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The Best Films Directed by Women

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Chantal Akerman · 258 critic votes
A lonely young widow lives with her son following an immutable order: while the boy is in school, she cares for their apartment, does chores, and receives clients in the afternoon.
Beau Travail (1999)
Claire Denis · 133 critic votes
Foreign Legion officer Galoup recalls his once glorious life, training troops in the Gulf of Djibouti. His existence there was happy, strict and regimented, until the arrival of a promising young recruit, Sentain, plants the seeds of jealousy in Galoup's mind.
Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Agnès Varda · 92 critic votes
Agnès Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer set adrift in the city as she awaits test results of a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cléo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
Maya Deren, Alexandr Hackenschmied · 89 critic votes
A woman returning home falls asleep and has vivid dreams that may or may not be happening in reality. Through repetitive images and complete mismatching of the objective view of time and space, her dark inner desires play out on-screen.
Daisies (1966)
Věra Chytilová, Rudolf Jaroš · 65 critic votes
Two teenage girls embark on a series of destructive pranks in which they consume and destroy the world around them.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
Céline Sciamma · 65 critic votes
On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
The Piano (1993)
Jane Campion · 58 critic votes
When an arranged marriage brings Ada and her spirited daughter to the wilderness of nineteenth-century New Zealand, she finds herself locked in a battle of wills with both her controlling husband and a rugged frontiersman to whom she develops a forbidden attraction.
Wanda (1971)
Barbara Loden · 56 critic votes
After a string of abusive relationships, Wanda abandons her family and seeks solace in the company of a petty criminal.
News from Home (1976)
Chantal Akerman · 55 critic votes
Impersonal and beautiful images of Akerman's life in New York are combined with letters from her loving but manipulative mother, read by Akerman herself.
Daughters of the Dust (1991)
Julie Dash · 45 critic votes
In 1902, an African-American family living on a sea island off the coast of South Carolina prepares to move to the North.
The Gleaners and I (2000)
Agnès Varda · 44 critic votes
Varda focuses her eye on gleaners: those who scour already-reaped fields for the odd potato or turnip. Her investigation leads from forgotten corners of the French countryside to off-hours at the green markets of Paris, following those who insist on finding a use for that which society has cast off, whether out of necessity or activism.
Vagabond (1985)
Agnès Varda · 42 critic votes
Mona Bergeron is dead, her frozen body found in a ditch in the French countryside. From this, the film flashes back to the weeks leading up to her death. Through these flashbacks, Mona gradually declines as she travels from place to place, taking odd jobs and staying with whomever will offer her a place to sleep. Mona is fiercely independent, craving freedom over comfort, but it is this desire to be free that will eventually lead to her demise.
The House Is Black (1962)
Forugh Farrokhzad · 35 critic votes
Set in a leper colony in the north of Iran, The House is Black juxtaposes "ugliness," of which there is much in the world as stated in the opening scenes, with religion and gratitude.
The Ascent (1977)
Larisa Shepitko · 34 critic votes
During a freezing WWII winter, two Soviet partisans on a mission to gather food contend with the temperature, the occupying Germans, and their own psyches.
La Ciénaga (2001)
Lucrecia Martel · 32 critic votes
Amid the sweltering summer heat in northern Argentina, two middle-class families retreat to a crumbling country estate and a modest townhouse, where strained relationships, simmering tensions, and the presence of children and servants quietly expose the fractures of family life. Between idle days, gossip, and unspoken desires, the boundaries of class, tradition, and faith are reflected in their everyday interactions.
India Song (1975)
Marguerite Duras · 26 critic votes
Anne-Marie Stretter, the wife of a French diplomat in 1930s India, takes many lovers to relieve the boredom in her life.
Sambizanga (1972)
Sarah Maldoror · 23 critic votes
Domingos is a member of an African liberation movement, arrested by the Portuguese secret police, after bloody events in Angola. His wife goes from a prison station to another, trying in vain to find out where he is.
The Headless Woman (2008)
Lucrecia Martel · 22 critic votes
After running into something with her car, Vero experiences a particular psychological state. She realizes she might have killed someone.
Le Bonheur (1965)
Agnès Varda · 21 critic votes
Though married to the good-natured, beautiful Thérèse, young husband and father François finds himself falling unquestioningly into an affair with an attractive postal worker. One of Agnès Varda's most provocative films, 'Le bonheur' examines, with a deceptively cheery palette and the spirited strains of Mozart, the ideas of fidelity and happiness in a modern, self-centered world.
Paris Is Burning (1990)
Jennie Livingston · 21 critic votes
Where does voguing come from, and what, exactly, is throwing shade? This landmark documentary provides a vibrant snapshot of the 1980s through the eyes of New York City's African American and Latinx Harlem drag-ball scene. Made over seven years, PARIS IS BURNING offers an intimate portrait of rival fashion "houses," from fierce contests for trophies to house mothers offering sustenance in a world rampant with homophobia, transphobia, racism, AIDS, and poverty. Featuring legendary voguers, drag queens, and trans women — including Willi Ninja, Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, and Venus Xtravaganza.
The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Cheryl Dunye · 21 critic votes
A young black lesbian filmmaker probes into the life of The Watermelon Woman, a 1930s black actress who played 'mammy' archetypes.
Orlando (1992)
Sally Potter · 19 critic votes
England, 1600. Queen Elizabeth I promises Orlando, a young nobleman obsessed with poetry, that she will grant him land and fortune if he agrees to satisfy a very particular request.
Je Tu Il Elle (1974)
Chantal Akerman · 18 critic votes
A woman suffers a subdued psychological breakdown in the wake of a devastating breakup.
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky · 18 critic votes
A naive young man witnesses an escalation of violence in his small hometown following the arrival of a mysterious circus attraction.
Morvern Callar (2002)
Lynne Ramsay · 18 critic votes
After her boyfriend commits suicide, a young woman attempts to use the unpublished manuscript of a novel and a sum of money he left behind to reinvent her life.
Zama (2016)
Lucrecia Martel · 18 critic votes
In a remote South American colony in the late 18th century, officer Zama of the Spanish crown waits in vain for a transfer to a more prestigious location. He suffers small humiliations and petty politicking as he increasingly succumbs to lust and paranoia.
One Way or Another (1977)
Sara Gómez · 17 critic votes
In Miraflores, Cuba, the growing romance between Mario, a factory worker, and Yolanda, a schoolteacher, throws into relief the differences in their perspectives and values in Revolutionary Cuba.
An Angel at My Table (1990)
Jane Campion · 15 critic votes
Based on the autobiographical work of New Zealand writer Janet Frame, this production depicts the author at various stage of her life. Afflicted with mental and emotional issues, Frame grows up in an impoverished family and experiences numerous tragedies while still in her youth, including the deaths of two of her siblings. Portrayed as an adult by Kerry Fox, Frame finds acclaim for her writing while still in a mental institution, and her success helps her move on with her life.
Petite Maman (2021)
Céline Sciamma · 15 critic votes
After the death of her beloved grandmother, eight-year-old Nelly meets a strangely familiar girl her own age in the woods. Instantly forming a connection with this mysterious new friend, Nelly embarks on a fantastical journey of discovery which helps her come to terms with this newfound loss.
Harlan County, USA (1976)
Barbara Kopple · 14 critic votes
This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastover's refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.
Losing Ground (1982)
Kathleen Collins · 14 critic votes
Sara, a cold college professor, and her husband, an ecstatic painter, spend a summer away from the city, straining their rocky relationship.
Portrait of Jason (1967)
Shirley Clarke · 13 critic votes
Interview with Jason Holliday aka Aaron Payne. House-boy, would-be cabaret performer, and self-proclaimed hustler giving one man's gin-soaked, pill-popped view of what it was like to be black and gay in 1960s United States. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with Milestone Films in 2013.
Born in Flames (1983)
Lizzie Borden · 13 critic votes
In near-future New York, ten years after the “social-democratic war of liberation,” diverse groups of women organize a feminist uprising as equality remains unfulfilled.
Ratcatcher (1999)
Lynne Ramsay · 13 critic votes
James Gillespie is 12 years old. The world he knew is changing. Haunted by a secret, he has become a stranger in his own family. He is drawn to the canal where he creates a world of his own. He finds an awkward tenderness with Margaret Anne, a vulnerable 14 year old expressing a need for love in all the wrong ways, and befriends Kenny, who possesses an unusual innocence in spite of the harsh surroundings.
A New Leaf (1971)
Elaine May · 12 critic votes
After running out of funds, Henry Graham, a carefree playboy, plots to marry and murder wealthy botanist Henrietta Lowell.
The Intruder (2004)
Claire Denis · 12 critic votes
An emotionally cold man leaves the safety of his Alpine home to seek a heart transplant and an estranged son.
Wings (1966)
Larisa Shepitko · 11 critic votes
Former fighter pilot turned provincial schoolmistress Nadezhda Petrovna struggles to adapt to peacetime, having internalised military ideals of service and obedience.
Toute une nuit (1982)
Chantal Akerman · 11 critic votes
Following over two dozen different individuals in the almost wordless atmosphere of a dark night in a Brussels town, acceptance and rejection in the realm of romance is examined.
D'Est (1993)
Chantal Akerman · 11 critic votes
In this incisive dispatch from the newly collapsed Soviet empire, bullet holes from WWII still pockmark the old stone buildings. Akerman journeys from East Germany to Moscow between the late summer and winter of 1993 ('while there’s still time'), chronicling in deliberate tracking shots, circular pans, and domestic tableaux yet another moment of radical upheaval in the 20th-century, the faces and bodies of Poles, Ukrainians, Germans, and Russians weighed down with obedient resignation and uncertainty.
Lost in Translation (2003)
Sofia Coppola · 11 critic votes
Two lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.
Trás-os-Montes (1977)
António Reis · 10 critic votes
The first feature in António Reis and Margarida Cordeiro’s trilogy is a journey through this almost mythical region of north-east Portugal, a tapestry of micronarratives where past, present and future become intertwined.
Trouble Every Day (2001)
Claire Denis · 10 critic votes
Newlyweds Shane and June arrive in Paris for their honeymoon. In the process of trying to find a cure for his strange, bloodthirsty disease, Shane stumbles upon the story of a doctor and his flesh eating wife.
35 Shots of Rum (2008)
Claire Denis · 10 critic votes
A widower and his daughter witness the retirement of a colleague of his and the closing of her department at her university.
Meek's Cutoff (2010)
Kelly Reichardt · 10 critic votes
A group of settlers traveling through the Oregon High Desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.
Toni Erdmann (2016)
Maren Ade · 10 critic votes
Convinced that his daughter has forgotten how to laugh, a father shows up unannounced while she's living abroad and bombards her with outrageous jokes.
Mädchen in Uniform (1931)
Leontine Sagan · 9 critic votes
A sensitive girl is sent to an all-girls boarding school and develops a romantic attachment to one of her teachers.
Persepolis (2007)
Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud · 9 critic votes
In 1970s Iran, Marjane 'Marji' Satrapi watches events through her young eyes and her idealistic family of a long dream being fulfilled of the hated Shah's defeat in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. However as Marji grows up, she witnesses first hand how the new Iran, now ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, has become a repressive tyranny on its own.
Wendy and Lucy (2008)
Kelly Reichardt · 9 critic votes
A near-penniless drifter's journey to Alaska in search of work is interrupted when she loses her dog while attempting to shoplift food for it.
Nomadland (2020)
Chloé Zhao · 9 critic votes
A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
The Power of the Dog (2021)
Jane Campion · 9 critic votes
A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother's new wife and her teen son, until long-hidden secrets come to light.
Suspense (1913)
Phillips Smalley, Lois Weber · 8 critic votes
Abandoned by her maidservant in an isolated country house, a mother must protect herself and her baby from an invading tramp while her husband races home in a stolen car to save them.
The Eternal Breasts (1955)
Kinuyo Tanaka · 8 critic votes
Fumiko, mother of two and wife to an unfaithful man, shares her family life with her budding vocation as a poet. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and her breast cancer diagnosis. In her final stages, Fumiko meets a young journalist from Tokyo who wants to write a story on her experiences.
Fuses (1967)
Carolee Schneemann · 8 critic votes
A silent film of collaged and painted sequences of lovemaking between Schneemann and her then partner, composer James Tenney; observed by the cat, Kitch.
Grey Gardens (1975)
Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Horde · 8 critic votes
Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, two aging, eccentric relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis, are the sole inhabitants of a Long Island estate. The women reveal themselves to be misfits with outsized, engaging personalities. Much of the conversation is centered on their pasts, as mother and daughter now rarely leave home.
Mikey and Nicky (1976)
Elaine May · 8 critic votes
Nick is desperate, holed up in a cheap hotel, suffering from an ulcer and convinced that a local mob boss wants him killed. Terrified, he calls Mikey, his friend since childhood and a fellow gangster. So begins a long night…
Fish Tank (2009)
Andrea Arnold · 8 critic votes
Fifteen-year-old Mia is in a constant state of war with her family and the world around her. When she meets her party-girl mother’s charming new boyfriend Connor, she is amazed to find he returns her attention, and believes he might help her start to make sense of her life.
No Home Movie (2015)
Chantal Akerman · 8 critic votes
Akerman films her mother Natalia, an elderly woman of Polish origin, in her Brussels apartment. For two hours, we will see them eating, chatting and sharing memories, sometimes accompanied by Sylvaine, Chantal's sister. Also, and to show how small the world has become, Chantal remains in contact with her mother at other times of the year via Skype from lands as far away from Belgium as Oklahoma or New York.
American Honey (2016)
Andrea Arnold · 8 critic votes
A restless teenager escapes her troubled home and joins a traveling crew of young drifters selling magazines across the American Midwest. Immersed in a world of reckless partying, risky hustles, and fleeting romances, she searches for freedom and belonging on the open road.
Shoes (1916)
Lois Weber · 7 critic votes
A young working girl, struggling to support her family on her meager salary, desperately wishes for a new pair of shoes.
At Land (1944)
Maya Deren · 7 critic votes
A woman washes up on a beach and embarks on a surreal journey, encountering others and fragmented versions of herself in a quest for identity.
A Portrait of Ga (1952)
Margaret Tait · 7 critic votes
Another early experiment in portraiture from Tait. In filming her mother she asks the wider question of how much the camera can reveal of the person.
The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
Elaine May · 7 critic votes
Three days into his Miami honeymoon with needy and unsophisticated Lila, Lenny meets tall, blonde Kelly. This confirms his fear that he has made a serious mistake and he decides he wants to be with Kelly instead.
Adoption (1975)
Márta Mészáros · 7 critic votes
When middle-aged Kata realises that her life will only be complete if she has a baby of her own, her longstanding-but-married boyfriend Joska refuses to comply. But by developing an unlikely friendship with the angst-ridden teenage orphan Anna, who is also involved in a controversial relationship, Kata discovers aspects of herself, and her role as a woman, that have gone unexamined throughout her entire, lonely life.
Seven Beauties (1975)
Lina Wertmüller · 7 critic votes
Pasqualino Frafuso, known in Naples as "Pasqualino Seven Beauties" is a petty thief who lives off of the profits of his seven sisters while claiming to protect their honor at any cost, Pasqualino is arrested for murder and later sent to fight in the army after committing sexual assault. The Germans capture him and he gets sent to a concentration camp where he plots to make his escape by seducing a German officer.
Girl Friends (1978)
Claudia Weill · 7 critic votes
A photographer and her best friend are roommates. She is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.
Too Early/Too Late (1981)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 7 critic votes
Inspired by a letter by Friedrich Engels and a 1974 account of two militant Marxist writers who had been imprisoned by the Nasser regime, Straub-Huillet filmed this film in France and Egypt during 1980. They reflect on Egypt’s history of peasant struggle and liberation from Western colonization, and link it to class tensions in France shortly before the Revolution of 1789, quoting texts by Engels as well as the pioneering nonfiction film Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895).
Variety (1983)
Bette Gordon · 7 critic votes
A repressed young woman becomes obsessed with pornography and the mysterious rich patrons of the Times Square porn theater where she works selling tickets.
Brief Encounters (1987)
Kira Muratova · 7 critic votes
Country girl Nadia moves to the city and becomes a maid in Valya's apartment. Valya, who is a member of the local District Committee, does not know that Nadia fell in love with her currently absent husband, a geologist named Maksim, when he had visited Nadia's village during a recent expedition.
The Asthenic Syndrome (1989)
Kira Muratova · 7 critic votes
In the old days it was called hypochrondria, or black melancholia. Now, apparently, it's termed the Asthenic Syndrome. Whatever it is, Nikolai, a teacher of epicly indifferent pupils, has got it, and it's not much fun.
Point Break (1991)
Kathryn Bigelow · 7 critic votes
In Los Angeles, a gang of bank robbers who call themselves The Ex-Presidents commit their crimes while wearing masks of Reagan, Carter, Nixon and Johnson. Believing that the members of the gang could be surfers, the F.B.I. sends young agent Johnny Utah to the beach undercover to mix with the surfers and gather information.
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993)
Alanis Obomsawin · 7 critic votes
In July 1990, a dispute over a proposed golf course to be built on Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) lands in Oka, Quebec, sets the stage for a historic confrontation that would grab international headlines and sear itself into the Canadian consciousness.
Clueless (1995)
Amy Heckerling · 7 critic votes
Shallow, rich and socially successful Cher is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other. Emboldened by her success, she decides to give hopelessly klutzy new student Tai a makeover. When Tai becomes more popular than she is, Cher realizes that her disapproving ex-stepbrother was right about how misguided she was -- and falls for him.
The Apple (1998)
Samira Makhmalbaf · 7 critic votes
After twelve years of imprisonment by their own parents, two Iranian sisters are finally released by social workers to face the outside world for the first time.
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Sofia Coppola · 7 critic votes
A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.
Monsoon Wedding (2001)
Mira Nair · 7 critic votes
A stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.
Girlhood (2014)
Céline Sciamma · 7 critic votes
Oppressed by her family setting, dead-end school prospects and the boys law in the neighborhood, Marieme starts a new life after meeting a group of three free-spirited girls. She changes her name, her dress code, and quits school to be accepted in the gang, hoping that this will be a way to freedom.
Certain Women (2016)
Kelly Reichardt · 7 critic votes
Three strong-willed women strive to forge their own paths amidst the wide-open plains of the American Northwest: a lawyer forced to subdue a troubled client; a wife and mother whose plans to construct her dream home reveal fissures in her marriage; and a lonely ranch hand who forms an ambiguous bond with a young law student.
Titane (2021)
Julia Ducournau · 7 critic votes
A woman with a metal plate in her head from a childhood car accident embarks on a bizarre journey, bringing her into contact with a firefighter who's reunited with his missing son after 10 years.
