12 women directors of our time, whose films are worth watching

Greta Gerwig

American actress and screenwriter Greta Gerwig was known to a wide audience primarily for the comedic roles of Woody Allen ("Roman Holiday") and Noah Baumback ("Greenberg", "Sweet Francis"). That all changed in 2017 when she wrote and directed her first independent film, Lady Bird. Gerwig received a ton of accolades and two Oscar nominations, including Best Director, for her accurate and poignant growing up story.

Lady Bird

Drama, comedy.
USA, 2017.
Duration: 94 minutes
IMDb: 7, 6.

Christine (Saoirse Ronan) lives in a small town in California, but her fate is far from ideal: her father is unemployed, her mother is always tense, there is no boyfriend, and the prospects of a Catholic school graduate are not at all encouraging. Hoping to get out of the provincial swamp, Christine dyes her hair, calls herself "Lady Bird" and plans to leave for New York.

Lynn Ramsey

Ramsey, a graduate of the National Film School of England, has been successfully conquering world film festivals with her strict films for almost 20 years. Each film of the director, one way or another, touches upon the themes of death and survival. But none of them was as visually perfect as her last work. “You were never here” is a terribly beautiful and almost hopeless elegy about a lone killer, in which Joaquin Phoenix seems to have played his best role.

You were never here

Thriller, drama, detective.
UK, France, USA, 2017.
Duration: 90 minutes
IMDb: 7, 5.

Joe, a combat veteran and former federal with a difficult childhood, lives with an elderly mother and, for a small fee, searches for missing underage girls. When a new business suddenly gets out of control, he begins to drown in the nightmares of his own traumatized consciousness, and a brutal reprisal hangs over everyone who has ever been close to him.

Katherine Bigelow

Veteran of American cinema Bigelow became famous as a director in the early 90s, having released the hit film "On the Crest of the Wave" with the young Keanu Reeves. Since then, Katherine is loved to be portrayed as a "woman with eggs", and almost all of her paintings are in the category of military action games and police action movies. More importantly, Bigelow is still the only woman in history to win an Oscar for directing.

Goal number one

Thriller, drama, history, military.
USA, 2012.
Duration: 157 minutes
IMDb: 7, 4.

A chronicle of the ten-year hunt of the US intelligence services for the "terrorist number one" Osama bin Laden, told from the perspective of agent Maya (Jessica Chastain), who is obsessed with his capture.

Sofia Coppola

The daughter of the American classic Francis Ford Coppola, Sophia herself is rightfully considered an honored director, behind whom six sophisticated dramas about relationships. It is all the more interesting that her most beloved and recognizable work is still considered the film that Coppola shot 15 years ago at the dawn of her career. Since then, Lost in Translation has regularly been included in the lists of the best films of our time.

Lost in translation

Drama, melodrama, comedy.
USA, Japan, 2003.
Duration: 102 minutes
IMDb: 7, 8.

An aging movie star (Bill Murray) and a bored girl (Scarlett Johansson) meet by chance in an expensive Tokyo hotel to change their lives forever.

Lone Scherfig

Before becoming famous for her drama Education of the Senses, the Danish Scherfig established herself as a loyal follower of Lars von Trier and the cinematic movement Dogma 95, filming her early work Italian for Beginners in this style. However, today we know her, rather, as the author of sensual British melodramas ("One Day", "Rebel Club"), during which young people wipe away their tears and their soulmates.

Education of the senses

Drama.
UK, USA, 2008.
Duration: 100 minutes
IMDb: 7, 3.

The growing up story of 16-year-old Jenny (Carey Mulligan) from a London suburb, whose life changes after meeting a charming playboy (Peter Sarsgaard), who is twice her age.

Celine Schiamma

For ten years, the Frenchwoman Celine Schiamma has been shooting leisurely and detailed sketches from the life of teenage girls, trying on their own unique view of the world. In addition to actually growing up, Schyamma is interested in issues of gender variability and sexual self-determination, and critics (and viewers) are increasingly imbued with her exciting stories about the inevitable dramas of adolescence.

Water lilies

Drama, melodrama.
France, 2007.
Duration: 85 minutes
IMDb: 6, 7.

