The MoFo Top 100 Films Directed By Women: The Countdown

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Welcome to the human race...

Yes, it's finally here.

Many obstacles stood in the way of this countdown - perhaps the most unorthodox one this forum has seen yet due to its unusual key criteria - but now it's happened. It seemed like such a simple idea at the time - so many countdowns had been successful using no less arbitrary a detail as the decade (or decade-and-a-bit) in which a film was made, so why not shake up the established decade-genre-decade formula with a comparatively outside-the-box key criteria such as...whether or not the directors were women. If best-of-decade lists could be said to represent the best that the filmmakers of a given time period had to offer, then this list could highlight the best that female filmmakers - representing half the population while only making up about a tenth of its filmmakers - had to offer. What could possibly go wrong?

Yeah, about that...

At first, people were hesitant to go along with the idea because the criteria seemed a little too arbitary - after all, how many people really cared about a director's gender when watching a movie anyway? Factor in the question of whether or not to allow films where men and women shared directing credit (they were ultimately not allowed) or exactly which Wachowski films would be eligible (all of them) and this countdown faced an uphill battle from the day it was announced (and that's without mentioning the delays...). Anyway, none of that matters now. What matters is that we did ultimately pull together and give this countdown enough votes in order to create a full Top 100, and that's going to begin right here, right now. Titles should be revealed at a rate of two per day until it gets to the top ten. Please avoid posting your full vote until the countdown's over, chat about the entries as they're posted, and so on and so forth.

Here is the final list of everyone who voted:

ScarletLion
sarah f
gbgoodies
frightened inmate no 2
jai90
rauldc14
jiraffejustin
Captain Spaulding
Miss Vicky
re93animator
HashtagBrownies
Ms. M
cat_sidhe
Okay
Citizen Rules
mark f
dadgumblah
77topaz
Fabulous
I. Rex
Yoda
urkillinmesmalls
mojofilter
The Rodent
TheUsualSuspect
edarsenal
cricket
Thursday Next
Chypmunk
seanc
Camo
Siddon
Velvet
Sexy Celebrity
Pussy Galore
7thson
CiCi
Iroquois

And now, let this begin...
__________________
I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



Welcome to the human race...
The List:

100. The Invitation (Karyn Kusama)
99. The Edge of Seventeen (Kelly Fremon Craig)
98. The Dead Girl (Karen Moncrieff)
97. Private Parts (Betty Thomas)
96. Mudbound (Dee Rees)
95. The Voices (Marjane Satrapi)
94. The Holiday (Nancy Meyers)
93. Chocolat (Claire Denis)
92. Away From Her (Sarah Polley)
91. Julie and Julia (Nora Ephron)
90. Bound (Lana and Lilly Wachowski)
89. What Women Want (Nancy Meyers)
88. Billy Madison (Tamra Davis)
87. Deep Impact (Mimi Leder)
86. Kitchen Sink (Alison Maclean)
85. Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley)
84. Pet Sematary (Mary Lambert)
83. Across the Universe (Julie Taymor)
82. Raw (Julia Ducournau)
81. Beach Rats (Eliza Hittman)
80. Mamma Mia! (Phyllidia Lloyd)
79. The Selfish Giant (Clio Barnard)
78. Pariah (Dee Rees)
77. Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt)
76. Olivier, Olivier (Agnieszka Holland)
75. Bridget Jones' Diary (Sharon Maguire)
74. The House is Black (Forugh Farrokzhad)
73. Children of a Lesser God (Randa Haines)
72. Clueless (Amy Heckerling)
71. Harlan County U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple)
70. The Slumber Party Massacre (Amy Holden Jones)
69. You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay)
68. Le bonheur (Agnès Varda)
67. A New Leaf (Elaine May)
66. Thirteen (Catherine Hardwicke)
65. Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston)
64. Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
63. Monsoon Wedding (Mira Nair)
62. Something's Gotta Give (Nancy Meyers)
61. Wadjda (Haifaa Al-Mansour)
60. The Dressmaker (Jocelyn Moorhouse)
59. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (Lorene Scafaria)
58. Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman)
57. The Hitch-Hiker (Ida Lupino)
56. Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt)
55. Marie Antoinette (Sofia Coppola)
54. Mustang (Deniz Gamze Ergüven)
53. The Decline of Western Civilisation (Penelope Spheeris)
52. Nothing Bad Can Happen (Katrin Gebbe)
51. 13th (Ava DuVernay)
50. Vagabond (Agnès Varda)
49. Frida (Julie Taymor)
48. Titus (Julie Taymor)
47. Real Genius (Martha Coolidge)
46. Whale Rider (Niki Caro)
45. The Heartbreak Kid (Elaine May)
44. Tank Girl (Rachel Talalay)
43. Orlando (Sally Potter)
42. Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt)
41. Olympia (Leni Riefenstahl)
40. Detroit (Kathryn Bigelow)
39. Mikey and Nicky (Elaine May)
38. The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Lotte Reiniger)
37. Blackfish (Gabriela Cowperthwaite)
36. Winter's Bone (Debra Granik)
35. You've Got Mail (Nora Ephron)
34. Wayne's World (Penelope Spheeris)
33. Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda)
32. Take This Waltz (Sarah Polley)
31. Little Women (Gilliam Armstrong)
30. Red Road (Andrea Arnold)
29. The Virgin Suicides (Sofia Coppola)
28. Ratcatcher (Lynne Ramsay)
27. Morvern Callar (Lynne Ramsay)
26. A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (Ana Lily Amirpour)
25. Ravenous (Antonia Bird)
24. Europa Europa (Agnieszka Holland)
23. American Honey (Andrea Arnold)
22. Monster (Patty Jenkins)
21. The Piano (Jane Campion)
20. The Matrix (Lana and Lilly Wachowski)
19. A League of their Own (Penny Marshall)
18. The Ascent (Larisa Shepitko)
17. Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins)
16. The Babadook (Jennifer Kent)
15. Sleepless in Seattle (Nora Ephron)
14. Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Amy Heckerling)
13. Awakenings (Penny Marshall)
12. Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold)
11. Boys Don't Cry (Kimberley Peirce)
10. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow)
9. Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow)
8. Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow)
7. Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)
6. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
5. Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow)
4. Big (Penny Marshall)
3. We Need To Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay)
2. American Psycho (Mary Harron)
1. Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola)