Dance, Girl, Dance (1940)
Dorothy Arzner · 6 critic votes
Judy O'Brien is an aspiring ballerina in a dance troupe. Also in the company is Bubbles, a brash mantrap who leaves the struggling troupe for a career in burlesque. When the company disbands, Bubbles gives Judy a thankless job as her stooge. The two eventually clash when both fall for the same man.
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 6 critic votes
The life and music of Johann Sebastian Bach as presented by his wife, Anna.
One Sings, the Other Doesn't (1977)
Agnès Varda · 6 critic votes
The intertwined lives of two women in 1970s France, set against the progress of the women's movement in which Agnes Varda was involved. Pomme and Suzanne meet when Pomme helps Suzanne obtain an abortion after a third pregnancy which she cannot afford. They lose contact but meet again ten years later. Pomme has become an unconventional singer, Suzanne a serious community worker - despite the contrast they remain friends and share in the various dramas of each others' lives, in the process affirming their different female identities.
Sugar Cane Alley (1983)
Euzhan Palcy · 6 critic votes
Martinique, in the early 1930s. Young José and his grandmother live in a small village. Nearly everyone works cutting cane and barely earning a living. The overseer can fine a worker for the smallest infraction. The way to advance is to do well in school. José studies hard and succeeds in an exam allowing him to attend school in the capital. With only a partial scholarship, the tuition is very costly. José and his grandmother move to Fort-de-France to make José's studies easier...
My 20th Century (1989)
Ildikó Enyedi · 6 critic votes
A tale of twin girls, Dóra and Lili, who are born in 1880 Budapest at the same moment Thomas Edison presents his electric lightbulb to the world. The sisters are soon orphaned and separated in childhood, and follow different paths: one grows up to be a naïvely idealistic, bomb-toting anarchist, the other a pampered, hedonistic courtesan. Their paths cross once again on the Orient Express on New Year's Eve 1899...
Nitrate Kisses (1992)
Barbara Hammer · 6 critic votes
Essay documentary explores eroded emulsions and images for lost vestiges of lesbian and gay culture. First feature by a pioneer of lesbian cinema, Hammer weaves gay and lesbian couples with footage that unearths the forbidden and invisible history of a marginalized people.
Marie Antoinette (2006)
Sofia Coppola · 6 critic votes
A retelling of the story of France’s iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette - from her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at fifteen to her reign as queen at nineteen and ultimately the fall of Versailles.
Speed Racer (2008)
Lilly Wachowski, Lana Wachowski · 6 critic votes
Speed Racer is a young and brilliant racing driver. When corruption in the racing leagues costs his brother his life, Speed must team up with the police and the mysterious Racer X to bring an end to the corruption and criminal activities.
The Arbor (2010)
Clio Barnard · 6 critic votes
The lives of the late Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar and Lorraine, one of her daughters, and the community of Bradford, in the 30 years since the 18-year-old Andrea penned a play about growing up in the community titled "The Arbor".
Cameraperson (2016)
Kirsten Johnson · 6 critic votes
As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.
Lady Bird (2017)
Greta Gerwig · 6 critic votes
Lady Bird McPherson, a strong willed, deeply opinionated, artistic 17 year old comes of age in Sacramento. Her relationship with her mother and her upbringing are questioned and tested as she plans to head off to college.
La Pointe Courte (1955)
Agnès Varda · 5 critic votes
A penetrating study of a marriage on the rocks, set against the backdrop of a small Mediterranean fishing village. Both a stylized depiction of the complicated relationship between a married couple and a documentary-like look at the daily struggles of the inhabitants of Sète in the South of France.
Salesman (1969)
Albert Maysles, David Maysles · 5 critic votes
This documentary from Albert and David Maysles follows the bitter rivalry of four door-to-door salesmen working for the Mid-American Bible Company: Paul "The Badger" Brennan, Charles "The Gipper" McDevitt, James "The Rabbit" Baker and Raymond "The Bull" Martos. Times are tough for this hard-living quartet, who spend their days traveling through small-town America, trying their best to peddle gold-leaf Bibles to an apathetic crowd of lower-middle-class housewives and elderly couples.
I Am Somebody (1970)
Madeline Anderson · 5 critic votes
Madeline Anderson’s documentary brings viewers to the front lines of the civil rights movement during the 1969 Charleston hospital workers’ strike, when 400 poorly paid Black women went on strike to demand union recognition and a wage increase, only to find themselves in confrontation with the National Guard and the state government. Anderson personally participated in the strike, along with such notable figures as Coretta Scott King, Ralph Abernathy and Andrew Young, all affiliated with Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Anderson’s film shows the courage and resiliency of the strikers and the support they received from the local black community. It is an essential filmed record of this important moment in the history of civil and women’s rights. The film is also notable as arguably the first televised documentary on civil rights directed by a woman of color, solidifying its place in American film history.
The Long Farewell (1971)
Kira Muratova · 5 critic votes
A single mother is confused by the changes in her teenage son, who has become distant since spending summer vacation with his father.
The Lorry (1977)
Marguerite Duras · 5 critic votes
In this most talky and personal of films, director Marguerite Duras and actor Gerard Depardieu do an on-camera read-through of a movie script. Occasionally, the director comments about the characters or their motivations, and sometimes the actor does. That's all -- there is no action, there are no location shots, no one pretends to be anything else. The script itself tells about an encounter between a blank-slate of a woman hitchhiker, and a communist truck driver. As the reading progresses, Duras comments bitterly about the failed ideals of communism and the glorious revolution that will probably never happen.
From the Clouds to the Resistance (1979)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 5 critic votes
Two segments. The first one arranges six stories from Cesare Pavese’s «Dialoghi con Leucò», taken from classical mythology. The second segment is taken from Pavese’s novel «La luna e i falò»: after World War II the emigrant «The Bastard» comes back to his village in the Langhe (northern Italy) to find out that everyone he knew has died, and that the war has deeply changed relationships between people.
Reassemblage (1983)
Trinh T. Minh-ha · 5 critic votes
A complex visual study of the women of rural Senegal. Through a complicity of interaction between film and spectator, Reassemblage reflects on documentary filmmaking and the ethnographic representation of cultures.
Klassenverhältnisse (1984)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 5 critic votes
A young man, recently arrived in New York from Europe, becomes swept up in a series of events that are beyond his knowledge or control.
Eve's Bayou (1997)
Kasi Lemmons · 5 critic votes
Summer heats up in rural Louisiana beside Eve’s Bayou, 1962, as the Batiste family tries to survive the secrets they’ve kept and the betrayals they’ve endured.
Sicilia! (1999)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 5 critic votes
A man returns to visit his native Sicily after living in New York for a long time. He learns about the Sicilian way of life from stylized conversations with an orange picker, his fellow train passengers, his mother, and a knife-sharpener.
Peggy and Fred in Hell (2002)
Leslie Thornton · 5 critic votes
"Highly idiosyncratic and deeply creepy, this series as a whole – which includes passages in both film and video, sometimes shown concurrently – represents the most exciting recent work in the American avant-garde, a saga that raises questions about everything while making everything seem very strange." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
In the Cut (2003)
Jane Campion · 5 critic votes
A New York City writing professor, Frannie Avery, has an affair with a police detective who is investigating the murder of a beautiful young woman in her neighborhood.
Old Joy (2006)
Kelly Reichardt · 5 critic votes
Soon to be a father, Mark feels the pressure of domestic responsibility closing in, so he is more than happy to accept when his old friend Kurt proposes a camping trip in the Oregon wilderness. During their time together, the men come to grips with the changes in their lives and the effect on their relationship.
The Beaches of Agnès (2008)
Agnès Varda · 5 critic votes
Filmmaking icon Agnès Varda, the award-winning director regarded by many as the grandmother of the French new wave, turns the camera on herself with this unique autobiographical documentary. Composed of film excerpts and elaborate dramatic re-creations, Varda's self-portrait recounts the highs and lows of her professional career, the many friendships that affected her life and her longtime marriage to cinematic giant Jacques Demy.
The Souvenir (2019)
Joanna Hogg · 5 critic votes
A shy but ambitious film student falls into an intense, emotionally fraught relationship with a charismatic but untrustworthy older man.
Begone Dull Care (1949)
Norman McLaren, Evelyn Lambart · 4 critic votes
In this extraordinary short animation, Evelyn Lambart and Norman McLaren painted colours, shapes, and transformations directly onto their filmstrip. The result is a vivid interpretation, in fluid lines and colour, of jazz music played by the Oscar Peterson Trio.
The Hitch-hiker (1953)
Ida Lupino · 4 critic votes
Roy and Gilbert's fishing trip takes a terrifying turn when the hitchhiker they pick up turns out to be a sociopath on the run from the law. He's killed before, and he lets the two know that as soon as they're no longer useful, he'll kill again. The two friends plot an escape, but the hitchhiker's peculiar physical affliction, an eye that never closes even when he sleeps, makes it impossible for them to tell when they can make a break for it.
Something Different (1963)
Věra Chytilová · 4 critic votes
In her first feature, Věra Chytilová uses a combination of documentary and fiction film techniques to tell two stories in counterpoint. The first follows Olympic champion gymnast Eva Bosáková, who contemplates retirement as she undergoes a gruelling training schedule; the second, a housewife who is unappreciated and ignored by her husband.
Daguerréotypes (1975)
Agnès Varda · 4 critic votes
An intimate portrait of the small shops and shopkeepers of the Rue Daguerre in Paris, a picturesque street that has been the filmmaker’s home for more than 50 years.
Riddles of the Sphinx (1977)
Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen · 4 critic votes
In this avant-garde classic, protagonist Louise deals with a change in her lifestyle in which she must learn to negotiate domestic life and motherhood.
Getting to Know the Big Wide World (1978)
Kira Muratova · 4 critic votes
On a rough and tumble construction site for a new factory, the conversation flows and love blooms for trio Lyuba, Misha, and Kolya. In the liminal space of their workplace, they build material and intangible connections.
Invisible Adversaries (1978)
Valie Export · 4 critic votes
Anna, an artist, is obsessed with the invasion of alien doubles bent on total destruction. Her schizophrenia is reflected in the juxtapositions of long movie camera takes with violently edited montages: private with public spaces; black & white with colour, still photographs with video, earsplitting sounds with disruptive camera angles. Anna uses her body like a map; after a devastating quarrel with her lover, she paints red stitches on herself. Watching their scenes together, we realize how seldom, if ever before, the details of sexual intimacy have been shown in film from the point of view from a woman. Export privileges rupture over unity and never settles for one-dimensional solutions
Asparagus (1979)
Suzan Pitt · 4 critic votes
A symbolic reflection on issues of female sexuality, art and identity constructs.
Soft Fiction (1979)
Chick Strand · 4 critic votes
Chick Strand's SOFT FICTION is a personal documentary that brilliantly portrays the survival power of female sensuality. It combines the documentary approach with a sensuous lyrical expressionism. Strand focuses her camera on people talking about their own experience, capturing subtle nuances in facial expressions and gestures that are rarely seen in cinema. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 2015.
Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
Susan Seidelman · 4 critic votes
A bored New Jersey suburban housewife's fascination with a free-spirited woman she has read about in the personal columns leads to her being mistaken for the woman herself and into a chaotic adventure of amnesia and self-discovery.
Working Girls (1986)
Lizzie Borden · 4 critic votes
A lesbian college graduate, trying to bankroll her own photography business, works as a high-priced New York City escort.
Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia (1989)
Ulrike Ottinger · 4 critic votes
A group of cosmopolitan women passengers aboard the Trans-Siberian/Mongolian Railway are taken prisoner by Ulan Iga, a warrior princess.
US Go Home (1994)
Claire Denis · 4 critic votes
In the sixties, in a suburb near Paris, Martine wants to lose her virginity.
Bouquets (1995)
Rose Lowder · 4 critic votes
Bouquets 1-10 is Lowder’s first collection in an ongoing series of one minute episodes, each composed of footage shot around a general geographic location that has been alternately woven, frame by frame, into a single film reel and connected through the interstitial still life image of a flower that cues the beginning of each integrated film Bouquet. Each bouquet of flowers is also a bouquet of frames mingling the plants to be found in a given place with the activities that happen to be there at the time. Lowder uses the film strip as a canvas with the freedom to film frames on any part of the strip in any order, running the film through the camera as many times as needed.
Compensation (2000)
Zeinabu irene Davis · 4 critic votes
With their gentle smiles, skillful conversation, and the allure and provocation of their voluptuous bodies, these door-to-door sexy saleswomen sell dubious products. What are the secret techniques of these sales ladies that can win over any customer? These women, competing to achieve the highest sales figures and setting traps for their customers, are themselves trapped! What fate awaits the top-selling saleswoman who is raped, imprisoned and tortured by a psychopath…?
The Holy Girl (2004)
Lucrecia Martel · 4 critic votes
Amalia is an adolescent girl who is caught in the throes of her emerging sexuality and her deeply held passion for her Catholic faith. These two drives mingle when the visiting Dr. Jano takes advantage of a crowd to get inappropriately close to the girl. Repulsed by him but inspired by an inner burning, Amalia decides it is her God-given mission to save the doctor from his behavior, and she begins to stalk Dr. Jano, becoming a most unusual voyeur.
Oxhide II (2009)
Liu Jiayin · 4 critic votes
4 years after Oxhide (2005), director Liu Jiayin and her parents reprise their roles for one night as they make and enjoy dumplings.
Leviathan (2012)
Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel · 4 critic votes
An experimental portrait of the North American commercial fishing industry through the lens of GoPro cameras placed on a fishing vessel off the coast of New England.
The Wonders (2014)
Alice Rohrwacher · 4 critic votes
In the Tuscan countryside, a family of traditional honey farmers struggles to make ends meet. The household consists of only daughters—four of them—led by the eldest, Gelsomina, who takes on the responsibilities of the family. When a small boy is sent to stay with them for rehabilitation, their routine is disrupted. As financial troubles threaten their home, Gelsomina sees an opportunity in a reality TV contest searching for 'Italy’s Most Traditional Family.' Willing to expose their secluded life for the prize money, she clashes with her father’s rigid ways in a bid to secure their future.
The Dreamed Path (2017)
Angela Schanelec · 4 critic votes
Theres and Kenneth are both young when they first meet whilst on holiday. They fall in love but are unable to prevent themselves from losing each other. Thirty years later, in another country, another couple: Ariane leaves her husband David because she no longer loves him. The paths they both take lead them to Kenneth and Theres.
The Rider (2018)
Chloé Zhao · 4 critic votes
Once a rising star of the rodeo circuit, and a gifted horse trainer, young cowboy Brady is warned that his riding days are over after a horse crushed his skull at a rodeo. In an attempt to regain control of his own fate, Brady undertakes a search for a new identity and what it means to be a man in the heartland of the United States.
Time (2020)
Garrett Bradley · 4 critic votes
Fox Rich, indomitable matriarch and modern-day abolitionist, strives to keep her family together while fighting for the release of her incarcerated husband. An intimate, epic, and unconventional love story, filmed over two decades.
La Souriante Madame Beudet (1923)
Germaine Dulac · 3 critic votes
An unhappily married woman devises a scheme to get rid of her husband.
The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928)
Germaine Dulac · 3 critic votes
Obsessed with a general's wife, a clergyman has strange visions of death and lust, struggling against his own eroticism.
Olympia (1938)
Leni Riefenstahl · 3 critic votes
Starting with a long and lyrical overture, evoking the origins of the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, Riefenstahl covers twenty-one athletic events in the first half of this two-part love letter to the human body and spirit, culminating with the marathon, where Jesse Owens became the first track and field athlete to win four gold medals in a single Olympics.
On Dangerous Ground (1952)
Nicholas Ray · 3 critic votes
A big-city cop is reassigned to the country after his superiors find him too angry to be an effective policeman. While on his temporary assignment he assists in a manhunt of a suspected murderer.
The Bigamist (1953)
Ida Lupino · 3 critic votes
San Francisco businessman Harry Graham and his wife and business partner, Eve, are in the process of adopting a child. When private investigator Mr. Jordan uncovers the fact that Graham has another wife, Phyllis, and a small child in Los Angeles, he confesses everything.
The Song of the Marshes (1961)
Cecilia Mangini · 3 critic votes
On a hot summer day, a group of boys of the Roman suburbs play and laugh in one of the many rivers that surround the city. The camera scrutinizes them, approaches them, reveals the gestures and glances, wraps them in a sort of visual dance, while the words of the commentary (entrusted to the poetic sensibility of Pier Paolo Pasolini) narrate the stories, desires, dreams, the future.
Notebook (1963)
Marie Menken · 3 critic votes
An epic love story centered around an older man who reads aloud to a woman with Alzheimer's. From a faded notebook, the old man's words bring to life the story about a couple who is separated by World War II, and is then passionately reunited, seven years later, after they have taken different paths.
Blow Up My Town (1968)
Chantal Akerman · 3 critic votes
A young girl shuts herself away in her apartment and goes about her business in a strange way, as she wastes the night in the kitchen – humming all along.
Fruit of Paradise (1970)
Věra Chytilová · 3 critic votes
An experimental retelling of the story of Adam and Eve which then progresses into an allegorical depiction of the loss of innocence.
Love and Anarchy (1973)
Lina Wertmüller · 3 critic votes
Set in Fascist Italy before the outbreak of World War II, the story centers on Tunin, a farmer turned anarchist who stays in a brothel while preparing to kill Benito Mussolini.
Dyketactics (1974)
Barbara Hammer · 3 critic votes
Born in Los Angeles but a New Yorker by choice, Barbara Hammer is a whole genre unto herself. Her pioneering 1974 short film Dyketactics, a four-minute, hippie wonder consisting of frolicking naked women in the countryside, broke new ground for its exploration of lesbian identity, desire and aesthetic.
Swept Away (1974)
Lina Wertmüller · 3 critic votes
A spoiled rich woman and a brutish Communist deckhand become stranded alone on a desert island after venturing away from their cruise.
Her Venetian Name in Deserted Calcutta (1976)
Marguerite Duras · 3 critic votes
The full soundtrack to Marguerite Duras' 1975 film India Song, about a French ambassador's wife in 1930s India, is here repurposed with all new cinematography. As we hear all the dialogue of a bygone movie, we travel visually through images of absence and decay, bereft of life. It's the ghost of a film, and a further commentary on colonialism.
Ticket of No Return (1979)
Ulrike Ottinger · 3 critic votes
A sartorially resplendent woman of few words arrives in Berlin with plans to live out the rest of her days as a drunkard.
