500 Days Of Film Looks At 64 Movies From Female Directors In 2017
Despite calls for diversity and greater opportunity, the number of women working in film is pitiful. According to a report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, women comprised just 7% of all directors working on the 250 highest-grossing US domestic releases in 2016.
These statistics (and others like them) are, of course, familiar all over the world. While it is important to engage in conversation, action is now desperately needed. One of the ways that we, as cinema going audience members, can help is by seeking out and championing those films directed by women. Money still talks the loudest after all.
This year, as you can see below, there have been a number of hugely impressive films across a variety of genres released in 2017 (UK release dates) from female directors.
Films Directed By Women In 2017
Director: Jenny Gage
Genre: Documentary
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A look at the lives of a group of teenage girls growing up in New York.
Almost Heaven
Director: Carol Salter
Genre: Documentary
Rated: 12
Synopsis: A Chinese woman trains to become a mortician.
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power
Director: Bonni Cohen (co-directed with Jon Shenk)
Genre: Documentary
Rated: PG
Synopsis: Climate change campaigner, Al Gore, explores the ongoing environmental crisis.
Director: Zoe Lister-Jones
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A couple attempt to save their marriage by turning their arguments into songs.
Director: Valerie Faris (co-directed with Jonathan Dayton)
Genre: Drama, True Life
Rated: 12
Synopsis: In 1973, tennis champion, Billie Jean King, accepts a challenge from former men’s champion, Bobby Riggs, to a winner takes all match.
Beach Rats
Director: Eliza Hittman
Genre: Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A young man struggles to come to terms with his sexuality in New York.
Director: Ry Russo-Young
Genre: Drama
Rated: 12
Synopsis: Sam is stuck reliving the same day over and over until she can solve the mystery of her death.
Director: Cate Shortland
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A tourist begins a relationship with a schoolteacher who soon reveals an unsettling and dangerous obsession.
Bunch Of Kunst
Director: Christine Franz
Genre: Music, Documentary
Rated: 18
Synopsis: A documentary about the British band, the Sleaford Mods.
By The Time It Gets Dark
Director: Anocha Suwichakornpong
Genre: Drama
Rated: 12
Synopsis: The story of the making of a film about a famous writer who, as a student activist, witnessed a massacre in 1976.
Director: Kirsten Johnson
Genre: Documentary
Rated: 15
Synopsis: Filmmaker, Kirsten Johnson, shares key and insightful moments from her career as a cinematographer.
Director: Kitty Green
Genre: Documentary, Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: An exploration of the continued fascination with one of America’s most infamous child murders.
David Lynch: The Art Life
Director: Olivia Neergaard-Holm (directed with Jon Nguyen and Rick Barnes)
Genre: Documentary
Rated: 15
Synopsis: Exploring the formative years of director, writer and artist, David Lynch.
Destination Unknown
Director: Claire Ferguson
Genre: Documentary
Rated: 12
Synopsis: Survivors of Nazi death camps talk about their experiences and feelings.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Genre: Drama, True Life
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A group of people find themselves in a nightmarish and horrendous situation during the 1967 Detroit riots.
Director: Taryn Brumfitt
Genre: Documentary
Rated: 12
Synopsis: Exploring society's worrying obbession with female body image.
Director: Angelina Jolie
Genre: War, Drama, True Life
Rated: 15
Synopsis: The story of Cambodian author and human rights activist, Loung Ung, and her experiences under the regime of the Khmer Rouge.
From The Land Of The Moon
Director: Nicole Garcia
Genre: Romance, Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A married woman is sent to the Alps to treat her kidney stones, where she falls in love with another man.
Grace Jones Bloodlight and Bami
Director: Sophie Fiennes
Genre: Documentary, Drama, Music
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A documentary about the life of singer, Grace Jones.
Graduation
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Genre: Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A father is faced with challenging decisions when his daughter’s academic future is compromised.
Half Way
Director: Daisy-May Hudson
Genre: Documentary
Rated:
Synopsis: The story of the UK’s hidden homeless, told via the experiences of one family.
Director: Katell Quillévéré
Genre: Drama
Rated: 12
Synopsis: Two strangers become inexorably linked after a fatal car crash
Director: Hallie Meyers-Shyer
Genre: Romance, Drama, Comedy
Rated: 12
Synopsis: A newly separated woman takes in three young filmmakers as lodgers.
Director: Rungano Nyoni
Genre: Drama
Rated: 12
Synopsis: A nine-year old Zambian girl is accused of witchcraft and sent to a witch camp.
Director: Maysaloun Hamoud
Genre: Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: Three Arab-Israeli women, living in a flat in Tel-Aviv, try to find a balance between traditional and modern culture.
Kedi
Director: Ceyda Torun
Genre: Documentary
Rated: U
Synopsis: Following the thousands of feral cats living on the streets of Istanbul and the residents who care for them.
Letters from Baghdad
Director: Zeva Oelbaum, Sabine Krayenbüehl
Genre: Documentary
Rated: PG
Synopsis: Exploring the life of English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator and archaeologist, Gertrude Bell.
Lost In Lebanon
Director: Georgia Scott and Sophia Scott
Genre: Documentary
Rated:
Synopsis: Four Syrians in Lebanon attempt to rebuild their lives amidst the chaos of war.
Lost In Paris
Director: Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel
Genre: Comedy, Romance, Drama
Rated: 12
Synopsis: A Canadian woman goes to Paris to help her elderly aunt.
LoveTrue
Director: Alma Har'el
Genre: Documentary
Rated: 15
Synopsis: Three people from different backgrounds discuss their feelings about love, family and relationships.
