Maria San Filippo
Associate Professor of Visual & Media Arts, Emerson College; Editor-in-chief, New Review of Film & Television Studies
USA
Voted for
| Film | Year | Director |
|---|---|---|
| Daisies | 1966 | Věra Chytilová |
| Wanda | 1970 | Barbara Loden |
| Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles | 1975 | Chantal Akerman |
| Vagabond | 1985 | Agnès Varda |
| CHOCOLAT | 1988 | Claire Denis |
| The Piano | 1992 | Jane Campion |
| The Watermelon Woman | 1997 | Cheryl Dunye |
| The Headless Woman | 2008 | Lucrecia Martel |
| Wendy and Lucy | 2008 | Kelly Reichardt |
| Portrait of a Lady on Fire | 2019 | Céline Sciamma |
Comments
In cine-feminist fashion, my list attempts both polemically and pragmatically to do its part in catapulting more women-directed works into the Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time.
But because there's never enough room/praise/glory/money for women filmmakers, a few more favorites:
The Bigamist (Ida Lupino, 1953)
I Don't Know (Penelope Spheeris, 1971)
A New Leaf (Elaine May, 1971)
Girlfriends (Claudia Weill, 1978)
Illusions (Julie Dash, 1982)
Desperately Seeking Susan (Susan Seidelman, 1985)
Working Girls (Lizzie Borden, 1986)
Jollies (Sadie Benning, 1990)
First Comes Love (Su Friedrich, 1991)
Bound (Lana Wachowski & Lilly Wachowski, 1996)
Walking and Talking (Nicole Holofcener, 1996)
À ma soeur! (Fat Girl, Catherine Breillat, 2001)
Laurel Canyon (Lisa Cholodenko, 2002)
Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay, 2002)
Red Road (Andrea Arnold, 2006)
The Loneliest Planet (Julia Loktev, 2011)
Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012)
Appropriate Behavior (Desiree Akhavan, 2014)
Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman, 2020)
Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2021)