Gently Down the Stream (1981)
Su Friedrich · 3 critic votes
GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM is constructed from fourteen dreams taken from eight years' worth of my journals. The text is scratched directly on to the film so that you hear your own voice as you read. The accompanying images of women, water, animals and saints were chosen for their indirect but potent correspondence to the text.
Marianne and Juliane (1981)
Margarethe von Trotta · 3 critic votes
Germany, 1968: The priest's daughters Marianna and Juliane both fight for changes in society, like making abortion legal. However their means are totally different: while Juliane's committed as a reporter, her sister joins a terroristic organization. After she's caught by the police and put into isolation jail, Juliane remains as her last connection to the rest of the world. Although she doesn't accept her sister's arguments and her boyfriend Wolfgang doesn't want her to, Juliane keeps on helping her sister. She begins to question the way her sister is treated.
De stilte rond Christine M. (1982)
Marleen Gorris · 3 critic votes
When three women with no previous acquaintance kill a male shopkeeper in the middle of the day, the female psychiatrist assigned to the case sets out to understand why.
Desert Hearts (1985)
Donna Deitch · 3 critic votes
While waiting for her divorce papers, a repressed literature professor finds herself unexpectedly attracted by a carefree, spirited young woman named Cay.
Chocolat (1988)
Claire Denis · 3 critic votes
On her way to visit her childhood home in a colonial outpost in Northern Cameroon, a young French woman recalls her childhood, her memories concentrating on her family's houseboy.
Jane B. par Agnès V. (1988)
Agnès Varda · 3 critic votes
The interests, obsessions, and fantasies of two singular artists converge in this inspired collaboration between Agnès Varda and her longtime friend the actor Jane Birkin. Made over the course of a year and motivated by Birkin’s fortieth birthday—a milestone she admits to some anxiety over—Jane B. by Agnès V. contrasts the private, reflective Birkin with Birkin the icon.
Song of the Exile (1990)
Ann Hui · 3 critic votes
Set in the early 1970s, it tells the story of a Chinese-Japanese student who returns to her native Hong Kong after graduating from a university in London. Once she arrives back home, she and her family begin to fight, largely due to cultural and societal conflicts between her mother and herself.
Wayne's World (1992)
Penelope Spheeris · 3 critic votes
The adventures of two amiably aimless metal-head friends, Wayne and Garth. From Wayne's basement, the pair broadcast a talk-show called "Wayne's World" on local public access television. The show comes to the attention of a sleazy network executive who wants to produce a big-budget version of "Wayne's World"—and he also wants Wayne's girlfriend, a rock singer named Cassandra. Wayne and Garth have to battle the executive not only to save their show, but also Cassandra.
Welcome II the Terrordome (1993)
Ngozi Onwurah · 3 critic votes
In a dystopian near-future ghetto known as the Terrordome, a Black community erupts after a child's death triggers state violence and cycles of revenge.
Les SILENCES DU PALAIS (1994)
Moufida Tlatli · 3 critic votes
The death of a prince brings a young woman back to the palace where she was born into servitude. The lingering legacy is brought into light from behind frosted windows and velvet curtains.
But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)
Jamie Babbit · 3 critic votes
Megan is an all-American girl. A cheerleader. She has a boyfriend. But Megan doesn't like kissing her boyfriend very much. And she's pretty touchy with her cheerleader friends. Her conservative parents worry that she must be a lesbian and send her off to "sexual redirection" school, where she must, with other lesbians and gays learn how to be straight.
Shara (2003)
Naomi Kawase · 3 critic votes
The Aso family live in the old town of Nara. One Day, Kei, one of the Aso's twin boys suddenly disappears. Five years later seventeen-year old Shun, the remaining twin, is an art student. He now has to move forward with his life, together with his childhood friend, Yu.
Wasp (2003)
Andrea Arnold · 3 critic votes
Zoë is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her old flame drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids. This will be her first date in years.
Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005)
Miranda July · 3 critic votes
Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.
Red Road (2006)
Andrea Arnold · 3 critic votes
Jackie is a CCTV operator. One day, a man shows his face on her monitor, a man she hoped never to see again. Now she has no choice and is compelled to confront him.
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Kathryn Bigelow · 3 critic votes
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
Stories We Tell (2012)
Sarah Polley · 3 critic votes
Canadian actress and filmmaker Sarah Polley investigates certain secrets related to her mother, interviewing a group of family members and friends whose reliability varies depending of their implication in the events, which are remembered in different ways; so a trail of questions remains to be answered, because memory is always changing and the discovery of truth often depends on who is telling the tale.
The Babadook (2014)
Jennifer Kent · 3 critic votes
A grieving single mother and her child fall into a deep well of paranoia when an eerie children's book manifests in their home.
Barbie (2023)
Greta Gerwig · 3 critic votes
Barbie and Ken are having the time of their lives in the colorful and seemingly perfect world of Barbie Land. However, when they get a chance to go to the real world, they soon discover the joys and perils of living among humans.
Past Lives (2023)
Celine Song · 3 critic votes
After decades apart, childhood friends Nora and Hae Sung are reunited in New York for one fateful weekend as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life.
The Mastermind (2025)
Kelly Reichardt · 3 critic votes
In a sedate Massachusetts suburb circa 1970, unemployed family man and amateur art thief J.B. Mooney sets out on his first heist. With the museum cased and accomplices recruited, he has an airtight plan. Or so he thinks.
La Fée aux Choux (1896)
Alice Guy-Blaché · 2 critic votes
A brief fantasy tale involving a strange fairy who can produce and deliver babies coming out of cabbages. Note: This is a LOST film; the existing film of the same name is the remake from 1900.
Les Résultats du féminisme (1906)
Alice Guy-Blaché · 2 critic votes
It's a society in which gender roles are switched. Will men stand to be unequal?
L'invitation au voyage (1927)
Germaine Dulac · 2 critic votes
A woman enters a nightclub and slowly begins to open herself up.
The Wild Party (1929)
Dorothy Arzner · 2 critic votes
Wild girls at a college pay more attention to parties than their classes. But when one party girl, Stella Ames, goes too far at a local bar and gets in trouble, her professor has to rescue her. Gossip linking the two escalates until Stella proves she is decent by shielding an innocent girl and winning the professor's respect.
Merrily We Go to Hell (1932)
Dorothy Arzner · 2 critic votes
A drunken newspaperman, Jerry Corbett, is rescued from his alcoholic haze by an heiress, Joan Prentice, whose love sobers him up and encourages him to write a play, but he lapses back into dipsomania.
Ritual in Transfigured Time (1946)
Maya Deren · 2 critic votes
A social event choreographed in the manner of a dance, illuminated by concepts drawn from Greek legend; one of filmmaker Maya Deren's most intriguing works.
Outrage (1950)
Ida Lupino · 2 critic votes
A young woman who has just become engaged has her life completely shattered when she is raped while on her way home from work.
Little Fugitive (1953)
Raymond Abrashkin, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin · 2 critic votes
After a prank makes Joey Norton believe he killed his older brother, he runs away from home and spends the day at Coney Island while his brother tries to find him before their mother gets home.
The Moon Has Risen (1955)
Kinuyo Tanaka · 2 critic votes
Mokichi Asai is a widowed father living in Nara with three daughters—Chizuru, Ayako, and Setsuko. The youngest, Setsuko, plays matchmaker for her older sisters, leading to humorous and awkward romantic entanglements.
Poem of the Sea (1958)
Yuliya Solntseva · 2 critic votes
A Soviet dam project means that many old Ukrainian villages will end up under water. There are conflicts between the dam engineers and villagers who don't want to move.
The Enchanted Desna (1964)
Yuliya Solntseva · 2 critic votes
Based on the novel of the same name by Oleksandr Dovzhenko. About the childhood of the famous Ukrainian film director Oleksandr Dovzhenko, who was born on the ancient lands of Chernihiv, along the banks the Desna. The film consists of two parts. The first is the world shown through the impressions of the six-year-old Sashko. The second is the recollections and reasoning of Sashko, now an elderly colonel who liberates his native village during the war.
The Girl (1968)
Márta Mészáros · 2 critic votes
A young woman leaves a state orphanage to find her mother in this interesting examination of how the overt repression of women in the older pattern of village life has been replaced by the more subtle exploitation inherent in the apparently freer existence of young girls in the contemporary city.
Chircales (1972)
Jorge Silva, Marta Rodríguez · 2 critic votes
This film documents the life of a family of brick makers in the outskirts of Bogotá, using the personal experience of the Castañeda family to expose the exploitation of manual laborers. Marta Rodríguez and Jorge Silva worked on this documentary from 1966 to 1972, establishing a relationship with the family which allows the viewer an intimate look at their hardships.
Aerial (1974)
Margaret Tait · 2 critic votes
"Touches on elemental images; air, water, (and snow), earth and fire (and smoke) all come into it." - MT
The Night Porter (1974)
Liliana Cavani · 2 critic votes
A concentration camp survivor discovers her former torturer and lover working as a porter at a hotel in postwar Vienna. When the couple attempt to re-create their sadomasochistic relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them.
Letter from my Village (1976)
Safi Faye · 2 critic votes
Ngor is a young man living in a Senegalese village who wishes to marry Coumba. Ongoing drought in the village has affected its crop of groundnuts and as a result, Ngor cannot afford the bride price for Coumba. He goes to Senegal's capital city, Dakar, to try to earn more money and is exploited there. He returns to the villagers and shares his experiences of the city with the other men. The story, which shows the daily lives of the villagers, is told in the form of a letter to a friend from a villager, voiced by Faye.
Anna's Meetings (1978)
Chantal Akerman · 2 critic votes
Detached filmmaker Anna Silver arrives in Germany to show her latest film; over the course of some days, she encounters a variety of new and old faces, some of whom make personal revelations to her to little affect.
Le navire Night (1978)
Marguerite Duras · 2 critic votes
Le Navire Night is a story of love and desire sustained and nourished through sound waves. The film’s voice-over tells the story of a woman, terminally ill with leukemia, living in isolation at her wealthy father's villa, and a man working night shifts at a telephone company. They have never met in person.
The All-Around Reduced Personality: Outtakes (1978)
Helke Sander · 2 critic votes
Edda Chiemnyjewski, a freelance press photographer and single mother living in 1970s West Berlin, is confronted with the fact that "a cook has no time for affairs of state". She also fails to find a market for the project she has been working on with her women′s photography group that seeks to document the city. While from today′s perspective the city, which becomes one of the film′s protagonists, looks like post-war Berlin, little has actually changed as regards the precarious existence of free-lancers. With a heavy dose of self-irony Helke Sander, who also plays the leading role, tells of a divided life in a divided city.
Working Title: Journeys from Berlin/1971 (1980)
Yvonne Rainer · 2 critic votes
An epic meditation on psychoanalysis, the Baader-Meinhof, feminism, and pre-revolutionary Russia.
36 Chowringhee Lane (1981)
Aparna Sen · 2 critic votes
After the marriage of her niece, an Anglo-Indian school-teacher, Violet Stoneham, lives a lonely life in her single room flat located at 36 Chowringhee Lane in Calcutta. When a former student starts visiting her with her boyfriend, Violet welcomes them eagerly.
Documenteur (1981)
Agnès Varda · 2 critic votes
After separating from the father of her son, a young French woman tries to find lodging and a fresh start in L.A. for herself and her son.
L'homme atlantique (1981)
Marguerite Duras · 2 critic votes
A woman watches and speaks to a man as he moves through a house by the sea. She observes his presence and tracks his shifting distance from her.
Illusions (1982)
Julie Dash · 2 critic votes
A woman in a Hollywood dubbing studio struggles with race and preconceptions. The short film depicts the life of an African American woman passing as a white woman working in the film industry during the 1940s. It calls attention to the lack of African Americans in the film industry during that era.
Possibly in Michigan (1983)
Cecelia Condit · 2 critic votes
A musical horror story about two young women who are stalked through a shopping mall by a cannibal. He follows them home, and here the victims become the aggressors.
The Gold Diggers (1983)
Sally Potter · 2 critic votes
An avant-garde examination of the relationship between women and money in society. Mixing musical, silent melodrama, and philosophical treatise into a post-punk, heady brew.
Hour of the Star (1985)
Suzana Amaral · 2 critic votes
Macabéa has just moved to the big city after her aunt, who raised her, died. She gets a job as a typist and moves into a boarding house with three other women. In her spare time, she listens to a radio station called Time; on Sundays, she likes to ride the metro. Then she meets Olímpico, a northeasterner like herself, who has dreams of becoming a congressman.
Naked Spaces: Living Is Round (1985)
T. Minh-ha Trinh · 2 critic votes
Shot with stunning elegance and clarity, NAKED SPACES explores the rhythm and ritual of life in the rural environments of six West African countries (Mauritania, Mali, Burkino Faso, Togo, Benin and Senegal). The nonlinear structure of NAKED SPACES challenges the traditions of ethnographic filmmaking, while sensuous sights and sounds lead the viewer on a poetic journey to the most inaccessible parts of the African continent: the private interaction of people in their living spaces.
The Razor's Edge (1985)
Jocelyne Saab · 2 critic votes
Samar, a child of the war, finds relief from the chaos around her through Egyptian movies she watches on television. Karim, an artist in retreat from life, remains in his apartment in war-torn West Beirut, confident that he is safe in his familiar neighborhood. An unlikely bond is formed between the two as they face the devastating civil war.
The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986)
Nan Goldin · 2 critic votes
Nan Goldin's slide show “The Ballad of Sexual Dependency” converted, mixed and screened as a film by the artist, portraying the American underground culture, the no wave scene, post-Stonewall gay subculture, among others.
Hightide (1987)
Gillian Armstrong · 2 critic votes
A backup singer gets stranded in a small coastal town after losing her job in a band. She winds up in a caravan park only to encounter, by accident, the teenage daughter she deserted following her husband's death.
Ishtar (1987)
Elaine May · 2 critic votes
Two terrible lounge singers get booked to play a gig in a Moroccan hotel but somehow become pawns in an international power play between the CIA, the Emir of Ishtar, and the rebels trying to overthrow his regime.
Near Dark (1987)
Kathryn Bigelow · 2 critic votes
A farm boy reluctantly becomes a member of the undead when a girl he meets turns out to be part of a band of vampires who roam the highways in stolen cars.
After Winter Comes Spring (1988)
Helke Misselwitz · 2 critic votes
A locomotive journey traversing the North to the South of the German Democratic Republic on the eve of its dissolution. Labourers, punks, mothers, intellectuals, young and old are implored to reflect on their life choices, the sacrifices they've made, and their place in the world. Despite everything, hope persists.
Sweetie (1989)
Jane Campion · 2 critic votes
The buttoned-down, superstitious Kay is attempting to lead a normal existence with her new boyfriend Louis. That’s until Sweetie, her rampaging, devil-may-care sister, returns home after an absence, exposing the rotten roots of their family and placing a strain on Kay and Louis’ relationship.
Sink or Swim (1990)
Su Friedrich · 2 critic votes
Through a series of twenty six short stories, a girl describes the childhood events that shaped her ideas about fatherhood, family relations, work and play. As the stories unfold, a dual portrait emerges: that of a father who cared more for his career than for his family, and of a daughter who was deeply affected by his behavior. Working in counterpoint to the forceful text are sensual black and white images that depict both the extraordinary and ordinary events of daily life. Together, they create a formally complex and emotionally intense film.
Night and Day (1991)
Chantal Akerman · 2 critic votes
Jack and Julie live in a bare Parisian flat. By day, they make love; by night, Jack is a taxi driver while Julie wanders the city. One day, Julie meets Joseph, the daytime cabbie, and soon Julie spends her nights with Joseph and her days with Jack.
Blue Black Permanent (1992)
Margaret Tait · 2 critic votes
In 1990s Edinburgh, Barbara Thorburn reflects on memories of her poet mother, Greta, and her tragic death.
Chronicle of a Lying Spirit by Kelly Gabron (1992)
Cauleen Smith · 2 critic votes
“Chronicles of a Lying Spirit (by Kelly Gabron) is less a depiction of 'reality' than an exploration of the implications of the mediation of Black history by film, television, magazines, and newspapers. Using her alter ego, Kelly Gabron, Smith fabricates a personal history of her emergence as an artist from white-male-dominated American history (and American film history). Smith collages images and bits of text from a scrapbook by 'Kelly Gabron' that had been completed before the film was begun, and provides female narration by 'Kelly Gabron' that, slowly but surely, makes itself felt over the male narration about Kelly Gabron (Chris Brown is the male voice). The film's barrage of image, text and voice is repeated twice, and is followed by a coda. That most viewers see the second presentation of the imagery differently from the original presentation demonstrates one problem with trusting any media representation.” Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.
Just Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992)
Leslie Harris · 2 critic votes
Chantel Mitchell, a hip, articulate, black high-school girl in Brooklyn, is determined not to become "just another girl on the IRT" (the IRT is one of NYC's subway lines). She dreams of medical school, a family, and an escape from the generational poverty and street-corner life her friends seem to have accepted as their lot. But personal and sexual challenges confront Chantel on her way to fulfilling these dreams.
Olivier (1992)
Agnieszka Holland · 2 critic votes
Olivier, the nine-year-old son of Elisabeth and Serge, a country veterinarian, vanishes one afternoon on the way to his grandmother's house. The emotional aftermath of his disappearance sends his father packing and nearly destroys his mother.
Falling Lessons (1993)
Amy Halpern · 2 critic votes
A rhythmic montage of almost 200 faces, human and animals, that Halpern pans vertically, creating a cascade of visages suggesting that while individuals express a range of emotions they remain ultimately enigmas.
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
Nora Ephron · 2 critic votes
After the death of his mother, a young boy calls a radio station in an attempt to set his father up on a date. Across the country, an engaged woman becomes convinced that they belong together, despite their never having met. Will their paths collide despite the odds?
Strange Days (1995)
Kathryn Bigelow · 2 critic votes
In the last days of 1999, ex-cop turned street hustler Lenny Nero receives a disc which contains the memories of the murder of a prostitute. With the help of bodyguard Mace, he starts to investigate and is pulled deeper and deeper in a whirl of murder, blackmail and intrigue.
The Portrait of a Lady (1996)
Jane Campion · 2 critic votes
Ms. Isabel Archer isn't afraid to challenge societal norms. Impressed by her free spirit, her kindhearted cousin writes her into his fatally ill father's will. Suddenly rich and independent, Isabelle ventures into the world, along the way befriending a cynical intellectual and romancing an art enthusiast. However, the advantage of her affluence is called into question when she realizes the extent to which her money colors her relationships.
