FemaleDirectors.com is a website for female-directed movies: you can find, play, and add them to your Netflix queue, and buy them on Amazon.com. Browse within our genres to find movies from the female perspective.
Drama
Songcatcher
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Songcatcher

2000
During a visit to her sister in Appalachia, a gifted musicologist stumbles upon a musical treasure trove of dozens of Scots-Irish ballads that have been preserved for generations by the local populace and are unknown to the outside world.

Directed by:

  • Maggie Greenwald
    • rating:3.6.png 3.6 Average Rating


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    Little Dorrit
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    Little Dorrit

    1988
    In this two-part adaptation of Charles Dickens's novel, Derek Jacobi stars as Arthur, a well-meaning middle-aged man who, through an unexpected relationship with seamstress Little Dorrit (Sarah Pickering), is drawn into the plight of a group of debtor prisoners. Christine Edzard directs and writes this expansive, award-winning drama for the screen; Alec Guinness co-stars as the imprisoned William Dorritt.

    Directed by:

  • Christine Edzard
    • rating:3.6.png 3.6 Average Rating


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    Rails & Ties
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    Rails & Ties

    2007
    When a mother commits suicide by parking her car on the train tracks, an unlikely bond forms between her son, Davey (Miles Heizer) -- who's wracked with guilt -- and the tormented engineer (Kevin Bacon) who was driving the train that fateful day. Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden co-stars as the engineer's wife in this poignant drama, which marks the directorial debut of Alison Eastwood (Clint's daughter).

    Directed by:

  • Alison Eastwood
    • rating:3.5.png 3.5 Average Rating


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    After the Wedding
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    After the Wedding

    2006
    To save the failing orphanage he runs in India, Danish transplant Jacob Petersen (Mads Mikkelsen) returns to his homeland to meet a self-indulgent businessman named Jørgen who's offered a generous donation -- and represents everything the noble-minded Jacob abhors. Complicating matters further are the unusual strings Jørgen has attached to his so-called gift. Rolf Lassgård co-stars in this Oscar-nominated emotional powerhouse of a drama.

    Directed by:

  • Susanne Bier
    • rating:3.8.png 3.8 Average Rating


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    Action & Adventure
    Out-of-Sync
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    Out-of-Sync

    1995
    Talented disc jockey Jason St. Julian (LL Cool J) gave up a promising career when he took the fall for a mob boss (Ramy Zada) and ended up in jail. Now, in an attempt to go straight, Julian is battling his gambling and alcohol problems, but his past keeps catching up to him in the form of loan sharks, drug dealers and crooked cops. Worse, he falls in love with the mob boss's girlfriend (Victoria Dillard). Yaphet Kotto and Howard Hesseman co-star.

    Directed by:

  • Debbie Allen
    • rating:3.3.png 3.3 Average Rating


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    Doctor Who: Snakedance
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    Doctor Who: Snakedance

    1983
    When his companion Tegan (Janet Fielding) begins exhibiting signs of possession by the Mara upon the TARDIS's arrival on Manussa, the Doctor (Peter Davison) must take her and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) to find the cave mouth that's shaped like a snake that she keeps seeing in her nightmares. But when Tegan runs off under mind control, it's up to the Doctor to make sure that the Mara can't find the means for a physical return.

    Directed by:

  • Fiona Cumming
    • rating:3.5.png 3.5 Average Rating


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    Justice League: Doom
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    Justice League: Doom

    2012
    Batman's top-secret files on his fellow superheroes -- a safeguard against rogue elements -- have fallen into the clutches of Vandal Savage. With the Justice League's every weakness now laid bare, the entire planet hangs in the balance.

    Directed by:

  • Lauren Montgomery
    • rating:4.0.png 4.0 Average Rating


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    Crusoe: The Complete Series
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    Crusoe: The Complete Series

    2008
    After he's shipwrecked, Robinson Crusoe (Philip Winchester) and his companion Friday face the adventures and challenges of life on a deserted island in this action-packed television series based on Daniel Defoe's classic novel. Flashbacks explore Crusoe's life before the wreck, including his relationships with his widowed father (Sean Bean) and family friend Jeremiah Blackthorn (Sam Neill), who serves as a business mentor to Crusoe.

    Directed by:

  • Jeff Woolnough
  • Michael Robison
  • Alex Chapple
  • Helen Shaver
  • Duane Clark
    • rating:3.6.png 3.6 Average Rating


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    Gay & Lesbian
    Stranger Inside
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    Stranger Inside

    2001
    Treasure Lee (Yolonda Ross) is a bad girl on the move ... out of "juvenile" and into the state penitentiary. There, she befriends Brownie (Davenia McFadden), a lifer who deals drugs, using an extended family of loyal girls who swear their undying allegiance to the cell-block mama. But Brownie's charisma shields a malevolence that just might put Treasure in harm's way.

