These days, it’s easy to list several respected, well-known female directors—consider Greta Gerwig, Olivia Wilde, and Ava DuVernay, to name a few. But it wasn’t so long ago that Hollywood was, by and large, a boys' club. While we’ve still got a long way to go—Chloé Zhao and Jane Campion's wins for Best Director in 2021 and 2022 made them the second and third women to receive the honor ever—we’ve certainly taken big steps toward more equitable film sets. Now, we’re looking back at some of those epic strides by paying homage to the best movies directed by women of all time.
A few will come as no surprise: We’d be remiss not to mention Yentl, for instance, for which Barbra Streisand became the first woman to win a directing Golden Globe in 1984. (Zhao became the second in 2021 for Nomadland.) Other titles, like the feminist horror movie Jennifer's Body, struck a chord deep within viewers, sparking joy, fear, sadness, rage, hope, or any combination of the above.
