Entertainment
The Greatest Female Film Directors
List Rules
Only women who have directed major motion pictures or shorts
The best female directors include an Academy Award winner, members of Hollywood's royal families, and a whole bunch of ladies who make beautiful things happen when they're behind the camera. Though women might be the minority among the greatest directors in movie history, they are not any less talented than male directors, and are behind the best movies directed by women. Who is the best female director?
It's hard to argue against Kathryn Bigelow as a top pick for the best female director of all time. For her work on The Hurt Locker in 2009, she became the first woman to take home the prized Oscar for Best Director. Bigelow proved herself as no one-trick pony in 2012 when she received numerous accolades for her direction of Zero Dark Thirty.
Bigelow's Oscar buzz was easily the most mainstream of any female director in the recent past, but she surely isn't the first female director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. In 1976, Lina Wertmuller received a nomination for Seven Beauties; in 1993, Jane Champion was nominated for The Piano; and in 2003, Sofia Coppola, daughter of the great Francis Ford Coppola, was up for the award for Lost in Translation.
But for every Oscar-nominated female director, there are dozens right behind also creating great movies. Isa Lupino, Patty Jenkins, Penny Marshall, Nora Ephron, Nancy Meyers, and Amy Heckerling are just a few of those names and each directing poignant and quality films on a regular basis. Including American female film directors and more, this list of great women in directing has them all.
Vote for the best woman directors in Hollywood. Feel free to add any good female directors missing from the list. Only women who directed movies are qualified.
Ranked by
- 1Lady Bird
- Birthplace: Sacramento, California, United States of America
- Age: 38
Greta Celeste Gerwig (born August 4, 1983) is an American actress, screenwriter and film director. She first garnered attention after working on and appearing in several mumblecore films. Between ...more - 2Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker, Point Break
- Birthplace: San Carlos, California, United States of America
- Age: 70
Kathryn Ann Bigelow (; born November 27, 1951) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Covering a wide range of genres, her films include Near Dark (1987), Point Break (1991), ...more - 3The Piano, The Portrait of a Lady, Bright Star
- Birthplace: Wellington, New Zealand
- Age: 68
Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (born 30 April 1954) is a New Zealand screenwriter, producer, and director. Campion is the second of five women ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and ...more - 4Big, A League of Their Own, The Preacher's Wife
- Birthplace: The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
- Age: Dec. at 75 (1943-2018)
Carole Penny Marshall (October 15, 1943 – December 17, 2018) was an American actress, director, and producer. She came to notice in the 1970s for her role as Laverne DeFazio on the television sitcom ...more - 5Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette
- Birthplace: New York City, New York, United States of America
- Age: 51
Sofia Carmina Coppola (; born May 14, 1971) is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and former actress. The daughter of filmmakers Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola, she made her film debut ...more - 6Jacquot de Nantes, Jane B. for Agnes V., Le petit amour
- Birthplace: Brussels, Belgium
- Age: 94
Agnès Varda (French: [aɲɛs vaʁda]; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, photographer and artist. Her work was pioneering for, and central to, the development of the ...more - 7We Need to Talk About Kevin, Morvern Callar, Ratcatcher
- Birthplace: Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Age: 52
Lynne Ramsay (born 5 December 1969) is a Scottish film director, writer, producer, and cinematographer best known for the feature films Ratcatcher (1999), Morvern Callar (2002), We Need to Talk About ...more - 8Wonder Woman, Monster, Wonder Woman 2
- Birthplace: George Air Force Base, Victorville, California, United States of America
- Age: 50
Patricia Lea Jenkins (born July 24, 1971) is an American film and television director and screenwriter. She directed the films Monster (2003), Wonder Woman (2017), and the upcoming Wonder Woman 1984 ...more - 9Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Clueless, National Lampoon's European Vacation
- Birthplace: The Bronx, New York City, New York, USA
- Age: 68
Amy Heckerling (born May 7, 1954) is an American film director. An alumna of both New York University and the American Film Institute, she directed the commercially successful films Fast Times at ...more - 10American Psycho, The Notorious Bettie Page, I Shot Andy Warhol
- Birthplace: Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada
