Athena Film Festival Honoree Jodie Foster opened up about how far women have come in the entertainment industry during an opening ceremony on Thursday.
"When I was growing up in the film business, I never saw a woman's face," Foster said before accepting her Laura Ziskin Liftetime Achievement Award at Barnard College.
Foster, 52, who has mostly spent her time behind the camera in recent years said she knew she wanted to direct ever since she was a young girl, but was discouraged by the fact she had never seen "a female director's face."
"I thought it was something...I would never be allowed to do," she explained, adding that once her mother took her to a film festival devoted to the work of Lina Wertmuller, "I came to realize that I could be a woman director if I wanted to because there was one out there, and that was a life-changing moment for me."
While she noted to The Hollywood Reporter "there aren't enough women directors," she added there is no "plot" to keep women from directing as there has been a noticeable rise in directing roles for women in television and independent films.
The Athena Film Festival was stablished to celebrate female leadership and it ran from Feb. 5 through the 8.