Films Directed by Women

Blonde, bouncy Buffy is your typical high school cheerleader. But all that changes when a strange man informs her she's been chosen by fate to kill vampires.

Dark satire of the Manhattan entertainment industry in which a gifted actor (Charlie Barker) begins his fall from grace as he encounters a chameleon-like social climber.

26-year-old Hachiko Hojo works as a train attendant, selling items on a cart. She's good at her job, but she lacks self confidence. One day, she meets a movie producer. They decide to visit tourist attractions in Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Hachiko Hojo looks back upon her life along the way.

In grim, rust-belt Pennsylvania, Wanda is down and out. She works sporadically, has abandoned her husband and children, sleeps on her sister's couch, drinks and smokes too much, and goes home with men just to have a roof over her head. One night she walks into a bar after closing and finds a nervous Mr. Dennis pacing. She takes up with him, and he proves to be a criminal. They go on the road, visit his father, and he plans a robbery. He's rude and demanding; Wanda accepts his abuse docilely. What future does she have?

Single woman Charlotte tries to write erotic fiction despite not having any sensual experience.

After discovering they are all dating the same same guy, three popular students from different cliques band together for revenge, so they enlist the help of a new gal in town and conspire to break the jerk's heart, while destroying his reputation.

A clinically depressed teenager gets a new start after he checks himself into an adult psychiatric ward.

When a couple decides to adopt a stray cat their perspective on life changes radically, literally altering the course of time and space and testing their faith in each other and themselves.

Two wealthy sisters, both heiresses to their family's cosmetics fortune, are given a wake-up call when a scandal and ensuing investigation strip them of their wealth.

When her best friend and roommate abruptly moves out to get married, Susan (Melanie Mayron), a wannabe gallery artist slumming it as a bar mitzvah photographer on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, finds herself adrift in both life and love. Could a new job be the answer? What about a fling with a married, older rabbi (Eli Wallach)? A touchstone of American independent filmmaking that went on to influence an entire subgenre of films and television shows (most famously Lena Dunham’s “Girls”) about young women trying to make it in the big city, Claudia Weill’s 1970s New York time capsule captures the complexities and contradictions of women’s lives and relationships during the era of second-wave feminism with both wry humor and refreshing frankness.

Paul, a teenager in the underground scene of early-nineties Paris, forms a DJ collective with his friends and together they plunge into the nightlife of sex, drugs, and endless music.

Paula, an above-average intelligent student, is in love with her classmate Charlotte. At the same time she feels permanently provoked by dissolute Lilly to challenge her limits.

2009 film directed by Jessica Hausner

A Japanese assassin falls in love with the Spanish wine seller she was hired to kill.

Ramona is a little girl with a very big imagination and a nose for mischief. Her playful antics keep everyone in her loving family on their toes, including her older sister Beezus, who's just trying to survive her first year of high school. Through all the ups and downs of childhood, Ramona and Beezus learn that anything's possible when you believe in yourself and rely on each other.

Lynn Shelton's "My Effortless Brilliance" is a study in the relationship between cocky, fussy, thoroughly-city-mouse author Eric (Sean Nelson) and his ex-best-friend, the tersely powerful journalist and wood-chopper Dylan (Basil Harris). Dylan, fed up with Eric's self-involved antics, dumps him and disappears to live in a log cabin in the woods of Eastern Washington; two years later, Eric arrives (sporting a Prius, white sneakers, and a fear of spiders) to mend the friendship.

Louise, who has just written a novel, comes to Paris to meet with a potential publisher. While in the city, she stays with her older sister, Martine, who in many ways is the exact opposite of Louise: she lives in a fashionable neighborhood, is cold to others, and has snobby friends, while Louise lives in a small town and is thoroughly unpretentious. Louise's apparent happiness -- and similarities to their mother -- gradually gets on Martine's nerves.

When the always dramatic Lola and her family move form the center of everything in New York City to the center of a cultural wasteland in suburban New Jersey, she feels her life is simply not worth living! But no matter who or what gets in the way, Lola won't give up on her life's ambition: to be a star! In a crowd-pleasing movie treat bursting with music, dance and excitement, Lola's fun-filled adventure won't be glamorous or easy, but it might just show her that real life could exceed even her wildest dreams!

2014 film directed by Ava DuVernay

Brief Meetings is about a love triangle between three very different people. Nadia, a country girl, falls in love with Maskim, a roaming guitar playing geologist, and in her search for him she ends up working for Valentina, his long-distance, bureaucrat wife. Nadia begins to work as a maid for Valentina, but as they spend time together they have flashbacks to their brief meetings with Maskim. These flashbacks occur throughout the film and both Valentina and Nadia have them. Finally news arrives of Maskim's return to Valentina. On the day of his return Nadia cooks a meal for them both and leaves before they arrive, Valentina never knew of Nadia's encounters with Maskim, and Maskim will never know of Nadia's time with Valentina.