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.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
The Preacher's Wife
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The Preacher's Wife

1996
When God overhears a church preacher (Courtney B. Vance) despairing the potential loss of a youth center, he dispatches an angel (Denzel Washington) to help him out. Trouble is, the preacher isn't easily convinced that his guardian angel is the real thing. An inspired reworking of the uplifting 1940s movie The Bishop's Wife, The Preacher's Wife stars Washington and Whitney Houston at their dazzling best.

Directed by:

  • Penny Marshall
    • rating:3.3.png 3.3 Average Rating


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    Three Wishes
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    Three Wishes

    1995
    &NFb;&NFb_;A mysterious drifter (Patrick Swayze) and his dog move in with a struggling single mother (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) whose husband died in the Korean War. Does the stranger really have magical powers, or is he just a tall-tale spinner? Martha Coolidge (Valley Girl, Rambling Rose) directs this period romance with a touch of fantasy.

    Directed by:

  • Martha Coolidge
    • rating:3.4.png 3.4 Average Rating


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    Halloweentown / Halloweentown 2: Double Feature
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    Halloweentown / Halloweentown 2: Double Feature

    1998
    There's more adventure than you can shake a broomstick at in this Disney Channel double feature. Young Marnie's (Kimberly J. Brown) learning to deal with the magical powers she's inherited from her grandmother, Aggie (Debbie Reynolds), who happens to be a witch. In Halloweentown, Marnie discovers a secret portal and to an enchanted place where ghosts live apart from the human world. In Halloweentown II, Marnie has to stop the evil warlock Kalabar.

    Directed by:

  • Duwayne Dunham
  • Mary Lambert
    • rating:3.3.png 3.3 Average Rating


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    Orlando
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    Orlando

    1992
    Director Sally Potter adapts Virginia Woolf's 1928 allegorical novel about a woman who lives for 400 years -- the first half as a man -- in this surrealist study of sex and gender roles throughout the ages. The transition from man to woman and from the 16th to the 20th century is realized by Tilda Swinton's breakthrough performance and the film's Oscar-nominated costumes and art direction. Quentin Crisp plays Queen Elizabeth I.

    Directed by:

  • Sally Potter
    • rating:3.3.png 3.3 Average Rating


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    Gay & Lesbian
    Gender Rebel
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    Gender Rebel

    2006
    Director Elaine Epstein's captivating documentary explores the lives of three biological females who reject the conventional concepts of gender and see themselves not as female or male, but something in between. The camera follows these individuals as they encounter challenges at every turn -- from the strain on their relationships to confrontations from communities intolerant of their way of life -- and find a way to cope with social alienation.

    Directed by:

  • Elaine Epstein
    • rating:3.2.png 3.2 Average Rating


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    Unveiled
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    Unveiled

    2005
    After the Iranian authorities threaten to prosecute her for loving a woman, Fariba (Jasmin Tabatabai) assumes a dead man's identity in order to survive. Denied asylum in Germany, Fariba is locked in a detainment center, where her male cellmate commits suicide -- and she spies a window of opportunity. Assuming his identity, she takes a job in a small country village, where she struggles to keep her secret from a well-meaning female friend.

    Directed by:

  • Angelina Maccarone
    • rating:3.4.png 3.4 Average Rating


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    Total Eclipse
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    Total Eclipse

    1995
    Leonardo DiCaprio plays the prodigious 19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud in this captivating historical drama. Paul Verlaine (David Thewlis), an older and more traditional writer, finds himself infatuated with the young Rimbaud. That make him unable to keep the peace with his wife (Romane Bohringer). A love/hate relationship develops between the two men as they forge the rough waters of creative expression.

    Directed by:

  • Agnieszka Holland
    • rating:3.1.png 3.1 Average Rating


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    Paris Was a Woman
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    Paris Was a Woman

    1996
    Between the World Wars, Paris was the world's artistic capital, attracting cultural titans like Gertrude Stein and others. Through home movies and intimate storytelling, this documentary re-creates the mood of this unique female artistic community.

    Directed by:

  • Greta Schiller
    • rating:3.2.png 3.2 Average Rating


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    Foreign
    Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl
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    Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl

    1999
    At the height of China's Cultural Revolution, a girl is sent to a remote area as part of a government initiative and finds her exile a thrilling adventure -- and a nightmarish trap. This rich tale examines the individual cost of collective decisions.

    Directed by:

  • Joan Chen
    • rating:3.8.png 3.8 Average Rating


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    Boses
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    Boses

    2008
    A victim of abuse, 7-year-old Onyok (Julian Duque) becomes mute and winds up in a children's shelter run by Amanda (Cherry Pie Picache). As Amanda's musician brother, Ariel (Coke Bolipata), starts teaching Onyok to play the violin, the lessons affect both teacher and student in positive ways. A special bond forms between musically gifted Onyok and Ariel, who's mourning the death of his girlfriend, as both begin to heal in this poignant drama.

    Directed by:

  • Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil
    • rating:3.2.png 3.2 Average Rating


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    The Night Watchman
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    The Night Watchman

    2011
    Documentarian Natalia Almada focuses her lens on Mexico's Culiacán cemetery in this lyrical, low-key portrait of those who labor there. The film captures the disparity between the region's drug lords and the working poor who tend to their graves.

    Directed by:

  • Natalia Almada
    • rating:3.1.png 3.1 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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    Faith & Spirituality
    Sheffey
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    Sheffey

    1977
    An unruly young man from an affluent family becomes a Christian convert and a tireless servant of God after attending a revival meeting with friends in this affecting drama about the life and ministry of 19th-century preacher Robert Sheffey. Sheffey traveled the sawdust trail to proclaim the Gospel throughout Appalachia, and in the process, he touched lives all across America. Katherine Stenholm directs.

    Directed by:

  • Katherine Stenholm
    • rating:3.7.png 3.7 Average Rating


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    Yentl
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    Yentl

    1983
    Based on Isaac Bashevis Singer's story, this Oscar-winning musical stars Barbra Streisand as Yentl, the bookish daughter of a Talmud teacher who instructs her even though it's forbidden to teach the sacred text to girls. Determined to continue her schooling after her father dies, Yentl disguises herself as a boy to gain entry to a yeshiva. There, she meets the brilliant Avigdor (Mandy Patinkin), who only has eyes for Hadass (Amy Irving).

    Directed by:

  • Barbra Streisand
    • rating:3.5.png 3.5 Average Rating


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    Iron Jawed Angels
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    Iron Jawed Angels

    2004
    From 1912 to 1920, a group of fiery young suffragettes led by Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O'Connor) band together to wheedle the United States into adapting a Constitutional amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote. Along the way, they incur the wrath of President Woodrow Wilson (Bob Gunton) and anger other suffragette leaders (Anjelica Huston and Lois Smith). Directed by Katja von Garnier.

    Directed by:

  • Katja von Garnier
    • rating:3.9.png 3.9 Average Rating


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    Michael
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    Michael

    1996
    Two struggling tabloid reporters and an "angel expert" are sent by their boss to check out an old kook who claims to have an angel living with her. Sure enough, the guy's got wings, but he's also into smoking, drinking and womanizing. Unconvinced that Michael (John Travolta) is not an Earthly being, the reporters take him to Chicago, when Michael's unconventional methods begin to work heavenly magic. Director Nora Ephron also wrote the script.

    Directed by:

  • Nora Ephron
    • rating:3.5.png 3.5 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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