Chantal Akerman

Akerman's most celebrated work is "Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles" (1975), an over-three-hour film that meticulously observes the daily routines of a widowed Brussels housewife. The film is considered a landmark of both feminist cinema and slow cinema.

Yes, "Jeanne Dielman" was voted the greatest film of all time in the 2022 Sight & Sound critics' poll, making it the first film directed by a woman to claim the top spot. It displaced Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo," which had led the 2012 poll.

Akerman was born in Brussels to a Jewish family; her mother was a Holocaust survivor, an experience that deeply shaped Akerman's explorations of memory, domesticity, and displacement. Her later film "No Home Movie" (2015) focuses on her relationship with her mother shortly before her mother's death.

Akerman directed "News from Home" (1977), "Les Rendez-vous d'Anna" (1978), and the musical "Golden Eighties" (1986), among many others. She worked prolifically in both narrative and documentary forms across her career, which spanned over four decades.