The Mutants (1998)
Teresa Villaverde · 2 critic votes
Three homeless teenage rejects struggle to survive together. Of them, Andreia is pregnant, while Pedro and Ricardo hustle, steal and are exploited by a pornographer.
Sud (1999)
Chantal Akerman · 2 critic votes
Chantal Akerman investigates the American Deep South through the story of a lynching and grisly murder of an African-American man that took place in Texas in 1998.
When the Day Breaks (1999)
Wendy Tilby, Amanda Forbis · 2 critic votes
A rooster has his last biscuit for breakfast and goes grocery shopping. A pig prepares her breakfast (potato peelings, with the potatoes thrown in the trash) and discovers she needs more milk. Their paths cross, a lemon falls into the sewer, and both lives are changed.
Blackboards (2000)
Samira Makhmalbaf · 2 critic votes
Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're mules, always on the move. Said and Reeboir try to teach as their potential students keep walking. Danger is close; armed soldiers patrol the skies, the roads, and the border. Is there a role for a teacher? Is there hope?
Frágil como o Mundo (2000)
Rita Azevedo Gomes · 2 critic votes
An impossible love. Two young people who love each other. Vera and João can’t find in this life the space, time, or identity to resolve their love story.
Love & Basketball (2000)
Gina Prince-Bythewood · 2 critic votes
Monica Wright and Quincy McCall grew up in the same neighborhood and have known each other since childhood. As they grow into adulthood, they fall in love, but they also share another all-consuming passion: basketball. As Quincy and Monica struggle to make their relationship work, they follow separate career paths though high school and college basketball and, they hope, into stardom in big-league professional ball.
Whale Rider (2002)
Niki Caro · 2 critic votes
A contemporary story of love, rejection, and triumph as a young Māori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.
Anatomy of Hell (2004)
Catherine Breillat · 2 critic votes
A woman employs a gay man to spend four nights at her house to watch her when she's "unwatchable".
Innocence (2004)
Lucile Hadžihalilović · 2 critic votes
At a peculiar all-girls academy, new arrivals, including Iris, are delivered in coffins. Guided by enigmatic teachers, the students dance through enchanted woods by day, while the night unveils sinister lessons that blur innocence and awakening.
Oh! Man (2004)
Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi · 2 critic votes
After Prisoners of the war and On the Heights all is Peace, this film concludes Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi's trilogy on the first world war. From the emblem of totalitarianism to individual physical suffering, the directors use this representation of man's rampaging violence to draw up an anatomical inventory of the damaged body and examine the consequences of the conflict on children, from 1919 to 1921. From the deconstruction to the artificial reconstruction of the human body, they try to understand how humanity can forget itself and perpetuate these horrors.
Down There (2006)
Chantal Akerman · 2 critic votes
Akerman spends a month in Tel Aviv, in an apartment by the sea, contemplating childhood, family, and her Jewish identity.
Water Lilies (2007)
Céline Sciamma · 2 critic votes
Set during a sultry summer in a French suburb, Marie is desperate to join the local pool's synchronized swimming team, but is her interest solely for the sake of sport or for a chance to get close to Floriane, the bad girl of the team? Sciamma, and the two leads, capture the uncertainty of teenage sexuality with a sympathetic eye in this delicate drama of the angst of coming-of-age.
Double Tide (2009)
Sharon Lockhart · 2 critic votes
Double Tide documents the work of a female clam digger in the mudflats of coastal Maine and is filmed on the rare occasion in which low tide occurs twice within daylight hours—once at dawn and once at dusk.
White Material (2009)
Claire Denis · 2 critic votes
In the midst of a volatile regime change in a Francophone African state, Maria Vial is fighting to sustain her family’s coffee plantation. With rebels and the army struggling for control, French peacekeeping forces move out, warning the remaining white residents that they’re on their own. But Maria refuses to be driven off the land, even as tragedy looms.
Archipelago (2010)
Joanna Hogg · 2 critic votes
Deep fractures within a family dynamic begin to surface during a getaway to the Isles of Scilly.
Tomboy (2011)
Céline Sciamma · 2 critic votes
Ten-year-old Laure isn't like most girls. She prefers football to dolls and sweaters to dresses. When Laure and her family move to a new neighbourhood, local girl Lisa mistakes Laure for a boy. Indulging in this exciting new identity, Laure becomes Mickaël, and so begins a summer of long sunny afternoons, playground games and first kisses. Yet with the school term fast approaching, and with suspicions arising amongst friends and family, Laure must face up to an uncertain future.
Oh Willy… (2012)
Emma De Swaef, Marc James Roels · 2 critic votes
Forced to return to his naturist roots, Willy bungles his way into noble savagery.
Wadjda (2012)
Haifaa al-Mansour · 2 critic votes
An enterprising Saudi girl signs on for her school's Quran recitation competition as a way to raise the remaining funds she needs in order to buy the green bicycle that has captured her interest.
A Thousand Suns (2013)
Mati Diop · 2 critic votes
In 1972, Djibril Diop Mambety shoots "Touki Bouki." Mory and Anta are in love. Two young lovers share the same dream: to leave Dakar for Paris. At the fateful moment, Anta embarks. Mory stays alone on quay, unable to tear himself away from his land. Forty years later, "A Thousand Suns" investigates the personal and universal inheritance which represents "Touki Bouki." What has happened since? Magaye Niang, the hero of the movie, has never left Dakar. And today, the old cowboy wonders where Anta is, the love of his youth. Stories about family, exile and cinema meet between the sphere of intimacy and that of myth.
Bastards (2013)
Claire Denis · 2 critic votes
Marco returns to Paris after his brother-in-law's suicide, where he targets the man his sister believes caused the tragedy – though he is ill-prepared for her secrets as they quickly muddy the waters.
A Girl at My Door (2014)
July Jung · 2 critic votes
Sent from Seoul to serve in a remote coastal village, a policewoman gets involved in the life of a mysterious teenage girl who is abused by both her father and her grandmother.
Appropriate Behavior (2014)
Desiree Akhavan · 2 critic votes
Shirin is struggling to become an ideal Persian daughter, politically correct bisexual and hip young Brooklynite but fails miserably in her attempt at all identities.
Eden (2014)
Mia Hansen-Løve · 2 critic votes
Paul, a teenager in the underground scene of early-nineties Paris, forms a DJ collective with his friends and together they plunge into the nightlife of sex, drugs, and endless music.
Homeland (2015)
Abbas Fahdel · 2 critic votes
A young woman escapes the war in Syria and ends up in the forest in Sweden. Listening to music is a way for her to survive and bring her back, in dreams and memories, to her homeland.
By the Time It Gets Dark (2016)
Anocha Suwichakornpong · 2 critic votes
Film-maker Ann has an upcoming project about the 1976 massacre of Thai students. She interviews Taew, a survivor, at a mountain retreat only to have her perspective change as the project progresses.
Raw (2017)
Julia Ducournau · 2 critic votes
Stringent vegetarian Justine encounters a decadent, merciless, and dangerously seductive world during her first week at veterinary school. Desperate to fit in, she strays from her principles and eats raw meat for the first time. She soon experiences terrible and unexpected consequences as her true self begins to emerge.
High Life (2018)
Claire Denis · 2 critic votes
Monte and his daughter are the last survivors of a damned and dangerous mission to deep space. The crew—death-row inmates led by a doctor with sinister motives—has vanished. As the mystery of what happened onboard the ship is unraveled, father and daughter must rely on each other to survive as they hurtle toward the oblivion of a black hole.
Madeline's Madeline (2018)
Josephine Decker · 2 critic votes
Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.
Faya Dayi (2020)
Jessica Beshir · 2 critic votes
A spiritual journey into the highlands of Harar, immersed in the rituals of khat, a leaf Sufi Muslims chewed for centuries for religious meditations – and Ethiopia’s most lucrative cash crop today. A tapestry of intimate stories offers a window into the dreams of youth under a repressive regime.
For Sama (2020)
Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts · 2 critic votes
A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (2020)
Eliza Hittman · 2 critic votes
A pair of teenage girls in rural Pennsylvania travel to New York City to seek out medical help after an unintended pregnancy.
Promising Young Woman (2020)
Emerald Fennell · 2 critic votes
A young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks out vengeance against those who crossed her path.
Disque 957 (1928)
Germaine Dulac · 1 critic vote
Dulac’s three 1929 "abstract" films, Record 957, Αrabesques, and Themes and Variations, were the results of a long period of reflection by the filmmaker, who sought to create a "pure" or "integral" cinema that would capture the essence of the new medium and owe nothing to the other arts. Each of these three studies was designed to be played silent. The first one, Record 957, is conceived of as a "visual impression […] in listening to Frédéric Chopin's Preludes n. 5 and 6." Its title and its opening shot of lightplay on a spinning record not only announce the film's dominant cyclical motif, but also evoke one of the filmmaker’s major sources of inspiration in Loie Fuller's serpentine dances.
Fieldwork Footage (1928)
Zora Neale Hurston · 1 critic vote
Under the tutelage of anthropologist Franz Boas (her former Columbia professor) and Harlem Renaissance arts patron Charlotte Osgood Mason, Zora Neale Hurston spent nearly two years, from 1927 to 1929, studying the folkloric customs, work songs, spirituals, and vernacular language of African American communities along the River Road and from New Orleans to Florida.
Themes and Variations (1928)
Germaine Dulac · 1 critic vote
I evoke a dancing woman. A woman? No. A bouncing line with harmonious rhythm. I evoke a luminous projection on veils ! Precise matter! No. Fluid rhythms. Why should one disregard, on screen, the pleasure that movement brings us in the theatre? Harmony of lines. Harmony of light. Lines, surfaces, volumes evolving directly, without the artifice of evocation, in the logic of its forms, dispossessed of any overly human sense, allowing an elevation towards the abstract, thus giving more space to sensations and to dreams : integral cinema. —Germaine Dulac
Sarah and Son (1930)
Dorothy Arzner · 1 critic vote
A ne'er-do-well husband, after years of abusing his wife, disappears with their son, and winds up selling him to a wealthy family. Years later, the wife, now a world-famous opera singer, finally has enough time and money to begin a search for him.
Magic Myxies (1931)
Mary Field, F. Percy Smith · 1 critic vote
Short film showing (with limited accuracy) the life-cycle of myxomycetes.
Working Girls (1931)
Dorothy Arzner · 1 critic vote
Two sisters from Indiana, the wide-eyed and innocent Mae Thorpe, and her more streetwise sister June, move into the Rolf House for Homeless Girls in New York. With June's help, Mae obtains a job as a stenographer for the scientist Joseph von Schraeder, while June gets work as a telegraph operator at Western Union.
Triumph of the Will (1935)
Leni Riefenstahl · 1 critic vote
A showcase of German chancellor and Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler at the 1934 Nuremberg Rally.
The Private Life of a Cat (1944)
Maya Deren, Alexandr Hackenschmied · 1 critic vote
An intimate study of the life of a domestic cat, taking place over a period of months as she gives birth to a litter of kittens and cares for them as they grow.
The Last Stage (1948)
Wanda Jakubowska · 1 critic vote
Poland, during World War II. Martha Weiss, a Jewish woman, arrives at the Auschwitz extermination camp with her family. She is assigned the role of interpreter, but her loved ones are much less fortunate.
Olivia (1951)
Jacqueline Audry · 1 critic vote
"Olivia" captures the awakening passions of an English adolescent sent away for a year to a small finishing school outside Paris. The innocent but watchful Olivia develops an infatuation for her headmistress Julie and through this screen of love observes the tense romance between Julie and the other head of the school Cara in its final months.
Love Letter (1953)
Kinuyo Tanaka · 1 critic vote
Five years after the end of the Second World War, Reikichi, a repatriated veteran, translates love letters for Japanese women to American GIs, while searching for his lost love, Michiko.
The Passionate Stranger (1957)
Muriel Box · 1 critic vote
Judith Wynter is a happily married novelist whose romantic works are eagerly devoured by scores of female readers. When Carlo, a handsome young Italian chauffeur, arrives to work for Judith and her husband, a professor currently recovering from an attack of paralysis, he causes quite a flutter; when he then reads the manuscript of Judith's latest novel, he jumps to a rather unfortunate conclusion... and life in the Wynter household becomes very complicated indeed!
Bridges-go-round (1958)
Shirley Clarke · 1 critic vote
New York City’s bridges dissolve into shifting abstractions through montage, superimposition, and color. Set to an electronic score by Louis and Bebe Barron, the film transforms familiar urban structures into an uncanny, alien landscape (an alternate version of the film features a jazz score by Teo Macero).
L'opéra-mouffe (1958)
Agnès Varda · 1 critic vote
Impressions of the rue Mouffetard, Paris 5, through the eyes of a pregnant woman.
Araya (1959)
Margot Benacerraf · 1 critic vote
"Araya" is an old natural salt mine located in a peninsula in northeastern Venezuela which was still, by 1959, being exploited manually five hundred years after its discovery by the Spanish. In images, the life of the "salineros" and their archaic methods of work before their definite disappearance with the arrival of the industrial exploitation.
Stendalì: Still They Toll (1960)
Cecilia Mangini · 1 critic vote
A unique 1960s documentary on the traditional dirge sung by women in Griko, an ancient dialect of Salento, so old that it originates from the ancient Greeks who once colonized that part of southern Italy.
The Connection (1961)
Shirley Clarke · 1 critic vote
Eight drug addicts are waiting for their connection in a New York apartment while a two-man documentary team films the proceedings. Things go out of control as the men grow increasingly nervous and the cameraman keeps recording.
Night of Only Women (1962)
Kinuyo Tanaka · 1 critic vote
In the wake of the 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law, a young woman recently released from one of Japan's new rehabilitation centers struggles to build a new life.
The Cool World (1963)
Shirley Clarke · 1 critic vote
A fifteen-year-old boy wants to buy a gun from an adult racketeer named Priest, in order to become president of the gang to which he belongs, and to return them to active "bopping" (gang fighting) which has declined in Harlem.
The Lizards (1963)
Lina Wertmüller · 1 critic vote
The uneventful lives of three young men who live in a small, poverty-stricken village in southern Italy.
The Nose (1963)
Alexandre Alexeieff, Claire Parker · 1 critic vote
A study in pins of a man who loses his nose which becomes a personality in its own right.
Loving Couples (1964)
Mai Zetterling · 1 critic vote
As three pregnant women wait to have their babies in a hospital in Stockholm at the outbreak of the Great War, they relive their childhood and youthful experiences.
Bad Girls Go to Hell (1965)
Doris Wishman · 1 critic vote
On the run after dispatching her rapist, homemaker Ellen flees to the Big City, where further misfortunes befall her. When she finally finds stability, she discovers that her landlady's son is a detective, threatening her newfound identity and peace of mind.
Schmeerguntz (1965)
Gunvor Nelson · 1 critic vote
A hilarious, grotesque and grave attack on the public ideal of the American housewife.
YA VIZHU SOLNTZE (1965)
Lana Gogoberidze · 1 critic vote
In Georgia during WWII Zurikela, an orphan boy, meets Khatia, a blind girl, and vows to help her to see again.
Hand Movie (1966)
Yvonne Rainer · 1 critic vote
Rainer's first film, Hand Film, was shot by fellow dancer William Davis when Rainer was confined to a hospital bed, recovering from major surgery and unable to dance. The resulting five minutes of footage is a sustained close-up shot of Rainer's hand against a grey background as it stretches and contracts, bends and points, performing the kinds of everyday, quotidian movements that characterize her pioneering minimalist choreography.
Night Games (1966)
Mai Zetterling · 1 critic vote
A man on the verge of marriage is haunted by traumatic memories from his childhood.
Far from Vietnam (1967)
Jean-Luc Godard, Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Agnès Varda, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais · 1 critic vote
In seven different parts, Godard, Ivens, Klein, Lelouch, Marker, Resnais, and Varda show their sympathy for the North-Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War.
The Tied Up Balloon (1967)
Binka Zhelyazkova · 1 critic vote
A barrage balloon appears unexpectedly over a Bulgarian village during World War II. The startled villagers decide to knock it down with a fusillade yet the balloon flies off to the mountains. The villagers, armed to their teeth, set off after it. But they are not alone in this undertaking...
Uncle Janco (1967)
Agnès Varda · 1 critic vote
While in San Francisco for the promotion of her last film in October 1967, Agnès Varda, tipped by her friend Tom Luddy, gets to know a relative she had never heard of before, Jean Varda, nicknamed "Yanco". This hitherto unknown uncle lives on a boat in Sausalito, is a painter, has adopted a hippie lifestyle and loves life. The meeting is a very happy one.
Libahunt (1968)
Leida Laius · 1 critic vote
There are three children growing at Tammaru farm - one boy, Margus; and two orphan girls, Mari and Tiina. Margus' parents want him to marry Mari instead of Tiina as she is more their kind. Hotblooded Tiina is completely different from them and her mother was once executed for being a witch. Thinking that Tiina has bewitched Margus, Mari starts to publicly accuse her stepsister of being a werewolf.
The Arch (1968)
Tang Shu Shuen · 1 critic vote
A widow upholds feudal virtue by suppressing her love for a cavalry captain in favor of her daughter.
Windy Day (1968)
John Hubley, Faith Hubley · 1 critic vote
Two little girls muse on marriage and babies, love and death as they create and act out plays in their backyard. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2006.
A Very Curious Girl (1969)
Nelly Kaplan · 1 critic vote
Treated as an outcast and exploited by the villagers of a small town, a young woman liberates herself through sex, which she uses as a tool of economic gain and an instrument of revenge against those who have wronged her.
Binding Sentiments (1969)
Márta Mészáros · 1 critic vote
Edit, who became the wife of a politician out of a simple peasant girl, suddenly becomes a widow as a result of an accident. She never loved her husband. She lives a wealthy and lonely life amidst false friends, facing one of the last alternatives of her life, i.e. having to face her past in the hope of an independent new beginning.
Détruire, dit-elle (1969)
Marguerite Duras · 1 critic vote
In a secluded hotel circumscribed by a dense forest Max and Alissa Thor meet Stein and Elisabeth. Max, a professor of future history and an aspiring author, is immediately attracted to the brooding wife of industrialist Bernard Alione, Elisabeth, who is recovering from a miscarriage. Stein, a German Jew and potential writer, is infatuated by Alissa, Max's young wife and former student. During their sojourn the guests' identities gradually meld.
Beauty and the Vagabond (1970)
Márta Mészáros · 1 critic vote
Savanyú and his friend work at a plant. After the monotonous shifts they engage in the pleasures of the afternoon and the night, i.e. parties and concerts. Savanyú dates Juli, they are already engaged. The young men live as sub-tenants, the young women in workers' hostels. None of these places are suited for spending time together. They are in need of an apartment. Out of the ruinous apartment which they lay siege on, however, they are sent away by the otherwise friendly policeman. At a concert held in the Park of Youth, Juli gets to know Géza. They flirt, then go to the country with a pop-group. Savanyú and his friends follow them. A minor fight cools the atmosphere.
