# The 20 Best Movies Directed by Women

> Across four decades and nearly every genre — gut-punch war dramas, candy-colored teen comedies, slow-burn arthouse romances, even a blockbuster or two — these are the films that prove the director's chair was always theirs. Which one tops your list?

*By YPB Team · Published June 30, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-20-best-movies-directed-by-women*

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## Current results (6 votes)

1. **The Hurt Locker** — 66.67% (4 votes · score 1000/1000)
   Kathryn Bigelow's tense 2008 Iraq War thriller about a reckless bomb-disposal expert, which made her the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar.
2. **The Babadook** — 33.33% (2 votes · score 692/1000)
   Jennifer Kent's 2014 Australian psychological horror about a grieving mother haunted by a storybook monster.
3. **Lost in Translation** — 0% (0 votes · score 478/1000)
   Sofia Coppola's 2003 melancholic comedy about two Americans forming an unlikely bond in a Tokyo hotel.
4. **Persepolis** — 0% (0 votes · score 478/1000)
   Marjane Satrapi's 2007 animated coming-of-age film about a girl growing up during the Iranian Revolution.
5. **Past Lives** — 0% (0 votes · score 433/1000)
   Celine Song's 2023 romantic drama about two childhood friends reconnecting decades after one emigrated from Korea.
6. **Big** — 0% (0 votes · score 433/1000)
   Penny Marshall's 1988 fantasy comedy about a boy who wakes up in a grown man's body, the first film by a woman to gross over $100 million.
7. **Selma** — 0% (0 votes · score 433/1000)
   Ava DuVernay's 2014 historical drama chronicling Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1965 voting-rights march.
8. **Portrait of a Lady on Fire** — 0% (0 votes · score 433/1000)
   Celine Sciamma's 2019 French romance about a painter and her subject falling in love on an isolated island.
9. **Daughters of the Dust** — 0% (0 votes · score 433/1000)
   Julie Dash's lyrical 1991 film about a Gullah family at the turn of the century, the first by a Black woman to get U.S. theatrical release.
10. **Boys Don't Cry** — 0% (0 votes · score 433/1000)
   Kimberly Peirce's 1999 drama based on the true story of trans man Brandon Teena, earning Hilary Swank an Oscar.
11. **Wonder Woman** — 0% (0 votes · score 382/1000)
   Patty Jenkins's 2017 superhero blockbuster about the Amazonian warrior Diana entering the world of men during WWI.
12. **American Psycho** — 0% (0 votes · score 382/1000)
   Mary Harron's 2000 satirical horror about a wealthy Wall Street banker leading a murderous double life.
13. **The Piano** — 0% (0 votes · score 324/1000)
   Jane Campion's 1993 Palme d'Or-winning period drama about a mute Scottish woman and her piano in colonial New Zealand.
14. **Fish Tank** — 0% (0 votes · score 324/1000)
   Andrea Arnold's 2009 British drama about a volatile teenage girl on an Essex housing estate.
15. **Clueless** — 0% (0 votes · score 260/1000)
   Amy Heckerling's 1995 teen comedy reimagining of Jane Austen's Emma in Beverly Hills high school.
16. **Lady Bird** — 0% (0 votes · score 260/1000)
   Greta Gerwig's 2017 coming-of-age film about a strong-willed Sacramento teenager and her mother.
17. **Winter's Bone** — 0% (0 votes · score 260/1000)
   Debra Granik's 2010 Ozarks drama about a teenage girl searching for her father to save her family's home.
18. **Nomadland** — 0% (0 votes · score 185/1000)
   Chloe Zhao's 2020 Best Picture winner following a woman living as a modern-day nomad across the American West.
19. **The Farewell** — 0% (0 votes · score 185/1000)
   Lulu Wang's 2019 dramedy about a family hiding a terminal diagnosis from their beloved grandmother.
20. **Promising Young Woman** — 0% (0 votes · score 185/1000)
   Emerald Fennell's 2020 revenge thriller about a woman avenging a trauma from her past.

Tags: movies, directors, women