From the earliest days of the genre, there have been female action stars. Women threw themselves off buildings, onto moving trains and into pitched gun battles just as enthusiastically as any man. Silent serial queens like Pearl White and Helen Gibson once ruled the genre, thrilling audiences around the world and performing stunts that would make Tom Cruise think twice. Yet somewhere along the way, Hollywood bought into the myth that female-led action films didn't sell, and that women couldn't do action anyway. So, what went wrong? Why couldn't Ripley alone fix it? And are all these “strong female characters” changing the picture today?

Northern Ireland born Helen O'Hara, Editor-at-Large for Empire magazine and author of Women Vs Hollywood: The Fall and Rise of Women in Film, will celebrate the action queens of Hollywood history and explain how they were pushed out of the frame for half a century

Following the talk we will screen Mad Max: Fury Road, Helen’s pick for Art of Action. These tickets are for the talk only. To purchase a ticket for Mad Max: Fury Road please click here.