Girls on Film: Aspiring female filmmakers need male mentors, too

Hollywood's creative elite have relied on established mentors for decades — but women have rarely been a part of the equation

Male mentors
(Image credit: (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images))

To become a Hollywood power player, you need a good mentor.

When Steven Spielberg accepted the Cecil B. DeMille award, he stressed: "None of the movies I've made throughout my whole life would have been possible [...] without someone believing in me." He noted that Noel Coward mentored David Lean. Roger Corman mentored Francis Ford Coppola (as part of the large "Corman Film School"). Coppola then mentored George Lucas, who then mentored Ron Howard. Spielberg himself helped Robert Zemeckis, who in turn sponsored Peter Jackson. "We all had a hand pulling each other up in life."

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Monika Bartyzel

Monika Bartyzel is a freelance writer and creator of Girls on Film, a weekly look at femme-centric film news and concerns, now appearing at TheWeek.com. Her work has been published on sites including The Atlantic, Movies.com, Moviefone, Collider, and the now-defunct Cinematical, where she was a lead writer and assignment editor.