Recently, I was invited by BBC Culture to participate in a worldwide poll to discover the Top #100FilmsByWomen. The poll included 368 film experts from 84 countries. It is very worthy effort to shine a light on women filmmakers—traditionally overlooked—worldwide. In India, the Women in Cinema Collective's PK Rosy Film Society has similar intentions. To no one's surprise, the poll was topped by Jane Campion's The Piano (New Zealand, No 1) and Agnes Varda's Cleo from 5 to 7 (France, No 2). The other films in the Top 10 (in descending order) are Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Claire Denis' Beau Travail, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation, Vera Chytilova's Daisies, Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann, Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank and Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust.

I could have sworn, even before the poll, that the Top 10, or Top 100 Films would be, while entirely deserved, dominated by white Western women. Even though they had film experts from every continent poll, including nations like India, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Chile and Zimbabwe.