While you’re probably familiar with the directorial work of Nora Ephron, Barbra Streisand, Ava DuVernay, and Nancy Meyers, you may not know as much about the early female filmmakers who blazed a path for their success. Here are five outstanding talents (who, thanks to retrospectives and streamers, are experiencing a mini-renaissance) whose work will thrill, inform, and amaze you.
Ida Lupino
A professed favorite of one Martin Scorsese, this British dynamo—and successful actor—directed an astonishing eight features in an era when few women were behind the camera. She took on tough films about tough subjects (including polio and sexual assault), often in the noir genre, with the appropriate hard edges and grit. As Scorsese wrote in the New York Times, “Her work is resilient, with a remarkable empathy for the fragile and the heartbroken.”
Essential viewing: “The Hitch-Hiker” (1953) is the first female-directed American noir film, and it’s a perfect distillation of Lupino’s point of view.
Shirley Clarke
A staple of counterculture and a key figure in the rise of cinema vérité, Clarke is trailblazer in independent filmmaking. She made her movies on small budgets, bringing concise intents that resulted in revelations about her subjects. Her best-known film is 1963’s “The Cool World,” about a Harlem youth gang, which eschewed many of the stereotypes common in the genre.
Essential viewing: “The Cool World” is a great choice, but “Portrait of Jason” (1967) is even better. This documentary, which centers on a charismatic gay Black hustler and cabaret performer, is (sadly, still) one of incredibly few cinematic glimpses into the life of a male, queer person of color speaking in their own words.
Barbara Loden
Before she was a director, Loden was an acclaimed but underutilized actor. She hit her stride in movies like “Wild River” (1960) and “Splendor in the Grass” (1963), both helmed by her eventual husband, Elia Kazan. 1970’s “Wanda” was the only feature she ever directed, but it made a deep imprint on indie films about the everyday lives of women on the fringes. Sadly, Loden only lived to age 48.
Essential viewing: “Wanda” follows a desperate mother who joins a bank robber on a life-changing odyssey. Loden’s sense of time and place is unerring. Despite receiving a shrug from critics upon its initial release, the film is now considered a classic; it was inducted into the Library of Congress in 2017, and it was listed at an impressive No. 48 on the 2022 Sight and Sound critics’ poll.
Lina Wertmüller
One of the foremost Italian filmmakers of all time, Wertmüller also holds the distinction of being the first woman to be nominated for a best director Oscar. Her works blend allegory, political awareness, and working-class ethics and ethos; they also possess a certain majesty in their imagery. One of her most notable admirers, Guy Ritchie, remade her torrid 1974 romance “Swept Away” with his then-wife Madonna to, let’s say, diminishing returns.
Essential viewing: The Oscar-nominated “Seven Beauties” (1975) remains just as much of an immersive gut punch as it was when it debuted. Set at a concentration camp in World War II, it’s a startling tale that possesses Wertmüller’s trademark dark humor and sexual undertones.
18 Women Film Directors You Should KnowJoan Micklin Silver
The late Ephron is widely considered the go-to for movies about journalists and unlikely romances (sometimes even in the same story); but Silver actually got there first. After making her successful debut with the moody immigrant story “Hester Street” (1975)—which earned its star, Carol Kane, an Oscar nod—she wrote quirky character flicks with an urbane pulse. A notable example is the marvelous “Between the Lines,” (1977), a rediscovered gem set in the newsroom of an alt-weekly paper; the film features great turns from John Heard, Lindsay Crouse, and Jeff Goldblum.
Essential viewing: Silver’s best-known movie is 1988’s “Crossing Delancey,” a delightful rom-com that brings the “rom” and “com” without the syrupy muck, plus lots of local NYC color. Amy Irving and Peter Riegert are a pair for the ages.