List
Spotlight on Women in Film: Directors You Should Know
We think you will enjoy these movies, compiled by Sharon, Rummanah, and Chris.
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Origin
2024Get this itemWriter/director Ava DuVernay (Selma) describes Origin as a “film about a woman in pursuit of an idea." Indeed, she turns her lens on the life of American journalist Isabel Wilkerson and the journey that led her to write the critically acclaimed nonfiction book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which explores racism and what Black people experience in the United States, linking to India's caste system and Nazi Germany. The movie is ambitious, riveting, intimate, and epic.
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Anatomy of a Fall
2024Get this itemThemes of uncertainty and the impossibility of knowing the truth are examined in this French courtroom drama about a German author suspected of killing her husband. Their visually impaired son's testimony is key to a verdict of guilt or acquittal. Filmmaker Justine Triet won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and the movie received nominations for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Actress, and Best Editing.
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Past Lives
2023Get this itemChildhood best friends Nora and Hae Sung reconnect after 20 years, having been separated when Nora’s family emigrated from South Korea. This is Celine Song’s astonishing feature film debut. It hits every emotional beat as she deftly explores destiny, choices, what ifs, and different versions of oneself. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture.
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She Said
2023Get this itemTerribly overlooked by the Oscars, this investigative journalistic film is based on the unprecedented New York Times article written by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, whose work and research led to several women breaking silence concerning the abuses of Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein. Directed by Maria Schrader. For another well crafted movie, check out her intriguing sci-fi romance, I’m Your Man (2021).
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Women Talking
2023Get this itemUpon learning that men in their Mennonite community were using livestock tranquilizer to subdue and rape them, the women meet to decide between three options: do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. It’s based on Miriam Toews’s highly praised novel that was inspired by true events. Filmmaker Sarah Polley won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film, but was not nominated for Best Director though it was also nominated for Best Picture. She is also known for her other films: Away from Her (2006) and Stories We Tell (2012).
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Barbie
2023Get this itemBarbie has an existential crisis. She travels from Barbie Land to Los Angeles (with sidekick Ken along for the ride) to learn the truth about the universe. This was a box office hit--subversive, meta, and very pink. Kudos to filmmaker Greta Gerwig and the entire cast. It earned eight Oscar nominations, though not for Best Director. Her other remarkable films include Lady Bird (2017) and Little Women (2019).
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The Woman King
2022Get this itemGina Prince-Bythewood directed the heck out of this women-led historical fiction movie about the Agojie, an all-female military unit in the 1820s that guarded the West African kingdom of Dahomey. The incomparable Viola Davis transformed herself to become General Nanisca. However, to the surprise of many, she did not get an Oscar nom.
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The Power of the Dog
2022Get this itemEven if you don’t like western movies, it’s hard not to be drawn into Jane Campion's subversion of the genre and questioning what it means to be “a man.” The cinematography is breathtaking and the performances by the fabulous cast are truly electrifying. She won the Oscar for Best Director for this film. She also received an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for her 1993 movie The Piano.
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Zola
2021Get this itemIt's creative, bold, risky, coded, cutting. Based on a 2015 tweetstorm that went viral, Aziah “Zola” King brilliantly described her road trip odyssey weekend that went sideways, and filmmaker Janicza Bravo brought it to the screen.
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Promising Young Woman
2021Get this itemBrilliant, brutal, compelling, and thought-provoking. Emerald Fennell won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and was nominated for Best Director for her directorial debut. Needless to say she has established herself as a director to watch. We also loved Carey Mulligan, who is outstanding in the lead role.
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First Cow
2020Get this itemWriter/Director Kelly Reichardt (Showing Up, Certain Women, Wendy and Lucy) is cinema’s poet of the Pacific Northwest, attentive to the wind blowing through the trees, the sound of leaves underfoot, the gentle snap of wild edible mushrooms being plucked by dirt-caked hands. It’s been a joy to watch her evolve as a filmmaker, and this gentle anti-Western/buddy flick is one of the most delicious movies of recent years.
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Songs My Brothers Taught Me
2016Get this itemFilmed on Pine Ridge Reservation and nearby areas in Badlands, South Dakota, this is Chloé Zhao’s debut feature movie. She used several first-time actors from Pine Ridge and weaved their experiences into the general narrative, as characters struggle to process complicated matters of family, community, and belonging. Zhao's 2020 film Nomadland won the Oscar for Best Picture and she also won for Best Director.
