Every female filmmaker at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival

The programme has been announced, the statistics digested, and now the good stuff starts, the chance to see and discuss the films in the Festival. Forty percent of the films in the LFF may have female directors, but who are all these women and what have they made?

An exciting trend across the Festival is the high number of feature films from first- and second-time directors, which gives the whole programme an energy, even more so when considering the bold directions this filmmaking is taking. Exemplifying this crop, Mirrah Foulkes’ extraordinary debut Judy & Punch slides feminist separatist politics into a thrilling fairytale romp, Mati Diop’s hotly anticipated Atlantics pushes forward genre to electrifying effect, and Rose Glass’s Scarborough-set saviour-complex stunner Saint Maud is set to make your jaw drop.

These firestarters join established talents such as Haifaa Al-Mansour, Jessica Hausner, Marielle Heller, Agnieszka Holland, Kasi Lemmons, Anocha Suwichakornpong and Rebecca Zlotowski, who have each built a body of work that defies convention. And we are chuffed that visionaries Kim Longinotto and Céline Sciamma will be surveying their careers in dedicated Screen Talk events, while Nina Menkes, in town to present the restoration of underground classic Queen of Diamonds, will be giving a free performance of her barn-storming lecture ‘Sex & Power: The Visual Language of Oppression’.

Internationally, South Korea sees a particularly strong year for female-directed work, with four films in the Festival which consider the lives of girls and women in wildly divergent ways: House of Hummingbird, Heart, Maggie, and The House of Us. And looking beyond the auteurist fixation on directors, French cinematographers Hélène Louvart and Claire Mathon delight with two films apiece, while an especially exciting DoP talent to watch is Anna Valdez-Hanks who lenses both Hope Gap in bold inviting tones and Experimenta/Short Film Competition sci-fi In Vitro in stunning monochrome framing. While Rocks sees an abundance of female talent, including many heads of department, and an approach to collaborative screenwriting that puts the film’s charismatic Hackney schoolgirls at its core.

The Treasures section includes the restoration world premiere of Unheimlich II: Astarti, which is a monumental 2k restoration of Maria Klonaris and Katerina Thomadaki’s Super8 opus, and in a break with our own tradition of only screening new restorations, the Treasures strand is screening a new print of Wanda Tuchok’s Finishing School – because really, who could resist a pre-Code girls’ school romp with Ginger Rogers, condemned by the Legion of Decency?

And so below we present every film in the Festival with a female director. Many of these films have tickets still available, and there is a Discovery Pass for Female Filmmakers if you would like to try three films for £30. We hope you enjoy experiencing a multitude of perspectives over the 12 days of the Festival.

