Amelia will be premiering in movie theaters tonight. Hilary Swank will star as Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly an airplane over the Atlantic Ocean. This historical moment reminded me of a few women who made their mark in film history. I came up with five female pioneers in film but the list goes on for miles!

Alice Guy-Blache

Alice Guy-Blache was the first female film director. She did her first film titled La Fee aux Choux (The Cabbage Fairy) around 1898 while in charge of production at Gaumont Film Company in France. She went on to direct a total of 324 films of different genres. As early as it was, many of Guy-Blache’s films targeted female audiences and contained feminist ideas. She moved to the U.S. with her husband in 1909 to oversee the production company in Ohio. They would eventually leave Gaumont and form The Solax Company in New York, the largest movie studio in America before the explosion of Hollywood. Guy-Blache was not only a director. She was also a writer and experimented with visual and sound effects- all during a time when women didn’t even have the right to vote!

Penny Marshall

Penny was the first female director to make a movie that earned over $100 million dollars at the box office with Big in 1988. She hit a new record when she did it again with A League of Their Own in 1992.

Reese Witherspoon

Ms. Witherspoon in certainly doing something right. She is the highest paid film actress of all time followed by Angelina Jolie and Cameron Diaz. Reese makes between $15 million and a whopping $20 million per movie! Male actors however are still taking home the bigger paychecks in Hollywood.

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn was the most praised actress of all time. Her career was in full force for 49 years. Hepburn broke the mold when she set the record for having the most time between Oscars. She also made history by winning the most Oscars for Best Actress. She was nominated for Best Actress twelve times and took home four Oscars! Meryl Streep came in second with 12 nominations and one win over a 24-year span.

Audrey Munson

Munson was an actress in the silent film Inspiration (1915). She was the first lead actress in film to appear in the nude. Her beautiful figure was an inspiration for over 15 statues in New York. She has obtained such nicknames as American Venus, Miss Manhattan and the Exposition Girl.

Extra: Betty Boop First Female Superhero!