The first ever Mind the Gap Award, presented in recognition of work in film that has helped close the gender gap, was presented on December 13 to director/writer Angela Robinson at a screening of her latest film, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women.

Beginning with her groundbreaking work in television on Showtime’s The L Word and the indie feature D.E.B.S., Angela Robinson’s career is notable for presenting complex female characters who challenge society’s expectations. Marston is Robinson’s first feature film since the 2005 Disney film Herbie: Fully Loaded. Hers is a career trajectory that at first looks unconventional. But, as she noted in an onstage conversation at the Smith Rafael Film Center, the through line is female empowerment: “It’s all strong female protagonists. I made Herbie because the parts were gender-switched: Lindsay Lohan was the race car driver, and Justin Long was the love interest and the mechanic—and I thought, this can reach the whole world, everywhere, with the power of that machinery.” She then built a career writing and directing television, while also writing Marston, her passion project, on the weekends.

Marston is a visually gorgeous film, with terrific performances from a top-notch cast (Rebecca Hall, Bella Heathcote, Luke Evans), and was described as “deliciously provocative” in the London Guardian. Robinson’s take on the real-life backstory of the creator of Wonder Woman, William Marston, is not just your regular biopic. Told from a distinctively female perspective, it’s as much about female empowerment as it is about the unconventional polyamorous relationship between Marston, Elizabeth Moulton, his wife, and Olive Byrne—the two women he lived with and who inspired the lasso-wielding comic book character.