin (Argo), Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook), Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master), Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln), Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)

Who Should Win:

Dan – Christoph Waltz. Though I question his categorization as a “supporting” actor in Django Unchained (he was in nearly every scene and was the catalyst behind the majority of the action), Waltz brought forth the mix of comedy and drama that we’ve come to love from him. It’s not easy straddling that line, but he does it with ease.

Stephanie – Tommy Lee Jones. Lincoln was a very procedural, language-heavy film. Jones’s character and performance helped round out the portrayal, providing moments of entertainment or clarification when necessary and giving weight to Lincoln’s cause.

Who Shouldn’t Win:

Dan – Alan Arkin

Stephanie – Alan Arkin, Robert De Niro

Who Will Win:

Dan – Tommy Lee Jones

Stephanie – Tommy Lee Jones

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Nominees: Amy Adams (The Master), Sally Field (Lincoln), Anne Hathaway (Les Misérables), Helen Hunt (The Sessions), Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)

Who Should Win:

Dan – Sally Field. Anne Hathaway is the clear winner here, but as much as I love Les Mis and as much praise as she’s receiving for her performance, I found her slightly forgettable and her rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” her way of begging for an Oscar. (You could almost tell while she was singing the song that she was thinking to herself, “Bravo, Anne. Bravo.”) Field, however, played a convincing Mary Todd Lincoln, exhibiting a flurry of emotion with natural ease.

Stephanie – Anne Hathaway. Hathaway has had a number of solid performances of late. Her “I Dreamed a Dream” wrenched tears from my eyes. Not only is this role deserving, it is also a good way to recognize her and her body of work thus far. 

Who Shouldn’t Win:

Dan – Helen Hunt (One should not win an Oscar based on nudity alone. Her performance was just okay. But since she bares all A LOT in this movie, critics call that a “brave” performance, and that’s why she’s nominated.)

Stephanie – Jacki Weaver

Who Will Win:

Dan – Anne Hathaway (#duh)

Stephanie – Anne Hathaway

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Nominees: Michael Haneke (Amour), Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained), John Gatins (Flight), Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola (Moonrise Kingdom), Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty)

Who Should Win:

Dan – Michael Haneke. I’m a sucker for anyone who can take a complex theme, strip it down to its simplest elements, and make a huge impact with it. That’s a tall order for any writer (regardless of the medium), and Haneke nails it with Amour.

Stephanie – Quentin Tarantino. Django Unchained is a new take on the antebellum South where the Western genre meets the Exploitation genre, which is uniquely Tarantino. He’s back.

Who Shouldn’t Win:

Dan – John Gatins (should not have even been nominated, since the worst part of Flight was, in fact, its screenplay)

Stephanie – Hmm … don’t know. I haven’t seen every nominated film, and among those that I have, I’d be happy with any of them as the winner.

Who Will Win:

Dan – Quentin Tarantino

Stephanie – Mark Boal

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Nominees: Chris Terrio (Argo), Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), David Magee (Life of Pi), Tony Kushner (Lincoln), David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)

Who Should Win:

Dan – Chris Terrio. Argo is dramatic; it’s humorous; it’s suspenseful. And all of those elements marry together harmoniously. The characters are well defined, the story is tight. We’ve got a winner here.

Stephanie – Chris Terrio. Argo made a too-unbelievable-to-be-true story into a comedy/thriller/historical drama hybrid with a high number of distinct and interesting characters.

Who Shouldn’t Win:

Dan – Tough call, as they’re all great screenplays, but I’m going with David Magee

Stephanie – Tony Kushner

Who Will Win:

Dan – Chris Terrio

Stephanie – David O. Russell

Tune in to the Oscars this Sunday, February 24 at 7pm EST on ABC.

BEST PICTURE

Amour

*Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Django Unchained

Les Misérables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

ACTOR

Bradley Cooper

*Daniel Day-Lewis

Hugh Jackman

Joaquin Phoenix

Denzel Washington

ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain

*Jennifer Lawrence

Emmanuelle Riva

Quvenzhané Wallis

Naomi Watts

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin

Robert De Niro

Philip Seymour Hoffman

*Tommy Lee Jones

Christoph Waltz

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams

Sally Field

*Anne Hathaway

Helen Hunt

Jacki Weaver

ANIMATED FEATURE

Brave

Frankenweenie

ParaNorman

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

*Wreck-It Ralph

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Anna Karenina

Django Unchained

*Life of Pi

Lincoln

Skyfall

COSTUME DESIGN

*Anna Karenina

Les Misérables

Lincoln

Mirror Mirror

Snow White and the Huntsman

DIRECTING

Michael Haneke

Benh Zeitlin

*Ang Lee

Steven Spielberg

David O. Russell

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

5 Broken Cameras

The Gatekeepers

How to Survive a Plague

The Invisible War

*Searching for Sugar Man

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

“Inocente”

“Kings Point”

*”Mondays at Racine”

“Open Heart”

“Redemption”

FILM EDITING

*Argo

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

*Amour

Kon-Tiki

No

A Royal Affair

War Witch

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

Hitchcock

*The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Les Misérables

ORIGINAL SCORE

Anna Karenina

Argo

*Life of Pi

Lincoln

Skyfall

ORIGINAL SONG

Chasing Ice

Ted

Life of Pi

*Skyfall

Les Misérables

PRODUCTION DESIGN

*Anna Karenina

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Les Misérables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

“Adam and Dog”

“Fresh Guacamole”

“Head over Heels”

“Maggie Simpson in ‘The Longest Daycare’”

*”Paperman”

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

*”Asad”

“Buzkashi Boys”

“Curfew”

“Death of a Shadow”

“Henry”

SOUND EDITING

Argo

Django Unchained

Life of Pi

*Skyfall

Zero Dark Thirty

SOUND MIXING

Argo

*Les Misérables

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Skyfall

VISUAL EFFECTS

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

*Life of Pi

The Avengers

Prometheus

Snow White and the Huntsman

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

*Argo

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Life of Pi

Lincoln

Silver Linings Playbook

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Amour

*Django Unchained

Flight

Moonrise Kingdom

Zero Dark Thirty

The 85th annual Academy Awards airs Sunday, February 24 at 7pm EST on ABC.