100 great films by female directors

August 27, 2015 3:33 PM

100 great films by female directors. Part 1: 1912-1953, Part 2: 1962-1975, Part 3: 1975-1981, Part 4: 1982-1991, Part 5: 1991-1997, Part 6: 1998-2001, Part 7: 2002-2009, Part 8: 2007-2009, Part 9: 2010-2012, Part 10: 2012-2014. (This is not "The" 100 Great Movies By Female Directors. It's merely 100 movies we love and honestly think you will too.)

The complete list (without accompanying text):

1. Falling Leaves (Alice Guy-Blaché, 1912)
2. Suspense (Lois Weber, 1913)
3. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Lotte Reiniger, 1926)
4. The Seashell and the Clergyman (Germaine Dulac, 1928)
5. Merrily We Go to Hell (Dorothy Arzner, 1932)
6. Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl, 1935)
7. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren, 1943)
8. Death is a Caress (Edith Carlmar, 1949)
9. A Portrait of Ga (Margaret Tait, 1952)
10. The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino, 1953)
11. The Connection (Shirley Clarke, 1962)
12. Something Different (Vera Chytilová, 1963)
13. The House is Black (Forough Farrokhzad, 1963)
14. Brief Encounters (Kira Muratova, 1968)
15. Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1970)
16. The Arch (Cecile Tang Shu Shuen, 1970)
17. Terminal Island (Stephanie Rothman, 1973)
18. Double Agent 73 (Doris Wishman, 1974)
19. India Song (Marguerite Duras, 1975)
20. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
21. Seven Beauties (Lina Wertmüller, 1975)
22. Harlan County, USA (Barbara Kopple, 1976)
23. The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko, 1977)
24. Girlfriends (Claudia Weil, 1978)
25. The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (Margarethe von Trotta, 1978)
26. Chilly Scenes of Winter (Joan Micklin Silver, 1979)
27. Old Boyfriends (Joan Tewkesbury, 1979)
28. My Brilliant Career (Gillian Armstrong, 1979)
29. Germany Pale Mother (Helma Sanders-Brahms, 1980)
30. Freak Orlando (Ultrike Ottinger, 1981)
31. Boat People (Ann Hui, 1982)
32. Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden, 1983)
33. Valley Girl (Martha Coolidge, 1983)
34. Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidleman, 1984)
35. Vagabond (Agnès Varda, 1985)
36. Ishtar (Elaine May, 1987)
37. Big (Penny Marshall, 1988)
38. Celia (Ann Turner, 1989)
39. Pet Sematary (Mary Lambert, 1989)
40. Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash, 1991)
41. Dogfight (Nancy Savoca, 1991)
42. Orlando (Sally Potter, 1992)
43. Wayne’s World (Penelope Spheeris, 1992)
44. Billy Madison (Tamra Davis, 1995)
45. Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995)
46. Clueless (Amy Heckerling, 1995)
47. Home for the Holidays (Jodie Foster, 1996)
48. Grace of My Heart (Allison Anders, 1996)
49. Eve's Bayou (Kasi Lemmons, 1997)
50. Fire (Deepa Metha, 1997)
51. Divorce Iranian Style (Kim Longinotto, 1998)
52. Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (Joan Chen, 1998)
53. The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf, 1998)
54. Boys Don’t Cry (Kimberley Peirce, 1999)
54. Ravenous (Antonia Bird, 1999)
56. Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 2000)
57. Faithless (Liv Ullmann, 2000)
58. American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000)
59. A Ma Soeur! (Catherine Breillat, 2001)
60. Lovely & Amazing (Nicole Holofcener, 2001)
61. Whale Rider (Niki Caro, 2002)
62. In My Skin (Marina de Van, 2002)
63. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay, 2002)
64. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola, 2003)
65. Innocence (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2003)
66. Me and You and Everyone We Know (Miranda July, 2005)
67. I for India (Sandhya Suri, 2005)
68. Longing (Valeska Grisebach, 2006)
69. An Education (Lone Scherfig, 2009)
70. Lourdes (Jessica Hausner, 2009)
71. XXY (Lucia Puenzo, 2007)
72. The Headless Woman (Lucrecia Martel, 2008)
73. Treeless Mountain (So Young Kim, 2008)
74. Wendy & Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, 2008)
75. Bright Star (Jane Campion, 2009)
76. Craneway Event (Tacita Dean, 2009)
77. Double Tide (Sharon Lockhart, 2009)
78. Everyone Else (Maren Ade, 2009)
79. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009)
80. The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, 2009)
81. Archipelago (Joanna Hogg, 2010)
82. The Arbor (Clio Barnard, 2010)
83. Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik, 2010)
84. Attenberg (Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2010)
85. Dreams of a Life (Carol Morley, 2011)
86. Tomboy (Céline Sciamma, 2011)
87. Nana (Valérie Massadian, 2011)
88. One. Two. One (Mania Akbari, 2011)
89. The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev, 2011)
90. Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
91. Wadjda (Haifaa Al Mansour, 2012)
92. Sister (Ursula Meier, 2012)
93. Butter on the Latch (Josephine Decker, 2013)
94. A Thousand Suns (Mati Diop, 2013)
95. Dusty Stacks of Mom (Jodie Mack, 2013)
96. Appropriate Behaviour (Desiree Akhavan, 2014)
97. Rocks in my Pockets (Signe Baumane, 2014)
98. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)
99. Selma (Ava DuVernay, 2014)
100. Eden (Mia Hansen-Lɵve, 2014)

