Films Directed by Women

An artist wishes to marry her childhood sweetheart and settle into family life. However, her boyfriend, who is a genius mathematician is afraid of commitment and breaks up with her just ahead of their wedding. What will the future hold in store for them?

Commissioned to make a propaganda film about the 1936 Olympic Games in Germany, director Leni Riefenstahl created a celebration of the human form. This first half of her two-part film opens with a renowned introduction that compares modern Olympians to classical Greek heroes, then goes on to provide thrilling in-the-moment coverage of some of the games' most celebrated moments, including African-American athlete Jesse Owens winning a then-unprecedented four gold medals.

An unlikely friendship blossoms between Elsa, a preppy, idle, spoiled blond who calls herself Gino, and Nina, a wannabe anarchist who plots with three others to blow up an arms factory. Nina is often sour and tempestuous, but with Gino she's spontaneous and funny. Yet the friendship often founders, as the feckless Gino spoils Nina's frequent and demanding plans. They decide to rob Gino's rich uncle to pay for bombs and creature comforts, they sneak into a stranger's house, they steal a painting belonging to one of Gino's boyfriends, bombs fail to explode, and Gino costs Nina the trust of her anarchist pals. Then comes the crocodile test, the ultimate for any friendship.

This intimate look into the real world of drag kings -- women exploring their masculinity -- crosses continents, traveling through drag king nightclubs from New York to London.

A sensitivity to sounds coming from the activities of an unwelcome guest in the close quarters of an apartment is only one important component in this atmospheric, avant-garde drollery by Chantal Akerman. When the apartment owner comes home, her guest is settled in and at first, the slightly reclusive host decides simply to eat her breakfast in her room instead of having to face morning conversation with her guest. Sounds of the toilet flushing, the bath water running and splashing, footsteps pacing, and furniture moving invade the hostess' refuge in her bedroom like the frontrunners of an all-out offensive. She locks herself up for 28 days, life's detritus accumulating around her, just so she does not have to go out to face the nemesis that lurks beyond her door.

A filmed adaptation of Rose Leiman Goldemberg’s play, based on Sylvia Plath’s intense correspondence with her mother Aurelia, from the time the poet was in university until her suicide. Delphine Seyrig and her niece Coralie Seyrig recite Sylvia and Aurelia’s letters to the audience directly.

Inmates fight, pair off, try suicide and attempt escape at a British reform school for girls.

A department store window dresser starts being stalked by a married man who’s obsessed with her.

A Midwestern husband and father announces her plan to have a sex change operation.

A blending of documentary and experimental narrative strategies, combining stunning 16mm landscape cinematography with a bold, lyrical voice-over to share two San Francisco stories: the history of the Golden Gate Bridge as “suicide landmark,” and the story of a butch dyke in San Francisco searching for love and self-discovery. The Joy of Life is a film about landscapes, both physical and emotional.

As sole female Junta is the only one who can climb a dangerous mountain, villagers deem her as a witch.

Counseling helps family deal with the discovery that their child was sexually abused by the closest relative.

In Lille, Claire Gauthier is an ordinary married woman with a young daughter that works in an insurance company analyzing losses of insured properties. When the single veterinary Laurent Kessler claims damage in his basement caused by a flooding due to water leakage, Claire resolves the situation favorably for him. The weird Laurent visits Claire in her office successively, inviting her for drinks and lunch, and they get close to each other. Meanwhile, a serial killer is terrorizing Lille, killing women with a scalpel. Claire feels a great attraction for Laurent, who has an unusual behavior in her apartment. When Claire sees a scalpel in the pocket of Laurent's jacket, she fears him, but still loves him.

Taking a wrong turn, travelers find themselves trapped in a mysterious house. One horror after another threatens them, as the sorcerer who lives within needs sacrifices to give eternal life to his beautiful bride.

In the sixties, in a suburb near Paris, Martine wants to lose her virginity.

2017 fully painted feature film

The buttoned-down, superstitious Kay is attempting to lead a normal existence with her new boyfriend Louis. That’s until Sweetie, her rampaging, devil-may-care sister, returns home after an absence, exposing the rotten roots of their family and placing a strain on Kay and Louis’ relationship.

1992 film by Penny Marshall

When young dockworker Jude leaves Liverpool to find his estranged father in the United States, he is swept up by the waves of change that are re-shaping the nation. Jude falls in love with Lucy, who joins the growing anti-war movement. As the body count in Vietnam rises, political tensions at home spiral out of control and the star-crossed lovers find themselves in a psychedelic world gone mad.

The Cromwell clan lives in the real world, except for their grandmother who lives in Halloweentown, a place where monsters go to escape reality. But now the son of the Cromwells' old enemy Kalabar has a plan to use the grandmother's book to turn Halloweentown into a grey dreary version of the real world while transforming the denizens of the real world into monsters.