When we asked Cristina Escobar, Communications Director for the Representation Project, how we could support women in film, she gave us a simple set of instructions. "Go out and see movies directed by women, particularly on opening night of opening weekend, because that’s the one that matters in terms of how they count how successful a project is," Escobar said.
From Lady Bird to Wonder Woman to Battle of the Sexes, there was no shortage of movies directed by women to support in 2017. You may have missed the opportunity to give your dollars to them during opening weekend, but you can still support these films by watching them at home.
We'll keep this list updated with future projects directed by women. For now, these are the films recently directed by women to keep in your queue.
Read These Stories Next:
The Viral Words You Need To Know
Heartbreaking Movies You Should Never Watch Alone
Happy Songs That Will Instantly Put You In A Good Mood
Kedi
Directed by Ceyda Torun
Calling all cat lovers: This is the only documentary you ever need to see. Hundreds of thousands of cats roam the streets of Istanbul, forming a parallel community to the many humans living in the city. The camera closely and patiently follows the a number of these cats. After watching, maybe you’ll be an hour and a half closer to understanding the great mystery of what cats are thinking, and what they want from us.
A United Kingdom
Directed by Amma Asante
In 1947, Prince Seretse Khama, played by David Oyelowo in A United Kingdom, brought his white wife, Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike), home to Botswana. Khama and his wife were met with uproar from native Botswanans, and from the British government, but Khama didn't give up his political ambitions. This is a movie about people willing to risk everything — Ruth, ties to her family, and Khama, his entire kingdom — for love.
XX
Directed by Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Karyn Kusama, Roxanne Benjamin, Jovanka Vukovnik, and Sofia Carillo
This horror anthology is the first ever directed and written entirely by women. St. Vincent makes her directorial debut with her short film, The Birthday Party. More dark than scary, The Birthday Party is about a mother trying to put on a birthday party for her 8-year-old, and finds her husband dead. Clark said the film is about "the idea of waking up with a body in the house and having to make — in a second — a big decision to protect your children.”
Before I Fall
Directed by Ry Russo-Young
Before I Fall does something most high-school movies don't venture to: Humanise the quintessential "mean girl." Samantha Kingston (Zoey Deutch) goes through her usual routine of being sassy to her parents, being queen bees with her friends, and preparing for a party that night. And then, a twist: She gets in a car crash and dies. Samantha is trapped reliving that day, over and over again, until she nudges some kind of cosmic change into action.
Raw
Directed by Julia Ducournau
When you watch Raw, you may want to have a barf bag on hand. After movie-goers fainted and vomited while watching this gory cannibal movie, one movie theater in L.A. decided to hand out paper bags to customers in advance. In Raw, a girl's coming-of-age involves awakening her appetite for (human) flesh.
Their Finest
Directed by Lone Sherfig
In an effort to boost morale during WWII, the British Ministry of Information seeks to make a feature film about the heroic efforts during the Battle of Dunkirk. Writer Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is recruited to join the project and joins the mad-cap movie team, despite her husband's disdain for her new role as the family breadwinner.
The Zookeeper's Wife
Directed by Niki Caro
After the Nazis invade Poland, zookeepers Antonina (Jessica Chastain) and Jan Zabinski (Johan Heldenbergh) use their massive zoo to shelter Jews at risk of deportation. The real-life Zabinskis saved 300 people.
Everything, Everything
Directed by Stella Meghie
Maddy (Amandla Stenberg) has spent the entirety of her eighteen years in her sterile, clean house, thanks to SCID, an immuno-deficiency disease that leaves her extremely susceptible to germs. Her handsome new neighbour is the first person to tempt Maddy to defy her mother, and explore the world outside her hermetically-sealed environment.
Wonder Woman
Directed by Patti Jenkins
Wonder Womanneeds no introduction. After 75 years, Diana finally got her own movie, and one that did her justice.
Band Aid
Directed by Zoe Lister-Jones
A young married couple finds themselves drowning in the same fights, over and over again. To break the cycle, they decide to set their fights to music. Band Aid actually might give you a good idea for reconnecting with your partner.
Rough Night
Directed by Lucia Aniello
Five friends (Scarlett Johansson, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, Zoe Kravitz, and Kate MacKinnon) reunite for a bachelorette party. Things quickly take a dark turn when the stripper they hired hits his head on a marble fireplace and dies. Instead of calling the police, the women try to deal with the crime on their own.
