Joan Micklin Silver, Director Of Crossing Delancey, 85

Silver had to forge her own way in the 1970s and 1980s, including with her first feature, Hester Street. “The 1975 independent film … was the story of a Jewish immigrant couple in the 1890s. The low-budget black and white film, in Yiddish with English subtitles, proved a hard sell to studios.” But it won rave reviews, made money, and earned Carol Kane, who was 21 at the time, an Oscar nomination. – Variety