History Lessons (1972)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 1 critic vote
Set in contemporary Rome, the film shows through a series of encounters with “ancient” Romans, how the economic and political manipulation by ancient Roman society led to Caesar’s dictatorship. - British Film Institute
La chambre (1972)
Chantal Akerman · 1 critic vote
Furniture and clutter of one small apartment room become the subject of a moving still life—with Akerman herself staring back. This breakthrough formal experiment is Akerman's first film made in New York.
Lives of Performers (1972)
Yvonne Rainer · 1 critic vote
Embodying Rainer’s aesthetic rigor and wit, the film combines fiction and documentary, script readings, dance snippets, still photos, and tableaux vivants to explore issues of power and gender that influence the emotional lives of her performers.
Nathalie Granger (1972)
Marguerite Duras · 1 critic vote
With little or no embellishment, filmmaker Marguerite Duras offers a simple, often wordless chronicle of a woman's day. She and her friend are seen doing yard work, talking about their families and receiving the occasional visitor. The brightest spot in the day is when a washing machine salesman comes to call.
Plumb Line (1972)
Carolee Schneemann · 1 critic vote
The dissolution of a relationship unravels through visual and aural equivalences. Schneemann splits and recomposes actions of the lovers in a streaming montage of disruptive permutations: 8 mm is printed as 16 mm, moving images freeze, frames recur and dissolve until the film bursts into flames, consuming its own substance. Sound: Carolee Schneemann. -- EAI
Quelque part quelqu'un (1972)
Yannick Bellon · 1 critic vote
People in Paris struggle with loneliness and urban isolation. In the center is Raphaële, a successful architect navigating her fragile relationship with her lover Vincent, a journalist grappling with alcoholism.
The Other Side of the Underneath (1972)
Jane Arden · 1 critic vote
A therapist looks into the mind of a woman diagnosed as schizophrenic and finds, not madness, but tortured sexual guilt created by the taboos of society.
Frank Film (1973)
Frank Mouris, Caroline Mouris · 1 critic vote
A compilation of images co-creator Frank Mouris had collected from magazines interwoven with two narrations, one giving a mostly linear autobiography and the other stating words having to do with the images, the story the first voice is relating, or neither. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive.
Moon's Pool (1973)
Gunvor Nelson · 1 critic vote
The film that is mostly shot underwater, in a pool, begins with footage of water and a close-up of Nelson from which we move to her body immersed in water in a bath-tub from which yet another transition occurs to a pool with male and female naked bodies swimming underwater. The latter part of the film is almost totally liberated from speech, and has a dreamlike, complex soundtrack consisting of sounds of waves, voices, water and music woven together into a seamless web of sounds.
SOLIDARITY (1973)
Joyce Wieland · 1 critic vote
About a strike in which women are involved, but told in a very different way.
The Last Word (1973)
Binka Zhelyazkova · 1 critic vote
The seven women inmates in Poslednata Duma are imprisoned because they have been associated with partisans opposing the fascist puppet government of the German Nazis. Each of them has the power to save herself if she will betray the others, and each bravely refuses to do so, even though it means they all will die. Despite their grim situation, and the atrocities perpetuated on them as political prisoners, they manage to laugh, and even celebrate a festival.
Attica (1974)
Cinda Firestone · 1 critic vote
In 1971, inmates at Attica State Prison seized control of D-yard and took 35 hostages after peaceful efforts for reforms failed. Attica investigates the rebellion and its bloody suppression, revealing institutionalized injustices, sanctioned dishonesty, and abuses of power.
China Behind (1974)
Tang Shu Shuen · 1 critic vote
A group of Mainlanders fleeing the Cultural Revolution risk all to reach the adjacent British ‘haven’ of Hong Kong; yet what they find there is a far cry from their dreams of liberty.
Colour Poems (1974)
Margaret Tait · 1 critic vote
'Titles within the film are: Numen of the Boughs, Old Boots, Speed Bonny Boat, Lapping Water, Incense, Aha, Brave New World, Things, Terra Firma. A poem started in words is continued in images - Part of another poem as an addition to the picture - Some images formed by direct-on-film animation - Others 'found' by the camera" - MT
Film about a Woman Who... (1974)
Yvonne Rainer · 1 critic vote
Rainer’s landmark film is a meditation on ambivalence that plays with cliché and the conventions of soap opera while telling the story of a woman whose sexual dissatisfaction masks an enormous anger.
Hester Street (1975)
Joan Micklin Silver · 1 critic vote
A Russian emigre prides himself on the way he's molded himself into a real Yankee in the USA, though the world he lives in, New York's Lower East Side in the late 19th century, is almost exclusively populated by other Jewish immigrants. When his wife finally arrives in the New World, however, she has a lot of assimilating to do.
The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975)
Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta · 1 critic vote
After a chance encounter with a wanted man, a woman is harassed by the police and press until she takes violent action.
The United States of America (1975)
James Benning · 1 critic vote
A conceptual bicentennial film dealing with spatial and temporal relationships between two travelers, their car, and the geographic, political, and social changes from NY to Los Angeles.
Fortini/Cani (1976)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 1 critic vote
The film is a sort of presentation of Franco Fortini's book 'I Cani del Sinai'. Fortini, an Italian Jew, reads excerpts from the book about his alienation from Judaism and from the social relations around him, the rise of Fascism in Italy, the anti-Arab attitude of European culture. The images, mostly a series of Italian landscape shots, provide a backdrop that highlights the meaning of the text. - Fabrizio Sabidussi
Materialfilme (1976)
Birgit, Wilhelm Hein · 1 critic vote
For their 35mm Materialfilme (1976), the Heins randomly spliced together a mix of colour and black and white material taken from the header and footer of commercial films. The scratches, scribbles, hand-written and commercially printed numbers and dots that adorn such footage rush past the eye until they are replaced by images consisting only of washed-out colours or scratched black and white frames.
The Far Shore (1976)
Joyce Wieland · 1 critic vote
A young woman marries a wealthy man she isn't in love with, but finds romance instead with the couples' painter friend.
Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1977)
Trinh T. Minh-ha · 1 critic vote
The film evolves around questions of identity, popular memory and culture. While focusing on aspects of Vietnamese reality as seen through the lives and history of women resistance in Vietnam and in the U.S, it raises questions on the politics of interviewing and documenting.
Daughter Rite (1978)
Michelle Citron · 1 critic vote
A feminist documentary about female relationships, especially between mother and daughter.
Germany in Autumn (1978)
Alexander Kluge, Volker Schlöndorff, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Edgar Reitz, Alf Brustellin, Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus, Bernhard Sinkel, Katja Rupé, Hans-Peter Cloos, Peter Schubert, Maximiliane Mainka · 1 critic vote
Nine fictitious documentaries and films reflect the mood of late 1970s Germany, particularly the two-month period in 1977 when a businessman was kidnapped by the RAF (Red Army Faction). The kidnap had been made to orchestrate the release of the original leaders of the RAF, aka the Baader-Meinhof.
Let Me Die a Woman (1978)
Doris Wishman · 1 critic vote
A documentary on the work of sex-change specialist Leo Wollman, including interviews with Wollman and a few of his patients, with an illustrated lecture on the various aspects of trans-identity plus actual footage of a gender reassignment operation.
Madame X: An Absolute Ruler (1978)
Ulrike Ottinger · 1 critic vote
The notorious pirate ruler Madame X places a print ad, calling on women to escape their boring lives and promising "gold, love and adventure" to all who come aboard her ship, the Orlando. A motley crew including a housewife, diva and artist (played by Yvonne Rainer) embark on a quest for self-transformation, which quickly heads towards destruction as they are subjected to Madame X's sadistic, erotic escapades.
Several Interviews on Personal Matters (1978)
Lana Ghoghoberidze · 1 critic vote
Sophiko, a well-known journalist, seems to be more close to many of her respondents when they need her advice than to her family members. All engrossed in her work, she suddenly finds out that she is losing her husband who has started a love affair with another woman. Of course, it strikes her badly but life never lets her to concentrate on her personal problems.
Light Reading (1979)
Lis Rhodes · 1 critic vote
The bloodstained bed suggest a crime..No answers are given, after the torrrent of words at the beginning of the film, all the film offers are closed images and more questions..Is it even blood on the bed, what fracture is there between seeing and certainty? If there has been a crime, 'she' might still be victim..How can a crime of such complexity and continuity be 'solved'? The voice searches for clues, sifting through them, reading and re-reading until the words and letters loom up nightmarishly, no longer hung on the structure of language.
My Brilliant Career (1979)
Gillian Armstrong · 1 critic vote
A young woman who is determined to maintain her independence finds herself at odds with her family who wants her to tame her wild side and get married.
My Survival As an Aboriginal (1979)
Essie Coffey · 1 critic vote
Essie Coffey gives the children lessons on Aboriginal culture. She speaks of the importance of teaching these kids about their traditions. Aboriginal kids are forgetting about their Aboriginal heritage because they are being taught white culture instead.
Amy! (1980)
Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen · 1 critic vote
Amy Johnson was the first woman to fly solo from Great Britain to Australia. Mulvey and Wollen’s experimental documentary combines newsreel footage of the aviator’s arrival, dramatic recreations of events from her life and contemporary discussions by feminist groups on the subject of heroism in this most unconventional biopic.
Dis-moi (1980)
Chantal Akerman · 1 critic vote
Chantal Akerman meets with elderly Jewish women in Paris, all of them survivors of the Shoah, and listens to their family stories. Between interviews, Akerman's mother Natalia speaks of her own family. Made for a French miniseries on grandmothers.
Germany, Pale Mother (1980)
Helma Sanders-Brahms · 1 critic vote
Germany 1939. Hans and Lene marry the day before the war breaks out, and Hans is sent to the Eastern front. During a bombing raid their daughter Anna is born. The house is destroyed and Lene and Anna moves in with relatives in Berlin. Hans survives the war but he is not the same person as in 1939, and he and Lene find it difficult to live together again.
Hunger Years (1980)
Jutta Brückner · 1 critic vote
Hungerjahre is a movie about adolescence in 1950s West Germany, in which director and scriptwriter Jutta Brückner comes to terms with her own memories.
A Woman Alone (1981)
Agnieszka Holland · 1 critic vote
A struggling single mother forms a fragile bond with a disabled laborer as they confront poverty, isolation, and the hardships of life in late communist Poland.
Babobilicons (1981)
Daina Krumins · 1 critic vote
Krumins’ fantasy sets the world of flora and fauna on its ear. At one moment grotesque greenish mushrooms grow, wither and reverse their life-cycle, at another, strange crustacean-like animals speed around on a bed of feathers, next a room is inundated with giant ladybugs… Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2009.
Freak Orlando (1981)
Ulrike Ottinger · 1 critic vote
Five more-or-less distinct sections, all featuring "Freak" Orlando, a woman played by the late Magdalena Montezuma, who appears in various guises and deformities throughout.
Ana (1982)
António Reis · 1 critic vote
Centered on an elderly matriarch and her family in the Trás-os-Montes region of Portugal. An exploration of the cycle of life and death, using the main character, Ana, as an emblem of a life lived in harmony with nature and tradition.
Crystal Gazing (1982)
Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen · 1 critic vote
Experimental drama set in London during the Thatcher administration involving four characters: Neil, a science-fiction illustrator; Kim, a woman rock musician; Vermilion, an analyst of satellite photography; and Julian, an old friend of the illustrator who has just finished his Ph.D thesis on the fairy-tales of Charles Perrault. Their four lives are closely interlinked as events happen to each of them.
Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Amy Heckerling · 1 critic vote
Based on the real-life adventures chronicled by Cameron Crowe, Fast Times follows a group of high school students growing up in Southern California. Stacy Hamilton and Mark Ratner are looking for love, and are helped along by their older classmates, Linda Barrett and Mike Damone. Jeff Spicoli, a perpetually stoned surfer faces-off with the resolute teacher, Mr. Hand. Hilarity and heartbreak ensue.
Journal inachevé (1982)
Marilú Mallet · 1 critic vote
In this heartwarming docudrama, Chilean immigrant Marilú Mallet strives to make a film about her experience of deep isolation. Her English-speaking husband, a prominent film director, criticizes her subjective approach to filmmaking; her young son, raised in Quebec, speaks only French. Interviews with Isabel Allende and other Chilean exiles reveal a deep bond in this powerful and resonant film about language and genre, exile and immigration.
Les Tournesols (1982)
Rose Lowder · 1 critic vote
The film presents a field of sunflowers. The focus is adjusted frame by frame in succession according to a series of patterns on particular plants situated in different parts of the field. The diverse configurations placed on separate frames of the film strip appear, when projected successively, simultaneously on the screen. Thus, filmed one after another at different focal lengths, the sunflowers combine during projection to form one spatiotemporal image. LES TOURNESOLS COLORES is a capricious version of the film. - Film Makers' Coop
Smithereens (1982)
Susan Seidelman · 1 critic vote
A narcissistic runaway engages in a number of parasitic relationships amongst members of New York's waning punk scene.
The Loveless (1982)
Kathryn Bigelow · 1 critic vote
Trouble ensues when a motorcycle gang stops in a small southern town while heading to the races at Daytona.
Ulysse (1982)
Agnès Varda · 1 critic vote
At the sea shore, a goat, a child, and a naked man. This is a photograph taken in 1954 by Agnès Varda. The goat was dead, the child was named Ulysses, and the man was naked. Starting from this frozen image, the film explores the real and the imaginary.
Bent Time (1983)
Barbara Hammer · 1 critic vote
One-point perspective visual path across the US beginning inside a linear accelerator or atom-smashing device and traveling to such high-energy locations as the home of an ancient sun calendar in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico; the site of Ohio Valley Mound cultures; the Golden Gate and Brooklyn Bridges; and beyond. Scientists have noted that light rays curve at the outer edges of the universe, leading them to theorize that time also bends. Inspired by this idea, Hammer used an extreme wide angle lens and "one frame of film per foot of physical space" to simulate the concept of bent time.
One Day Pina Asked (1983)
Chantal Akerman · 1 critic vote
Chantal Akerman followed famous Choreographer Pina Bausch and her company of dancers, The Tanzteater Wuppertal, for five weeks while they were on tour in Germany, Italy and France. Her objective was to capture Pina Bausch's unparalleled art not only on stage by behind the scenes.
PATU! (1983)
Merata Mita · 1 critic vote
In 1981, the New Zealand government invited the South African rugby team to tour New Zealand. This effectively split the country in half. Patu! is the story of the protest movement, HART (halt all racist tours). This documentary shows footage of protester meetings, rugby games and various beatings meted out to protesters from police.
Serious Undertakings (1983)
Helen Grace · 1 critic vote
Directed by Helen Grace.
Testament (1983)
Lynne Littman · 1 critic vote
It is just another day in the small town of Hamlin until something disastrous happens. Suddenly, news breaks that a series of nuclear warheads has been dropped along the Eastern Seaboard and, more locally, in California. As people begin coping with the devastating aftermath of the attacks — many suffer radiation poisoning — the Wetherly family tries to survive.
Valley Girl (1983)
Martha Coolidge · 1 critic vote
Julie, a girl from the valley, meets Randy, a punk from the city. They are from different worlds and find love. Somehow they need to stay together in spite of her trendy, shallow friends.
The Ties That Bind (1984)
Su Friedrich · 1 critic vote
The Ties That Bind is an experimental documentary about the filmmaker's mother, who was born and lived in southern Germany from 1920-1950. Through a mixture of personal anecdote and social history, she describes the rise of Nazism, the war years, and the Allied occupation, during which she met her future husband, an American soldier. The Ties That Bind breaks with the usual format of war documentaries, thus allowing a different portrait of the individual to emerge, while it reflects on the current political situation in America and the filmmaker's activities in relation to those issues.
Golfball Ode to IBM (1985)
Mara Mattuschka · 1 critic vote
Hands vigorously pull scraps of paper from an antiquated printing press, while their owner remains invisible. Then Mimi Minus and a razor blade - the incident is still shocking. The shrouded head, wrapped in muslin, reappears, and black paint is daubed over the top ... no image retains its integrity, for each is crossed through, painted, double-exposed, spilt, soiled.
Smooth Talk (1985)
Joyce Chopra · 1 critic vote
Connie, the fifteen-year-old black sheep of her family, finds her summertime idyll of beach trips, mall hangouts, and innocent flirtations shattered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger.
The Children (1985)
Marguerite Duras · 1 critic vote
Based on the lives of four boys, all of different social classes and psychological makeup, this film tries to reflect through them the political history of Argentina during the years leading up to the Malvinas War.
Down and out in America (1986)
Lee Grant · 1 critic vote
The recession of the 1980s split the country into the haves and have-nots, from family farmers to factory workers and homeless people forced to live in decrepit welfare hotels. On the verge of losing everything, courageous Americans discover the power of community organizing to fight injustice.
Fake Fruit Factory (1986)
Chick Strand · 1 critic vote
Intimate documentary about young women who make papier mache fruit and vegetables in a small factory in Mexico. They have a gringo boss, but the factory is owned by his Mexican wife. The focus of the film is on the color, music and movement involved, and the gossip which goes on constantly, revealing what the young women think about men.
Golden Eighties (1986)
Chantal Akerman · 1 critic vote
In a lively shopping center, proprietors and customers are bustling, including three women vying for a man's heart with song and dance.
Malcolm (1986)
Nadia Tass · 1 critic vote
Malcolm is a chronically shy mechanical genius, who has just been fired for building his own tram. He gets Frank, who has just been released from jail, to move in to help pay the bills. With Frank's help, Malcolm turns to a life of crime.
Rosa Luxemburg (1986)
Margarethe von Trotta · 1 critic vote
Polish socialist and Marxist Rosa Luxemburg works tirelessly in the service of revolution in early 20th century Poland and Germany. While Luxemburg campaigns for her beliefs, she is repeatedly imprisoned as she forms the Spartacist League offering a new vision for Germany.
What Has Happened to This City? (1986)
Deepa Dhanraj · 1 critic vote
Explores the processes of political maneuvering which led to the Hyderabad communal riots in 1984. The city’s history, the provocative speeches of its politicians and the instrumentalisation of religious processions stands next to the testimonies and the striking visual accounts of the Old City’s working class – those who lose their livelihoods through violent attacks and long periods of imposed curfew.
