Top 50 Films Directed by Women (Part 1 of 2)
We know that 50% of moviegoers are women, and yet in the top 100 grossing films of 2019, women only represented 10.7% of directors, rising to 16% in 2020. To combat this discrepancy will require systemic change in the industry and an overhaul of attitudes and approaches to filmmaking at all levels, but the disparity also means that the stories we're being told (unless actively seeking beyond mainstream blockbusters) are disproportionately told from a male (and largely white) perspective.
As a way to promote and celebrate some of the best cinema directed by women, in August (2021), I asked the online film communities on Instagram and Twitter to vote for their favourite films directed by women. People were asked to submit a ranked Top 5, which were sorted accordingly and organised into a Top 50. Over 200 films were submitted but these are the ones which made it onto the list!
Here are the parameters that were outlined for submitting the picks:
- The choices can be from any country, year or decade, but must be a feature length film.
- Trans women are women.
- In situations where there is more than one director, at least 50% of them need to identify as a woman.
The vote resulted in a glorious array of films spanning seven decades, a wide range of genres, and a whole host of stories demonstrating innovation in cinematic storytelling. To be exact, the list includes 37 directors and films from 28 different years (with the 2010s being the most popular decade) and the number one film earned its spot by a landslide with 12% of the vote.
For the films ranked 51-100, please check my Instagram (@missenscenefilm) - I posted these as honourable mentions because it felt remiss to ignore them completely!
Here are numbers 50 - 26....
50. Sleepless in Seattle
Director: Nora Ephron
Writers: Jeff Arch, Nora Ephron, David S. Ward
Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Rip Torn
Year of release: 1993
Budget: $40,000,000
49. Marie Antoinette
Director: Sofia Coppola
Writer: Sofia Coppola
Stars: Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Jason Schwartzman, Rip Torn
Year of release: 2006
Budget: $40,000,000
48. Werckmeister Harmonies
Directors: Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky
Writers: László Krasznahorkai, Béla Tarr, Péter Dobai
Stars: Lars Rudolph, Peter Fitz, Hanna Schygulla
Year of release: 2000
Budget: FRF 10,000,000 (French Francs)
47. Speed Racer
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
Writers: Lilly Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, Tatsuo Yoshida
Stars: Emile HirschMatthew FoxChristina Ricci
Year of release: 2008
Budget: $120,000,000
46. Capernaum
Director: Nadine Labaki
Writers: Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Keserwany
Stars: Zain Al Rafeea, Yordanos Shiferaw, Boluwatife Treasure Bankole
Year of release: 2018
Budget: $4,000,000 (estimated)
45. Mustang
Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Writers: Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Alice Winocour
Stars: Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Tugba Sunguroglu
Year of release: 2015
Budget: €1,300,000 (estimated)
44. Wendy & Lucy
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writers: Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt
Stars: Michelle Williams. Lucy, David Koppell
Year of release: 2008
Budget: $200,000 (estimated)
43. The Watermelon Woman
Director: Cheryl Dunye
Writers: Cheryl Dunye, Douglas McKeown
Stars: Cheryl Dunye, Guinevere Turner, Valarie Walker
Year of release: 1996
Budget: $300,000 (estimated)
42. Revenge
Director: Coralie Fargeat
Writer: Coralie Fargeat
Stars: Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, Kevin Janssens, Vincent Colombe
Year of release: 2017
41. Near Dark
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Writer: Kathryn Bigelow, Eric Red
Stars: Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Lance Henriksen
Year of release: 1987
Budget: 5m
40. Jennifer’s Body
Director: Karyn Kusama
Writer: Diablo Cody
Stars: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody
Year of release: 2009
Budget: $16,000,000 (estimated)
39. The Ascent
Director: Larisa Shepitko
Writers: Vasiliy Bykov, Yuri Klepikov, Larisa Shepitko
Stars: Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Sergey Yakovlev
Year of release: 1977
38. First Cow
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writers: Jonathan Raymond, Kelly Reichardt Stars: Alia Shawkat, John Magaro, Dylan Smith, Orion Lee
Year of release: 2019
37. Big
Director: Penny Marshall
Writers: Gary Ross, Anne Spielberg Stars: Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia
Year of release: 1988
36. Shiva Baby
Director: Emma Seligman
Writer: Emma Seligman Stars: Rachel Sennott, Danny Deferrari, Fred Melamed
Year of release: 2020
35. The Edge of Seventeen
Director: Kelly Fremon Craig
Writer: Kelly Fremon Craig
Stars: Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Woody Harrelson
Year of release: 2016
Budget: $9,000,000 (estimated)
34. One Sings the Other Doesn’t
Director: Agnès Varda
Writer: Agnès Varda
Stars: Thérèse Liotard, Valérie Mairesse, Robert Dadiès
Year of release: 1977
33. A League of Their Own
Director: Penny Marshall
Writer: Kim Wilson, Kelly Candaele, Lowell Ganz
Stars: Geena Davis, Lori Petty, Tom Hanks
Year of release: 1992
Budget: $40,000,000 (estimated)
32. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Writer: Ana Lily Amirpour
Stars: Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh
Year: 2014
31. Never Rarely Sometimes Always
Director: Eliza Hittman
Writer: Eliza Hittman
Stars: Sidney Flanigan, Talia Ryder, Théodore Pellerin
Year of release: 2020
30. City of God
Directors: Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
Writers: Paulo Lins, Bráulio Mantovani Stars: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Matheus Nachtergaele
Year of release: 2002
29. The Babadook
Director: Jennifer Kent
Writer: The Babadook Stars: Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman, Daniel Henshall
Year of release: 2014
28. The Virgin Suicides
Director: Sofia Coppola
Writers: Sofia Coppola, Jeffrey Eugenides (novel) Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods
Year of release: 1999
Estimated budget: $9,000,000
27. The Nightingale
Director: Jennifer Kent
Writer: Jennifer Kent Stars: Stars: Aisling Franciosi, Maya Christie, Baykali Ganambarr
Year of release: 2018
26. Booksmart
Director: Olivia Wilde
Writers: Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel Stars: Kaitlyn Dever, Beanie Feldstein, Jessica Williams
Year of release: 2019
Estimated budget: $6,000,000
Films 25 - 1 are in a separate post, which you can read here.
@missenscenefilm on Instagram / @missenscenefilm on Twitter