Despite being the twenty first century the film industry and the art of making movies is still very much a male dominated world.
Only 6% of director's currently working are female however despite this they are enjoying some major success.
Anne Fontaine's Coco Without Chanel was critically acclaimed earlier this summer and Catherine Hardwicke's Twilight was the biggest opening at the box office ever for a female director.
And this success looks set to continue this week with The Hurt Locker, which is directed by Kathryn Bigelow.
Yet another Iraq war movie to grace the big screen this one has been met by critical acclaim and looks set to be a huge success. Bigelow follows in the footsteps of Kimberly Peirce who was responsible for Stop Loss last year, despite not doing well at the box office it was a critical success.
But in recent years female director's have created a great body of work and are enjoying major success. To celebrate the release of The Hurt Locker we took a look at a few that have made a name for themselves.
Catherine Hardwicke was the director everyone was talking about at the end of 2008 with the release of Twilight, the adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's popular novel.
Having been a producer on the likes of Three Kings it was 2003's Thirteen that was Hardwicke's directorial debut before moving onto The Lords of Dogtown.
Despite gaining critical praise for Thirteen it was twilight that really put Hardwicke on the map as a filmmaker. However she will not be returning for the sequel New Moon.
Mira Nair is one of the movie industry's most experienced and successful female directors beginning with documentaries before moving onto features.
Salaam Bombay! was her big break in 1988 and is now seen as a classic. The film was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar as well as a Bafta and a Golden Globe.
She went on to direct Mississippi Masala and The Perez Family but's Monsoon Wedding that remains her most famous picture.
Released in 2001 the movie depicts romantic entanglements during a traditional Punjabi wedding in Delhi and it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Later this year she returns to the director's chair for biopic picture Amelia, based on the life of Amelia Earhart, the Academy always like biopic pictures so is there Oscar potential?
Despite Lick The Star and The Virgin Suicides being released in 1998 and 1999 it was Lost in Translation that propelled Sofia Coppola onto the movie stage.
With the film, that starred Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, Coppola became only the third woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing after Lina Wertmüller and Jane Campion.
Although she missed out on the Best Director gong she did pick up the award for Best Original Screenplay.
2010 will see her return to the big screen with Somewhere starring Stephen Dorff and Elle Fanning.
Other filmmaker enjoying success include Phyllida Lloyd, she was behind Mamma Mia last summer, Nancy Meyers with What Women Want and Something's Gotta Give, Gurinder Chadha with Bend It Like Beckham and Nora Ephron with You've Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle.
And with the likes of Drew Barrymore, Natalie Portman and Jennifer Aniston all trying their hand behind the camera it looks like female filmmaking is set to go from strength to strength
The Hurt Locker is released 28th August.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Kathryn Bigelow