Women Film Pioneers

Argentina

Emilia Saleny

Australia

Elsa Chauvel
Mona Donaldson
Agnes Gavin
Dorothy Gordon
Possum Paddock (1921) Kate Howarde (d/w/prod). AUC
Kate Howarde
Annette Kellerman
Louise Lovely
Lottie Lyell
Isabel McDonagh
Phyllis McDonagh
Paulette McDonagh
Bess Meredyth
Caroline Frances Pugliese
Señora Spencer
Beatrice Maude Tildesley

Austria

Carmen Cartellieri
Ida Jenbach
Louise Kolm-Fleck

Brazil

Eva Nil
Carmen Santos
Cleo de Verberena

Canada

Marie de Kerstrat
Emma Gendron
Jenny Gilbertson
Ray Lewis
Dorothea Mitchell
Lotte Reiniger
Nell Shipman
May Watkis

Chile

Alicia Armstrong de Vicuña
Rosario Rodríguez de la Serna
Gabriela von Bussenius Vega

China

Fan Xuepeng
Hu Ping
Pearl Ing
Louise Kolm-Fleck
Pu Shunqing
Tazuko Sakane
Helen Wang
Xie Caizhen
Yan Shanshan
Yang Naimei

Colombia

Kathleen Romoli

Croatia

Marija Jurić Zagorka

Czechoslovakia

Thea Červenková
Suzanne Marwille

Denmark

Harriet Bloch
Gerd Egede-Nissen
Aud Egede-Nissen
Asta Nielsen
Emilie Sannom
Valda Valkyrien

England

Muriel Alleyne
Dorothea Baird
Iris Barry
Laura Bayley
Sarah Bernhardt
Paula Blackton
Jessica Elvira Borthwick
May Clark
Dorothea Donn-Byrne
Nell Emerald
Dorothy Farnum
Elinor Glyn
Lydia Hayward
Margaret Hepworth
Caroline Lejeune
Leila Lewis
Enid Lorimer
Christabel Lowndes-Yates
Blanche MacIntosh
Gwladys, Marchioness of Townshend
Isabel McDonagh
Abby Meehan
Jackeydawra Melford
Mary Murillo
Mary O’Connor
Lotte Reiniger
Alma Reville
Alice Rosenthal
Encarnacion Rosa Scott
Henderina Victoria Scott
Marie Stopes
Margaret Turnbull
Florence Turner
Ada Aline Urban

Finland

Gerda Hintze
Aili Kari
Jenny Strömberg
Katri Viita

France

Sarah Bernhardt
Virgínia de Castro e Almeida
Berthe Dagmar
Marie de Kerstrat
Renée Deliot
Lucie Derain
Fabienne Fabrèges
Dorothy Farnum
Alice Guy Blaché
Genevieve Harris
Diana Karenne
Georgette Méliès
Christiane Mendelys
Mary Murillo
Musidora
Marguerite Renoir
Eliane Tayar
Élisabeth Thuillier
Berthe Thuillier
Margaret Turnbull
Marguerite Viel

Germany

Harriet Bloch
Carmen Cartellieri
Gerd Egede-Nissen
Ada Egede-Nissen
Aud Egede-Nissen
Ruth Goetz
Ida Jenbach
Diana Karenne
Louise Kolm-Fleck
Suzanne Marwille
Asta Nielsen
Rosa Porten
Lotte Reiniger
Emilie Sannom
Stella F. Simon
Thea von Harbou

Global

Aloha Wanderwell Baker

Hong Kong

Esther Eng
Fan Xuepeng
Yan Shanshan

Hungary

Carmen Cartellieri

Ireland

May Clark
Dorothea Donn-Byrne
Frances Baker Farrell
Máirín Hayes
Mary Manning
Ellen O’Mara Sullivan
Mrs. M.T. Pender
Lettice Ramsey

Italy

Gemma Bellincioni
Francesca Bertini
Bianca Virginia Camagni
Giulia Cassini-Rizzotto
Renée Deliot
Fabienne Fabrèges
Elvira Giallanella
Diana Karenne
Elvira Notari
Lotte Reiniger
Emilie Sannom
Matilde Serao
Daisy Sylvan
Esterina Zuccarone

Japan

Tazuko Sakane
Kinuyo Tanaka

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

Marija Jurić Zagorka

Mexico

Adelina Barrasa
Cube Bonifant (a/o). PC
Cube Bonifant
Mimí Derba
Adriana and Dolores Ehlers (d/o). RNICMC
Adriana Ehlers
Adriana and Dolores Ehlers (d/o). RNICMC
Dolores Ehlers
Cándida Beltrán Rendón
Juliet Barrett Rublee
Adela Sequeyro
Carmen Toscano
Elena Sánchez Valenzuela

New Zealand

Possum Paddock (1921) Kate Howarde (d/w/prod). AUC
Kate Howarde
Phyllis McDonagh

Northern Ireland

Máirín Hayes

Norway

Gurly Drangsholt
Gerd Egede-Nissen
Ada Egede-Nissen
Aud Egede-Nissen
Fernanda Nissen

Peru

Teresita Arce
Ángela Ramos de Rotalde
Maria Isabel Sánchez Concha Aramburú
Stefanía Socha

Poland

Nina Niovilla
Stefania Zahorska

Portugal

Virgínia de Castro e Almeida

Russia

Nina Agadzhanova-Shutko
Natalia Bakhareva
Valentina Brumberg
Zinaida Brumberg
Aleksandra Khokhlova
Anna Mar
Ol’ga Rakhmanova
Esfir Shub
Elizaveta Svilova
Elizaveta Thiemann