- Age: 69
Mary Harron is a Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter. She gained recognition for her role in writing and directing several independent films, including I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), American Psycho ...more - 11Sleepless in Seattle, You've Got Mail, Julie & Julia
- Birthplace: New York City, New York, United States of America
- Age: Dec. at 71 (1941-2012)
Nora Ephron ( EF-rən; May 19, 1941 – June 26, 2012) was an American journalist, writer, and filmmaker. She is best known for her romantic comedy films and was nominated three times for the Academy ...more - 12A Wrinkle in Time, Selma, 13th
- Birthplace: Long Beach, California
- Age: 49
Ava Marie DuVernay (; born August 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker and film distributor. She won the directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her ...more - 13Boys Don't Cry, Carrie, Stop-Loss
- Birthplace: USA, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
- Age: 54
Kimberly Ane Peirce (born September 8, 1967) is an American filmmaker best known for her debut feature film, Boys Don't Cry (1999), which won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Hilary Swank's ...more - 14Frida, Across the Universe, A Midsummer Night's Dream
- Birthplace: USA, Massachusetts, Newton
- Age: 69
Julie Taymor (born December 15, 1952) is an American director and writer of theater, opera and film. Since her adaptation of The Lion King debuted in 1997, 24 global productions have been seen by ...more - 15Little Women, Charlotte Gray, Death Defying Acts
- Birthplace: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Age: 71
Gillian May Armstrong (born 18 December 1950) is an award-winning Australian feature film and documentary director, who specializes in period drama. Her films often feature female perspectives and ...more - 16Certain Women, Night Moves, Meek's Cutoff
- Birthplace: Miami, Florida, United States of America
- Age: 58
Kelly Reichardt (; born March 3, 1964) is an American screenwriter and film director. She is known for her minimalist-style films, many of which deal with working class characters in small, rural ...more - 17Little Man Tate, Home for the Holidays, The Beaver
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA
- Age: 59
Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress, director, and producer. She has received two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, two Golden Globe ...more - 18Fish Tank, Wuthering Heights, American Honey
- Birthplace: Dartford, United Kingdom
- Age: 61
Andrea Arnold, OBE (born 5 April 1961) is an English filmmaker and former actress. She won an Academy Award for her short film Wasp in 2005. Her feature films include Red Road (2006), Fish Tank ...more - 19Wayne's World, Black Sheep, The Little Rascals
- Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America
- Age: 76
Penelope Spheeris (born December 2, 1945 or 1946; sources differ) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. She has directed both documentary film and scripted films. Her best known ...more - 20Stories We Tell, Take This Waltz, Away from Her
- Birthplace: Toronto, Canada
- Age: 43
Sarah Ellen Polley (born January 8, 1979) is a Canadian actress, writer, director, producer and political activist. Polley first garnered attention as a child actress for her role as Ramona Quimby ...more - 21Winter’s Bone, Down to the Bone, Leave No Trace
- Birthplace: Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Age: 59
Debra Granik (born February 6, 1963) is an American filmmaker. She is most known for 2004's Down to the Bone, which starred Vera Farmiga, 2010's Winter's Bone, which starred Jennifer Lawrence in her ...more - 22Desperately Seeking Susan, She-Devil, Making Mr. Right
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
- Age: 69
Susan Seidelman (born December 11, 1952) is an American film director, producer and writer. She came to prominence in the 1980s with Smithereens, the first American independent feature to be screened ...more - 23Bastards, White Material, 35 Shots of Rum
- Birthplace: Paris, France
- Age: 76
Claire Denis (born 21 April 1946) is a French film director and writer. Her feature film Beau Travail (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s. Other acclaimed works include ...more - 24The Parent Trap, It's Complicated, The Holiday
- Birthplace: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Age: 72
Nancy Jane Meyers (born December 8, 1949) is an American film director, producer and screenwriter. She is the writer, producer and director of several big-screen successes, including The Parent Trap ...more - 25Lowlands, The Blue Light
- Birthplace: Berlin, Germany
- Age: Dec. at 101 (1902-2003)
Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (German: [ˈʁiːfn̩ʃtaːl]; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director and actress.Born in 1902, Leni Riefenstahl grew up with her brother ...more