Director: Aisling Walsh
Genre: Drama, True Life
Rated: 12
Synopsis: The life story of Canadian artist, Maud Lewis.
Director: Ana Asensio
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rated: 18
Synopsis: An illegal immigrant in New York City is drawn into a dangerous game after being offered a lucrative job by a friend.
Director: Dee Rees
Genre: Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A woman struggles to raise her kids on her husband’s Mississippi Delta farm when two brothers return from war to work on the land.
My Pure Land
Director: Sarmad Masud
Genre: Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A mother and her two daughters have to defend their home from a relative.
Director: Ildikó Enyedi
Genre: Romance, Drama
Rated: 18
Synopsis: Love blossoms between two abattoir employees after they discover that they share the same dreams each night.
One Of Us
Director: Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing
Genre: Documentary
Rated: 12
Synopsis: Within the insular world of New York’s Haisdic community, three individuals are driven to break away.
Primaire / Elementary
Director: Hélène Angel
Genre: Drama
Rated: 12
Synopsis: A primary school teacher is tested by the arrival of a challenging pupil.
Professor Marston And The Wonder Woman
Director: Angela Robinson
Genre: Drama, True Life
Rated: 15
Synopsis: The story of psychologist William Moulton Marston, the polyamorous relationship between his wife and his mistress, the creation of his beloved comic book character Wonder Woman, and the controversy the comic generated.
P.S Jerusalem
Director: Danae Elon
Genre: Documentary
Rated:
Synopsis: Following a family’s journey to establish themselves in Jerusalem.
Director: Julia Ducournau
Genre: Drama, Horror
Rated: 18
Synopsis: A young girl’s life is changed forever after an initiation ritual at her vetinary college.
Risk
Director: Laura Poitras
Genre: Documentary
Rated: 15
Synopsis: Following Julian Assange after the Wikileaks release of the Iraq War Logs in 2010 and through his years of refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
Rough Night
Director: Lucia Aniello
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A wild hen party goes fatally wrong.
School Life
Director: Neasa Ní Chianáin (co-directed by David Rane)
Genre: Documentary
Rated: 12
Synopsis: The story of the teachers and pupils at a boarding school in Ireland.
Step
Director: Amanda Lipitz
Genre: Documentary
Rated: PG
Synopsis: Following several members of a high school girls dance team.
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour
Genre: Science Fiction, Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A young woman struggles to survive after being cast out into a landscape of cannibals and scavengers.
The Beguiled
Director: Sofia Coppola
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: In Virginia during the American Civil War, a girl takes a wounded Union Soldier back to her school for girls.
The Bye Bye Man
Director: Stacy Title
Genre: Horror
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A group of students accidentally unleash a terrifying supernatural entity.
Director: Anna Rose Holmer
Genre: Drama
Rated: 12
Synopsis: A young girl joins a competitive dance team just as the girls fall victim to strange fainting fits.
Director: Lone Scherfig
Genre: Romance, Drama, Comedy
Rated: 12
Synopsis: A writing team is tasked with making morale-boosting propaganda films during World War 2.
Director: Hope Dickson Leach
Genre: Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A trainee vet returns to her family’s farm after the suspicious death of her brother.
Director: Anna Biller
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Horror
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A woman uses her magical potions and spells to try to find love.
Director: Sally Potter
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A civilised dinner party descends into chaos.
The Reagan Show
Director: Sierra Pettengill (co-directed with Pacho Velez)
Genre: Documentary
Rated: PG
Synopsis: A documentary about former US President Ronald Reagan.
The Zookeeper’s Wife
Director: Niki Caro
Genre: Drama, True Life
Rated: 12
Synopsis: Poland, 1939 - a couple join the Resistance and use their zoo to rescue people from the Warsaw Ghetto.
Through The Wall
Director: Rama Burshtein
Genre: Drama, Romance, Comedy
Rated: U
Synopsis: After splitting up with her fiance on the eve of her wedding, an Israeli woman is determined to find a replacement husband.
Tickling Giants
Director: Sara Taksler
Genre: Documentary
Rated:
Synopsis: During the Egyptian revolution of 2011, surgeon turned comedian Bassem Youssef airs a television show that makes him popular with his countrymen but disliked by the government.
To The Bone
Director: Marti Noxon
Genre: Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A young woman struggles with anorexia.
Director: Maren Ade
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A father tries increasingly bizarre ways to reconnect with his daughter.
Uncertain
Director: Anna Sandilands (co-directed by Ewan McNicol)
Genre: Documentary
Rated:
Synopsis: A portrait of life in the Texan town of Uncertain.
Underworld: Blood Wars
Director: Anna Foerster
Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Action
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A vampire attempts to end the war between two clans.
Unforgettable
Director: Denise Di Nova
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Rated: 15
Synopsis: A woman tries to destroy the life of her ex-husband’s new fiancee.
Director: Jennifer Brea
Genre: Documentary
Rated: 12
Synopsis: A woman documents her battle with chronic fatigue syndrome.
Viceroy’s House
Director: Gurinder Chadha
Genre: Drama, True Life
Rated: 12
Synopsis: Exploring Lord Mountbatten’s time as Viceroy of India.
Director: Patty Jenkins
Genre: Fantasy, Drama, Action
Rated: 12
Synopsis: A warrior princess leaves her idyllic home to bring an end to war.
Who Are Your Favourite Female Film Directors?
Who are you favourite female directors? Have I missed anyone off my list?
Do let me know in the comments section below or over on Facebook or Twitter (@500DaysOfFilm).