(4) Wed Sep 30 2015 21:50 Top 100 Films From Women Directors:
Sumana is tired of dude movies, so I went through this list of 100 great movies by female directors and noted the ones that a) I think Sumana would like (no Pet Sematary) and b) I am willing to watch (no Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, a film Sumana really likes but just thinking about it makes me fall asleep. I'm asleep right now!) There were about twenty-five such movies.
The above-linked list is very quirky, and although the idiosyncracies generally work in the reader's favor (gotta figure out a way to see Jodie Mack's Dusty Stacks of Mom (2013)), it left rhetorical space for men to come into the comments section and say HOW could you OVERLOOK this GROUNDBREAKING film, [potentially useful recommendation], for you see, I know a LOT about FILM. Which I must admit would have happened anyway.
I don't know a lot about film, but I do know how to run SQL queries against IMDB data, so I thought I would make an intersubjective list of the top 100 films directed by women, judged by their IMDB ratings. In general I copied the implicit rules of the hand-picked list. Only feature-length films are here. No documentaries, no concert footage. (There is one comedy special in here, but whatever.)
As usual, films with fewer than 150 votes on IMDB were not considered. Also as usual, there are no links because the IMDB dataset is far too ancient for such things. I did some spot checks and kicked a couple movies off the list for obvious astroturfing. I don't believe one of the movies on this list is real, but I left it on the list because it's so weird.
Here's the list:
Title | Director | IMDB | Genres |
1. The Matrix (1999) | Wachowski, Lana | 8.7 | Action, Sci-Fi |
2. Cidade de Deus (2002) | Lund, Kátia | 8.7 | Drama, Crime |
3. Voskhozhdenie (1977) | Shepitko, Larisa | 8.3 | Drama, War |
4. Drushyam (2014) | Sripriya | 8.3 | Drama, Thriller, Family |
5. Moe no suzaku (1997) | Kawase, Naomi | 8.2 | Drama |
6. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (2011) | Akhtar, Zoya | 8.1 | Drama, Romance, Comedy, Adventure, Family |
7. Salaam Bombay! (1988) | Nair, Mira | 8.1 | Drama, Crime |
8. Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002) | Sen, Aparna | 8.0 | Drama |
9. Le roman de Renard (1930) | Starewicz, Irene | 8.0 | Comedy, Fantasy, Animation, Family |
10. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) | Tandan, Loveleen | 8.0 | Drama, Romance |
11. Persepolis (2007) | Satrapi, Marjane | 8.0 | Drama, Animation, War, Biography |
12. Chelovek s bulvara Kaputsinov (1987) | Surikova, Alla | 8.0 | Romance, Comedy, Musical, Western |
13. Zero Motivation (2014) | Lavie, Talya | 7.9 | Drama, Comedy |
14. Chou tin dik tong wah (1987) | Cheung, Mabel | 7.9 | Drama, Romance |
15. Out 1, noli me tangere (1971) | Schiffman, Suzanne | 7.9 | Drama |
16. Tau ban no hoi (1982) | Hui, Ann | 7.9 | Drama |
17. Gett (2014) | Elkabetz, Ronit | 7.9 | Drama |
18. Sharasôju (2003) | Kawase, Naomi | 7.9 | Drama |
19. Gangoobai (2013) | Krishnaswamy, Priya | 7.9 | Drama, Family |
20. Patrice O'Neal: Elephant in the Room (2011) | McCarthy-Miller, Beth | 7.9 | Comedy |
21. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) | Akerman, Chantal | 7.9 | Drama |
22. Little Miss Sunshine (2006) | Faris, Valerie | 7.9 | Drama, Comedy, Adventure |
