We’re very proud that a lot of the directors we highlight get attached to Hollywood features. Generally in a given year we’ll see 3-5 examples, but historically very, very few have been women. So it was welcome news to hear that recent featured filmmaker Courtney Hoffman is now attached to hot film property “Ruthless” at Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners.

While a filmmaker’s short film work is usually implicit in why they receive an opportunity, the Deadline piece by Mike Fleming was actually very explicit in getting quotes from execs citing Good Time Girls as the main reason Hoffman got a chance to pitch. And once she did, she really, really impressed. Quoting Matti Leshem of Weimaraner Republic Pictures who are onboard to produce the piece:

“I saw the short and immediately felt like I’d seen something I hadn’t before, with a clear perspective, and beautifully and confidently shot,” Leshem told Deadline. “When the studio asked if we should consider her, we all said, absolutely. We met with her and heard her pitch for how to make the film. In 25 years of listening to pitches from filmmakers, I cannot remember being that excited by a complete view of the film she intends to make. She has worked on all those big films, and it was clear she understands the collaborative nature, and that she has all the necessary confidence to direct a big movie.”

This is obviously great news for Hoffman, who is in the midst of an unorthodox journey to the feature film director chair after serving as costume designer for several big pictures like Baby Driver and Django Unchained. Also it’s a major win for Refinery29 who produced Good Time Girls as part of their Shatterbox Anthology, a short film series explicitly about elevating emerging female directorial talent. Hoffman has proven their thesis, and will now be slide 1 in the case study for the entire project.

Will this be a start of a trend that finds studios drawing female talent from shorts? Hoffman is something of a unique case to date in that, despite her inexperience (Good Time Girls was her directorial debut), she has an extensive track record on major film sets as a designer, and was able to leverage connections she gained into name-talent like Laura Dern and Alia Shawkat for her short. This mix feels difficult to replicate for most of the talented female directors we write about, but any movement by studios in transitioning talent from shorts-to-features is welcome news to us. Hoffman joins two other women, Rebecca Thomas and fellow Short of the Week alum Emily Carmichael in being set up at Amblin, which does seem like a decided trend however. Kudos to Amblin, and congrats to Hoffman.