Known as the country's only female film director, the success of Al-Mansour's 2005 documentary Women Without Shadows influenced a new generation of filmmakers. Her inaugural feature, Wadjda, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2012, is the first feature film shot entirely in Saudi Arabia and the first by a female director. She also directed this year's Mary Shelley, with Elle Fanning playing the lead role of the author. Al-Mansour is also the first artist from the Persian Gulf region to be invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Al-Mansour's game-changing career has mirrored the fortunes of Saudi Arabia, where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been overseeing new freedoms - women can now drive (as of June this year), visit the cinema and work in shops. But Saudi women must still dress in abayas - full-length robes - and many but not all wear the niqab (face-covering veil).
