Celebrating The Female Directors Behind Some Of Martin’s Recent Work

Illustrations by Will Maynard

It’s common knowledge that women filmmakers have far less representation in the industry than their male counterparts. A recent Celluloid Ceiling Report found that only 12% of the directors behind 2021’s 100 top-grossing films were women (a decrease from 16% in 2020). Out of the Oscars’ 93-year run, only seven women have been nominated in the Best Director category, and only three have won (Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker,” Chloe Zhao for “Nomadland” and Jane Campion for “The Power of the Dog”).

This is an increase from previous numbers — women directed only 2.7% of the top-100 grossing movies in 2007, for example — but still a paltry figure for a group that makes up half of the world’s population. There’s especially a lack of representation when it comes to women directors of color — under 2% of top-grossing directors since 2007 have been women of color, a USC study found.

This lack of representation extends to the ad world, too: under 7% of commercial directors are women. Groups like Free the Work and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media are attempting to fix that by raising awareness about lack of representation in the film, advertising and media worlds and creating opportunities for underrepresented groups.

In this spirit of support, Martin is highlighting five of the women it’s worked with to direct recent campaigns: Mary-Sue Masson, Rocio Crudo, the duo Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe and Hannah Lux Davis. All women say they’re eager for the day when there won’t need to be articles like this highlighting women who direct. “Let’s hope in the next five years we can stop having these conversations and it's just ‘director' — not a ‘woman director,’” says Masson. “What I’ve got in my knickers is neither here nor there.”

Crudo agrees: “This is our moment to show the world that we are directors. Hopefully one day the advertising festivals and stuff won’t have the ‘female director’ award,” she says. “That’s the point I'm still fighting for.”

Mary-Sue Masson: Century 21

Mary-Sue Masson is a director based in London who’s done work for brands like Flo, Haribo and Microsoft, and her film “Who’s the Daddy?” was featured at several film festivals and won TweetFest’s 2019 Audience Choice Award and Best Comedy at Harrogate Film Festival. She started out as an advertising creative in the 1990s on an all-female team (an unusual occurrence at the time, she says), then broke into directing at the BBC. She recently finished shooting a series of Century 21 spots for Martin highlighting the company’s agents.

Working as a female director who specializes in comedy writing can be especially difficult, says Masson. ”What I've discovered is it's okay to be a female director if you do beauty or kids,” she says. “But the minute you get into comedy, you're up against the guys, and you'll get invited to bid, but they go with the guy most of the time.”

The good news: Over her 20-year career, Masson says she’s seen a wider acknowledgment that the lack of female directors is a problem. Her advice to agencies and brands that want to work with female directors: 1) No posturing — only put a woman on the bid if you’re serious about working with her, 2) Consider doing an all-female bid — “And not just because it’s for Tampax,” she says and 3) Be cognizant that female directors might have less on their reels than male counterparts because of a lack of opportunities — not a lack of talent.

Rocio Crudo: TIAA

Buenos Aires-based director Rocio Crudo first got into directing at age 16 while studying photography. She got her start shooting film for friends in fashion and creating reels for actors, and attended the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires. Today, she’s a director who’s created commercial work for brands like Philips, Ford and Stella Artois, and she’s also working on her first feature film. She recently partnered with Martin to direct TIAA’s “Retire Inequality” campaign.

Crudo sees her advertising and film work as intertwined — when directing a spot, she wants to use emotion as a means to portray an honest depiction of real life, just as she would a feature film. Plus, “I feel like it’s good practice for a director to do advertising,” she says — not only will you get experience working against a deadline, but directors get to meet people in other industries and practice collaborating on delivering a client’s vision, she points out.

As a woman, Crudo says she’s experienced lip service from certain client inquiries. “Sometimes it feels like, ‘Okay, we're ticking boxes, she’s a director and we're showing diversity,’’' she says. Working with women on-set shouldn’t be framed as a trend, she says — rather, women should have permanent seats at the table, especially for positions with lower female representation like directors or gaffers. To this point, Crudo tries to have a 50/50 gender breakdown on her sets whenever possible.

Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe: Science Moms and GEICO

Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe met while performing at Upright Citizens Brigade in New York. After moving to Los Angeles to try acting, they realized they wanted to direct — their feature-length film “Greener Grass,” which they wrote and directed, premiered at Sundance. Since then, they’ve signed with Biscuit Productions and have moved into the world of advertising. “We really love working in commercials, because one of our favorite things to do is world building,” says DeBoer. “It’s so fun that, in commercials, you can build so many different worlds so quickly and work with some of the best people in the business and brands you really care about.” They initially worked with Martin to direct Science Moms’ “Outside Voice” campaign and recently directed two GEICO Gecko campaigns containing three spots each.

The duo, whose expertise is in comedic work and what DeBoer calls “heightened visual worlds,” has found that while advertising still has work to do when it comes to female representation, it’s done a better job than the comedy industry. However, both agree there needs to be a bigger platform from which to champion women directors. “I think a lot of women coming up in film and in comedy don't necessarily see themselves as directors because they didn't grow up seeing as many women directors,” says DeBoer. “I never thought that I had the technical wherewithal or the education and things to be able to direct myself until I started doing it and realized ‘I can learn this, and I can absolutely do this.’”

Hannah Lux Davis: Old Navy

Hannah Lux Davis always wanted to be a director — specifically, a music video director. She grew up in the heyday of TRL, watching music videos after school, and then went on to study in L.A. at the New York Film Academy and the L.A. Film School. She became a makeup artist to start making connections on-set, which is how she landed her break directing the 2013 “Love Me” music video for Lil Wayne, Future and Drake. She was the first woman to direct a music video for the rappers: “It was a huge deal, which is like, ‘Cool, sure, I get remembered,’ but it felt like more eyes were on the project and on me to watch me try and mess up,” she says. “So as a young director, I felt like I really had to have my shit together to just gain that respect back then.”

She’s since made a name for herself directing music videos for artists like Kacey Musgraves, Demi Lovato, Ciara, Nicki Minaj, Doja Cat and Ariana Grande (including famous Grande videos like “Thank U, Next”). And she’s also added commercials to her resume: One of the first spots she directed was for Martin — the Old Navy campaign featuring H.E.R. Since then, she’s gone on to direct other commercials featuring musicians like the Taco Bell spot with Lil Nas X and the McDonald’s spot with Saweetie.

Davis says that, originally, it took a while to get used to shooting commercials — as opposed to music videos, where she can conceptualize the video’s arc herself, commercials require working with an already written idea. But it also had its perks: “I'm glad I had so many years of music videos under my belt before doing commercials because I'm able to problem solve and work things through quicker in situations,” she says. (Plus, working with a musician is kind of like working with a client.)

Since she entered the film world in the early 2000s, Davis says the number of women directors has increased significantly. And she hopes that this heightened representation will inspire more girls to pick “director” as their dream job: “If you can see it, you can be it. I really believe that,” she says. “The more role models and people that are actually doing it, the next generation starts to see that and gain interest in that.”