Alice Guy-Blaché (July 1, 1873 – March 24, 1968) is generally considered to be the world's first female director. French-born Alice Guy entered the film business as a secretary at Gaumont-Paris in 1896. The next year Gaumont changed from manufacturing cameras to producing movies, and Guy became one of its first film directors. She impressed the company so much with the output (she averaged two two-reelers a week) and quality of her productions that by 1905 she was made the company's production director, supervising the company's other directors. In 1907 she married Herbert Blaché, an Englishman who ran the company's British and German offices. The pair soon went to the U.S. to set up the company's operations there. In 1910 she set up her own production company in New York and built a studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey. After a period of critical and financial success, her company's fortunes declined and she eventually shut down the studio. Although she secured work directing films for several major Hollywood studios, she returned to France in 1922 after her divorce from Blache. She was never able to secure any directorial jobs there, and never made a film again. In 1964 she returned to the U.S. and lived in Mahwah, New Jersey - not far from where her original studios were - with her daughters, where she died in 1968.

Filmography

• 2025Fantastic Flowers — Director
• 2025Imitation of Waves - Guy's Visions — Cinematography
• 2007Butterfly Dances — Director
• 2005Gaumont Treasures 1897-1913 — Director
• 1920Tarnished Reputations — Director, Producer
• 1918The Great Adventure — Director
• 1917A Man and the Woman — Director, Screenplay
• 1917Behind the Mask — Director
• 1917House of Cards — Director, Writer
• 1917The Adventurer — Director
• 1917The Empress — Director, Writer
• 1917When You and I Were Young — Director
• 1916The Ocean Waif — Director
• 1916The Scarlet Woman — Director, Producer
• 1916What Will People Say? — Director
• 1915Barbara Frietchie — Producer
• 1915Heart of a Painted Woman — Director
• 1915My Madonna — Director, Writer
• 1915The Song of the Wage Slave — Director
• 1915The Vampire — Director, Producer
• 1914The Dream Woman — Director, Screenplay
• 1914The Lure — Writer, Director
• 1914The Monster and the Girl — Director
• 1914The Tigress — Director
• 1914The Woman of Mystery — Director, Scenario Writer, Producer
• 1913A House Divided — Director, Producer
• 1913A Severe Test — Director
• 1913Beasts of the Jungle — Writer, Producer
• 1913Burstup Homes — Director
• 1913Burstup Homes' Murder Case — Director
• 1913Cousins of Sherlocko — Director
• 1913Dick Whittington and His Cat — Writer, Director
• 1913Kelly from the Emerald Isle — Writer
• 1913Matrimony's Speed Limit — Director, Producer
• 1913Napoleon — Director
• 1913Officer Henderson — Director
• 1913The Coming of Sunbeam — Director
• 1913The Pit and the Pendulum — Director
• 1913The Roads That Lead Home — Producer, Director
• 1913The Rogues of Paris — Director, Producer
• 1913The Thief — Director
• 1912A Comedy of Errors — Director, Producer
• 1912A Fool and His Money — Producer, Director
• 1912A Man's a Man — Director
• 1912A Solax Celebration — The Cause, Director
• 1912A Terrible Lesson — Director
• 1912Algie, the Miner — Producer, Director
• 1912Blighted Lives — Director
• 1912Broken Oaths — Director
• 1912Canned Harmony — Director, Producer
• 1912Child of the Tenements — Director
• 1912Dublin Dan — Producer
• 1912Falling Leaves — Director, Writer
• 1912For Love of the Flag — Director
• 1912Fra Diavolo — Director, Writer
• 1912Frozen on Love's Trail — Director
• 1912God Disposes — Director
• 1912Hearts Unknown — Director
• 1912His Double — Director
• 1912Hubby Does the Washing — Director, Producer
• 1912In the Year 2000 — Director
• 1912Making an American Citizen — Producer, Director, Writer
• 1912Mignon — Director
• 1912Mrs. Cranston's Jewels — Director
• 1912Parson Sue — Director
• 1912Phantom Paradise — Director
• 1912Playing Trumps — Director
• 1912Someone's Luck Society — Director
• 1912Souls in the Shadow — Director
• 1912The Detective's Dog — Director
• 1912The Equine Spy — Producer
• 1912The Face at the Window — Director
• 1912The Fight in the Dark — Director
• 1912The Girl in the Arm-Chair — Director, Producer
• 1912The Hater of Women — Director
• 1912The High Cost of Living — Director
• 1912The Love of the Flag — Director
• 1912The New Love And The Old — Producer, Director
• 1912The Reformation of Mary — Director, Producer
• 1912The Sewer — Producer
• 1912The Strike — Director
• 1912The Woman Behind the Man — Director
