Films by Women

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I signed up to this thing in January where I would try and watch 52 films directed by women throughout 2016.

I used Letterboxd to make a list of films directed by women I had already seen and another list of ones I intended to watch in 2016.

Between the two lists there's only about 80 films. Some of the ones in my to watch list are not really grabbing my interest or I'm having trouble finding them. So I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions of films, directed by women, that I've missed off these lists?

EDIT: If you're just going to ask me what the point is or explain to me that you're gender blind when it comes to films maybe don't bother posting. I'm not looking for permission or people's opinions on what I'm doing, just recommendations, thanks.

smash

Can I ask what the purpose of the exercise is? I'm of the opinion that if a movie is good then it will flourish and if not then it will fail, disregarding the gender of the filmmaker.

Looking at their website is seems to just be an exercise to boost female filmmakers ratings with no regard for the quality of the production in the hopes that in years to come female filmmakers will dominate the industry by 51% to 49%.

Am I missing something here?

Theboinkmaster

What's the point

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

smash wrote: »

Can I ask what the purpose of the exercise is? I'm of the opinion that if a movie is good then it will flourish and if not then it will fail, disregarding the gender of the filmmaker.

Looking at their website is seems to just be an exercise to boost female filmmakers ratings with no regard for the quality of the production in the hopes that in years to come female filmmakers will dominate the industry by 51% to 49%.

Am I missing something here?

It states the aim of the initiative clearly on the site.

In our latest round of research, Exploring the Careers of Female Filmmakers: Phase III, we found that one of the barriers for female directors is a perceived scarcity of talent pool and experience. Many of those surveyed couldn’t name a female director. Can you believe that? There are over one thousand female directors on The Director List, 1300 female directors at the DGA and 45 who have helmed a $25 million movie in the last 13 years. We believe that #52FilmsByWomen is a fun way to bring attention to the many talented female filmmakers around the world, and a great way to spark a creative and interactive conversation

If you took from that it's " an exercise to boost female filmmakers ratings with no regard for the quality of the production in the hopes that in years to come female filmmakers will dominate the industry by 51% to 49%" well I don't know what to tell you.

Anyway, why does it matter what the point of it is? People set themselves all sorts of challenges when it comes to watching films. Why is trying to watch 52 films by women any different than trying to watch the entire collection of one director, or a film from a different country every week etc. etc.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

What's the point

The point is I want to watch some films directed by women and I'm asking for boards help in recommending some more to add to my list. Is that not clear from my original post, because it seems pretty clear to me.

smash

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

If you took from that it's " an exercise to boost female filmmakers ratings with no regard for the quality of the production in the hopes that in years to come female filmmakers will dominate the industry by 51% to 49%" well I don't know what to tell you.

Their homepage has a chart displaying their preferred outcome of 51% female directors in future. What's not to take from that? A movie is judged on its merits, not the gender of the director.

kunst nugget

Women are sooo last year, I'm currently trying to watch 52 movies by amputees.

Metacritic has a list of female directors if it helps…

http://www.metacritic.com/feature/best-women-film-directors-and-movies

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

smash wrote: »

Their homepage has a chart displaying their preferred outcome of 51% female directors in future. What's not to take from that? A movie is judged on its merits, not the gender of the director.

First of all, what is wrong with wanting more women to be given opportunities in film? You can't judge a film on it's merits if it's not made. More men get opportunities in film than women. It's a fact, the stats back it up.

Secondly, I really don't care how you judge films, I want to judge films for myself and I'd like to judge some films by women, for myself.

smash

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

First of all, what is wrong with wanting more women to be given opportunities in film? You can't judge a film on it's merits if it's not made. More men get opportunities in film than women. It's a fact, the stats back it up.

I never said there was anything wrong with it so there's no need to fly off the deep end here. I just think the exercise itself is a bit too contrived. It reminds me of the Ghostbusters fiasco.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Secondly, I really don't care how you judge films, I want to judge films for myself and I'd like to judge some films by women, for myself.

And you're free to do so.

The Black Oil

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/women-on-film

There is a huge issue in Hollywood and the movie industry in general with a huge paygap between male and female actors. That should be a bigger aspect that should be tackled and not something like this - movies should always be based on their merits and not whether it had male or female directors.

And asking us to not discuss this or trying to stifle the discussion is damaging the debate more than anything else.

smash

Deleted User wrote: »

There is a huge issue in Hollywood and the movie industry in general with a huge paygap between male and female actors.

