I am having a hard time thinking of any. Of course the number of women directors is pretty small, but they seem to be limited to drama and comedy in their work (Penny Mashall, Sofia Copolla, Amy Heckerling, Jane Campion, Nora Ephron, I am sure many others I am forgetting). Would you say this is because women, in general, don’t really want to direct action movies or is it because Hollywood doesn’t hink of women when they go looking for a director of an action flick. My guess is more toward the latter.
Check the credits of Kathryn Bigelow, who is one of James Cameron’s ex-wives. Lotsa action movies, some of 'em damn good.
Mimi Leder did The Peacekeeper and Deep Impact.
With Point Break, Near Dark, Blue Steel and K-19: The Widowmaker, Bigelow indeed tops the list for the genre.
Leder’s notable, too, and Penny Marshall made Jumpin’ Jack Flash.
Other than that, the pickings are kinda slim, unless you want to expand “action” to include occasional directors of thrillers (Ida Lupino, Lina Wertmuller) or war movies (Agnieszka Holland, Gillian Armstrong).
Betty Thomas directed I Spy which was an action/comedy.
Don’t forget Bigelow also did Strange Days from a James Cameron script.
Yeah…girl-on-girl action.
Mary Harron directed American Psycho, which featured. . .
Hot chainsaw on girl action
Nitpick: Some of the movies mentioned so far aren’t really “action” films, even though they appeal to the same demographics. I’m thinking Deep Impact and K-19. These are actually disaster flicks.
Point Break and Strange Days not only qualify as action films, I think they are very good movies in their own right.
So if you’re at the video store, where do you think they would file Deep Impact?
It was in Drama last time I was in Blockbuster.
Well, there’s your problem – shopping at Blockbuster! 
SF?
Yup. Or, if it’s a really kick ass video store, they’ll have a section for disaster films like this one, along with The Poseidon Adventure and Towering Inferno.
Heh.
On a tangent, I went to my local videostore (which is not a Blockbuster) the other day for the first time in a long while. They have apparently ditched “sections” altogether, and now file every single movie alphabetically.
Well, there’s two sections: New Releases are on the wall, and everything else is on racks on the floor. (New Releases are a dollar more.) All movies are filed alphabetically in both sections.
I have to say that I found that extremely refreshing. Every movie I wanted was a piece of cake to find. I was in and out like a virgin on prom night.
So for my store at least, Deep Impact would be filed under “D”.
I dunno, I kinda like browsing by category.
Katheryn Bigelow is awesome though, she has made some of my favorite movies. Ever notice how (at least in Point Break and Strange Days) all of the female characters are really strong? Not physically, but mentally?