Welcome to the human race...
The One-Pointers:

Women's Day (Maria Sadowska)

Blood Diner (Jackie Kong)

River of Grass (Kelly Reichardt)

The Nativity Story (Catherine Hardwicke)

Nowhere Boy (Sam Taylor-Johnson)

Craig's Wife (Dorothy Arzner)

Je, tu, il, elle (Chantal Akerman)

Megan Leavey (Gabriel Cowperthwaite)

She-Devil (Susan Seidelman)

Half Baked (Tamra Davis)



Welcome to the human race...
#100.
Now and Then

(dir. Lesli Linka Glatter, 1995)



1 x 5th, 1 x 19th, 1 x 25th
=
29 points





Welcome to the human race...
#99.
The Invitation

(dir. Karyn Kusama, 2015)



1 x 8th, 1 x 14th
=
30 points





The One-Pointers:

Women's Day (Maria Sadowska)

Blood Diner (Jackie Kong)

River of Grass (Kelly Reichardt)

The Nativity Story (Catherine Hardwicke)

Nowhere Boy (Sam Taylor-Johnson)

Craig's Wife (Dorothy Arzner)

Je, tu, il, elle (Chantal Akerman)

Megan Leavey (Gabriel Cowperthwaite)

She-Devil (Susan Seidelman)

Half Baked (Tamra Davis)
Je, tu, il, elle is mine. Insane Lesbians rolling around naked movie with random creepy trucker interlude. I dunno though, the end when she actually meets her ex is the quickest i've felt something between a couple in probably anything. She also gets diabetes from a big bag of sugar, 'tis awesome.

River of Grass is the only Reichardt i didn't like. Looked pretty and quite liked the soundtrack but it was just way too dull.

Is She-Devil that film with Roseanne Barr? My mum loves that.

Really liked Half Baked the first time i saw it but it was one of those films i didn't see for at least a decade and when i did it didn't hold up.



Now and Then was one of my votes. It's a sweet movie about friendship and growing up.

ETA: Just checked my ballot and I'm the one that had it at 5.



Holy crap, Now and Then was almost my #25. I wrote a big embarrassing thing about it in this thread (the other thread, this was moved while i was writing this post) which i deleted. Basically it's a Stand By Me for girls to simplify it, but i liked it much more than Stand By Me. It got me obsessed with the idea of sneaking out of my house in the middle of the night and having adventures with my friends, we planned to do so several times but it never materialized. Thank god, i would have definitely gotten kidnapped and sold into white slavery. It also has Ouija Boards, a murder mystery and a creepy/sad old man story.



Now and Then looks like something I'll need to watch. I have a soft spot for those coming of age / childhood films. Hopefully there's not too much of the "now" in there. Also who ever made that trailer probably wanted no one to see the film - the narration is horrible.



Welcome to the human race...
Haven't seen Now and Then but it's on my to-do list.

I remember The Invitation getting some serious go-in-cold hype a couple of years back thanks to its creepy dinner-party-gone-wrong premise and slow-burning horror that really doesn't deserve to be talked about in length, but I did ultimately find the final result rather lacking.



Now and Then looks like something I'll need to watch. I have a soft spot for those coming of age / childhood films. Hopefully there's not too much of the "now" in there. Also who ever made that trailer probably wanted no one to see the film - the narration is horrible.
The "Now" is awful but there's not that much of it, and yeah the narration is by Demi Moore so it's terrible, it's very Wonder Years-esque. Thankfully it's not as prominent as it is in The Wonder Years though, it's generally only used when there's a big change in time or events iirc.

No idea what an adult would think of it for the first time, i'll probably never watch it again coz i have such good childhood memories of it which would probably be ruined.



Also one of the celebrity deaths to hit me the most was when i found out years later the actress that played the redhead kid died of a heroin overdose when she was around 20 Probably a combination of how young she was and that she was so unfortunate in the film that it affected me so much.



Glad to see you got this do me-Iro. 29 point for 100 is higher than I expected. I don’t expect that I’ve seen many from This list so im siren I’ll find some new titles to watch
__________________
Yeah, there's no body mutilation in it



Blood Diner


I also had one any guesses as to which one that is?
The Nativity Story? Think i've seen you mention Hardwicke before.

And yeah Cat i realized it was probably that after looking at your avatar and back at the list haha.