23. English Vinglish (2012) | Shinde, Gauri | 7.9 | Drama, Comedy, Family |
24. Shrek (2001) | Jenson, Vicky | 7.9 | Comedy, Fantasy, Animation, Adventure, Family |
25. La distancia más larga (2013) | Pinto, Claudia | 7.9 | Drama |
26. Pasqualino Settebellezze (1975) | Wertmüller, Lina | 7.9 | Drama, Comedy, War |
27. Dönüs (1972) | Soray, Türkan | 7.8 | Drama, Romance |
28. Strangers in Good Company (1990) | Scott, Cynthia | 7.8 | Drama |
29. Awakenings (1990) | Marshall, Penny | 7.8 | Drama, Biography |
30. Dolgie provody (1971) | Muratova, Kira | 7.8 | Drama |
31. Ne dao Bog veceg zla (2002) | Tribuson, Snjezana | 7.8 | Romance |
32. Tong nien wang shi (1985) | Yang, Li-Yin | 7.8 | Drama, Biography |
33. Dedictví aneb Kurvahosigutntag (1993) | Chytilová, Vera | 7.8 | Comedy |
34. Cheshmane John Malkovich 1: Viggo Mortensen (2004) | Solati, Sara | 7.8 | Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery |
35. Earth (1998) | Mehta, Deepa | 7.8 | Drama, Romance, War |
36. Nu ren si shi (1995) | Hui, Ann | 7.8 | Drama, Comedy |
37. Lost in Translation (2003) | Coppola, Sofia | 7.8 | Drama |
38. Efter brylluppet (2006) | Bier, Susanne | 7.8 | Drama |
39. Water (2005) | Mehta, Deepa | 7.8 | Drama, Romance |
40. Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (1926) | Reiniger, Lotte | 7.8 | Romance, Fantasy, Animation, Adventure |
41. Rocks in My Pockets (2014) | Baumane, Signe | 7.7 | Comedy, Drama, Animation |
42. Kirschblüten - Hanami (2008) | Dörrie, Doris | 7.7 | Drama, Romance |
43. Selma (2014) | DuVernay, Ava | 7.7 | Drama, Biography, History |
44. Nirgendwo in Afrika (2001) | Link, Caroline | 7.7 | Drama, Biography |
45. Hævnen (2010) | Bier, Susanne | 7.7 | Drama |
46. S tebou me baví svet (1983) | Polednáková, Marie | 7.7 | Comedy, Family |
47. Nastroyshchik (2004) | Muratova, Kira | 7.7 | Drama, Comedy, Crime |
48. Die Höhle des gelben Hundes (2005) | Davaa, Byambasuren | 7.7 | Drama |
49. Sita Sings the Blues (2008) | Paley, Nina | 7.7 | Comedy, Fantasy, Romance, Animation, Musical |
50. Sans toit ni loi (1985) | Varda, Agnès | 7.7 | Drama |
51. Olivier, Olivier (1992) | Holland, Agnieszka | 7.7 | Drama |
52. Little Fugitive (1953) | Orkin, Ruth | 7.7 | Drama, Family |
53. Film d'amore e d'anarchia, ovvero 'stamattina alle 10 in via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza...' (1973) | Wertmüller, Lina | 7.7 | Drama, Romance, Comedy |
54. Le bonheur (1965) | Varda, Agnès | 7.7 | Drama |
55. Krylya (1966) | Shepitko, Larisa | 7.7 | Drama |
56. Jibeuro Ganeun Gil (2013) | Pang, Eun-jin | 7.7 | Drama |
57. Whale Rider (2002) | Caro, Niki | 7.7 | Drama, Family |
58. Frozen (2013) | Lee, Jennifer | 7.7 | Family, Fantasy, Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Musical |
59. Europa Europa (1990) | Holland, Agnieszka | 7.7 | Drama, War, History |
60. Elsker dig for evigt (2002) | Bier, Susanne | 7.7 | Drama, Romance |
61. Die Fremde (2010) | Aladag, Feo | 7.6 | Drama |
62. Away from Her (2006) | Polley, Sarah | 7.6 | Drama |
63. Saving Face (2004) | Wu, Alice | 7.6 | Drama, Romance, Comedy |
64. Tou ze (2011) | Hui, Ann | 7.6 | Drama |
65. En chance til (2014) | Bier, Susanne | 7.6 | Drama, Thriller |
66. Wadjda (2012) | Al-Mansour, Haifaa | 7.6 | Drama, Comedy |
