Best Women Directors

Hello, Everybody! This month is Women's History Month, a month where women are celebrated. Specifically I want to talk about the working female directors in the film industry. Alright, guys and girls. Let's get to it.

20. Olivia Wilde

Olivia Wilde has been in the acting game for awhile now. Best known for appearing in movies like Alpha Dog, Drinking Buddies, Rush and A Vigilante. In 2019, she made her directorial debut with Booksmart, a critically-acclaimed coming-of-age comedy-drama film about two teenage girls who are about to graduate and have one last hurrah before they go off to college and a short film called Wake Up starring Margaret Qualley. Her second feature film, Don't Worry Darling is a psychological thriller taking place in the 1950s about a housewife who uncovers a disturbing secret about her husband, the film stars Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, Chris Pine, Gemma Chan, Kiki Layne and Nick Kroll. Olivia Wilde's directing career is just getting started!

19. Patty Jenkins

In 2003, Patty Jenkins made her debut with Monster, a movie about serial killer Aileen Wuornos played by Charlize Theron who won an Oscar for her lead performance. In Monster, Patty explored themes of morality and feminity. 14 years later, Jenkins broke out with 2017's Wonder Woman, the first GREAT female-led superhero movie directed by a woman and directed WW1984 which finally came out on Christmas Day 2020. Her next movie is Rogue Squadron, a new Star Wars movie coming out in 2023.

18. Lorene Scafaria

Lorene Scafaria wrote the script for Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist which came out in 2008 and made her directorial debut in 2013 with Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, a sci-fi rom-com starring Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley who play a couple of strangers who form a bond before a meteor wipes out the earth. Her second feature was The Meddler, a comedy-drama with a GREAT Susan Sarandon performance it wasn't until 2019 that Scafaria made it BIG with Hustlers, a crime drama about NYC strippers who stole money by drugging CEOs and stock brokers at the height of The Great Recession. The movie became a critical and financial success earning Jennifer Lopez a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture. I'm really looking forward to what she'll do next.

17. Lulu Wang

In 2014, Lulu Wang's first film as a director was "Posthumous". Her second feature, The Farewell starring Awkwafina in her first dramatic role was critically acclaimed. The comedy-drama film was about an Asian-American who goes to China to reunite with her family while her grandma has a very short time to live. The Farewell won many accolades including a Golden Globe win for Awkwafina for Best Actress in a Motion Picture- Musical or Comedy.

16. Lynne Ramsey

An accomplished Scottish filmmaker, Lynne Ramsay's movies have occurring themes of grief, guilt, death and its aftermath and marks the fascination of children and young adults. Low on dialogue and exposition, her movies rely on images, vivid details, music and sound design. Ramsay made her debut feature in 1999 with Ratcatcher and Morvern Caller, a psychological drama was released in 2002, she later struck gold with We Need to Talk About Kevin and You Were Never Really Here. She revealed that she's currently on a script that is described as an "epic environmental horror" and is filming a Stephen King adaptation called The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

15. Debra Granik

Debra Granik's movies are one of a kind. Her movies touch on sensitive subject matter like addiction, issues of personal strength and poverty. Down to the Bone, Winter's Bone and Leave No Trace have brought Vera Farmiga, Jennifer Lawrence and Thomasin McKenzie to stardom. Leave No Trace is Granik's best work to date, scoring a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

14. Emerald Fennell

English actress and writer, Emerald Fennell has appeared in Albert Nobbs, Anna Karenina and The Danish Girl and starred in TV Shows like Call the Midwife and Season 4 of The Crown and wrote for Season 2 of Killing Eve. In 2020, she made her directorial debut with Promising Young Woman starring Carey Mulligan who gave arguably the best performance of her career. While she did direct one movie so far, it's safe to say that she'll be heard more of pretty soon.

13. Dorothy Arzner

Her career began all the way from the silent era to the early 1940s. It's been reported that she was the only female Hollywood director working in 1927-1943. She was the first women to join the Director's Guild of America and the first woman to direct a sound film. Most of the movies have either been lost or mysteriously disappeared and have been resurfaced in the 1970s by film theorists. Her most celebrated film is Dance, Girl, Dance and is described as a female-buddy burlesque movie starring Lucille Ball and Maureen O'Hara and was an example of traditional depictions of women and female relationships and has since been studied many years later and is the film's interrogation of the male gaze. Arzner truly left an impact on feminist cinema.

12. Kelly Reichardt

Kelly Reichardt's films are known for their minimalist-style and their characters dealing with working class characters in small, rural communities many of which take place in the Pacific Northwest. She made her debut in 1994 with River of Grass, then followed it up with Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, Meek's Cutoff, Night Moves, Certain Women and First Cow, the latter being her most successful movie to date. 

11. Claire Denis

French filmmaker, Claire Denis is one of the most interesting and auteur directors in history. Her style typically involves framing her actors and props like their photo subjects with a stationary camera in long takes to blend with the environment, maintaining cinematic dominance. She's also known for her "shoot fast, edit slowly" technique. For instance, she does a few takes on set and spends most of her time in the editing room to rearrange her scenes from script. She even has a reputation for rewriting the lyricism of French Cinema with an impulse to capture the harsh surface of contemporary France. While she's known in France, she broke out in 1999 with Beau travail, a movie about soldiers in the French Foreign Film, while Trouble Every Day, an erotic horror film, had mixed reviews, it was admired for its existentialism. Other films include White Material, Trouble Every Day and Let the Sunshine In. Denis gained further recognition for her recent feature, High Life, a sci-fi psychological thriller starring Robert Pattinson.