It's up to the agent to get the best deal, not the directors and producers to place salary scales. Just look at Jennifer Lawrence who has a great agent and gets paid multiples of her male counterparts.

Mickeroo

I don't think I saw Near Dark on either of your lists, it's another Kathryn Bigelow one but it's well worth a look. Cult classic vampire movie from the 80's.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Deleted User wrote: »

There is a huge issue in Hollywood and the movie industry in general with a huge paygap between male and female actors. That should be a bigger aspect that should be tackled and not something like this - movies should always be based on their merits and not whether it had male or female directors.

And asking us to not discuss this or trying to stifle the discussion is damaging the debate more than anything else.

I'm not trying to stifle anything. I just wanted recommendations. For what it's worth all the issues in Hollywood stem from the same problem, too many white men in charge.

Nobody is suggesting a film should be based on the gender of who directed it. I've watched some terrible films as part of this. The point is women don't get the same chances to have their work judged on it's merits as men do because they don't get the same opportunities to make films in the first place.

Most of the films on my two lists didn't get huge distribution deals, they didn't get wide releases, they didn't get the same promotional drive as a lot of other films get. When Kathryn Bigalow was nominated for best director a few years ago she was only the 3rd or 4th female director to get nominated. Do you really think she was only the 4th woman in history to make a film as good as a man did?

Bottom line is you can care about more than one issue in film. You can use whatever system you want to judge the films you do see. I want to be able to have a conversation about female directors and the imbalance that exists between genders when it comes to directors being hired, but I want to have an educated discussion on it so I want to see as many films directed by women as I can.

smash

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

For what it's worth all the issues in Hollywood stem from the same problem, too many white men in charge.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I want to have an educated discussion on it

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

smash wrote: »

Your reaction to everything I've said tells me you don't pay much attention to these issues and yet you still have feel need to join in the conversation.

You think it's women keeping other women on less pay then their male co-stars? Or black men and women only casting black men and women in small stereotypical roles? Or North African men/women casting white people as Egyptians, TWICE in the one year? Or middle eastern men/women only casting themselves as terrorists?

kunst nugget

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

Your reaction to everything I've said tells me you don't pay much attention to these issues and yet you still have feel need to join in the conversation.

You think it's women keeping other women on less pay then their male co-stars?

Aren't casting directors in the main women? So, it would be women generally making these decisions.

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/poplife/2013/11/06/why-are-casting-directors-nearly-always-women/

The Black Oil

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I'm not trying to stifle anything. I just wanted recommendations. For what it's worth all the issues in Hollywood stem from the same problem, too many white men in charge.

Take a look at this round table with some studio execs from last Nov. Donna Langley runs Universal and Stacey Snider is Co-Chair at Fox.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA4RLUn7JpA

johnny_ultimate

Mod note: The OP clearly asked for recommendations. It's a simple perfectly reasonable request, so any further discussion not along those lines will be deleted.

johnny_ultimate

A few suggestions off the top of my head.

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is one of the greatest films ever made, from the late Chantal Akerman (plenty of other of her films are fantastic too). It's difficult, but displays a peerless formal and thematic mastery. Perhaps the single most important piece of feminist filmmaking.

Claire Denis is modern filmmaking royalty with good cause. Beau travail, 35 Shots of Rum, and White Material deserve every bit of acclaim that has been bestowed upon them.

You have plenty to choose from with Agnes Varda's long and distinguished filmography. The Gleaners and I is probably the one I'd recommend most - a playful, insightful and very personal film, and one of the great cinema essays. For something more traditional, Vagabond is excellent.

Kelly Reichardt is one of the most consistently interesting and confident directors working in American 'independent cinema'. Wendy and Lucy and Meek's Cutoff are my two favourites, but everything I've seen from her has been worthwhile.

For something lighter, try Elaine May's work. A New Leaf is a particularly sharp and odd alternative rom-com, and last I checked it was on Netflix too.

imitation

Lost in translation is the first movie that popped into my mind, and also one of my favorites, well worth the watch.

secondrowgal

Now don't shut this down without reading the rest, but Twilgiht (the first one) is directed by a woman. I avoided this genre for ages, and then one girls' movie night, the host had this one, and I was more than surprised! It for sure captured the essence of a teenage crush in all its intensity, and the confusion at that age. I was more than pleasantly surprised by this!