67. My Life Without Me (2003) | Coixet, Isabel | 7.6 | Drama, Romance |
68. Neposlusni (2014) | Djukic, Mina | 7.6 | Drama |
69. 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981) | Sen, Aparna | 7.6 | Drama, Romance |
70. Depuis qu'Otar est parti... (2003) | Bertuccelli, Julie | 7.6 | Drama |
71. The Hurt Locker (2008) | Bigelow, Kathryn | 7.6 | Drama, War, Thriller |
72. American Psycho (2000) | Harron, Mary | 7.6 | Drama, Crime |
73. The Secret Life of Words (2005) | Coixet, Isabel | 7.6 | Drama, Romance |
74. Brødre (2004) | Bier, Susanne | 7.6 | Drama, War |
75. Yeo-haeng-ja (2009) | Lecomte, Ounie | 7.6 | Drama |
76. Ting shuo (2009) | Cheng, Fen-fen | 7.6 | Drama, Romance |
77. I Am Sam (2001) | Nelson, Jessie | 7.6 | Drama |
78. The Namesake (2006) | Nair, Mira | 7.6 | Drama |
79. Boys Don't Cry (1999) | Peirce, Kimberly | 7.6 | Drama, Biography |
80. Büyük adam küçük ask (2001) | Ipekçi, Handan | 7.6 | Drama |
81. Hanezu no tsuki (2011) | Kawase, Naomi | 7.6 | Drama |
82. Pora umierac (2007) | Kedzierzawska, Dorota | 7.6 | Drama |
83. La faute à Fidel! (2006) | Gavras, Julie | 7.6 | Drama, History |
84. Kazoku no kuni (2012) | Yang, Yong-hi | 7.5 | Drama |
85. Zir-e poost-e shahr (2001) | Bani-Etemad, Rakhshan | 7.5 | Drama |
86. Proof (1991) | Moorhouse, Jocelyn | 7.5 | Drama |
87. Ramchand Pakistani (2008) | Jabbar, Mehreen | 7.5 | Drama |
88. Te doy mis ojos (2003) | Bollaín, Icíar | 7.5 | Drama, Romance |
89. Nanayomachi (2008) | Kawase, Naomi | 7.5 | Drama |
90. La misma luna (2007) | Riggen, Patricia | 7.5 | Drama |
91. Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto (1974) | Wertmüller, Lina | 7.5 | Drama, Comedy, Adventure |
92. Samt el qusur (1994) | Tlatli, Moufida | 7.5 | Drama |
93. Et maintenant on va où? (2011) | Labaki, Nadine | 7.5 | Drama, Comedy |
94. The Japanese Wife (2010) | Sen, Aparna | 7.5 | Drama, Romance |
95. An Angel at My Table (1990) | Campion, Jane | 7.5 | Drama, Biography |
96. Antonia (1995) | Gorris, Marleen | 7.5 | Drama, Comedy |
97. Hooligans (2005) | Alexander, Lexi | 7.5 | Drama, Sport, Crime |
98. Trolösa (2000) | Ullmann, Liv | 7.5 | Drama, Romance |
99. A New Leaf (1971) | May, Elaine | 7.5 | Romance, Comedy |
100. We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) | Ramsay, Lynne | 7.5 | Drama, Thriller |
101. Ke tu qiu hen (1990) | Hui, Ann | 7.5 | Drama |
102. Mita Tova (2014) | Granit, Tal | 7.5 | Drama |
103. Ratcatcher (1999) | Ramsay, Lynne | 7.5 | Drama |
104. ...ing (2003) | Lee, Eon-hie | 7.5 | Romance |
105. Tin shui wai dik yat yu ye (2008) | Hui, Ann | 7.5 | Drama |
106. American Splendor (2003) | Berman, Shari Springer | 7.5 | Drama, Comedy, Biography |
107. Tian yu (1998) | Chen, Joan | 7.5 | Drama |
108. Cloud Atlas (2012) | Wachowski, Lana | 7.5 | Drama, Sci-Fi |
109. Jestem (2005) | Kedzierzawska, Dorota | 7.5 | Drama |
110. Korotkie vstrechi (1968) | Muratova, Kira | 7.5 | Drama, Romance |
111. Dogfight (1991) | Savoca, Nancy | 7.5 | Drama, Romance, War |
112. Across the Universe (2007) | Taymor, Julie | 7.5 | Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Musical |
113. Sedmikrásky (1966) | Chytilová, Vera | 7.5 | Drama, Comedy |
There are 113 movies in this list because IMDB ratings only have 0.1 star precision. If you're a woman and you direct a movie that gets a 7.5, congrats, you're tied for 84th place.