1. #21xoxo / short / Sine Ozbilge and Imge Ozbilge
2. 37 Seconds / feature / Hikari
3. A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood / feature / Marielle Heller
4. A Family Affair / short / Florence Keith-Roach
5. A Line Was Drawn / short / Mairead McClean
6. A Love / short / Anne-Marie Copestake
7. A Thief’s Daughter / feature / Belén Funes
8. Abominable / feature / Jill Culton
9. Again Once Again / feature / Romina Paula
10. Algo-rhythm / short / Manu Luksch
11. An Easy Girl / feature / Rebecca Zlotowski
12. Antarctic Traces / short / Michaela Grill
13. Apart / short / Diana / Van Nguyen
14. Arab Blues / feature / Manele Labidi
15. Atlantics / feature / Mati Diop
16. Babyteeth / feature / Shannon Murphy
17. Be Still My Beating Heart / short / Ruth Paxton
18. Big Toast / short / Sacha Beeley
19. Black Bus Stop / short / Claudrena N. Harold and Kevin Jerome Everson
20. Bombay Rose / feature / Gitanjali Rao
21. Breast Friends / short / Caitlin Young
22. Child / short / Talia Zucker
23. Chlorine / short / Melissa Anastasi
24. Circus of Books / feature / Rachel Mason
25. Clemency / feature / Chinonye Chukwu
26. Cloudberries / short / Ruth Maclennan
27. Cunningham / feature / Alla Kovgan
28. Dawn in the Dark / short / Runyararo Mapfumo
29. Dawn of a New Gay / short / Rosie Gaunt-Mathieson
30. The Deathless Woman / feature / Roz Mortimer
31. Desrances / feature / Apolline Traoré
32. Duck Daze / short / Alison Piper
33. Duerrenwaid 8 / short / Kirsten Ines Geißer and Carina Ines Geißer
34. Eastern State / short / Talena Sanders
35. End-O / short / Alice Seabright
36. Entre / short / Ana Bárbara / Marinho Carolina Santos
37. Exchange Student / short / Natalie Nourigat
38. Eyes on the Road / short / Stefanie Kolk
39. The Father / feature / Kristina Grozeva and Peter Valchanov
40. Fi Dem II / short / Zinzi Minott
41. The Finishing School / feature / Wanda Tuchock and George Nichols Jr
42. The Friend / feature / Gabriela Cowperthwaite
43. Ghost Dance / short / Emilia Izquierdo
44. Good Heart / short / Evgeniya Jirkova
45. Grandad Was a Romantic / short / Maryam Mohajer
46. Harriet / feature / Kasi Lemmons
47. Heart / feature / Ga-young Jeong
48. Home Sweet Home / short / Maria Robertson
49. Honey Boy / feature / Alma Har’el
50. Hope Frozen / feature / Pailin Wedel
51. Hot and Tasty / short / Laura Hodkin
52. House of Hummingbird / feature / Bora Kim
53. The House of Us / feature / Ga-eun Yoon
54. Humblebrag / short / Sinéad O’Shea
55. I Am Mackenzie / short / Artemis Anastasiadou
56. I Am (Not) a Monster / feature / Nelly Ben Hayoun
57. I Die of Sadness Crying for You / feature / Nina Danino
58. If You Knew / short / Stroma Cairns
59. In Vitro / short / Larissa Sansour and Soren Lind
60. Instinct / feature / Halina Reijn
61. Instructions on How to Make a Film / short / Nazli Dincel
62. Jericho / short / Sarah Andrews and Aaron Hopwood
63. Judy & Punch / feature / Mirrah Foulkes
64. The Juniper Tree / feature / Nietzchka Keene
65. The Kingmaker / feature / Lauren Greenfield
66. Kitchen Beets / short / Bea Haut
67. Krabi, 2562 / feature / Anocha Suwichakornpong and Ben Rivers
68. The Lamb / short / Nina Violić
69. Lingua Franca / feature / Isabel Sandoval
70. Little Joe / feature / Jessica Hausner
71. The Lodge / feature / Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala
72. Losing Pace / short / Naomi Soneye-Thomas
73. Lost Tune / short / Shahnaz Sattar
74. Love Me Tender / feature / Klaudia Reynicke
75. Love the Sinner / short / Jennifer Sheridan
76. Lucky Grandma / feature / Sasie Sealy
77. Made in Bangladesh / feature / Rubaiyat Hossain
78. Maggie / feature / Yi Ok-seop
79. Mahalia Melts in the Rain / short / Emilie Mannering and Carmine Pierre-Dufour
80. Make Up / feature / Claire Oakley
81. Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound / feature / Midge Costin
82. Maternal / feature / Maura Delpero
83. Mensch Maschine or Putting Parts Together / short / Adina Camhy
84. Miller & Son / short / Asher Jelinsky
85. Mother of Fire / short / Farah Al Qasimi
86. Mr. Jones / feature / Agnieszka Holland
87. Muybridge’s Disobedient Horses / short / Anna Vasof
88. Nest / short / Sonja Rohleder
89. Nocturnal / feature / Nathalie Biancheri
90. Noura’s Dream / feature / Hinde Boujemaa
91. Oh My Homeland / short / Stephanie Barber
92. Olla / short / Ariane Labed
93. Ordinary Love / feature / Lisa Barros and Glenn Leyburn
94. The Orphanage / feature / Shahrbanoo Sadat
95. The Other Lamb / feature / Malgorzata Szumowska
96. Our Sister / short / Rosie Westhoff
97. Overseas / feature / Sung-A Yoon
98. Pattaki / short / Everlane Moraes
99. Pelourinho: They Don’t Really Care about Us / short / Akosua Owusu
100. The Perfect Candidate / feature / Haifaa Al-Mansour
101. Perfect 10 / feature / Eva Riley
102. Portrait of a Lady on Fire / feature / Celine Sciamma
103. Queen of Diamonds / feature / Nina Menkes
104. Rain, Rain, Run Away / short / Clémentine Carrié
105. Rare Beasts / feature / Billie Piper
106. Rehearsal / short / Courtney Thérond
107. Relativity / feature / Mariko Minoguchi
108. Rocks / feature / Sarah Gavron
109. Roots / short / Hussina Raja
110. Rose Plays Julie / feature / Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor
111. Ruptures / feature / Brad Butler and Noor Afshan Mirza
112. Saint Maud / feature / Rose Glass
113. The Sasha / short / Maria Molina Peiró
114. Scales / feature / Shahad Ameen
115. The Sharks / feature / Lucía Garibaldi
116. Shooting the Mafia / feature / Kim Longinotto
117. Sister / feature / Svetla Tsotsorkova
118. The Sky Is Pink / feature / Shonali Bose
119. Sojourner / short / Cauleen Smith
120. Something in the Closet / short / Nosa Eke
121. Spring Fever / short / Anna Snowball
122. Staff Only / feature / Neus Ballus
123. Stand Still / short / Isabella Wing-Davey
124. The Stroker / short / Pilvi Takala
125. Suicide by Sunlight / short / Nikyatu Jusu
126. System Crasher / feature / Nora Fingscheidt
127. Tertiary Sound / short / Solomia Dzhurovska and Luca Struijk
128. That Which Is to Come Is Just a Promise / short / Flatform
129. They / short / Louisa Rechenbach
130. Transnistra / feature / Anna Eborn
131. The Trap / short / Lena Headey
132. Trouble / feature / Mariah Garnett
133. Under Covers / short / Michaela Olsen
134. Unheimlich II: Astarti / feature / Katerina Maria and Klonaris Thomadaki
135. Us Among the Stones / feature / Dictynna Hood
136. Video Home System / short / Sharlene Bamboat
137. Walking with Shadows / feature / Aoife O’Kelly
138. Watermelon Juice / short / Irene Moray
139. What Do You Know about the Water and the Moon / short / Jian Luo
140. White Girl / short / Nadia Latif
141. White Riot / feature / Rubika Shah