September 16th, 2016 - In a recent announcement, Filestage arranged their list of the 50 Best Commercial Directors in the World. Rightfully placed on that list was Chelsea director & photographer Lauren Greenfield. Lauren has earned her seat at the table with some of the industry's finest directors, most notably for her work directing the Always #LikeAGirl campaign, thus creating a cultural phenomenon. The #LikeAGirl project went on to win the 2015 Emmy for Best Commercial, as well as over 200 other awards including 14 Cannes Lions. Lauren has become the first Female Director to be nominated for the DGA Award for Best Commercial Director and has continued to lead the charge to change the #LikeAGirl stigma with her Always follow up #Unstoppable.

Out of the 50 best directors named in the list, Lauren was the only Woman, drawing attention to the lack of female directors within our industry. As Lauren later stated, she is "honored to be named one of 'the 50 best commercial directors in the world' but saddened to be the only woman so named."

This systemic underrepresentation has ushered in movements such as Free The Bid intiative, which aims to incentivize and even mandate that Agencies consider more women directors when they bid out jobs with production companies. "Women are more than half of the world’s population! And half of the creative voices. We need to hear them," urges Free the Bid.

Lauren is renowned for her runaway hit The Queen of Versailles, and is currently in production on her next documentary feature. Greenfield’s forthcoming retrospective, titled Wealth: The Influence of Affluence, will open at the International Center of Photography in New York, and the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles and Phaidon will publish the monograph also entitled Wealth. Most recently she has directed campaigns for Ad Council, Toyota, Chevy and Liberty Mutual.