posted by dng (38 comments total)

Also: Where are all the women screenwriters?

Over the past few weeks we've been counting down 100 of the best movies directed by women, as inspired by our latest cover film, Mia Hansen-Løve's extraordinary Eden. It's been something of a bittersweet exercise...

In our male-centric reality, a chauvinistic shadow continues to be cast over contemporary cinema. When Hollywood's biggest male stars can still expect to take home a fatter pay cheque than their female counterparts, as pointed out by the Guardian's Catherine Shoard in an excellent piece yesterday, it's clear there's still a lot of work to be done. Not least where female screenwriters are concerned, who according to the Centre for Women in Film and Television are still struggling against the tide, having accounted for just 11 per cent of the writing credits on the top 250 grossing films at the US box office in 2014.
posted by dng at 3:35 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

I went to see The Falling today, which was directed by Carol Morley (whose Dreams Of A Life is reviewed in part 9 of this list) and it was really wonderful.
posted by dng at 3:42 PM on August 27, 2015

> Where are all the women screenwriters?

I was going to mention that Slap Shot, which is considered one of the all-time "guy's guy movies," was written by Nancy Dowd (and wow, does she ever nail that locker room ambiance).

When I first saw it as a high school hockey player, I just yukked it up at the Hanson brothers' antics and all the swears. When I re-watched it again as an adult it was still pretty funny, but I was struck by how (SPOILERS, I guess) what utter losers virtually all of the male characters really are, and how the main male character *doesn't* win back his ex-girlfriend, despite being a Charming Rogue played by Paul Newman (the last shot is an amazing subversion of the typical "the hero gets the girl" ending).
posted by The Card Cheat at 3:48 PM on August 27, 2015 [3 favorites]

Recently watched A Girl Walks Home At Night, directed by Ana Lily Amirpour, and really liked it. Speaking of vampire movies, Bigelow's Strange Days is on the list, but her better genre film was Near Dark.
posted by eyeballkid at 4:04 PM on August 27, 2015 [5 favorites]

Nice post! Related: 50 Female-Directed Movies You Should Watch
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 4:22 PM on August 27, 2015 [2 favorites]

A pretty damn complete list, except for the self-imposed "one film per director" rule. Kind of telling that you can hit most major female directors plus a few recent first-timers with a list of 100.

Also recommending Lucrecia Martel's La Ciénaga (2001), Laura Poitras' Citizenfour (2014), Laura Greenfield's The Queen of Versailles (2012), Beeban Kidron's To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar (1995), Gillian Robespierre's Obvious Child (2014), and Gina Prince-Bythewood's Beyond the Lights (2014). I'm sure their other work is good too but I haven't gotten to it yet.
posted by JauntyFedora at 4:45 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

A pretty damn complete list, except for the self-imposed "one film per director" rule.

Ah, I was wondering why The Piano wasn't on the list - they went with Bright Star instead. A lot here that I'm not familiar with, so definitely something to look into.
posted by Pink Frost at 5:03 PM on August 27, 2015

I wish the films of Kinuyo Tanaka were more widely available. She deserved to be on that list.
posted by ob1quixote at 5:06 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

Surprised not to see listed Agnès Varda... either for her Cléo de 5 à 7 (1961) or her documentary Les glaneurs et la glaneuse (The Gleaners and I) (2000)
posted by Mister Bijou at 5:08 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

Surprised not to see listed Agnès Varda...

#35
posted by Sys Rq at 5:31 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

Looked for Larisa Shepitko, was relieved to see her name. They list her famous last film, but Wings is incredible as well. Her death in a car crash at 41 was an unbelievable loss to world cinema.
posted by languagehat at 5:39 PM on August 27, 2015

I love Clueless so very much, but man, Amy Heckerling definitely deserves an earlier entry for Fast Times at Ridgemont High (and if forced to choose, I'll take Fast Times).