Susanne Bier and Ann Hui each have five films on the list. Naomi Kawase has four. Some of the directors share the credit with a man, notably Lana Wachowski and Suzanne Schiffman. Barring any titles I don't recognize because they're not in English, the only films on this list I've seen are Sita Sings the Blues, Whale Rider, Frozen and A New Leaf. My personal favorites, among movies I know were directed by women, are A New Leaf and Wayne's World.
Finally, here's the base query I used to get the info I needed out of the database. I used the same database I built for Ghostbusters Past.
select distinct(title.id), title.title, title.production_year, rating.info, votes.info, movie_info.info, kind_id, name.name, name.gender from title join cast_info on title.id=cast_info.movie_id join name on cast_info.person_id=name.id join movie_info_idx as rating on rating.movie_id=title.id join movie_info_idx as votes on votes.movie_id=title.id join movie_info on movie_info.movie_id=title.id where cast_info.role_id=8 and kind_id=1 and movie_info.info_type_id=3 and rating.info_type_id=101 and votes.info_type_id=100 and name.gender='f';
Update: The pedantry continues with Darius Kazemi telling me that Loveleen Tandan was the casting director on Slumdog Millionare, not the director who yelled "cut!" and "action!" and "it's a wrap!". If IMDB says role_id=8
, that's good enough for me, but YMMV.
Update #2: danima asked about English-language films. I don't think IMDB tracks the primary language of a film, just whether a language is used in the film. So I can filter on "English", but I'll still pick up films that are primarily in French or Hindi, so long as there is some English dialogue.
Our story begins right after Across the Universe, where the previous list leaves off. Basically if your film is in English you only need to get a 7.4 or 7.3 (still several standard deviations above the median) to get in the top 100. I have not vetted this list for astroturf:
57. Pismo do Amerika (2001) | Triffonova, Iglika | 7.4 | Drama |
58. Bastard Out of Carolina (1996) | Huston, Anjelica | 7.4 | Drama |
59. Frida (2002) | Taymor, Julie | 7.4 | Drama, Romance, Biography |
60. Chance (2002) | Benson, Amber | 7.4 | Drama, Comedy |
61. Kaméleon (2008) | Goda, Krisztina | 7.4 | Drama, Comedy, Thriller |
62. Paris, je t'aime (2006) | Chadha, Gurinder | 7.4 | Drama, Romance, Comedy |
63. Le fils de l'autre (2012) | Lévy, Lorraine | 7.4 | Drama |
64. Lifted (2010) | Alexander, Lexi | 7.4 | Drama |
65. Belle (2013) | Asante, Amma | 7.4 | Drama |
66. Desert Flower (2009) | Hormann, Sherry | 7.4 | Drama, Biography |
67. Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) | July, Miranda | 7.4 | Drama, Comedy |
68. On Dangerous Ground (1951) | Lupino, Ida | 7.4 | Drama, Romance, Thriller, Film-Noir, Crime |
69. Paris, je t'aime (2006) | Coixet, Isabel | 7.4 | Drama, Romance, Comedy |
70. Bound (1996) | Wachowski, Lana | 7.4 | Drama, Thriller, Crime |
