Dutch filmmaker Marleen Gorris was BOTD in 1948. Born in Roermond to a working-class Protestant family, she studied drama at the University of Amsterdam and later at the University of Birmingham, intended to become an actress. She began writing film scripts in her 30s, and was mentored by filmmaker Chantal Akerman, who encouraged her to direct her own material. Her 1982 debut feature film De stilte rond Christine M (A Question of Silence), a drama about three women who spontaneously murder a man, drew praise and controversy for its unapologetically feminist politics and refusal to condemn the murderers. She explored similar themes of patriarchal oppression and female solidarity in her films Gebroken spiegels (Broken Mirrors) and The Last Island. She achieved international success with her 1995 film Antonia’s Line, a dramedy about a woman raising a child in a community of straight and queer women. A surprise international hit, it won the Oscar for best foreign film, making Gorris became the first female director and lesbian to win the award. Her other projects include a film adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs Dalloway, the historical drama film The Luzhin Defence and the romantic comedy Carolina. Her television credits include (inevitably) directing an episode of American TV drama series The L Word. Now retired from filmmaking, Gorris lives with her partner Maria Uitdehaag, her first assistant director in Antonia’s Line.