The Beguiled
Directed by Sofia Coppola
Face it: Your dream has always been to watch a group of gorgeously dressed women capture an injured Colin Farrell, and stage a very sexually tense version of Misery.
Detroit
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Summed up in one word, Detroit is intense. Forty-five minutes of the movie take place in the Algiers Motel, when Detroit police brutally interrogated a group of innocent Black men and white sex workers. Bigelow was made famous for directing war movies like Zero Dark Thirty, and she applies that same charged perspective to the Detroit Race Riots in 1967.
Home Again
Directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer
Making good rom-coms runs in the Meyers family. Nancy Meyers' daughter, Hallie Meyers-Shyer, directed this movie about a newly divorced woman, Alice (Reese Witherspoon), who invites a three young filmmakers to live in her L.A. home with her daughters. Naturally, sexual tension brews between Alice and Harry (Pico Alexander), one of the filmmakers.
Battle of the Sexes
Directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton
In 1973, Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) faced off against self-identifying "chauvinist pig," and once tennis champ, Bobby Riggs (Steve Carell). The match, dubbed the Battle of the Sexes, was symbolic of the feminist movements happening around the country. King's victory was a victory for all women.
Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
Directed by Angela Robinson
In the comics, Wonder Woman's backstory is that she's a demigod from the island Themyscira. The backstory of Wonder Woman's creation is just as fascinating. Wonder Woman was written to be a feminist icon by William Moulton Marston (Luke Evans) — professor, psychologist, and polygamist. Professor Marston & the Wonder Women examines how Marston's relationships with his wife, Elizabeth (Rebecca Hall) and lover, Olive (Bella Heathcoate), helped create the character Diana.
Bitch
Directed by Marianna Palka
Jill (Marianna Palka) is fed up with her role of keeping the family together. No one's paying attention to her; no one cares. So she starts acting like a feral dog, and leaves her clueless and philandering husband (Jason Ritter) to take care of the four kids. This is the feminist satire you never knew you needed.
Lady Bird
Directed by Greta Gerwig
Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) yearns for reinvention. That's why she renamed herself Lady Bird, from plain ol' Christine. She only has to endure one last year of her Catholic high school before she can break free and move to New York — that is, if her family can afford it, and if she gets into college. Lady Bird has all the classic elements of a coming-of-age movie, like best friends and prom and losing one's virginity, but with more accuracy and warmth. You won't just relate to Lady Bird – every character in Gerwig's lovely movie shines.
Mudbound
Directed by Dee Rees
Mudbound begins when two men return to their homes in rural Alabama after serving overseas during WWII. Jamie McAllan (Garrett Hedlund) goes to his family of white farmers; Ronsel Jackson (Jason Mitchell) goes to his family, sharecroppers who work the land. Six characters narrate this sweeping story of race, family, and poverty in rural Alabama in the '40s.
Step
Directed by Amanda Lipitz
This documentary follows a group of high school seniors who are all part of their Baltimore school's step team. You'll cry during the trailer. You'll cry during the movie.
Mr. Roosevelt
Directed by Noël Wells
Two years after leaving to pursue a comedy career, Emily (Noël Wells) returns to Austin when she finds out her cat is dying. Back in the house she once shared with her boyfriend, Emily has to adjust to the knowledge that her boyfriend has a new girlfriend, Austin is changing, and her own life in L.A. isn't shaping up to what she'd hoped it would be.
Pitch Perfect 3
Directed by Trish Sie
The Bellas have graduated from college, and are dismayed to find that there aren't accolades for a capella singers in the real world. A huge competition in Europe gives them one more chance at glory, harmonising, and fun.
First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers
Directed by Angelina Jolie
In this drama, director Angelina Jolie portrays her friend's, Loung Ung, experiences growing up in Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge. The abject horrors of the Cambodian genocide play out through the eyes of a 7-year-old training to be a child soldier, while her six siblings are sent to labor camps.
Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
These 27 Movies Will Hurt Your Brain (In A Good Way)
The Most Exquisite Young Love Stories In Film
Battle Of The Sexes Is The Feminist Blockbuster We Need In 2017