After meeting at a local pool during the summer holidays, three 15-year-old girls from the suburbs of Paris begin to fight for each other's attention in the heat of suddenly awakened passion.

Liza Cholodenko

The daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, Cholodenko, worked for many years on television ("What does Olivia know?") And shot several art melodramas about the sexual awakening of adult women ("High Art", "Laurel Canyon"). Until in 2010 she released "Kids Are Alright" - a topical tragicomedy about what it's like to be same-sex parents. The tape grabbed several important awards in Hollywood, and Cholodenko herself was included in the prestigious list of Oscar-nominated women screenwriters.

The kids are alright

Drama, melodrama, comedy.
USA, 2010.
Duration: 106 minutes
IMDb: 7, 0.

Brother and sister (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) from an American same-sex family were born through artificial insemination. Having reached a conscious age, they decide to find their biological father (Mark Ruffalo) and introduce him to their mothers (Julianne Moore and Annette Bening).

Andrea Arnold

One of the most renowned British directors of our day, Andrea Arnold, won the first (and only) Oscar for her debut short film The Wasp. After that, with each new tape, she invariably got into the competition of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, from where she never left without awards. Arnold shot her main film at the moment using partisan methods, together with unprofessional actors picked up on the street - it turned out to be a unique three-hour ode to youth called "American Cutie".

American cutie

Drama, melodrama, adventure.
UK, USA, 2016.
Duration: 163 minutes
IMDb: 7, 0.

Having met an attractive guy (Shia LaBeouf) selling magazine subscriptions in the parking lot of a supermarket, underage Star (debutante Sasha Lane) sets off on a journey across one-story America in search of happiness, reckless fun and herself.

Ava DuVernay

Once-up-and-coming independent filmmaker DuVernay has staked out her place as the leading African American woman in the Hollywood industry following the Oscar-winning Selma, about the life of Martin Luther King. However, few people know that Ava is not only a good storyteller, but also an excellent documentary filmmaker ("The Thirteenth"), and her applied talents are not limited to the lush visuals of the otherwise disastrous "Wrinkle of Time".

Selma

Drama, biography, history.
UK, USA, 2014.
Duration: 128 minutes
IMDb: 7, 5.

A biographical drama about several episodes from the life of the famous human rights activist Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo), which led to the famous march from Selma to Montgomery, which forever changed the socio-political landscape of the United States.

Lucrecia Martel

A prominent representative of the new Argentinean cinema, Martel gained international fame with her debut film "Swamp". However, the director managed to enter the key film studies tops of the 21st century precisely with the psychological drama "Woman without a Head", which with cold prudence dissects the class of the modern bourgeoisie fixated on itself.

Headless woman

Drama, biography, history.
Argentina, France, Italy, Spain, 2008.
Duration: 87 minutes
IMDb: 6, 5.

After Veronica, returning home, knocks down someone on the freeway (either a dog or a child), her life slowly turns into a paranoid nightmare.

Debra Granik

Granik, a prominent figure in American independent cinema, opened up to the general public with the release of Winter Bone, a drama that is pitiless in its depth about a girl from the bottom in search of her missing father-authority. It was this work that made the then little-known Jennifer Lawrence a national star and gave her her first Oscar nomination.

Winter bone

Drama.
Argentina, France, Italy, Spain, 2010.
Duration: 100 minutes
IMDb: 7, 2.

The unwavering 17-year-old Rea (Jennifer Lawrence) embarks on a perilous journey through the American hinterland to find her missing drug dealer dad (John Hawkes).

Julia Ducorno

"Raw" for French public film school student Julia Ducorno is just a debut, but what a: a shocking, provocative and mature allegory of sexual awakening has thrilled critics around the world (as well as several swoons in especially impressionable viewers). Therefore, we recommend the film to you with caution.

Raw

Horror, drama.
France, Belgium, Italy, 2016.
Duration: 99 minutes
IMDb: 7, 0.

After a freshman from a hereditary vegetarian family was forced to undergo a meat-eating ritual of initiation at a veterinary institute, she suddenly woke up craving for uncontrolled eating of raw meat.