Unlike other anthologies, Hollywood Heroines: The Most Influential Women in Film History is a hybrid of film history and industry information with an exclusive focus on prominent women. This reference work includes more commonly discussed categories of important women in Hollywood film history, such as directors and actresses, and reaches beyond them to encompass women working as cinematographers, casting directors, studio heads, musical composers, and visual and special effects supervisors.

The wide range of filmmaking crafts covered in the book provides an acute view of the industry and increases the visibility of and quality of representation for women working in Hollywood. By bringing the experience of these influential women to light, Hollywood Heroines joins a growing movement that endeavors to dismantle harmful, long-standing industry myths that perpetuate the systemic underrepresentation of women and the devaluation of women’s stories in the Hollywood film industry.

Features

• Provides the reader with an invaluable, complete, and easy-to-understand view of film history and filmmaking while simultaneously highlighting the most important women, making the subject of Hollywood and film more transparent as a whole
• Enables a fuller understanding of the many complicated challenges women have faced historically and currently in Hollywood filmmaking
• Offers a unique blend of film history and industry information, cohesively presenting them both in one place
• Reaches beyond the more commonly discussed categories of women who have had important roles throughout Hollywood film history, such as directors and actresses, although they too are included
• Examines women’s visibility and representation in Hollywood in the context of the history of the film industry for students