By: Eva Zhu
Patty Jenkins might as well be Wonder Woman herself. Not only is she a fantastic director, she also holds a master’s degree, is a mother, and was one of the runner-ups for TIME’s Person of the Year in 2016.
She started off her directorial career in 1995, working as a second assistant camera on A Modern Affair, an independent feature film. She went back to school afterwards, obtaining a master’s degree in directing from the American Film Institute (AFI). This was — and still is — a big fucking deal, considering that she is one of the only notable female directors to graduate from this prestigious institute.
In 2003, she directed her first feature film Monster, which was a hit among critics. Critic Roger Ebert named it the best film of the year when it came out, and Rotten Tomatoes (widely known for being incredibly harsh in its criticism of well-made films) gave it a 7.2/10.
Jenkins signed on to a few films between 2002 and 2015 that never worked out. Thus, she spent the better part of the decade working in television. One of the shows she directed The Killing, won a Directors Guild of America Award and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing.
She signed on to direct Wonder Woman in 2015, which turned out to be the best move of her career so far. Jenkins holds a couple records for this film: the biggest domestic opening of all time for a female director and the first female to direct a superhero movie made by an American studio. So far, according to Box Office Mojo, Wonder Woman has earned over $821 million in revenue worldwide, and was number one on Rotten Tomatoes’ 50 Best Superhero Movies of All Time list (with a 92% rating, might I add).
Do yourself a favour this week — since it’s still early in the term and school hopefully hasn’t made any of us cry yet — watch some work directed by this boss Patty Jenkins.
