Ranked by average user rating. The list was extracted thanks to here and here. This was not possible without the curation of these megalists. It will be updated monthly.
An official list progress project on all-time stats pages for Pro and Patron users. Read Letterboxd contributor Ella Kemp's deep-dive into the list here!
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ELIGIBILITY RULES:
• This list counts female co-directors, even if uncredited. The developers are working towards co-directors getting their credit listed on main pages.
• Includes cis, transgender and female-identifying directors.
• Films must be feature-length (45+ minutes), with a theatrical and/or festival release.
• Documentaries of any kind, short films, theater/stage, TV movies, TV series or miniseries, and episodes are excluded.
• There is a 1,000 minimum ratings threshold.…
Ranked by average user rating. The list was extracted thanks to here and here. This was not possible without the curation of these megalists. It will be updated monthly.
An official list progress project on all-time stats pages for Pro and Patron users. Read Letterboxd contributor Ella Kemp's deep-dive into the list here!
~~
ELIGIBILITY RULES:
• This list counts female co-directors, even if uncredited. The developers are working towards co-directors getting their credit listed on main pages.
• Includes cis, transgender and female-identifying directors.
• Films must be feature-length (45+ minutes), with a theatrical and/or festival release.
• Documentaries of any kind, short films, theater/stage, TV movies, TV series or miniseries, and episodes are excluded.
• There is a 1,000 minimum ratings threshold.
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NOTABLE INCLUSIONS:
• The #2 on the list, City of God was co-directed by Kátia Lund. However, Lund was snubbed for the Academy Award while only Fernando Meirelles was nominated due to their rules about director teams. Meirelles and Lund worked together closely, directing the short Golden Gate in 2001 together as a test run for City of God. They then collaborated on the City of Men TV series adapted from City of God where she directed 4 episodes.
• Werckmeister Harmonies and The Turin Horse were co-directed by Bela Tarr's wife and editor Ágnes Hranitzky. The credit developed because of the extent Hranitzky had to be on set to assist Tarr with the timings of his long takes in order to match other shots. She edited all his films since 1981 but the credit only began in 2000. I am not mistaking Bela to be a woman.
• While they are currently the only transgender directors in the list, The Matrix is valid regardless of how the Wachowski siblings publically identified as at the time. Transgender women are always women, no matter which body parts they were born with.
• Jacques Rivette's Out 1 was co-directed by his screenwriting partner Suzanne Schiffman.
Please feel free to let me know any movies I've missed.
Warning: If you did not get this far in the description and you leave a thoughtless comment such as "Bela Tarr is a man" then it will be removed. You can ask "Who is the credited female director on The Turin Horse?" but don't phrase your question the other way.
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STATS:
Top Decade: 2010s (45 films)
Top Decade (20th Century only): 1970s (13 films)
Top Year: 2019 (12 films, by Letterboxd year)
Top Year (20th Century only): 1999 (3 films, by Letterboxd year)
Newest Film: CODA (2021)
Oldest Film: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
Longest Film: Out 1 (743 mins)
Shortest Film: The Adventures of Prince Achmed (65 mins)
Oscar Nominations: 43 (between 18 films)
Oscar Wins: 9 (between 4 films)
Best Picture Nominees: 4 out of 14 (Children of a Lesser God, Awakenings, The Prince of Tides, The Piano, The Hurt Locker, An Education, The Kids Are All Right, Winter's Bone, Zero Dark Thirty & Selma miss the cut).
Oscar Nominees for Best Director: 3 out of 5 (Jane Campion and sole Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow miss the cut)
Animated Films: 10
Non-English Language Films: 59
Films With Male Director Credits: 14 (Béla Tarr has two films, Little Fugitive has two male directors)
TOP DIRECTORS TALLY:
• Agnès Varda – 6 films
• Chantal Akerman – 3 films
• Elaine May – 3 films
• Naoko Yamada – 3 films
• Claire Denis – 2 films
• Greta Gerwig – 2 films
• Ágnes Hranitzky – 2 films
• Lynne Ramsay – 2 films
• Kelly Reichardt – 2 films
• Céline Sciamma – 2 films
• Larisa Shepitko – 2 films
• Lina Wertmüller – 2 films
• Chloé Zhao – 2 films
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Other lists of female filmmakers:
• Top 100+ Highest-Rated Women-Directed Films With Less Than 1k Logs
• Top 150 Highest-Rated Women-Directed Documentaries
• Written by Women
• Recommendations for everyone who wants to watch more movies by female directors but doesn’t know where to start
• “females cant make movies” yeah lol look at these dickface
• directed by women
• 11 Essential Films Directed by Women—a #52FilmsbyWomen List from Women In Film
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I also run Letterboxd's 'official' top 50s of 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 2020, the official top 100 documentaries of all-time and the official top 100 films by black directors lists.