• 1912The Wooing of Alice — Director
• 1912Treasures on the Wing — Director
• 1912Two Little Rangers — Director
• 1911Across the Mexican Line — Director
• 1911Cupid and the Comet — Director, Producer
• 1911From the Valley of Shadows — Director
• 1911Greater Love Hath No Man — Director, Writer, Executive Producer
• 1911His Mother's Hymn — Director
• 1911Mixed Pets — Director
• 1911Outwitted by Horse and Lariat — Director
• 1911Starting Something — Director
• 1911The Violin Maker of Nuremberg — Director
• 1911Tramp Strategy — Director
• 1911When Marian was Married — Director
• 1909What Is a Flag? — Director
• 1907Alice Guy Films a 'Phonoscène' in the Studio at Buttes-Chaumont, Paris — Herself, the director, Director
• 1907On the Barricade — Director
• 1907The Banknote — Director
• 1907The Race for the Sausage — Director
• 1906A Priest's Conscience — Director, Writer
• 1906A Sticky Woman — Director
• 1906An Obstacle Course — Director
• 1906Anna, what are you waiting for? — Director
• 1906Course de taureaux — Director
• 1906Dranem Performs "Five O'Clock Tea" — Director
• 1906Een kleine detective — Director
• 1906L'Honneur du Corse — Director
• 1906Madame's Cravings — Director, Writer
• 1906Man Monkey — Director
• 1906Mireille — Director
• 1906Ocean Studies — Director
• 1906The Birth, the Life and the Death of Christ — Director, Writer
• 1906The Consequences of Feminism — Director, Writer
• 1906The Dirigible 'Homeland' — Director
• 1906The Druids — Director
• 1906The Drunken Mattress — Director
• 1906The Game-Keeper's Son — Director
• 1906The Hierarchies of Love — Director
• 1906The Mouse in the Crinoline — Director
• 1906The Stepmother — Director
• 1905Clown, Dog and Balloon — Director
• 1905Dranem Performs The True Jiu-Jitsu — Director
• 1905Esmeralda — Director
• 1905Faust — Director
• 1905Félix Mayol Performs "The Trottins' Polka" — Director
• 1905Félix Mayol Performs "Indiscreet Questions" — Director
• 1905Félix Mayol Performs "White Lilacs" — Director
• 1905In a Bamboo Hut — Director
• 1905Le Cake-walk de nouveau cirque — Director
• 1905Polin Performs "The Anatomy of a Draftee" — Director
• 1905Saharet Performs the Bolero — Director
• 1905Spain — Self - Presenter, Director
• 1905Tango — Director
• 1905The Bricklayers — Director
• 1905The Fairy of Spring — Director
• 1905The Magician's Alms — Director
• 1905The Malagueña and the Bullfighter — Director
• 1905The Sock — Director
• 1905The Statue — Director
• 1904The Crime on Temple Street — Director
• 1904The First Cigarette — Director
• 1904Token of Love — Director
• 1903Faust and Mephistopheles — Director
• 1903How Monsieur Takes His Bath — Director
• 1902An Untimely Intrusion — Director
• 1902Danse fantaisiste — Director
• 1902Eccentric Dance — Director
• 1902La Gigue — Director
• 1902Les malabares: Les acrobats — Director
• 1902Midwife to the Upper Class — Director, Producer
• 1902Miss Dundee and Her Performing Dogs — Director
• 1902Serpentine Dance — Director
• 1901Danse basque — Director
• 1900At the Floral Ball — Director
• 1900At the Photographer's — Director
• 1900Automated Hat-Maker and Sausage-Grinder — Director
• 1900Avenue de l'Opéra — Director
• 1900Coucher d'une Parisienne — Director, Scenario Writer
• 1900Dance of the Seasons: Winter, Snow Dance — Director
• 1900Danse du papillon — Director
• 1900Gavotte directoire — Director
• 1900Pierrette's Escapades — Director
• 1900The Cabbage-Patch Fairy — Director, Writer
• 1900The Landlady — Director
• 1899At the Club — Director
• 1899Entrée Et Sortie De La Mine — Director
• 1899Wonderful Absinthe — Director
• 1898At the Hypnotist's — Director
• 1898Disappearing Act — Director
• 1898Surprise Attack on a House at Daybreak — Director
• 1898The Burglars — Director
• 1898The Turn-of-the-Century Blind Man — Director
• 1897Ballet Libella — Director
• 1897Bathing in a Stream — Director
• 1897Danse Fleur de Lotus — Director
• 1897Serpentine Dance by Mme. Bob Walter — Director
• 1897The Fisherman at the Stream — Director
• 1896The Cabbage-Patch Fairy — Director of Photography, Writer
• Alice Guy - 13 Courts-métrages — Director
• Shadows of the Moulin Rouge — Director, Writer, Producer

Appearances as themselves (7)

• 2021Alice Guy, the First Female Filmmaker — Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
• 2018Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché — Self (archive footage)
• 2016The Women Who Run Hollywood — Self (archive footage)
• 1995The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-Blaché — Self (archive footage)
• 1976Qui est Alice Guy? — Self
• Cinépanorama — Self
• 1895Animated Portrait Shot by L and A Lumière — Herself