Whole-heartedly 2nd-ing A Girl Walks Home at Night. Great movie.
posted by Ufez Jones at 5:59 PM on August 27, 2015 [3 favorites]

43. Wayne’s World (Penelope Spheeris, 1992)

Not that I don't like Wayne's World--and it is the perfect encapsulation of Spheeris's entire career from Albert Brooks SNL films through The Decline of Western Civilization--but it was the first in a run of paychecks leading to, well, Tom Arnold.

Wayne's World (1992)
The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
The Little Rascals (1994)
Black Sheep (1996)
Senseless (1998)
The Kid & I (2005)

I'd've gone with Suburbia (1984) instead. It's very much her own movie, as opposed to a movie she was hired to direct.
posted by Sys Rq at 6:03 PM on August 27, 2015 [4 favorites]

A pretty damn complete list, except for the self-imposed "one film per director" rule.

They should have made a list of 100 directors, allowing them to then list all of their films. There is no reason to only have one film by Catherine Breillat, for example. Organizing this by films when it is director-centered was not the right choice.

I was heartened that they included Morvern Callar, though; that might be my favorite film of the decade, but badly disappointed to not see Asia Argento listed.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:30 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

I would love it if someone ever came out with a DVD of Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia by Ulrike Ottinger. I saw it (twice!) at film festivals in the 80s and early 90s and it is one of my favorite movies ever, but hard to get a hold of.
posted by matildaben at 7:31 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

In for American Psycho, what an achievement, especially considering the dreck that the novel is.

At the risk of sounding clumsily inadvertently sexist: I have always felt like having this book in particular adapted by a woman was almost a necessity, I just cannot picture it working the way it does in the hands of a man.
posted by Cosine at 7:36 PM on August 27, 2015 [3 favorites]

matildaben: I would love it if someone ever came out with a DVD of Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia by Ulrike Ottinger.

If nothing else, it's available (at a steep price) for Universities, Colleges & Institutions, K-12, Public Libraries & Select Groups via Women Make Movies (general info on WMM). If your local library doesn't have it, you could probably get people to pitch in and buy it, because that option is down-right affordable compared to the higher learning price.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:50 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

And it looks like the WMM edition/distribution of the movie was recently posted to YouTube, where it may not last long.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:50 PM on August 27, 2015

Old Joy is better than Wendy and Lucy. And I would have included the 2011 movie Sleeping Beauty, directed by Julia Leigh. Quite good.
posted by balmore at 8:53 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

The Second Mother, written and directed by Anna Muylaert — 94% fresh!
posted by Tom-B at 9:10 PM on August 27, 2015

I agree with a bunch of the X was better than Y comments already listed. (Particularly La Cienaga over Headless Woman. La Cienaga is great.)

I might have include Real Women Have Curves by Patricia Cardoso.
posted by vunder at 9:10 PM on August 27, 2015

Ooh and also Beyond the Lights, from last year, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood.
posted by balmore at 9:24 PM on August 27, 2015

I watched The Connection last weekend and am still thinking about it.
posted by mandymanwasregistered at 9:31 PM on August 27, 2015

18. Double Agent 73 (Doris Wishman, 1974)

WAIT HANG ON WHAT'S HAPPENING

Right? Nude on the Moon was the clear choice.

But for real, that was when I stopped taking that list seriously. Doris Wishman's movies are campy and maybe significant historically (for the "nudist camp documentary" loopholes and the like) and I'm not going to lie and say I don't sort of enjoy them, but they're not good or anything.

That list gives the impression that they really had to scrape the barrel to even find 100 women directors, which is not true.

Nora Ephron isn't even there. Whatever you think of her movies, she was a very successful director and a woman, so she probably belongs on a list of women directors. And there are tons more left off, too.

It's just a really weird list.
posted by ernielundquist at 10:46 PM on August 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

Also missing the unmissable Rebecca Miller (Angela, 1995, etc.)
posted by progosk at 11:33 PM on August 27, 2015

I'm an inveterate list hater, since it's the laziest thing the internet does when it comes to film, but I really enjoyed this one. I like "100 movies by women" better than "100 women directors," because the latter sounds like they're trying to build some kind of alternative canon and ends up kind of implying there are only 100 women worthy of consideration, whereas the former is clearly just 100 movies they like, as they acknowledge. The commentary is more worthy of attention than the list itself (isn't it always).

Quite pleased that they picked Bright Star out of Campion's career.

Old Joy is better than Wendy and Lucy.

You think so? I would take a great movie about unemployment and dogs over I Love You, Man, in the Woods any day.
posted by thetortoise at 12:33 AM on August 28, 2015

Nora Ephron isn't even there. Whatever you think of her movies, she was a very successful director and a woman, so she probably belongs on a list of women directors.