71. Zero Dark Thirty (2012) | Bigelow, Kathryn | 7.4 | Drama, Thriller, History |
72. También la lluvia (2010) | Bollaín, Icíar | 7.4 | Drama, History |
73. Monsoon Wedding (2001) | Nair, Mira | 7.4 | Drama, Romance, Comedy |
74. Mimì metallurgico ferito nell'onore (1972) | Wertmüller, Lina | 7.4 | Comedy |
75. Hollow Reed (1996) | Pope, Angela | 7.4 | Drama |
76. The Trouble with Angels (1966) | Lupino, Ida | 7.4 | Comedy |
77. The Selfish Giant (2013) | Barnard, Clio | 7.4 | Drama |
78. Mikey and Nicky (1976) | May, Elaine | 7.4 | Drama |
79. José Rizal (1998) | Diaz-Abaya, Marilou | 7.3 | Drama, War, Biography, History |
80. Titus (1999) | Taymor, Julie | 7.3 | Drama, Thriller, History |
81. Sepet (2004) | Ahmad, Yasmin | 7.3 | Drama, Romance, Comedy |
82. Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) | Yuh, Jennifer | 7.3 | Family, Drama, Animation, Adventure, Action, Comedy |
83. Put oko sveta (1964) | Jovanovic, Soja | 7.3 | Comedy, Adventure, Western |
84. Fish Tank (2009) | Arnold, Andrea | 7.3 | Drama |
85. Infinitely Polar Bear (2014) | Forbes, Maya | 7.3 | Drama, Comedy |
86. An Education (2009) | Scherfig, Lone | 7.3 | Drama |
87. The Black Balloon (2008) | Down, Elissa | 7.3 | Drama, Romance |
88. North Country (2005) | Caro, Niki | 7.3 | Drama |
89. Thousand Pieces of Gold (1991) | Kelly, Nancy | 7.3 | Romance, Western |
90. Funny Valentines (1999) | Dash, Julie | 7.3 | Drama |
91. The Secret Life of Bees (2008) | Prince-Bythewood, Gina | 7.3 | Drama |
92. Stander (2003) | Hughes, Bronwen | 7.3 | Action, Drama, Biography, Crime |
93. Shao nu xiao yu (1995) | Chang, Sylvia | 7.3 | Drama |
94. The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio (2005) | Anderson, Jane | 7.3 | Drama, Biography |
95. Craig's Wife (1936) | Arzner, Dorothy | 7.3 | Drama |
96. Firaaq (2008) | Das, Nandita | 7.3 | Drama, History |
97. Blood and Sand (1922) | Arzner, Dorothy | 7.3 | Drama, Romance, Sport |
98. My Brilliant Career (1979) | Armstrong, Gillian | 7.3 | Drama, Romance, Biography |
99. Eve's Bayou (1997) | Lemmons, Kasi | 7.3 | Drama |
100. The Name Is Rogells (Rugg-ells) (2011) | Warner, Rachel | 7.3 | Romance, Adventure |
101. The Voices (2014) | Satrapi, Marjane | 7.3 | Comedy, Thriller, Crime |
102. The Woodsman (2004) | Kassell, Nicole | 7.3 | Drama |
103. Talaash (2012) | Kagti, Reema | 7.3 | Drama, Mystery, Thriller, Crime |
104. My First Mister (2001) | Lahti, Christine | 7.3 | Drama, Romance, Comedy |
105. Big (1988) | Marshall, Penny | 7.3 | Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Comedy |
106. Monster (2003) | Jenkins, Patty | 7.3 | Drama, Biography, Crime |
107. The Secret Garden (1993) | Holland, Agnieszka | 7.3 | Drama, Fantasy, Family |
108. Little Women (1994) | Armstrong, Gillian | 7.3 | Drama, Romance |
109. Fire (1996) | Mehta, Deepa | 7.3 | Drama, Romance |
110. The Connection (1962) | Clarke, Shirley | 7.3 | Drama |