‎Monangambeee (1986)
Sarah Maldoror · 1 critic vote
Filmmaker-griot coming from the theater, it was with a camera, while the war in Vietnam occupied everyone's minds, that Sarah Maldoror gave visibility to the African wars of decolonization: Angola, Guinea Bissau, French Guinea, Cape Verde... Her short film Monangambée addresses the torture by the Portuguese army of a sympathizer of the Angolan resistance. At the end of editing, Sarah Maldoror approached the members of the Art Ensemble of Chicago during a Parisian concert and offered to add sound to her film. The next day they watched the film, were convinced and recorded their first soundtrack for free as evidence of African-American solidarity. Shot in Algiers, Monangambée is a film about torture and, more broadly, about the incomprehension between the colonized and the colonizers. It is based on a novel by the Angolan writer Luandino Vieira, then imprisoned by the Portuguese colonial power.
A Cold Draft (1987)
Lis Rhodes · 1 critic vote
Shows the surveillance of a woman by overseers who have judged her to be mad. What is most provocative about this film is that it proposes multiple credible points of view even as the woman is being certified insane by the Censors. We voyage into the skull of a woman and peer out to a monumentally static cold waste with planetary slow motion. It is the bunker-eye view.
An Autumn's Tale (1987)
Mabel Cheung · 1 critic vote
Hong Kong native Lee Kay moves to NYC's Chinatown while attending college. When she learns that her boyfriend's cheating, her cousin comforts her.
Diary for My Lovers (1987)
Márta Mészáros · 1 critic vote
A continuation of "Diary for My Children," the film picks up in 1950, when Juli, the diarist, is 18 and determined to become a movie director.
Die PAPIERENE BRÜCKE (1987)
Ruth Beckermann · 1 critic vote
Beckermann's parents met in Vienna after the Holocaust. Tracing the migratory paths of her family before World War II, Beckerman returns to the European Jewish communities which inspired her childhood stories.
Nice Coloured Girls (1987)
Tracey Moffatt · 1 critic vote
Nice Coloured Girls is a short film classic by Tracey Moffatt, one of Australia's foremost visual artists. Three Aboriginal women cruise through Kings Cross and pick up a 'captain' (a drunken white man). They encourage him to spend his money on them and to drink until incapacitated while they steal his wallet and race off to catch a cab, self-satisfied. Nice Coloured Girls contrasts the relationship between Aboriginal women and white men in the past and present.
The Death of Empedocles (1987)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 1 critic vote
Film adaptation by Straub and Huillet of Hölderlin’s 1798 tragedy on the symbolic death of Empedocles, the legislator in Ancient Greece.
A Tale of the Wind (1988)
Joris Ivens, Marceline Loridan-Ivens · 1 critic vote
It is an autobiographical fiction starring Ivens as an old man who has spent his life trying to "tame the wind and harness the sea" by capturing them on film.
Measures of Distance (1988)
Mona Hatoum · 1 critic vote
In this video, the artist tries to overcome the effects of distance, and reflects on geography represented in exile due to war, and on the psychological distance represented in each one’s approach to her womanhood. The video beautifully weaves personal images and audio recordings of a very intimate nature, binding the personal with the political. Reading aloud from letters sent by her mother in Beirut, Hatoum creates a visual montage reflecting her feelings of separation and isolation from her Palestinian family. The personal and political are inextricably bound in a narrative that explores personal and family identity against a backdrop of traumatic social rupture, exile and displacement.
Virgin Machine (1988)
Monika Treut · 1 critic vote
A German woman travels to San Francisco to find her mother, but winds up distracted by the sexually flamboyant culture of the city.
American Stories, Food, Family and Philosophy (1989)
Chantal Akerman · 1 critic vote
An exploration of Jewish American identity in a multilayered portrait of the immigrant experience. A series of first-person addresses delivered by a cross-section of Jewish New Yorkers, whose by turns tragic and humourous tales speak to a collective history of trauma, displacement, and resilience.
Atlantic Rhapsody (1989)
Katrin Ottarsdóttir · 1 critic vote
Presents a day in the life of a few inhabitants of Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands: A father and his daughter are having breakfast when the fire-brigade drive by. A woman and her child are looking at the fire and meet a married couple. The couple say hello to a man who is going out with his boat... and so on.
Cézanne - Conversation with Joachim Gasquet (1989)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 1 critic vote
A landmark work of symbolistic imagery. The words that the filmmakers speak offscreen are imaginary conversation with Cézanne quoted from a critique by Joachim Gasquet. An exchange of memories spanning over 250 years interweaves everything from the philosophy of Empedocles to excerpts from the film Madame Bovary, to extant paintings by Cézanne, to the buildings of the artists’ village at Mont Sainte-Victoire. —ntticc.or.jp
K (1989)
Jayne Parker · 1 critic vote
American Dream (1990)
Barbara Kopple · 1 critic vote
When workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota are asked to take a substantial pay cut in a highly profitable year, the local labor union decides to go on strike and fight for a wage they believe is fair. But as the work stoppage drags on and the strikers face losing everything, friends become enemies, families are divided and the very future of this typical mid American town is threatened.
Europa Europa (1990)
Agnieszka Holland · 1 critic vote
A Jewish boy separated from his family in the early days of WWII poses as a German orphan and is taken into the heart of the Nazi world as a 'war hero' and eventually becomes a Hitler Youth.
Privilege (1990)
Yvonne Rainer · 1 critic vote
Privilege is an intelligently conceived, boldly anarchic, and wickedly insightful exposition on the culturally ingrained and socially divisive malaise of isms that artificially define and characterize empowerment in contemporary society: ageism, sexism, economic elitism, and racism. Yvonne Rainer conveys texture through the intercutting of archival footage, video, and film - as well as compositional layering through the film-within-a-film structure, elliptical (and self-referential) fusion of past and present, and the filmmaker's idiosyncratic penchant for superimposed typed text.
Sanctus (1990)
Barbara Hammer · 1 critic vote
Hammer used old x-ray footage, rearranged, colored and orchestrated through optical printing, in order to reveal hidden bodily movements and rhythms in its constant juxtaposition.
The Company of Strangers (1990)
Cynthia Scott · 1 critic vote
A busload of women become stranded in an isolated part of the Canadian countryside. As they await rescue, they reflect on their lives through a mostly ad-libbed script.
Mississippi Masala (1991)
Mira Nair · 1 critic vote
Years after her Indian family was forced to flee their Uganda home, twentysomething Mina finds herself co-operating a motel in the faraway land of Mississippi. Her passionate romance with charming Black carpet cleaner Demetrius challenges the prejudices of their conservative families and exposes the rifts between the region's Indian and African-American communities.
Proof (1991)
Jocelyn Moorhouse · 1 critic vote
Martin, a young blind photographer, is divided between his friendship with restaurant worker Andy and the exclusive love that Celia—who is terribly jealous of this new friendship—has for him.
Queen of Diamonds (1991)
Nina Menkes · 1 critic vote
Firdaus is a Blackjack dealer in a Las Vegas landscape juxtaposed between glittering casino lights and the deteriorating desert oasis. Negotiating a missing husband and neighboring domestic violence, Firdaus’ world unfolds as a fragmented interplay between repetition and repressed anger.
Reci, reci, reci... (1991)
Michaela Pavlátová · 1 critic vote
In a cafe, people talk, their words become expresively-shaped balloons. An older waiter tries to connect with a young woman who's reading. She brushes him off, but gets into an animated and romantic conversation with a young man. A dog goes from table to table drinking beer and wine when people aren't looking. Older men talk about sexual conquests until one of their wives interrupts them. The young couple argues; he starts to leave, she pleads, he leaves anyway. The waiter tries to help. Old guys talk until they nod off. Women chat. Later, as the waiter cleans up, the finds the young woman's book. He sighs, the dog sleeps it off.
Something Like a War (1991)
Deepa Dhanraj · 1 critic vote
An examination of India’s family planning program from the point of view of the women who are its primary targets. It traces the history of the family planning program and exposes the cynicism, corruption and brutality which characterizes its implementation. As the women themselves discuss their status, sexuality, fertility control and health, it is clear that their perceptions are in conflict with those of the program.
Two Sisters (1991)
Caroline Leaf · 1 critic vote
A facially disfigured author's life with her guardian of a sister is disrupted when a stranger arrives at their door, claiming to be a fan.
Gas Food Lodging (1992)
Allison Anders · 1 critic vote
Nora, a single mother raising two teenage daughters, Shade and Trudi, waits tables at a truck-stop diner in a small New Mexico town. The beautiful and rebellious Trudi drops out of school and gets a job alongside Nora, while the younger Shade whittles away her time at Spanish movie matinees. Their lives are turned upside down when Trudi becomes pregnant and the girls' absent father returns.
Shoot for the Contents (1992)
T. Minh-ha Trinh · 1 critic vote
Reflecting on Mao's famous saying, "Let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend," Trinh T. Minh-ha's film — whose title refers in part to a Chinese guessing game — is a unique excursion into the maze of allegorical naming and storytelling in China.
Siméon (1992)
Euzhan Palcy · 1 critic vote
The ghost of a music teacher pushes a young mechanic to start a career in music.
Bedevil (1993)
Tracey Moffatt · 1 critic vote
Three stories of the supernatural are recounted in this anthology. Rick, an Aboriginal boy living near a swamp on Bribie Island, is haunted by an American solider who drowned in quicksand. Ruby and her family live in a house near long-abandoned train tracks, which still carry ghostly apparitions. A landlord has trouble evicting the tenants of an old warehouse: a couple that's been dead for years
I Was a Teenage Serial Killer (1993)
Sarah Jacobson · 1 critic vote
Mary was a good girl until she decides to kill all the "sexist pigs". She of course encounters many of which, and enjoys killing them.
Me Ivan, You Abraham (1993)
Yolande Zauberman · 1 critic vote
In 1930s Poland Christian boy Ivan goes to live with a Jewish family to learn a trade. He becomes friends with Abraham, the son of the family. However, anti-Semitism is rife in their environment, and they flee to escape an upcoming conflict. Journeying together, they demonstrate their inseparability.
Baby I will Make you Sweat (1994)
Birgit Hein · 1 critic vote
In this highly personal and intimate travel diary, Birgit Hein has filmed with great candour her problems with aging, her need for tenderness, the frustration for being alone and her experiences in Jamaica.
Go Fish (1994)
Rose Troche · 1 critic vote
Max is a trendy, pretty, young lesbian, who is having trouble finding love. A friend sets her up with Ely, whom Max likes, but Ely is frumpy, homely, and older. Nor do they have much in common. Can Max learn to look past the packaging?
Katatsumori (1994)
Naomi Kawase · 1 critic vote
Filmmaker Naomi Kawase captures the love, loss, and loneliness felt as she prepares to move out of her foster mother's home.
Little Women (1994)
Gillian Armstrong · 1 critic vote
Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Metal and Melancholy (1994)
Heddy Honigmann · 1 critic vote
This documentary is an offbeat "road movie" in which acclaimed documentarian Heddy Honigmann travels with, and thereby discovers the stories of, taxi drivers in Lima. In the early 1990s, in response to Peru's inflationary economy and a government destabilized by corruption and Shining Path terrorism, many middle-class professionals used their own cars to moonlight as taxi drivers in order to weather the financial crisis.
The Devil Never Sleeps (1994)
Lourdes Portillo · 1 critic vote
The Devil Never Sleeps is a “whodunit” documentary about family secrets. Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo received a phone call informing her of the mysterious death of her wealthy Mexican uncle Oscar. Officially ruled a suicide, Portillo’s relatives claimed murder, offering several possible suspects including a business partner, a ranch hand, and Oscar’s young widow who stood to inherit everything. Traveling to Mexico, Portillo attempts to learn the truth about her powerful uncle. Using interviews, old snapshots and home movies, she finds a complicated web of family secrets, intrigue, rumor and betrayal that makes her enigmatic uncle’s murder seem ever more likely, yet ever more obscure. As the Mexican saying goes, “When evil is lurking, the devil never sleeps.”
Travolta and Me (1994)
Patricia Mazuy · 1 critic vote
In the late 1970s, a French teenage girl is obsessed with the then popular American movie heartthrob John Travolta.
Señora con flores (1995)
Chick Strand · 1 critic vote
A Mexican flower seller’s story of personal tragedy is delicately illuminated in an intimate and moving act of portraiture that is both unsettling and liberating. In her final film, Chick Strand mixes brutal heartbreak and palpable joy into a transformative vision of dignity and vitality.
Beautiful Thing (1996)
Hettie MacDonald · 1 critic vote
During a long, hot summer on the Thamesmead Estate in Southeast London, three teenagers edge towards adulthood.
Fire (1996)
Deepa Mehta · 1 critic vote
In a barren, arranged marriage to an amateur swami who seeks enlightenment through celibacy, Radha's life takes an irresistible turn when her beautiful young sister-in-law seeks to free herself from the confines of her own loveless marriage.
Kissed (1996)
Lynne Stopkewich · 1 critic vote
Over the years, a child's romantic ideals about death blossom into necrophilia, the study of embalming and the most profound relationship of her life.
La Belle Verte (1996)
Coline Serreau · 1 critic vote
As part of an intergalactic coalition, a well-meaning space alien volunteers to bring a message of self-actualization and harmony with nature to the one planet rejected by all her peers as incorrigible: Earth.
O Amor Natural (1996)
Heddy Honigmann · 1 critic vote
O AMOR NATURAL is a documentary film about the erotic poetry of one of the greatest Latin American poets of the 20th century, the Brazilian Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987). The erotic poems of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, a household name in Brazil, remained unpublished during his lifetime, as he feared they would be deemed pornographic. In this celebration of his poetry and sensual vision, elderly residents of Rio read his poems and comment on their graphic, voluptuous imagery with tremendous candor and enthusiasm.
Passages (1996)
Lisl Ponger · 1 critic vote
Lisl Ponger creates an imaginary map of the twentieth century on which the stories of emigration are engraved like well-worn tracks of occidental memory. The pictures, made by observant tourists, are revealed, in their tensile relationship to the soundtrack, as a post-colonial journey. A journey through exactly those countries which long ago have been shrunk together in space and time. Finally the wonderful neon signs of the “Hotel Edison” and “Radio City” remind one of the origins of this form of appropriation of the world, of the time of great expeditions, of Benjamin‘s shop-windows and passages, and of the time when technical apparatus and means of transportation fundamentally altered the perceptions of modern man.
Walking and Talking (1996)
Nicole Holofcener · 1 critic vote
Just as Amelia thinks she's over her anxiety and insecurity, her best friend announces her engagement, bringing her anxiety and insecurity right back.
All over Me (1997)
Alex Sichel · 1 critic vote
Claude and Ellen are best friends who live in a not-so-nice area of New York. They're involved in the subculture of 90s youth, complete with drugs, live music, and homophobia. All is changed one night when a violent and meaningless death rocks their lives.
From Today Until Tomorrow (1997)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 1 critic vote
Based on a rarely performed Schoenberg opera from 1929, From Today Until Tomorrow explores one night in a marriage. A husband and wife return from a party where she has flirted with another man while he has cast an appraising eye toward one of her acquaintances. Each dreams, briefly, of leaving the marriage for the excitement and mystery of a new lover.
Under the Skin (1997)
Carine Adler · 1 critic vote
Although married and pregnant Rose has always been mother's favorite, it is younger sister Iris whose life is shaken up by mother's death. Suffocating, Iris spirals out of control and copes by losing herself in sexual oblivion.
Garden Pieces (1998)
Margaret Tait · 1 critic vote
A set of three 'film poems' composed around the theme of the garden - the central one featuring hand scratched animated drawings. Margaret Tait described them as follows: 'Round the Garden' - right round and round again, 'Garden Fliers' - flighty cartoon and a stunner of a piano piece and 'Grove' - grave and sonorous.
Gasman (1998)
Lynne Ramsay · 1 critic vote
A story of two children who react with naive simple emotion to a situation imposed upon them by their father's secret.
Shulie (1998)
Elisabeth Subrin · 1 critic vote
Elisabeth Subrin’s masterful film is a shot-by-shot reenactment of an unreleased 1967 documentary portrait of SAIC student Shulamith Firestone, who, a few years later, would become a central figure in the rise of radical feminism. Through its meticulous staging, the film expresses in Subrin’s words, “the residues of the past,” and the resonance of issues around gender and class today. (Gene Siskel Film Center)
Seven Songs from the Tundra (1999)
Markku Lehmuskallio, Anastasia Lapsui · 1 critic vote
An anthology of stories about the indigenous Nenet peoples of the Northern Russian tundra, and how their way of life was disrupted by the advent of Soviet power.
The Day I Became a Woman (2000)
Marzieh Meshkini · 1 critic vote
A girl reaches the age of nine and is supposed to act as a grown woman according to her family. A girl participates in a bike race against the will of her husband. An elderly woman decides she wants to buy all the things she always wanted but could never get.
Fat Girl (2001)
Catherine Breillat · 1 critic vote
Anaïs is twelve and bears the weight of the world on her shoulders. She watches her older sister, Elena, whom she both loves and hates. Elena is fifteen and devilishly beautiful. Neither more futile, nor more stupid than her younger sister, she cannot understand that she is merely an object of desire. And, as such, she can only be taken. Or had. Indeed, this is the subject: a girl's loss of virginity. And, that summer, it opens a door to tragedy.
She Puppet (2001)
Peggy Ahwesh · 1 critic vote
Lara Croft, the virtual girl-doll of the late 20th century, is recast as a triad of her personas: the alien, the orphan, and the clone in this work based on appropriated footage from the game Tomb Raider.
Shrek (2001)
Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson · 1 critic vote
It ain't easy bein' green -- especially if you're a likable (albeit smelly) ogre named Shrek. On a mission to retrieve a gorgeous princess from the clutches of a fire-breathing dragon, Shrek teams up with an unlikely compatriot -- a wisecracking donkey.
Things behind the Sun (2001)
Allison Anders · 1 critic vote
A young music journalist's dark memories are awakened when he goes to interview a female rock singer, and both are forced to confront troubling secrets from their pasts.
Under the Skin of the City (2001)
Rakhshan Bani-E'temad · 1 critic vote
Tuba works daily at a grueling textile factory in Iran, returning home every night to deal with the rest of her problematic family, which includes: a pregnant daughter whose husband beats her regularly; a teenage son, who's been getting into trouble due to his burgeoning career in radical politics; and an older son who goes to great lengths--such as attempting to sell the family's meager house--in order to get an engineering job in Japan as a means of getting out of Iran.
