A decade ago, I embarked on a viewing project called A Year With Women. The challenge was to spend the entire year only watching movies that were directed or co-directed by women or non-binary individuals, be it new releases or older new-to-me discoveries. Inspired in part by my growing apathy towards a lot of lackluster films being produced by Hollywood, I looked at the year as a sort of social protest. I also saw this as an opportunity to expand my breadth of knowledge and to finally take the time to catch up on work from women directors in the past that I had never seen. I wasn’t on then, but Chloë has graciously collected that first year into a list here.
Since then, I have continued to watch as many films directed by women as I can find, and have discovered that not only have more women been hired to direct new movies (especially in the indie/art-house world) and been nominated for Oscars recently (and even won them!) but also that more women-directed features from past years have made their way into new Blu-ray editions, on to streaming services, and even been crowned the greatest of all time.
But what I feel has remained is still a lack of awareness of just how many women have made films since the birth of cinema, and in particular how many have robust filmographies. That was one of my goals with my first book, Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors in Their Own Words, which contains conversations with nineteen filmmakers from diverse backgrounds—and whose work spans six decades—about their artistic processes and journeys in the film industry.
For the purposes of the following list, I have chosen one film from each director that I think either exemplifies their contribution to the art of cinema, or is woefully underseen, or in some cases both. I hope this list, and the book, which also contains an appendix with a further 365+ names of women directors whose work you should absolutely seek out, inspires you on your own discovery-filled viewing adventure for years to come.
