Imagine if letter bias was extremely common in society, to the extent that you find yourself unconsciously applying it yourself even if you don't want to. Would you still hold that stance?

You mean in a "wait I totally meant to add these features but didn't initially consider them because they started with the letter z" way?

I wouldn't go so far as "I totally meant to." More like, "On further reflection, these features starting with the letter Z have merit and belong on my list."

I don't know, I find it completely foreign because I rarely know who directed a film. Of course, Spike Lee would know, but I don't know if the gender of the director would affect his opinion of a movie that much. That's what I find improbable in this specific case.

> since that has no bearing on whether they are good features or not.

This isn't a list of "best movies", it's a list of "movies aspiring directors should see". I have to imagine that such a list would strive to show all the diversity that exists in the film-making world, not just the ones held up as empirically "best".

Pretending that normative thinking didn't exist doesn't make it so, and doesn't help discriminated groups. In fact, it's part of the problem.