Workers, Peasants (2001)
Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet · 1 critic vote
A group of men and women have been brought together after World War II, when Italy regained its national and territorial unity. They make up a primitive community which seeks to erase not only the distress created by the war but also the hardships of life, and look to protect themselves from violence, misery and fear. Amid the ruins of this post-war period, these men and women build a new rapport between themselves, between sexes, between generations, between social and geographical origins, between political camps.
Bend it Like Beckham (2002)
Gurinder Chadha · 1 critic vote
Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton, who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.
Chekhov's Motifs (2002)
Kira Muratova · 1 critic vote
The film is based on A. P. Chekhov’s play “Tatiana Repina” and short story “Difficult People”. At his wedding, the groom is horrified to see among the church crowd his former mistress who had recently committed suicide.
De l'autre côté (2002)
Chantal Akerman · 1 critic vote
A documentary look at the fate of Mexicans who cross the border into the United States.
Sailboats and Poppies (2002)
Rose Lowder · 1 critic vote
Little is necessary for everything to appear differently. The date, the hour, the weather, the space's layout, one's glance or presence of mind . . . can make everything change. The boats sail out of the Vieux port in Marseille to be amongst the poppy fields.
Shanghai Women (2002)
Xiaolian Peng · 1 critic vote
After Women’s Story, Peng returns to the most straightforward representation of women’s issues in Shanghai Women, a film about three rural women. As the first work in Peng’s Shanghai Trilogy, Shanghai Women describes the problem that women encounter trying to secure urban (residential) space through the story of women from three generations.
American Splendor (2003)
Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini · 1 critic vote
An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.
Monster (2003)
Patty Jenkins · 1 critic vote
In 1989, prostitute Aileen Wuornos befriends and enters a relationship with a young woman named Selby. Determined to straighten out her life, Aileen's limited education lands her back on the corner. She's raped by a trick, who she kills. A string of murder and robbery follows that ultimately leads Aileen to becoming America's first female serial killer.
Rabun (2003)
Yasmin Ahmad · 1 critic vote
It tells a story about a free-spirited older couple, Pak Atan and Mak Inom who decide to spend more time in the country after getting tired of city life. But they find that life in the old village isn't a good thing when they get cheated by a distant relative, Yem, out of some money. They cut him off and Yem plots revenge. Meanwhile, in the city, the couple's daughter Orked is being wooed by a young gentleman.
The Blonds (2003)
Albertina Carri · 1 critic vote
In 1977, when she was four years old, Albertina Carri's parents vanished without a trace, victims of Argentina's brutal military junta. In this fresh and politically daring film, the young Argentinian filmmaker attempts to unravel the mystery, piecing together her memories and fantasies in a quest to understand her parents' untimely fate.
The python (2003)
Laila Pakalniņa · 1 critic vote
An absurdist farce centering around a school in post-Soviet Latvia. After a rather disgusting prank (someone defecates in the school attic), the tyrannical headmistress deems that no one can leave until the culprit is caught. When the photographer's pet python escapes, havok breaks loose.
A Visit to the Louvre (2004)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 1 critic vote
A visit to the Louvre in Paris commentated by an actor reading Cézanne.
D.E.B.S. (2004)
Angela Robinson · 1 critic vote
The star of a team of teenage crime fighters falls for the alluring villainess she must bring to justice.
Marseille (2004)
Angela Schanelec · 1 critic vote
A young Berlin photographer participates in an apartment swap with a stranger in Marseille to briefly explore the French city.
The 3 Rooms of Melancholia (2004)
Pirjo Honkasalo · 1 critic vote
A searing examination of the unrelenting Chechen conflict, observed through the prisms of a Russian military boys academy, a war-torn town and a children's refugee camp.
A Darkness Swallowed (2005)
Betzy Bromberg · 1 critic vote
“A Darkness Swallowed opens on a pair of faded photographs showing an old dented car, one with a child standing beside it and the other without. Speaking in voice-over, Bromberg references a past event, one that will forever haunt her although it occurred before her birth. The film then sinks downward, dipping below the surface of the rational world to mine the seemingly infinite layers of the past stored within the fleshy entrails, chalky bones, sinewy spider webs and gnarled ligaments of both the body and the Earth. Noises – of clanging metal, bells, heartbeats and jazz music, to name only a few – combine to create a dense sound environment, a seemingly immense, three-dimensional space for contemplation." – Holly Willis, L.A . Weekly
I for India (2005)
Sandhya Suri · 1 critic vote
Drawing from 40 years' worth of film footage and tape recordings her father sent to family members in India, filmmaker Sandhya Suri crafts a personal history that also explores the experiences of Indian expatriates. After moving to Great Britain in 1965, Yash Pal Suri chronicled his discoveries about his new home along with his feelings of alienation. The fruits of his labor appear in this film that received a Grand Jury Prize nod at Sundance.
La VIDA PERRA DE JUANITA NARBONI (2005)
Farida Benlyazid · 1 critic vote
The daughter of an Englishman and an Andalusian woman, Juanita rejects the historical changes taking place in Tangier.She lives alone in this "Paradise lost", surrounded by her sister Elena; Esther, her close friend who dedicates her entire life to an impossible love affair with a Moroccan; and Hamruch the housemaid, who disappears one day without saying a word. The Spanish Civil War, WWII with the arrival of refugees from Europe, and the Moroccan independence finally returns the city to its Arab origins. Juanita's tragedy lies in not realizing that her world is destined to disappear by the destructive and rejuvenating force of History.
FOREVER (2006)
Heddy Honigmann · 1 critic vote
Père-Lachaise - one of the world's most famous and beautiful cemeteries - is the final resting-place of a gifted group of artists from all eras and corners of the world. Some - such as Piaf, Proust, Jim Morrison and Chopin - are worshiped to this day. Others have fallen into oblivion, or are visited occasionally by a single admirer. In Forever we see the mysterious, calming and consoling beauty of this unique cemetery through the eyes of people of flesh and blood. Many come for their 'own' beloved: husbands, wives, family and friends. Others Honor 'their' artist by leaving behind a personal message or a flower. While admirers share with us the importance of art and beauty in their lives, the graveyard gradually reveals itself as a source of inspiration for the living. Death offers little consolation except for the passing of time, the melancholia of a moss-covered tomb, and the beauty and power of a piece of music, a poem or a painting Written by Cobos
Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton · 1 critic vote
A family loaded with quirky, colorful characters piles into an old van and road trips to California for little Olive to compete in a beauty pageant.
Mayak (2006)
Mariya Saakyan · 1 critic vote
Lena returns to her home in a remote, war-ravaged Armenian village to try and persuade her grandparents to leave with her for safety in Moscow.
My Country, My Country (2006)
Laura Poitras · 1 critic vote
The director follows a Sunni Arab doctor as he prepares to run for the early 2005 elections in Iraq.
Paraguayan Hammock (2006)
Paz Encina · 1 critic vote
Set in 1935, a couple of aged smallholders are waiting for their son, for rain, for better days.
The Holiday (2006)
Nancy Meyers · 1 critic vote
Two women, one American and one British, swap homes at Christmastime following bad breakups. Each woman finds romance with a local man but realizes that the imminent return home may end the relationship.
The Namesake (2006)
Mira Nair · 1 critic vote
The American-born son of Indian immigrants strives to fit in among his fellow New Yorkers despite his family's unwillingness to let go of their traditional ways.
These Encounters of Theirs (2006)
Danièle Huillet, Jean-Marie Straub · 1 critic vote
These Encounters Of Theirs divides 10 non-professional actors into couples, then has them take turns in declaiming the Dialogues With Leuco, Cesare Pavese's abstract, philosophical work.
2 Days in Paris (2007)
Julie Delpy · 1 critic vote
Marion and Jack try to rekindle their relationship with a visit to Paris, home of Marion's parents — and several of her ex-boyfriends.
Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame (2007)
Hana Makhmalbaf · 1 critic vote
A young girl zealously wants to go to school and learn to read and write. Almost everywhere she is met with hostility or indifference. The only young boy who takes her to his school is thrown out by the teacher, because helping her prevented him from arriving in time. On her way home she and other girls are taken as prisoners by boys playing as Taliban fighters. They tear her school book to pieces and threaten to stone their female captives.
Mafrouza (2007)
Emmanuelle Demoris · 1 critic vote
A shantytown built inside the antique necropolis of Alexandria. An archaeological visit leads us to meet a few people, taking the time to be really close to them. Each encounter reveals a new novel. And we discover how people survive daily, with an incredible strength for life and a crazy capacity for happiness, that enables them to grin and bear the harshness of the materials conditions.
The Mourning Forest (2007)
Naomi Kawase · 1 critic vote
A young woman working at a retirement home takes an elderly man living there on an excursion into the countryside, but the two wind up stranded in the titular forest.
Unrelated (2007)
Joanna Hogg · 1 critic vote
A woman in an unhappy relationship takes refuge with a friend's family on holiday in Tuscany.
XXY (2007)
Lucía Puenzo · 1 critic vote
Alex, an intersexed 15-year-old, is living as a girl, but she and her family begin to wonder whether she's emotionally a boy when another teenager's sexual advances bring the issue to a head. As Alex faces a final decision regarding her gender, she meets both hostility and compassion.
A Horse Is Not a Metaphor (2008)
Barbara Hammer · 1 critic vote
The filmmaker, fighting ovarian cancer, stage 3, returns to her experimental roots, in a multilayered film of numerous chemotherapy sessions with images of light and movement that take her far from the hospital bed. A a cancer ‘thriver’ rather than ’survivor’, Barbara Hammer rides the red hills of Georgia O’Keefe’s Ghost Ranch in New Mexico, the grassy foothlls of the Big Horn in Wyoming, and leafy paths in Woodstock, New York changing illness into recovery. The haunting and wondrous music of Meredith Monk underscores and celebrates in this film that lifts us up when we might be most discouraged.
Crush and Blush (2008)
Lee Kyoung-mi · 1 critic vote
After being demoted from teaching Russian to middle-school English students, Me-sook is literally red-faced with shame, because on top of all her other issues — unrequited love, unpopularity — Me-sook has a blushing problem.
Nights and Weekends (2008)
Greta Gerwig, Joe Swanberg · 1 critic vote
A man and woman must face the tension that builds between them during a long-distance relationship.
Stella (2008)
Sylvie Verheyde · 1 critic vote
Paris, 1977. Eleven year old Stella knows poker better than grammar when she starts the year at a prestigious new school. There, she discovers the possibilities of a whole new world outside her parents' bar.
Atlantiques (2009)
Mati Diop · 1 critic vote
The odyssey of Senegalese friends who attempt a life-threatening boat crossing.
Bright Star (2009)
Jane Campion · 1 critic vote
In 1818, high-spirited young Fanny Brawne finds herself increasingly intrigued by the handsome but aloof poet John Keats, who lives next door to her family friends the Dilkes. After reading a book of his poetry, she finds herself even more drawn to the taciturn Keats. Although he agrees to teach her about poetry, Keats cannot act on his reciprocated feelings for Fanny, since as a struggling poet he has no money to support a wife.
Everyone Else (2009)
Maren Ade · 1 critic vote
While on a Mediterranean vacation, a seemingly happy boyfriend and girlfriend find their connection to one another tested as they bond with another couple.
She, A Chinese (2009)
Xiaolu Guo · 1 critic vote
This is the story of Mei, a young woman on a trip from East to West after her escape from her provincial Chinese village. Beginning in Chongqing and a disastrous factory job, Mei soon heads out for London and a marriage to an older man where her entrapment begins anew.
The Milk of Sorrow (2009)
Claudia Llosa · 1 critic vote
Fausta is suffering from a rare disease called the Milk of Sorrow, which is transmitted through the breast milk of pregnant women who were abused or raped during or soon after pregnancy. While living in constant fear and confusion due to this disease, she must face the sudden death of her mother. She chooses to take drastic measures to not follow in her mother's footsteps.
Attenberg (2010)
Athina Rachel Tsangari · 1 critic vote
Marina, 23, is growing up with her architect father in a prototype factory town by the sea. Finding the human species strange and repellent, she keeps her distance...that is until a stranger comes to town and challenges her to a foosball duel, on her own table. Her father, meanwhile, ritualistically prepares for his exit from the 20th century, which he considers to be "overrated."
Cry When it Happens (2010)
Laida Lertxundi · 1 critic vote
Los Angeles City Hall is reflected onto the window of the Paradise Motel. It serves as an anchor for this traversal through the natural expanse of California. Here, we discover a restrained psychodrama of play, loss, and the transformation of everyday habitats. Music appears across the interiors and exteriors and speaks of limitlessness and longing.
Dear Prudence (2010)
Rebecca Zlotowski · 1 critic vote
After the death of her mother, 17-year-old Prudence finds herself living alone in her Paris apartment. Then she meets Maryline, a rebel of her own age, who introduces her to the thrills of motorcycle racing on the biker circuit at Rungis. Prudence’s newfound lease of freedom becomes complicated when she falls for a boy Franck who wastes no time in taking advantage of her naivety...
Genpin (2010)
Naomi Kawase · 1 critic vote
About Tadashi Yoshimura's maternity clinic where he practice "natural births" deep in the forest of Okazaki (Japan).
Somewhere (2010)
Sofia Coppola · 1 critic vote
After withdrawing to the Chateau Marmont, a passionless Hollywood actor reexamines his life when his eleven-year-old daughter surprises him with a visit.
Winter's Bone (2010)
Debra Granik · 1 critic vote
After discovering her father put their house up for his bail bond and then disappeared, 17-year-old Ree Dolly must confront the local criminal underworld and the harsh Ozark wilderness in order to to track down her father and save her family.
A Bitter Taste of Freedom (2011)
Marina Goldovskaya · 1 critic vote
In her quest to uncover the wrongdoings of the Russian authorities, Anna Politkovskaya inspired awe in some and fear in countless others. At age 48 she was assassinated for simply doing her job. This documentary is based on Anna's conversations with filmmaker Marina Goldovskaya, Anna's former university professor and personal friend. Shot over a period of 20 years, this exclusive footage creates an incredible story of a woman who consciously gave her life for her convictions.
A Simple Life (2011)
Ann Hui · 1 critic vote
After suffering a stroke, an altruistic maid announces that she wants to quit her job and move into an old people's home.
Almayer's Folly (2011)
Chantal Akerman · 1 critic vote
In 1940s Malaysia, European merchant Kaspar Almayer is obsessed with finding a treasure to secure his daughter's future. His dreams fall victim to the pressure of his own greed, which becomes a torment. Compounding this is the oppressive English domination dominating the country – and that which brings ruin to the remote village where he lives.
Dreams of a Life (2011)
Carol Morley · 1 critic vote
A filmmaker sets out to discover the life of Joyce Vincent, who died in her bedsit in North London in 2003. Her body wasn't discovered for three years, and newspaper reports offered few details of her life - not even a photograph.
El lugar más pequeño (2011)
Tatiana Huezo · 1 critic vote
Years after the Salvadoran military destroyed the village of Cinquera in that country’s civil war, survivors have returned to rebuild their community. Soulful, beautifully rendered, this amazing debut is an evocative testament to place, memory and the power of life to rebound from tragedy.
Goodbye First Love (2011)
Mia Hansen-Løve · 1 critic vote
A 15-year-old discovers the joys and heartaches of first love with an older teen, but in the ensuing years, cannot seem to move past their breakup.
In Darkness (2011)
Agnieszka Holland · 1 critic vote
A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied city of Lviv. In Darkness tells the true story of Leopold Soha who risks his own life to save a dozen people from certain death. Initially only interested in his own good, the thief and burglar hides Jewish refugees for 14 months in the sewers of the Nazi-occupied town of Lviv (formerly Poland).
Nana (2011)
Valérie Massadian · 1 critic vote
Nana is 4 years old and lives in a stone house beyond the forest. Back from school, a late afternoon, all she finds is silence in the house. A journey into the darkness of her childhood. The world from her height.
Pariah (2011)
Dee Rees · 1 critic vote
A Brooklyn teenager juggles conflicting identities and risks friendship, heartbreak, and family in a desperate search for sexual expression.
Take This Waltz (2011)
Sarah Polley · 1 critic vote
Twenty-eight-year-old Margot is happily married to Lou, a good-natured cookbook author. But when Margot meets Daniel, a handsome artist who lives across the street, their mutual attraction is undeniable.
The Loneliest Planet (2011)
Julia Loktev · 1 critic vote
Backpacking in the Caucasus Mountains, walking for hours, an engaged couple and their tour guide trade anecdotes and play games to pass the time, until a momentary misstep, that takes only two or three seconds, changes everything.
Under Snow (2011)
Ulrike Ottinger · 1 critic vote
In Echigo, Japan, the snow often lies several feet deep well into May, covering landscapes and villages. Over the centuries, the inhabitants have organised their lives accordingly. In order to record their very distinctive forms of everyday life, their festivals, and religious rituals, Ulrike Ottinger journeyed to the mythical snow country – accompanied by two Kabuki performers. Taking the parts of the students Takeo and Mako, they follow in the footsteps of Bokushi Suzuki, who in the mid-19th century wrote his remarkable book “Snow Country Tales”.
We Need to Talk about Kevin (2011)
Lynne Ramsay · 1 critic vote
After her son Kevin commits a horrific act, troubled mother Eva reflects on her complicated relationship with her disturbed son as he grew from a toddler into a teenager.
With Every Heartbeat (2011)
Alexandra-Therese Keining · 1 critic vote
After they meet at their parent's engagement party, Mia and Frida are intrigued by and attracted to one another, despite Mia's own upcoming engagement to Tim. Mia must decide whether to continue her life with Tim or to follow her heart with Frida.
A Woman's Revenge (2012)
Rita Azevedo Gomes · 1 critic vote
Roberto is one of those men to whom simulation has become the greatest art. He is an unmoved, inscrutable, mysterious man. But the truth is that Robert feels an intimate, deep tedium. The boredom of those who have already exhausted all the pleasures of life. The only thing still surprising him is the fact that nothing surprises him anymore. One evening he has an overwhelming encounter with a woman. For his own bewilderment, he discovers the sublime horrors in which the woman has sank.
Eternal Homecoming (2012)
Kira Muratova · 1 critic vote
A woman is paid a surprise visit by her long-forgotten classmate, who needs her advice: should he choose a wife or a lover? An outrageously burlesque mise-en-scène is repeated many times but each time in a different place and performed by new actors. Why?
Lore (2012)
Cate Shortland · 1 critic vote
After being abandoned by their Nazi parents at the end of World War II, five German siblings embark on a harrowing journey across their war-torn country. Led by the eldest, 14 year-old Lore, the children are forced to confront their parents’ actions and the reality of a new world.