10. Greta Gerwig

Greta Gerwig is known for her starring role in Frances Ha, a film written and directed by her partner, Noah Baumbach. Like Olivia Wilde, Gerwig made her directorial debut with a critically acclaimed coming-of-age tale, Lady Bird which received 5 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Greta struck gold again with 2019's Little Woman which also received Oscar nominations but not Best Director. Down below, Debate which is better, Lady Bird or Little Women. Her style consists of little improvisation and letting the actors incorporate their personalities in their performances. 

9. Ava DuVernay

Ava is one hell of a powerhouse. With two indie-darlings under belt, she broke big in 2014 with Selma earning her first Golden Globe nomination, making her the first African-American woman to be nominated for Best Director and the first Black woman for her film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. In 2016, her Netflix documentary 13th received universal acclaim, she then adapted a A Wrinkle in Time for Disney, which was criticized for its overuse of CGI and then, she directed the Netflix miniseries, When They See Us which was also gained universal praise from critics, viewers and the Central Park Five. The limited series followed the true story of 5 African American teens convicted of brutally raping a female jogger, it was nominated for a total of 16 Emmys including Outstanding Limited Series. A couple of her upcoming Netflix projects are a Nipsey Hussle documentary and another limited series, this time following the life of Colin Kaepernick, the former quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.

8. Penny Marshall

Penny Marshall made her mark on television by being on Laverne & Shirley, she then took up directing by debuting with Jumpin' Jack Flash starring Whoopi Goldberg, it wasn't until her second feature, Big, that made Penny Marshall a huge name in the directing biz. Penny then followed it up with Awakenings, which was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, and then A League Of Their Own. 

7. Jane Campion

This New Zealand filmmaker made her directing debut with An Angel at My Table, a movie about Kiwi author, Janet Frame, her second feature The Piano, a film about a mute Scottish woman who travels with her daughter after an arranged marriage with a frontiersman during the mid-19th century, is considered her best work. It was praised for Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin's performances and Campion won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival, becoming the first woman to ever win that achievement and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. She then directed Bright Star and a miniseries, Top of the Lake and its sequel show, China Girl. Her next film is The Power of the Dog, which is set to be released on Netflix sometime this year.

6. Andrea Arnold

Former actress Andrea Arnold won her first Oscar for directing a short film called Wasp. She made her feature length directorial debut the following year with Red Road, a psychological thriller about a security operator who observes her monitors and sees a man from her past, her second feature, Fish Tank is her magnum opus, winning the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, she then followed it up with American Honey, directed four episodes of Transparent and the second season of Big Little Lies.

5. Sofia Coppola

Her last name might sound familiar to you, that's because she's the daughter of legendary filmmaker, Francis Ford Coppola. After appearing in The Godfather: Part III she retired from acting and made her directorial debut with The Virgin Suicides. Her sophomore film, Lost in Translation, is her best movie of her career, earning her first Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Her background in fashion has played a large part in the aesthetic tones of her movies and has described her style as "slow-moving portraits with bittersweet emotional palettes." Her other films include The Bling Ring, Somewhere and On the Rocks.

4. Lina Wertmüller

Inspired by the influence of Federico Fellini, Italian filmmaker, Lina Wertmüller's movies consist of his same style, like the view of the Italian working class and the reality of the politically neglected with a feminine twist. Using formal tactics, she dramatizes the qualities that political ideologies can have on certain people. Her films The Seduction of Mimi, Swept Away and Seven Beauties are some of her best work.

3. Kathryn Bigelow

One of my favorite directors ever! Bigelow made her directing debut with The Loveless, a film about a motorcycle gang in a small town during the 1950s, then came out with Near Dark and Blue Steel which was an action movie with a female lead starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Her next film, Point Break, starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze became a breakout hit and a box office success. While Strange Days and K-19 were financial disappointments, she made a big comeback with The Hurt Locker, a war thriller about a bomb squad serving in the Iraq war. The film utilized a shaky camera technique, quick zooms and quick cuts. She won the Academy Award for Best Director, making her the first woman to ever achieve that award. She then followed with Zero Dark Thirty and Detroit.

2. Julie Dash

After writing and directing a few shorts, Julie Dash made her big feature film debut with Daughters of the Dust, the first ever movie directed by an African American woman. The film is a fictionalized telling of her father's family in the Southwestern United States. It was told in a non-linear narrative with striking visuals and it received universal acclaim and was named one of the most significant films of the last 30 years by IndieWire. Afterwards, she sticked with working in television like directing episodes of Queen Sugar and a few TV films. She's set to make a big comeback with a biopic following the life of civil rights activist, Angela Davis.

Honorable Mentions:

- Marielle Heller

- Dee Rees

- Kasi Lemmons

- Agnès Varda

- Ida Lupino

- Lois Weber

- Alice Guy-Blaché

- Sarah Polley

- Jennifer Kent

- Lisa Cholodenko

- Karyn Kusama

- Miranda July

1. Chloé Zhao

Chloé Zhao made her debut in 2015 with Songs My Brothers Taught Me, then in 2017 came out with The Rider, a contemporary western drama, in 2020 she broke out with Nomadland, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to universal acclaim by critics. The movie was a powerful character study on a woman who loses everything during The Great Recession. Zhao recently won Best Director at the Golden Globes, becoming the first Asian-American woman to win that award, not to mention that she will be nominated for 4 Academy Awards which is an honorable achievement for a woman ALONE. Not to mention that her next movie is an MCU movie project called Eternals, which is set to be released on November 5th, 2020.

Thank you for reading, guys. Don't forget to comment below.