Films Directed by Women

Reunited after 15 years, famous chef Sasha and hometown musician Marcus feel the old sparks of attraction but struggle to adapt to each other's worlds.

Set in the mid-90’s, the film tells the story of Billie, a troublemaker from the big city, who finds herself exiled to San Isidro to live with her spinster aunt who is also the town’s religion teacher. Determined to change her ways and get through the last year of high school without incident, Billie hides herself from the world until she meets Emma, the ambitious, star student who coaxes Billie out of her shell. They soon fall in love but things get complicated when Emma finds out that she’s pregnant. Together, they explore the fleeting nature of love and life on this journey of growth, laughter and music.

2019 documentary film directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang

Through the eyes of a young drifter who rejects society's rules and intentionally chooses to live on the streets, Chinese filmmaker Nanfu Wang explores the meaning of personal freedom – and its limits.

For a year, acclaimed British filmmaker Jeanie Finlay was embedded on the set of the hit HBO series “Game of Thrones,” chronicling the creation of the show’s most ambitious and complicated season. Debuting one week after the series 8 finale, GAME OF THRONES: THE LAST WATCH delves deep into the mud and blood to reveal the tears and triumphs involved in the challenge of bringing the fantasy world of Westeros to life in the very real studios, fields and car-parks of Northern Ireland. Made with unprecedented access, GAME OF THRONES: THE LAST WATCH is an up-close and personal portrait from the trenches of production, following the crew and the cast as they contend with extreme weather, punishing deadlines and an ever-excited fandom hungry for spoilers. Much more than a “making of” documentary, this is a funny, heartbreaking story, told with wit and intimacy, about the bittersweet pleasures of what it means to create a world – and then have to say goodbye to it.

2019 animated film directed by Zabou Breitman and Éléa Gobbé-Mévellec

Selva, thirteen years old, discovers that when we die we just shed our skin. We can turn into wolves, goats, shadows, or anything as long as your imagination allows it.

In a small town everything is visible. However much you try to hide something, some disturbing signals will reach the family sooner or later. And then you have to make a choice: start a new life in the same place with your new “half” or confess to the old half and return to the usual flow of life. The film’s heroes stand before such a choice.

After twenty-five years spent in France, I return to Bulgaria, camera in hand, with a vertiginous suspicion: what if my family had collaborated with the political police of the communist regime? And what if they were part of the "red trash" that the demonstrators on the street want to see disappear? I decide to investigate and to film, constantly, ready for anything. My adventure transforms itself into a tragic comic odyssey; a film that combines espionage with family.

Peru, at the height of the political crisis of the 1980s. Georgina is a young woman from the Andes whose newborn daughter is stolen at a fake health clinic. Her desperate search for the child leads her to the headquarters of a major newspaper, where she meets Pedro Campos, a lonely journalist who takes on the investigation. Based on a true story.

A historic drama with musical Bollywood scenes. Kabul in the early 90s. Soviet values rule the country. Women can wear miniskirts, children can go to school and people can go to the cinema, concerts as well as universities. Life in Afghanistan is similar to life in the Western world. 14 years old Qodrat sells cinema tickets on the black market in the streets of Kabul. After selling a ticket to a secret police officer by mistake, he ends up at the Soviet orphanage, where he fakes his identity at the registration, in hope of getting more power. Everyday life for Qodrat is about friendships, falling in love, doing naughty things and going on adventures – just like it is for children in other parts of the world. However, behind the safe walls of the orphanage the world they once knew is drastically changing as the Mujahideens start the civil war.

Abla runs a modest local bakery from her home in Casablanca where she lives alone with her 8-year-old daughter Warda. Their routine of housework and homework is interrupted one day by a knock on the door. It is Samia, a young woman looking for a job and a roof over her head. The little girl is immediately taken with the newcomer, but her mother initially refuses to allow a pregnant stranger into their home. Gradually, however, Abla's resolve softens and Samia's arrival begins to offer all of them the prospect of a new life.

2016 film

In Kabul, a family with 4 girls is about to move to a new house. The father feels he lost the position as the head of the family, since the oldest Girl, Sakina, 22, is working and pays for all the costs. Communication between the family members is difficult. Sharifa, 20, helps in the house and is looking for a job, Kamila, 16, learns English and Zar, 10, takes care of her sick chicken. Everyone is trying in their own way. An 18 year old Girl from Afghanistan is new in an isolation refugee camp in Germany. She feels lonely and is trying her best to adjust and to understand the routine in the camp. One day, a man, 23, stitches his mouth and starts a hunger strike in the canteen. Worried about him and at the same time fascinated by this man who strongly sits there day and night, she starts to look after him.

Lilya (Marina Zubanova) is an approaching-middle-age singleton who lives with and cares for her grandfather and works at a chicken factory. She is determined to get married soon, but hasn’t quite found the man for the job. Most of the story revolves around various failed dates, her conversations with coworkers and family members, and her innocent stalking of a talented local pianist.

The private detective Zimin receives an order for video observation of an apartment. Having safely mounted the bugs and cameras, he begins the observation. In the field of his surveillance cameras are two young women the pharmacist Irina and a certain blonde woman. Gradually he finds out more and more about their problems. At some stage, Zimin begins to understand that the life of the people he observes reflects in a crooked mirror his own life that had hitherto appeared cloudless.

Blending dramatic situations with a documentary-influenced visual style, Happy Birthday looks in at a typical day in a Russian maternity hospital. The patients range from a middle aged woman pleased if surprised by her current pregnancy to a Muslim woman whose marriage to a Russian has blighted her relationship with her family. No matter what their situations, the women draw strength and support from each other as they share their common experience.

Vera and Andrew can be envied. Money work, a house in a prestigious suburban village, a good foreign car. The young spouses got even a servant: on the garden, working hard, Uzbek builders work, and on the farm - the executive housekeeper Aunt Masha. It remains only to find a reliable nurse who will look after the restless daughter Aley.

A father takes care of his only teenage son with unusual intensity and passion, which results in the son feeling suffocated. Trying to free himself from home, Andrej finds escape among his teenage friends and, above all, with a new girl.

2006 film by Isabelle Breitman