At the start of the year I pledged to watch 52 films directed by women. As it is now half way through the year I thought I’d check in and see how my viewing is going. I’m actually finding it kind of fun and interesting looking for films that are directed by women, Netflix is great for this and my list on Netflix is mainly made up of films with female directors. It’s also nice when I watch a film because it’s one I’ve been meaning to watch for a while or it features an actor I like and then when I’m looking it up on IMDb later on I discover it’s directed by a woman.
It’s been good to see that woman can and do direct all genres. I’ve watched comedies, family dramas, documentaries, sports movies, and crime films and they’ve all been directed by women. It goes to show that women can direct any genre as well as, if not sometimes better than, a man.
So here are the films I’ve watched in these first six months of 2016, those with links go to their review – I was intending to review all the films I watched for this challenge but that didn’t really work out.
– Point Break (1991) directed by Kathryn Bigelow
– Whip It (2009) directed by Drew Barrymore
– W.E. (2011) directed by Madonna
– A League of Their Own (1992) directed by Penny Marshall
– It’s Complicated (2009) directed by Nancy Meyers
– Green Street Hooligans (2005) directed by Lexi Alexander
– The Hot Flashes (2013) directed by Susan Seidelman
– Wadjda (2012) directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour
– It’s a Wonderful Afterlife (2010) directed by Gurinder Chadha
– You’ve Got Mail (1998) directed by Nora Ephron
– Laggies (2014) directed by Lynn Shelton
– Speak (2004) directed by Jessica Sharzer
– D.E.B.S. (2004) directed by Angela Robinson
– The Hunters (2004) directed by Nisha Ganatra
– Lost in Translation (2003) directed Sofia Coppala
– Wayne’s World (1992) directed by Penelope Spheeris
– Bran Nue Dae (2009) directed by Rachel Perkins
– Advanced Style (2014) directed by Lina Pliolplyte
– American Psycho (2000) directed by Mary Harron
– We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) directed by Lynne Ramsay
– Miss Representation (2011) directed by Jennifer Siebel Newsom
– Thick as Thieves (2009) directed by Mimi Leder
– Second Coming (2014) directed by Debbie Tucker Green
– Money Monster (2016) directed by Jodie Foster
– Josie and the Pussycats (2001) directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan
– The Decoy Bride (2011) directed by Sheree Folkson
– Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) directed by Susan Seidelman
– Obvious Child (2014) directed by Gillian Robespierre
– Infinitely Polar Bear (2014) directed by Maya Forbes
– Powder Room (2013) directed by M.J. Delaney
I’ve watched 30 films directed by women so far this year so I’m well on my way to my goal of 52 films. If you have any suggestions of female-directed films that you think I should watch do let me know. While I may not blog about the challenge much here, I keep a list on Letterboxd that I regularly update with the films directed by women I’ve watched.
Which one has been your favorite so far?
ooh I don’t know! I’ve liked them all in varying degrees (except W.E. – really wasn’t a fan of that one) I think my favourite might have been Miss Representation because it’s such an important and interesting documentary yet it’s still very accessible and has thought from a wide range of people. Also Speak made me cry a lot so that is my second fave.
I think…that the only ones I’ve seen here are American Psycho and Whip It. Loved both though! I might have seen You’ve Got Mail and Wayne’s World when they came out but I’m not sure enough to say with certainty LOL! Wonderful project here nonetheless^^ I hope you get to watch all of these! 🙂
Thanks! It’s been a lot of fun watching films directed by women, especially ones that I’d heard good things about/been meaning to watch for ages but never actually realised they had a female director 🙂