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Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
2015Get this itemCodirected and cowritten by sister and brother Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz, while this is the third installment in a trilogy from this team about the joyless marriage of Viviane Amsalem, the movie stands alone as a striking piece of storytelling. We witness Viviane's years-long process of trying to be granted a divorce by her husband and a court of rabbis. The actors are exemplary and the message is impactful. It received numerous accolades from critics and film festivals.
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Julie & Julia
2009Get this itemJulie Powell decides to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. She will attempt all 524 recipes in one year and document her experiences in a blog. In contrast to Ms. Powell’s project, the film shows Julia Child early in her career, on the road to becoming an iconic chef. Nora Ephron, who cowrote the screenplay, directed Meryl Streep and Amy Adams to make Hollywood magic.
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The Headless Woman
2009Get this itemArgentinian filmmaker Lucrecia Martel has only made four feature length films over the past two decades, though each has received widespread admiration and acclaim. In her third movie, the plot revolves around a car accident and its potential victims. This revels in mystery, decay, dissociation, and concealment. One of her great artistic gifts is how she makes the everyday uncanny.
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Caramel
2008Get this itemLebanese actor/director Nadine Labaki's feature film debut centers on five women, all good friends at different stages in their lives. They help one another through obstacles of change and share in each other’s experiences of love, loss, and aging. Receiving wide critical acclaim, it remains an audience favorite. Her 2018 film Capernaum won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. She is the first Arab woman to have been nominated in the Oscars.
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Marie Antoinette
2007Get this itemUsing lavish costumes and a pop soundtrack, writer/director Sofia Coppola creates a unique biopic about the controversial, ill-fated Queen of France who lost her head during the French Revolution. She was nominated for Best Director for her film, Lost in Translation in 2003.
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Beau Travail
2002Get this itemSet in the East African nation of Djibouti, Claire Denis's Beau Travail is likely the most well-known film by this eclectic director, influencing everybody from Greta Gerwig to Barry Jenkins. It follows a French Foreign Legion as they go about their exercises and while it's impossible to distill, you could call it an artful deconstruction of masculinity that gleefully embraces its homoeroticism. Incredible ending, too!
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Bound
2024Get this itemA 1990s neo-noir erotic indie thriller about two women who plan to steal two million from the Mafia. This helped to launch the career of The Wachowskis (The Matrix;), making it part of cinema history. Recently reissued by Criterion, this director-approved edition has lots of bells and whistles, including a new video essay by film critic Christina Newland.
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The Secret Garden
1997Get this itemAdapted from the classic novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, troubled orphan Mary Lennox is sent to live on her uncle’s huge estate, where she finds a neglected garden. Mary and her friend Dickon restore the garden and discover that a world of caring can make a world of difference. From versatile filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, this is an enchanting tale for all ages. Among her notable films are Europa Europa (1990) and Mr. Jones (2019).
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Mississippi Masala
2022Get this itemBefore she became known for her vibrant and festive blockbuster, Monsoon Wedding, director Mira Nair first made her mark with this under the radar indie gem, which earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Feature film in 1993, and featured a wonderful and award-winning performance from Denzel Washington. This tender love story does not shy away from issues such as the complexities of interracial relationships, racism, and the clash of cultures. In 2022, Criterion released a restored version of the film on DVD/Blu-ray and included, among other things, a new audio commentary from Nair and a conversation between actor Sarita Choudhury and film critic Devika Girish.
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Paris Is Burning
2020Get this itemThis phenomenal, trailblazing 1990 documentary directed by Jennie Livingston about the drag scene in New York goes deeper than just a look at drag, allowing viewers a glimpse into the Black and Latine Harlem LGBTQ+ communities of the late '80s. Decades after its theatrical debut, this doc remains a powerful testament to resilience and defiance in the face of adversity. In 2016, it was selected by the Library Congress for the National Film Registry. Criterion released a restored version of the film on DVD/Blu-ray in 2020 with new audio commentary, interviews, and never-before-seen outtakes.
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Cléo from 5 to 7
2007Get this itemThis is the only movie made by a woman to come out of the groundbreaking French New Wave of the late '50s and early '60s. Trailing a pop singer through the swooning streets of Paris as she anxiously awaits potentially dire test results from her doctor, its young filmmaker, Agnes Varda, a photojournalist by training, captured something equally lyrical, mysterious, and spiritual. Her long career gave us many noteworthy films, including the Oscar-nominated documentary Faces Places (2017). In 2007, Criterion released on DVD a director-approved special edition.
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