21 movies by female filmmakers

Today (and every day) is the perfect day to watch one of these 21 movies by female filmmakers including Chloe Zhao, Emerald Fennell and more.

Like many industries, filmmaking has long been and continues to be dominated by men.

From making the decisions and writing the characters we all watch in the cinema to calling action on set and being recognised by glitzy awards ceremonies, women are severely under-represented.

And it does matter that female filmmakers have been essentially shut out of contributing to an influential art form. Their life experiences bring another dimension to the characters and worlds we all see, reflecting the perspectives of 50 per cent of the world’s population.

The storytellers are often as important as the stories themselves.

But from pioneering filmmakers such as Agnes Varda to contemporary artists such as Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell, women are leaving their mark on the screen, more so than ever before, So, today on International Women’s Day, and every other day of the year, you should see their work.

This is in no way an exhaustive list, far from it, but it’s at least a starting point.

GILLIAN ARMSTRONG – MY BRILLIANT CAREER: Armstrong was still in her 20s when she made My Brilliant Career, based on Miles Franklin’s book. The 1979 film stars Judy Davis as Sybylla, an ambitious woman with aspirations of being a writer in 19th century rural Australia, not exactly an easy feat for a woman.

ANDREA ARNOLD – FISH TANK: Arnold’s 2009 movie about a 15-year-old from a council estate in England was a festival hit. The coming-of-age story of defiant, working class and hip-hop-loving Mia becoming entangled with her mother’s boyfriend features a superb performance from then-newcomer Katie Jarvis.

KATHRYN BIGELOW – THE HURT LOCKER: Bigelow remains the only woman to have ever won a Best Director Oscar and it was for The Hurt Locker, a tightly structured, tense-as-anything war movie about the perilous experience of the people whose jobs it is to deal with bombs.

Kathryn Bigelow won an Oscar for directing The Hurt Locker.

JANE CAMPION – THE PIANO: Holly Hunter plays an electively mute Scottish woman who is sold into an arranged marriage with a frontiersman in New Zealand. Hunter’s performance as a woman who expresses herself through her piano and music won her an Oscar.

SOFIA COPPOLA – THE BLING RING: Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation might be better known but The Bling Ring is an underrated gem. Based on the true story of a group of young thieves hitting celebrity homes, it’s a fascinating, candy-coloured dissection of privilege, obsession and the fame game.

CLAIRE DENIS – BEAU TRAVAIL: There is something mesmerising about French director Claire Denis’ movie about a group of French Foreign Legion troops stationed in Djibouti. Her complex portrayal of a group of isolated men is tensely claustrophobic while also oddly freeing.

AVA DUVERNAY – SELMA: Ava Duvernay’s dramatisation of the burning civil rights era story is done with emotional resonance and an eye on the weight and significance of history. Recounting the events surrounding the 1965 Voting Rights marches in Alabama, the final act is particularly visceral.

Selma was directed by Ava Duvernay.

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DENIZ GAMZE ERGUVEN – MUSTANG: Mustang is the Turkish-French filmmaker’s feature debut, a naturalistic story about five free-spirited sisters locked in their own home by their conservative family, waiting to be married off. It’s a damning critique of modern-day Turkey and the Erdogan government’s encroachment on women’s rights.

EMERALD FENNELL – PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN: With a blazing hot performance from Carey Mulligan, Fennell’s movie about a woman avenging her friend’s fate taps into urgent issues surround sexual assault, consent and social complicity. It’s a surprising movie that never tips its hand in where it’s leading you.

GRETA GERWIG – LADY BIRD: The final year of high school can be challenging for anybody, but especially the assertive Lady Bird who wants more than what she thinks her mother intends for her. Ringing with humour, compassion and smarts, it’s a coming-of-age story that flows beautifully from one beat to another.

DEBRA GRANIK – LEAVE NO TRACE: Ben Foster always brings gravitas to his roles but it’s young Kiwi actor Tomasin McKenzie who steals every scene in this accomplished movie about a PTSD-affected former soldier who retreats to the forest with his teenage daughter, unable to deal with the challenges of daily life.

Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace.

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MARY HARRON – AMERICAN PSYCHO: Camp and frequently comical, Mary Harron’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s controversial novel is divisive for its extreme violence. But there’s a stylised and over-the-top quality, played up by Christian Bale’s portrayal of sociopath Patrick Bateman, that has earned Harron’s film cult status.

AMY HECKERLING – CLUELESS: There are some fine, even great, adaptations of Jane Austen’s Emma. And then you have Clueless, a flawless movie in which the social mores of Austen’s time is remade into mid-1990s Beverley Hills and where our vain heroine experiences some of the most tangible character growth committed to screen.

JENNIFER KENT – THE NIGHTINGALE: The Nightingale is brutal and tough, but so is Australia’s colonial history and no one gains anything from not confronting it. The story of an Irish convict hunting down the British officer who killed her family may be shattering but it’s also incredibly ferociously effective.

KARYN KUSAMA – DESTROYER: We all know Nicole Kidman can embody a conflicted, betrayed middle class woman in a prestigious TV drama but every now and then, it’s nice to remember her range extends so much further – like here in Kusama’s gritty neo-noir crime drama as a grizzled detective with little left to lose.

GINA PRINCE-BYTHEWOOD – LOVE & BASKETBALL: Before she made The Old Guard and Beyond the Lights, Prince-Bythewood’s debut was about two aspiring basketball stars and neighbours who fall for each other. It’s a confident love story with characters you don’t often see as romantic leads.

DEE REES – MUDBOUND: There is so much humanity in Rees’ movie about two families whose fates are entwined in post-World War II Mississippi, bonded together by the unforgiving land in which mud bogs down everything. It stars Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hedlund, Rob Morgan and Mary J. Blige.

Michelle Williams in Certain Women.

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KELLY REICHARDT – CERTAIN WOMEN: Indie filmmaker Reichardt’s meditative film is set against the backdrop of the open Montana landscape, a triptych of stories about three ordinary women. The stand-out here is not Laura Dern or Michelle Williams (though they are reliably wonderful) but little-known Lily Gladstone, who plays a lonely cattle hand.

CELINE SCIAMMA – PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE: Passion and longing are etched across the screen in Sciamma’s roaring love story between an artist and her subject in 18th century France, on an island off Brittany where the only inhabitants are women, freeing them from the constraints of social expectations.

LULU WANG – THE FAREWELL: A deeply personal movie based off Wang’s real experiences, it stars Awkwafina in a restrained dramatic role. She plays an American woman who returns to China to say goodbye to her dying grandmother while the whole family keeps the secret of its matriarch’s impending death.

CHLOE ZHAO – THE RIDER: Zhao is storming through awards season with Nomadland right now but her previous film, the beautifully captured The Rider was a darling of the film festival circuit, widely lauded by critics and the audiences who managed to catch the small release. It follows the story of a rodeo star who must confront his mortality after a devastating accident.

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