AGING IN THE SPOTLIGHT

The female filmmakers behind some of the year's biggest movies are changing the way we see—and talk about—women over the age of 40.

- BY SADIE BELL

For decades, there’s been an unfortunate but common belief in Hollywood (and beyond) that women over 40 are invisible. Actresses are then relegated to playing somebody’s nondescript wife. Or mother. Or in some mind-boggling cases, somebody’s grandmother. While this has improved in recent years (though statistics regarding on-screen representation remain dismal), now more than ever, women in Hollywood are taking matters into their own hands and shaping the conversation around aging with their own art. And it’s paying off.

Several films that show women wrestling with their age have garnered acclaim this awards season: the Demi Moore-led feminist horror film The Substance; the Gia Coppola-directed indie The Last Showgirl, which marks Pamela Anderson’s first lead role in years; the Amy Adams-led adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s novel Nightbitch; and, in some ways, the Nicole Kidman-starring erotic drama Babygirl. Though each film tackles the subject matter uniquely—whether following a celebrity fitness instructor deemed “past her prime,” a Las Vegas dancer facing an unknown path, or a stay-at-home mom who’s convinced she’s turning into a dog—what unites them is how their complex characters face both the internal and external. Their poignancy and power lie not just in these characters’ reckonings with their self-worth, but in realizing just how frustrated they’ve become with the glass ceilings that exist to make them feel the way they do.

With these feminist movies winning plaudits at film festivals and awards ceremonies the world over, Marie Claire asked The Substance writer and director Coralie Fargeat, Nightbitch co-writer and director Marielle Heller, and