I watched The Dressmaker last night which stars Kate Winslett and a host of Aussie actors. Good start, a bit of a drop-off in the middle, and nice ending. Like most Aussie productions, doesn't take itself too seriously.

JohnFalstaff

I saw Mustang in the IFI at the start of the summer - it's well worth checking out, one of the best new films I've seen so far this year.

The Wolfpack was a fascinating documentary released last year.

Jane Campion's An Angel at My Table is another favourite & I'd second the Elaine May recommendation - The Heartbreak Kid and Mikey and Nicky being my own personal favourites of hers.

Does The Matrix count?!?

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

secondrowgal wrote: »

Now don't shut this down without reading the rest, but Twilgiht (the first one) is directed by a woman. I avoided this genre for ages, and then one girls' movie night, the host had this one, and I was more than surprised! It for sure captured the essence of a teenage crush in all its intensity, and the confusion at that age. I was more than pleasantly surprised by this!

I was actually reading something about Catherine Hardwicke and Twilight the other day. She made the studio $400 million on a budget of $39 million and she didn't even get an offer of another picture or a development deal from them. But yeah, I've heard a few people say that the first Twilight is okay as those kind of film go.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

imitation wrote: »

Lost in translation is the first movie that popped into my mind, and also one of my favorites, well worth the watch.

I've watched a couple of Sofia Coppola films and have never been very impressed. Lost in Translation does seem to be the one everyone loves though.

Sad Professor

I meant to do that 52 films by women challenge. Thanks for reminding me.

In terms of recommendations, I was just looking at my best of list for last year and a surprising number of them were directed by women: Tu dors Nicole, The Falling, A Girl at my Door, Appropriate Behaviour. Also but already on your list: Girlhood (Sciamma's other films are great too), Respire, and Diary of a Teenage Girl.

In contrast, most of favourite films so far this year seem to have been directed by men but I'd echo JohnFalstaff's recommendation of Mustang. Brilliant film. I also really liked Into the Forrest with Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood. Interesting post-apocalyptic film about two sisters.

And as Johnny Ultimate said, Claire Denis (35 Shots of Rum is one of my favourite films) and Kelly Reichardt.

B0jangles

One that jumps to mind is Ravenous, directed by Antonia Bird (sadly deceased )

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129332/?ref_=nm_knf_t1

It's very gruesome but is also very funny in dark kind of way. The soundtrack is really good too.

spurious

I always like Patricia Rozema's films. 'I've heard the Mermaids singing', 'White room' and 'When night is falling' are all worth a look.

If you would include a mini TV series, Lisa Cholodenko's 'Olive Kitteridge' is great.

Fysh

OP, last year Sight & Sound had an issue with a list of 100 films directed by women that the authors considered underrated - have you seen this? It's not available online unless you're a subscriber, but if you're interested I'll dig out my issue and transcribe the list of films - it's as good an excuse as any to find some more films to add to the "must watch list"

errlloyd

Suffragette is the best I can come up with off the top of my head TME.

Edit: I hadn't seen your letterbox. It's a shocking indictment of me and Hollywood that I can't do better.

My OH at the time did a similar exercises with novels for similar reasons. I think it's a great initiative. If you feel like letting us know how you get on, I'd be interested.

Peregrinus

You should check out Look Both Ways and My Year Without Sex by the Australian director Sarah Watt.

And has anybody mentioned The Company of Strangers by the Canadian Cynthia Scott?

Tony EH

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

So I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions of films, directed by women, that I've missed off these lists?

Off the top of my head:

'Humanoids from the Deep'
'American Psycho'
'Children of a Lesser God'
'The Woodsman'
'The Night Porter'
'Lost in Translation'
'Little Man Tate'
'Eden'
'Near Dark'
'The Last Supper'
'Testament'
'Awakenings'
'Triumph of the Will'
'Desperately Seeking Susan'
'Strange Days'

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Fysh wrote: »

OP, last year Sight & Sound had an issue with a list of 100 films directed by women that the authors considered underrated - have you seen this? It's not available online unless you're a subscriber, but if you're interested I'll dig out my issue and transcribe the list of films - it's as good an excuse as any to find some more films to add to the "must watch list"

I did a quick Google of that and I think someone on Letterboxd has put that list up here.

Thanks for the offer though

errlloyd wrote: »

Suffragette is the best I can come up with off the top of my head TME.

Edit: I hadn't seen your letterbox. It's a shocking indictment of me and Hollywood that I can't do better.