As a screenwriter and a Hollywood force, definitely. I feel like her direction is pretty ordinary, though. I wouldn't be surprised to see her on here, but I don't think the list is worse without her.
posted by thetortoise at 12:53 AM on August 28, 2015

Aah, I forgot Celia was on here! Good movie to give you nightmares. That would be a perfect pick for Strange Club.
posted by thetortoise at 12:57 AM on August 28, 2015

Always loved Lina Wertmulller's opening to Seven Beauties.
posted by quazichimp at 3:33 AM on August 28, 2015

They should have made a list of 100 directors, allowing them to then list all of their films. There is no reason to only have one film by Catherine Breillat, for example. Organizing this by films when it is director-centered was not the right choice.

In the print version of the magazine they had a series of articles about fifty of the best female directors working today, although a lot of the pieces were disappointingly thin. And it was all couched in a weird "this is when I fell in love with [director]" format, which was presumably to tie in with Mia Hansen-Love's name, as she was on the cover, but instead came across as a bit weird and slightly creepy.

The bare list of them is here, but they don't seem to have any of the actual text online.
posted by dng at 4:24 AM on August 28, 2015

Would've put in Real Genius for Martha Coolidge.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:44 AM on August 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

Youtube: Johanna D Arc Mongolia 1989 EngSub
posted by el io at 5:55 AM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Re Penelope Spheeris, a bunch of media interviewed her recently on the occasion of the re-issue of the Decline of Western Civilization films on DVD, and she basically said that the studios threw a lot of money at her as long as she made garbage: “I have a stack of scripts I wrote that I couldn’t get made, and the reason is because I did Wayne’s World. Nobody believed I could do a serious or more sociologically pertinent movie.”
posted by blucevalo at 7:08 AM on August 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Add:

* Mira Nair (Salaam Bombay!, Monsoon Wedding, etc)
* Jasmila Žbanić (Grbavica etc)
* Julie Bertuccelli (Since Otar Left)
posted by splitpeasoup at 7:40 AM on August 28, 2015

Re: Nora Ephron
I feel like her direction is pretty ordinary, though.

That isn't a list of extraordinary female directors, though. It's just a scattershot list of women who've directed movies. It contains visionary auteurs, women who've directed mid-budget Hollywood comedies, schlock directors, etc.. The lack of commonalities for anything but gender gives the mistaken impression that you have to stretch like that just to find 100 women directors. That is not true.

So I'm not lamenting the exclusion of Nora Ephron specifically. I'm pointing out that this is a strange, sloppy list that people should not take seriously or draw any conclusions based on. It's like the list began as a parlor game where some film critic tried to come up with 100 female directors without looking at the internet. There doesn't appear to be any other criterion for inclusion on the list. And that gives the faulty impression that you can't make a list of female directors if you include literally any other criterion.

It would be like a list of movies directed by men that included A Trip to the Moon, Citizen Kane, Manos: The Hands of Fate, The Street Fighter's Last Revenge, The Rules of the Game, and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. It wouldn't make any sense.

It is true that women can't get a break in the film industry, but that list makes it look like only 100 women ever even tried.
posted by ernielundquist at 8:52 AM on August 28, 2015

Seeing Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is one of the formative events of my taste in movies. In art in genral. It's an incredible film. I've had a hard time convincing people to watch a film that focuses more on the everyday life of a woman in Brussels, than anything that might be considered remarkable. But, it's an amazing films. I urge anyone to spend an afternoon watching it.
posted by Kattullus at 2:06 PM on August 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

I Love You, Man, in the Woods.

If anything I think I Loved You Man, in the woods would be more accurate. I guess I felt like the themes were more interesting. How people relate to one another. What happens to us as we get older. There was an undercurrent of class consciousness there too.

Wendy and Lucy was very sad, but I didn't really feel like it had much to say about the human condition other than "shit's fucked." I did like how the little tune she was always whistling was the Muzak from the grocery store.
posted by balmore at 1:03 AM on August 30, 2015

Jeanne Dielman really is kind of a slog, but I think it's a necessary one. It's a radical recasting of a story from the female gaze, focusing on all the boring background stuff that's elided from most stories, and putting those things on equal ground with the action of the movie. It really turns all the assumptions we make on their heads, so it's necessary not only from the perspective of accurately conveying the things that make up her life, but it's necessary because it actually takes it that long to sink in.

I can imagine it'd be a really tough sell, and I certainly don't want to rewatch it, but I think it's one of those movies that pays off long-term by challenging your perceptions. I don't usually try to talk people into doing things, so I haven't tried to sell it to anyone, but I would generally recommend it.
posted by ernielundquist at 10:37 AM on August 30, 2015 [2 favorites]