    Directed by:

  • Cheryl Dunye
    • rating:3.3.png 3.3 Average Rating


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    Fire
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    Fire

    1996
    Two Hindu women struggle with loveless, arranged marriages: Sita (Nandita Das), who discovers that her husband (Javed Jaffrey) has a mistress, and her sister-in-law, Radha (Shabana Azmi), who cannot give birth. As the lukewarm coals of their long-term relationships fade, the women ignite passion in their lives by finding comfort in each other. Director Deepa Mehta's drama is supposedly the first Indian film about lesbians.

    Directed by:

  • Deepa Mehta
    • rating:3.6.png 3.6 Average Rating


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    The Sensei
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    The Sensei

    2008
    After punks at school hand him a savage beating, gay teen McClain Evans (Michael O'Laskey II) secretly begins martial arts training with Karen O'Neil (director Diana Lee Inosanto), a woman who has her own axe to grind with the narrow-minded rural community. But as Evans learns to stand up to prejudice and hate, the boy and his sensei unleash a firestorm of controversy in their small Colorado town. Louis Mandylor co-stars in this drama.

    Directed by:

  • Diana Lee Inosanto
    • rating:3.4.png 3.4 Average Rating


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    Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives
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    Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives

    1977
    First released in 1977, this landmark documentary chronicles the experiences of some two dozen gay and lesbian Americans living throughout the country during the early days of the gay rights movement. Directed by a coalition of gay and lesbian filmmakers, the movie features interviews with poet Elsa Gidlow, activist Harry Hay and others who reflect candidly on growing up in a country that was still deeply and almost uniformly anti-gay.

    Directed by:

  • Nancy Adair
    • rating:3.4.png 3.4 Average Rating


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    Foreign
    Maria Isabel
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    Maria Isabel

    1997
    This Spanish-language &NFi;telenovela&NFi_; follows the trials and tribulations of the beautiful Maria Isabel (Adela Noriega), a native Mexican woman who nobly agrees to raise her best friend's young daughter. After finding work in the home of wealthy widower Ricardo Mendiola (Fernando Carrillo), Maria Isabel secretly falls in love with him. But because of her &NFi;indio&NFi_; heritage, she holds her feelings back ...

    Directed by:

  • Miguel Corcega
  • Alejandro Frutos
  • Monica Miguel
  • Jesus Acuna Lee
    • rating:3.1.png 3.1 Average Rating


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    The Fairy
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    The Fairy

    2011
    After Fiona, a woman claiming to be a fairy, arrives at the tiny hotel where Dom works the night shift, the two soon form a bond and engage in a series of charming high jinks. But when Fiona vanishes, Dom goes on a desperate search for her.

    Directed by:

  • Bruno Romy
  • Dominique Abel
  • Fiona Gordon
    • rating:3.6.png 3.6 Average Rating


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    Chocolat
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    Chocolat

    1988
    Based on director Claire Denis's childhood memories, Chocolat examines the devastating effect of French colonialism through the eyes of a young girl coming of age in 1950s West Africa. When a plane makes an emergency landing in the isolated colonial post where 8-year-old France (Cécile Ducasse) lives, a diverse group of whites and Africans is stranded and must stay with France's family, forcing sexual, social and class tensions to arise.

    Directed by:

  • Claire Denis
    • rating:3.8.png 3.8 Average Rating


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    Black Butterflies
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    Black Butterflies

    2011
    This passionate biopic profiles South African poet Ingrid Jonker, whose exuberant nature is destroyed by her repeated betrayals of her supportive lover and her complex relationship with her disapproving father, the minister of censorship.

    Directed by:

  • Paula van der Oest
    • rating:3.4.png 3.4 Average Rating


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    Now and Then
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    Now and Then

    1995
    Waxing nostalgic about the bittersweet passage from childhood to puberty in this tender coming-of-age tale, four childhood girlfriends -- Teeny, Chrissy, Samantha and Roberta -- recall the magical summer of 1970. During their walk down memory lane, they reconcile experiences with boys, secrets, bullies and more. Lesli Linka Glatter directs; Gaby Hoffmann, Ashleigh Aston Moore, Cloris Leachman, Thora Birch and Christina Ricci co-star.

    Directed by:

  • Lesli Linka Glatter
    • rating:3.8.png 3.8 Average Rating


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    Now and Then (1995)
    A heartwarming movie about four childhood girlfriends who, in adulthood reunion, relive their experience of the life-changing summer of 1970, including a mystery death, divorce, standing up to the boys, first kiss, and the meaning of true friendship. Each explores her unique identity amidst family and friends. Beautifully directed by Lesli Linka Glatter.
    - Frances   
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