Scotland

Jenny Gilbertson

Soviet Union

Nina Agadzhanova-Shutko
Valentina Brumberg
Zinaida Brumberg
Aleksandra Khokhlova
Ol’ga Rakhmanova
Esfir Shub
Elizaveta Svilova

Spain

Helena Cortesina
María Luz Morales Godoy

Sweden

Harriet Bloch
Marie Louise Gagner
Greta Håkansson
Anna Hofman-Uddgren
Alva Lundin

The Netherlands

Adriënne Solser
Caroline van Dommelen

The Philippines

Isabel Acuña

Tunisia

Haydée Chikly

Turkey

Sabahat Filmer
Bedia Muvahhit
Neyyire Neyir

United States

Maude Adams
Audrie Alspaugh
Tsuru Aoki
Dorothy Arzner
Gertrude Atherton
Leah Baird
Hettie Gray Baker
Aloha Wanderwell Baker
Ruth Ann Baldwin
Bessie Barriscale
Iris Barry
Anne Bauchens
Clara Beranger
Ouida Bergère
Sarah Bernhardt
Marguerite Bertsch
Cora Johnstone Best
Marian Constance Blackton
Paula Blackton
Anita Maris Boggs
Margaret Booth
Bertha Muzzy Bower
Madeline Brandeis
Marvin Breckinridge
Beta Breuil
Adele S. Buffington
Betty Burbridge
Hazel Burnett
Elsa Chauvel
Mrs. George Randolph Chester
Josephine Clement
Lenore Coffee
Mabel Condon
Kate Corbaley
Sada Cowan
Grace Cunard
Virginia Dale
Helena Smith Dayton
Marie de Kerstrat
Beatrice deMille
Beulah Marie Dix
Ruth Gould Dolesé
Dorothea Donn-Byrne
Marie Dressler
Mrs. Sidney Drew
Lillian Ducey
Lucy Duff-Gordon
Winifred Dunn
Winnifred Eaton
Adriana and Dolores Ehlers (d/o). RNICMC
Adriana Ehlers
Adriana and Dolores Ehlers (d/o). RNICMC
Dolores Ehlers
Esther Eng
Marion Fairfax
Dot Farley
Dorothy Farnum
Flora Finch
Cissy Fitzgerald
Helen Gardner
Gene Gauntier
Angela Murray Gibson
Lillian Gish
Eloyce King Patrick Gist
Elinor Glyn
Dorothy Gordon
Dorothy Gottlieb
Ethel Grandin
Corinne Griffith
Elizabeth B. Grimball
Texas Guinan
Alice Guy Blaché
Gladys Hall
Genevieve Harris
Gale Henry
Katharine Hilliker
Helen Holmes
Drusilla Dunjee Houston
Possum Paddock (1921) Kate Howarde (d/w/prod). AUC
Kate Howarde
Alice Howell
Zora Neale Hurston
Eugenie Magnus Ingleton
Julia Crawford Ivers
Alice Smythe Jay
Osa Johnson
Agnes Christine Johnston
Flossie A. Jones
Maibelle Heikes Justice
Helen Keller
Annette Kellerman
Bradley King
Viola Lawrence
Florence Lawrence
Marion Leonard
Sonya Levien
Ray Lewis
Beulah Livingstone
Anita Loos
Jane Loring
Hope Loring
Ruth Harriet Louise
Louise Lovely
Josephine Lovett
Frederica Sagor Maas
Mary MacLane
Jeanie Macpherson
Cleo Madison
Mary Manning
Frances Marion
Sarah Y. Mason
June Mathis
Margaret Mayo
Vera McCord
Elizabeth McGaffey
Bess Meredyth
Mary Lawton Metcalfe
Beatriz Michelena
Lorna Moon
Irene Morra
Jane Murfin
Mary Murillo
Mae Murray
Nancy Naumburg
Alla Nazimova
Mabel Normand
Mary O’Connor
Ellen O’Mara Sullivan
Ruth Bryan Owen
Ida May Park
Louella Parsons
Harriet Parsons
Frances Taylor Patterson
Frances Peck
Olga Petrova
Elizabeth Chevalier Pickett
Mary Pickford
Gertrude Price
Olga Printzlau
Natacha Rambova
Josephine Rector
Dorothy Davenport Reid
Alma Reville
Eslanda Robeson
Adela Rogers St. Johns
Gladys Rosson
Fanchon Royer
Juliet Barrett Rublee
Alice B. Russell
Lillian Case Russell
Blanche Sewell
Nell Shipman
Audrey Forfar Shippam
Stella F. Simon
Rose Smith
Tressie Souders
Anita Stewart
Ruth Stonehouse
Gloria Swanson
Constance Talmadge
Norma Talmadge
Alice Terry
Gertrude Homan Thanhouser
Fay Tincher
Wanda Tuchock
Margaret Turnbull
Florence Turner
Madge Tyrone
Harriette Underhill
Eve Unsell
Ada Aline Urban
Valda Valkyrien
Lule Warrenton
Lois Weber
Clare West
Pearl White
Maria P. Williams
Kathlyn Williams
Edna Williams
Elsie Jane Wilson
Margery Wilson
Margaret J. Winkler
Marion E. Wong
Anzia Yezierska
Dorothy Yost
Clara Kimball Young
⤒ Return to top