Even if you haven’t seen their movies, you’ve at least heard of directors like Rossellini, De Sica, Antonioni, Fellini, Pasolini, Bertolucci, Sorrentino, Moretti, Bellocchio, Tornatore, Martone. What do they all have in common? They’re male directors, and the undisputed protagonists, award-winning by critics and viewers, of the cinematic world from the postwar period onward. But what about Lina Wertmüller or Liliana Cavani (who just turned 90), or more recent voices like Alice Rohrwacher, Emma Dante and Susanna Nicchiarelli? Besides being clearly in the numerical minority, female directors’ names do not have the far-reaching recognition of their male counterparts–historically, a product of the political and social climate, but a reality we haven’t left far behind. A female director in Italy is still a rare thing. Production companies still invest very little in projects that bear the signature of the fairer sex, and female-directed documentaries are more likely to be financed than fiction films–the respected core of the cinema industry. The whole thing seems so anachronistic, especially when we take into account the fact that Italy’s first female director was making films before Luchino Visconti was even born…