Stud Life (2012)
Campbell X · 1 critic vote
Stud lesbian JJ works with her gay best friend Seb as wedding photographers. When JJ falls in love with a beautiful diva, JJ and Seb's friendship is tested, and she’s forced to chose between her hot new lover and her best friend.
Supermen of Malegaon (2012)
Faiza Ahmad Khan · 1 critic vote
Malegaon, a small town tucked away near the heart of India geographically, is fraught with communal tension and under severe economic depression. To escape the harsh reality of their world, its people seek refuge in the fantastical world of cinema. This passion for cinema has spurred a group of cinema enthusiasts to make their own films-quirky, low budget, socially aware and notoriously funny spoofs of Bollywood films.
Blood (2013)
Alina Rudnitskaya · 1 critic vote
Documentary following a mobile blood donation team travelling through rural Russia, where people sell their blood to make ends meet.
Bloody Beans (2013)
Narimane Mari · 1 critic vote
On an Algerian beach, kids splash about, sleep, squabble - and then suddenly go to war. And it’s neither Lord of the Flies nor La Guerre des boutons. In her first film, full of grace, Narimane Mari films this childish freefor- all closely, at the irregular pace of an imagination inspired by the highest form of reality, national History — actually, nothing less than the Algerian War of Independence. When their make-believe induces a general upheaval, we follow the flock of children as they stamp their feet up the stairs, invade houses, cross village squares, in a whirlwind of shouts and empty words. Time is stretched like in a dream, through a choreography of belligerent shadows or the night-time explosion of the cemetery, as so many warning signs of dangers to come.
Exhibition (2013)
Joanna Hogg · 1 critic vote
An intimate examination of a contemporary artist couple, whose living and working patterns are threatened by the imminent sale of their home.
Frozen (2013)
Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee · 1 critic vote
Young princess Anna of Arendelle dreams about finding true love at her sister Elsa’s coronation. Fate takes her on a dangerous journey in an attempt to end the eternal winter that has fallen over the kingdom. She's accompanied by ice delivery man Kristoff, his reindeer Sven, and snowman Olaf. On an adventure where she will find out what friendship, courage, family, and true love really means.
Let Your Light Shine (2013)
Jodie Mack · 1 critic vote
Eye candy as a special treat. Let Your Light Shine is the ultimate Spectrum Short film, a photokinetic stroboscopic spectacle for spectacles. A work in the tradition of the absolute animation film of the 1930s, which requires prismatic glasses to achieve the maximum result.
Manakamana (2013)
Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez · 1 critic vote
A documentary about a group of pilgrims who travel to Nepal to worship at the legendary Manakamana temple.
Sheep (2013)
Marianne Pistone, Gilles Deroo · 1 critic vote
The film opens in October 2007 with Aurélien Bouvier, known as "Mouton" (Sheep), who is 17 years old. It was his destiny that the young Mouton would live his simple life as a seaside restaurant employee for three years and that he would be torn away from this life after a tragic night at the Sainte-Anne ball.
The Selfish Giant (2013)
Clio Barnard · 1 critic vote
A hyperactive boy and his best friend, a slow-witted youth with an affinity for horses, start collecting scrap metal for a shady dealer.
The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (2013)
Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani · 1 critic vote
Returning home from a business trip to discover his wife missing, a man delves deeper and deeper into a surreal kaleidoscope of half-baked leads, seduction, deceit, and murder.
A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014)
Ana Lily Amirpour · 1 critic vote
In the Iranian ghost-town Bad City, a place that reeks of death and loneliness, the townspeople are unaware they are being stalked by a lonesome vampire.
Coming Forth by Day (2014)
Hala Lotfy · 1 critic vote
One day in the life of Soad, who lives with her mother and bed-ridden father on the outskirts of Cairo.
Drunktown's Finest (2014)
Sydney Freeland · 1 critic vote
On a desolate Navajo reservation in New Mexico, three young people – a college-bound, devout Christian; a rebellious and angry father-to-be; and a promiscuous but gorgeous Nádleehi (trans person) – search for love and acceptance.
Fort Tilden (2014)
Sarah-Violet Bliss · 1 critic vote
Twenty-something Brooklynites Allie and Harper are directionless, privileged, and just a tiny bit damaged. All they want is to get to the beach, where a drug-fueled afternoon with cute boys awaits them. Alas, the journey becomes needlessly complicated, as the girls’ bike ride from Williamsburg to Fort Tilden Beach is littered with a barrage of unfriendly circumstances and the realization that their life skills are more limited than they should be.
Something Better to Come (2014)
Hanna Polak · 1 critic vote
Right outside of Moscow – home to the highest number of billionaires pr. capita – you’ll find the largest junkyard in the world: The Svalka. It’s a hard place run by the Russian mafia. And it's where Yula lives with her mother, her friends and many other people. Life is tough in the Svalka, but it’s also a place where beauty and humanity can arise from the most unlikely conditions. It is from this place that Yula dreams of escaping and changing her life, even if it seems impossible. Oscar-nominated director Hanna Polak followed Yula for 14 years, bringing us along on Yula's journey to achieve this dream.
Spectrum Reverse Spectrum (2014)
Margaret Honda · 1 critic vote
Margaret Honda's awesome Spectrum Reverse Spectrum is a silent, camera-less colour-field film created and exhibited on 70mm. A maximalist expression of minimalism reminiscent of James Turrell's light sculptures, Honda's immersive, epically scaled work is both abstract and strangely affecting, especially as a collective viewing experience.
Still the Water (2014)
Naomi Kawase · 1 critic vote
On the Japanese island of Amami, despite lacking parental guidance, Kaito and his girlfriend Kyoko try to find their place in the world. While Kaito suffers from the absence of his father, who moved to Tokyo after his birth, Kyoko must come to grips with her mother’s terminal illness.
The Dragon is the Frame (2014)
Mary Helena Clark · 1 critic vote
Diaristic but also generously expansive, Mary-Helena Clark's disarmingly raw and beautiful The Dragon is the Frame proceeds like an experimental detective film, exploring the enigma of depression in its subtle interplay between presence and absence.
The Golden Era (2014)
Ann Hui · 1 critic vote
The story of writer Xiao Hong comes alive through memories of her great love affair, literary influence and escape from China during World War II.
An Ecstatic Experience (2015)
Ja’Tovia Gary · 1 critic vote
A meditative invocation on transcendence as a means of restoration.
Evolution (2015)
Lucile Hadžihalilović · 1 critic vote
11-year-old Nicolas lives with his mother in a seaside housing estate. The only place that ever sees any activity is the hospital. It is there that all the boys from the village are forced to undergo strange medical trials that attempt to disrupt the phases of evolution.
Heart of a Dog (2015)
Laurie Anderson · 1 critic vote
Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.
Maman(s) (2015)
Maïmouna Doucouré · 1 critic vote
The 8-year-old Aida lives in an apartment in the Parisian suburb. The daily life of Aida and the whole family is overwhelmed when her father comes back from Senegal, their country of origin. Actually, he did not come back alone. He returned with the young Senegalese Rama whom he introduced as his second wife. Aida is very sensitive to her mother's distress. She decides then to get rid of the new visitor.
Sherpa (2015)
Jennifer Peedom · 1 critic vote
In 2013, the world's media reported on a shocking mountain-high brawl as European climbers fled a mob of angry Sherpas. Director Jennifer Peedom and her team set out to uncover the cause of this altercation, intending to film the 2014 climbing season from the Sherpa's point-of-view. Instead, they captured Everest's greatest tragedy, when a huge block of ice crashed down onto the climbing route...
The Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)
Marielle Heller · 1 critic vote
Minnie Goetze is a 15-year-old aspiring comic-book artist, coming of age in the haze of the 1970s in San Francisco. Insatiably curious about the world around her, Minnie is a pretty typical teenage girl. Oh, except that she’s sleeping with her mother’s boyfriend.
The Royal Road (2015)
Jenni Olson · 1 critic vote
A fascinating and unlikely reinvention story, The Royal Road simultaneously explores cinematic spiritual channeling, the conquest and colonization of Mexico and the American Southwest, fading historical Californian urban landscapes, and the passions found in butch identity to achieve an achingly beautiful and poetic defense of remembering. Probing roads from El Camino Real, to the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, to the road right outside the front door, Olson crafts a deeply intelligent and transcending observation of the human condition that reaches for redemption in the embrace of history, nostalgia, mindfulness, and sheer beauty. If you give yourself over to it, it will crack you wide open.
Further Beyond (2016)
Joe Lawlor, Christine Molloy · 1 critic vote
In their debut documentary Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor take as their point of departure the compelling 18th Century figure, Ambrose O'Higgins, and attempt to retrace his remarkable journey from Ireland to Chile.
Lemonade (2016)
Beyoncé · 1 critic vote
The second "visual album" (a collection of short films) by Beyoncé, this time around she takes a piercing look at racial issues and feminist concepts through a sexualized, satirical, and solemn tone.
Tempestad (2016)
Tatiana Huezo · 1 critic vote
A woman is recruited to a prison controlled by organized crime while another woman searches for her missing daughter. Through images that submerges us in a journey from north to south Mexico, both testimonies collide and take us to the center of a storm: a country where violence has taken control of our lives, our desires and our dreams.
The 13th (2016)
Ava DuVernay · 1 critic vote
An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation's history of racial inequality.
The Dreamed Ones (2016)
Ruth Beckermann · 1 critic vote
It’s not uncommon for a film to have a moving love story at its core. Yet this particular set-up is unusual. The lovers here are Ingeborg Bachmann and Paul Celan, both important representatives of post-war German-language poetry. The story of the relationship between the Austrian and the Jew from Czernowitz is told through their nearly 20-year correspondence (1948–1967). Or, more precisely, by a young woman and a young man reading from their letters in a studio in Vienna’s venerable Funkhaus.
The Love Witch (2016)
Anna Biller · 1 critic vote
A modern-day witch uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her, with deadly consequences.
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016)
Brett Story · 1 critic vote
More people are imprisoned in the United States at this moment than in any other time or place in history, yet the prison itself has never felt further away or more out of sight. This is a film about the prison in which we never see an actual penitentiary. The film unfolds a cinematic journey through a series of landscapes across the USA where prisons do work and affect lives, from an anti-sex-offender pocket park in Los Angeles, to a congregation of ex-incarcerated chess players shut out of the formal labor market, to an Appalachian coal town betting its future on the promise of prison jobs.
The Beguiled (2017)
Sofia Coppola · 1 critic vote
During the Civil War, at a Southern girls’ boarding school, young women take in an injured enemy soldier. As they provide refuge and tend to his wounds, the house is taken over with sexual tension and dangerous rivalries, and taboos are broken in an unexpected turn of events.
Unrest (2017)
Jennifer Brea · 1 critic vote
When Harvard PhD student Jennifer Brea is struck down at 28 by a fever that leaves her bedridden, doctors tell her it’s "all in her head." Determined to live, she sets out on a virtual journey to document her story—and four other families' stories—fighting a disease medicine forgot.
Waru (2017)
Ainsley Gardiner, Awanui Simich-Pene · 1 critic vote
Eight Māori female directors have each contributed a sequence to this powerful and challenging feature which unfolds around the tangi of a small boy who died at the hands of his caregiver.
Wonder Woman (2017)
Patty Jenkins · 1 critic vote
An Amazon princess comes to the world of Man in the grips of the First World War to confront the forces of evil and bring an end to human conflict.
Leave No Trace (2018)
Debra Granik · 1 critic vote
A father and daughter live a perfect but mysterious existence in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Oregon, rarely making contact with the world. But when a small mistake tips them off to authorities, they are sent on an increasingly erratic journey in search of a place to call their own.
Shakedown (2018)
Leilah Weinraub · 1 critic vote
‘Shakedown’ was a series of parties founded by and for African American women in Los Angeles that featured go-go dancing and strip shows for the city’s lesbian underground scene. Inspired by trans woman Mahogany who, as the mother of the scene, presided over queer strip shows and balls for non-heterosexual audiences in the 1980s, butch Ronnie Ron created, produced and presented the new shows. In them, the largely female clientele from the ‘hood’ slipped dollar notes into lap dancers’ panties while celebrating lesbian sexuality to pulsating hip-hop beats.
Shirkers (2018)
Sandi Tan · 1 critic vote
In 1992, teenager Sandi Tan shot Singapore's first indie road movie with her enigmatic American mentor Georges – who then vanished with all the footage. Twenty years later, the 16mm film is recovered, sending Tan, now a novelist in Los Angeles, on a personal odyssey in search of Georges' vanishing footprints.
The Chambermaid (2018)
Lila Avilés · 1 critic vote
Eve, a young chambermaid at a luxurious Mexico City hotel, confronts the monotony of long workdays with quiet examinations of forgotten belongings and budding friendships that nourish her newfound and determined dream for a better life.
Aniara (2019)
Pella Kågerman, Hugo Lilja · 1 critic vote
A ship carrying settlers to a new home on Mars after Earth is rendered uninhabitable is knocked off-course, causing the passengers to consider their place in the universe.
Booksmart (2019)
Olivia Wilde · 1 critic vote
Two academic teenage superstars realize, on the eve of their high school graduation, that they should have worked less and played more. Determined to never fall short of their peers, the girls set out on a mission to cram four years of fun into one night.
Lingua franca (2019)
Isabel Sandoval · 1 critic vote
Olivia, an undocumented Filipina immigrant paranoid about deportation, works as a caregiver to a Russian-Jewish grandmother in New York. When the man she’s secretly paying for a green card marriage backs out, she becomes involved with a slaughterhouse worker who is unaware that she’s a trans woman.
Papichaلللللاات (2019)
Mounia Meddour · 1 critic vote
Nedjma, an 18-year-old student passionate about fashion design refuses to let the tragic events of the Algerian Civil War keep her from experiencing a normal life. As the social climate becomes more conservative, she rejects the new bans set by the radicals and decides to put on a fashion show.
Beginning (2020)
Dea Kulumbegashvili · 1 critic vote
In a sleepy provincial town, a Jehovah’s Witness community is under attack from an extremist group. In the midst of this conflict is Yana, the wife of the community leader, whose familiar world is slowly crumbling around her. Meanwhile, a detective intrudes on her home with devastating consequences.
Shirley (2020)
Josephine Decker · 1 critic vote
A famous horror writer finds inspiration for her next book after she and her husband take in a young couple.
Black Widow (2021)
Cate Shortland · 1 critic vote
Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow, confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger.
I'm Your Man (2021)
Maria Schrader · 1 critic vote
Alma is a scientist coerced into participating in an extraordinary study in order to obtain research funds for her work. For three weeks, she has to live with a humanoid robot tailored to her character and needs, whose artificial intelligence is designed to be the perfect life partner for her. Enter Tom, a machine in human form in a class of its own, created solely to make her happy.
Language Lessons (2021)
Natalie Morales · 1 critic vote
For his 45th birthday, wealthy Californian Adam receives a surprise gift from his choreographer partner: 100 weekly Spanish lessons with Cariño, a vivacious expat who teaches virtually from her home in Costa Rica. Adam's unconvinced at first; a self-described “creature-of-habit”, he’s unsure about where or how this new element will fit into his carefully-structured routine.
Playground (2021)
Laura Wandel · 1 critic vote
When Nora witnesses Abel being bullied by other kids, she rushes to protect him by warning their father. But Abel forces her to remain silent. Caught in a conflict of loyalty, Nora will ultimately try to find her place, torn between children's and adult's worlds.
The Lost Daughter (2021)
Maggie Gyllenhaal · 1 critic vote
A woman's seaside vacation takes a dark turn when her obsession with a young mother forces her to confront secrets from her past.
The Souvenir Part II (2021)
Joanna Hogg · 1 critic vote
In the aftermath of her tumultuous relationship with a charismatic and manipulative older man, Julie begins to untangle her fraught love for him in making her graduation film, sorting fact from his elaborately constructed fiction.
Bergman Island (2022)
Mia Hansen-Løve · 1 critic vote
An English-German filmmaking couple retreat to Fårö for the summer to each write screenplays for their upcoming films in an act of pilgrimage to the place that inspired Ingmar Bergman. As the summer and their screenplays advance, the lines between reality and fiction start to blur against the backdrop of the Island's wild landscape.
The Woman King (2022)
Gina Prince-Bythewood · 1 critic vote
The story of the Agojie, the all-female unit of warriors who protected the African Kingdom of Dahomey in the 1800s with skills and a fierceness unlike anything the world has ever seen, and General Nanisca as she trains the next generation of recruits and readies them for battle against an enemy determined to destroy their way of life.
Women Talking (2022)
Sarah Polley · 1 critic vote
A group of women in an isolated religious colony struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony's men.
Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
Justine Triet · 1 critic vote
A woman is suspected of her husband's murder, and their blind son faces a moral dilemma as the sole witness.
How to Have Sex (2023)
Molly Manning Walker · 1 critic vote
Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday—drinking, clubbing and hooking up, in what should be the best summer of their lives.
Janet Planet (2023)
Annie Baker · 1 critic vote
In rural Western Massachusetts, 11-year-old Lacy spends the summer of 1991 at home, enthralled by her own imagination and the attention of her mother, Janet. As the months pass, three visitors enter their orbit, all captivated by Janet.
Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
Rose Glass · 1 critic vote
Reclusive gym manager Lou falls hard for Jackie, an ambitious bodybuilder headed through town to Las Vegas in pursuit of her dream. But their love ignites violence, pulling them deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.
The Substance (2024)
Coralie Fargeat · 1 critic vote
A fading celebrity decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself.
A House of Dynamite (2025)
Kathryn Bigelow · 1 critic vote
When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond.
Blue Heron (2025)
Sophy Romvari · 1 critic vote
In the late 1990s, a family of six settles into their new home on Vancouver Island, as internal dynamics are slowly revealed through the experiences of the youngest child, Sasha. Their fresh start is interrupted by the increasingly dangerous behavior of Jeremy, the family's oldest child.
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (2025)
Mary Bronstein · 1 critic vote
With her life crashing down around her, Linda attempts to navigate her child's mysterious illness, her absent husband, a missing person, and an increasingly hostile relationship with her therapist.
Sound of Falling (2025)
Mascha Schilinski · 1 critic vote
Four adolescent girls each spend their youth in the same farmhouse over the last century. Though separated by decades, resonances between their lives emerge: their desires and distress, secrets and truths, encounters with another’s gaze and defiant gaze in return.
The Ice Tower (2025)
Lucile Hadžihalilović · 1 critic vote
Jeanne, a 15-year-old orphan, witnesses the shoot for a film adaptation of the fairy tale The Snow Queen, and she becomes fascinated by its star, Cristina, an actress who is just as mysterious and alluring as the Queen she is playing.

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