Well, as I said in my first post, off the top of my own head I could only come up with about 80 films, seen and unseen, and that was with some googling for other works by directors I'd already heard of. I could probably make a list of about 200 films by a male director off the top of my head without any help at all.

Frank O. Pinion

Going Overboard (1989)
Love In Paris (1997)
Crossroads (2002)
Incubus (2006)

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

I've gone through these posts this morning and added a lot of new films and directors to my list. Thanks a lot to those who contributed.

The Black Oil

I see thanks to video by Mark Kermode that Point Break was directed Kathryn Bigelow. Didn't know that previously and haven't seen it (yet).

errlloyd

TICKLE_ME_ELMO wrote: »

I've gone through these posts this morning and added a lot of new films and directors to my list. Thanks a lot to those who contributed.

6.5 imdb Swallows and Amazons in the cinema has a female director, if you want a day out!

fruvai

Ratcatcher by Lynne Ramsay

bnt

I would recommend some from Mimi Leder:

• The Peacemaker: the very first film Dreamworks SKG produced, starring Nicole Kidman & George Clooney.
• Deep Impact: forget Armageddon, this is the smarter asteroid impact movie.

Mimi also made Pay It Forward, which I've heard good things about but haven't seen.

cailinoBAC

Agnieszka Holland:
Europa, Europa
The Secret Garden
Olivier, Olivier

Rjd2

Pretty late to this thread so the obvious ones all named and in your list.

My Brother The Devil is very much worth a watch and the debut film of Sally El Hosaini who sadly has been pretty quiet since.:(

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/08/my-brother-the-devil-review

New Home

I see Jane Campion has already been mentioned, but I'd recommend two other films that she directed, i.e. 'The Piano' and 'The Portrait of a Lady'; if you're also interested in miniseries, she was involved in 'Top of the Lake', at least for some of the episodes.

Also, by Sally Potter, 'Orlando'.

vepyewwo

Dear Frankie (Shone Auerbach) - an underrated little gem

The Ballad of Jack and Rose (Rebecca Miller)

Somersault (Cate Shortland)

After the Wedding (Susanne Bier) - most of her films are worth a watch

The J Stands for Jay

B0jangles wrote: »

One that jumps to mind is Ravenous, directed by Antonia Bird (sadly deceased )

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0129332/?ref_=nm_knf_t1

It's very gruesome but is also very funny in dark kind of way. The soundtrack is really good too.

Love that one. I'd recommend everyone watches it without looking at the IMDb page, seeing a trailer, looking at the poster or googling it.

kunst nugget

Didn't realise that the Invitation was directed by a woman - never bothered to check tbh. One of the best films I've seen this year so far.

Will and his partner are invited up to a party being thrown by his ex-wife and her new husband. As the night goes on, Will gets more and more suspicious about the intentions of the couple. It's a slow burner of a movie with fantastic acting and deft direction throughout.

On Netflix at moment so would recommend you check it out.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2400463/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

errlloyd

Equity is female directed and a female led cast etc.

Bonus points its on the "mezz screen" in Dundrum cinema tonight, which is super comfortable, and a Monday a fairly good price.

conorhal

The Black Oil wrote: »

I see thanks to video by Mark Kermode that Point Break was directed Kathryn Bigelow. Didn't know that previously and haven't seen it (yet).

I don't think she gets near the credit she deserves because she persists in making the kind of testosterone fueled, alpha male action movies he ex-husband, James Cameron makes, only with more intelligence. Still, I think it has resulted in the film critics largely ignoring her as an 'important female director'

I wish they they they were still a working partnership because she's the one director I'd have killed to see bring Battle Angel Alita to the big screen. Instead Cameron handed the project off to that human stain Robert Rodriguez, who will F it up completely.
I re-watched Strange Days there recently, it's still a cracking good thriller.

Ana Lily Amirpour's quirky indie Iranian vampire horror 'A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night' was all kinds of cool I have to say.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Andrea Arnold and Kelly Reichardt both have new films out this autumn. Both have back catalogues of a manageable size which are worth digging into too.

Has anyone said Wayne's World?!

Rjd2

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/film4/articles/all/phenomenal-season/5653

Might be some interest here.

TICKLE_ME_ELMO

Rjd2 wrote: »

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/film4/articles/all/phenomenal-season/5653

Might be some interest here.

Saw that advertised. Some good films in there. The Dressmaker is a surprising one. Much darker and funnier than I was expecting.