Don’t Sleep on These Films *Not* Directed by Men in 2025
Do not leave these off your watchlist!
Let’s take a look back at the films woman and nonbinary directors released in 2025, from Academy Award winners to debut filmmakers. You don’t want Natalie Portman shading you at the Golden Globes.
It’s no fun fact that the number of female-directed films declined in 2025, according to a study by a UK campaign group called Reclaim the Frame. Because of that, I don’t think we can afford to miss out on the ones that were. Allow me to highlight the masterpieces, crowd-pleasers, hidden gems, and combinations therein!
Hamnet
Director: Chloé Zhao
There’s never been a better time to be an Eternals fan. Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of the Maggie O’Farrell novel, a speculative historical fairy tale about Agnes Hathaway, is easily one of the best films of the year. You can see all of the William Shakespeare’s beautifully complex heroines in Jessie Buckley’s Agnes; but at the same time I’d argue that this story is not about or trying to explain Shakespeare. He’s a character like any other. It’s a sonnet about grief and a duet between a city mouse and a country mouse.
The Mastermind
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Josh O’Connor, one of 2025’s most employed actors, is such a delicious dirtbag in this Vietnam War era heist movie. His incompetence sneaks up on you. The sleepy, soft New England setting lulls you in. One of my favorite things about Kelly Reichardt as a filmmaker is how she uses silence. You see that in The Mastermind especially in scenes between O’Connor and the director’s frequent collaborator John Magaro, as well as a quietly gripping sequence with O’Connor on a ladder in a barn. His crime spree spirals into one of the year in film’s best final moments and (again, silent) punchlines.
Hedda
Director: Nia DaCosta
Zhao is not the only former director of an underrated MCU film to release a lush period adaptation in 2025–The Marvels‘ own Nia DaCosta did that as well with a new and deeply feminine take on Henrik Ibsen’s play Hedda Gabler. The film, which stars Tessa Thompson, Nina Hoss, Imogen Poots, and Tom Bateman, is set in the 1950s and changes the infamous ending. (Truly, if you know one think about Hedda Gabler… and yet!) Regardless, it’s lush and chaotic in a way that feels both refreshing and befitting of 2025.
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Director: Mary Bronstein
Stressful, frantic, and with a powerhouse performance from Rose Byrne. There sure have been a lot of movies these days about how much having kids turns you inside out. We’ve really been through some stuff in the last five years. Fun fact: Mary Bronstein’s previous feature film starred Greta Gerwig and both of the Safdie brothers. While you can definitely tell that they used to run in the same crowd, isn’t it interesting how the mumblecore generation has evolved and diverged since the 2010s?
KPop Demon Hunters
Director: Maggie Kang, Chris Appelhans
This one has a male co-director, but it would be hard to leave such a phenomenon off of this list. This is Maggie Kang’s first film as a director. She previously worked as a story artist and storyboard artist on animated films including Rise of the Guardians, Puss in Boots, Shrek Forever After, and Trolls. We gotta make sure that she never, ever stops making films! KPop Demon Hunters, an animated musical that is actually exactly what the title describes, was such an exiting, at times romantic, and hilarious banger!
Die My Love
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Lynne Ramsay knew exactly what she was doing when she cast two iconic millennial teen idols, Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence, as a once hip couple who moves to the country to raise their newborn son and loses their dang minds. Casting Sissy Spacek, a.k.a. Carrie from the movie Carrie, as the mother of Pattinson’s character also felt deliberate. I could watch them, Lawrence especially, crawl around and scream through the boredom horrors all day. The kind of movie that I, as a woman, feel in my DNA even though my own experiences are vastly different.
The Old Guard 2
Director: Victoria Mahoney
The long-awaited sequel to one of my favorites of 2020 (which itself was directed by another great female director, Gina Prince-Bythewood) didn’t get the buzz that I wanted it to in 2025. Victoria Mahoney’s film introduced new characters played by Henry Golding and Uma Thurman. It reunited the international immortal mercenaries with great, brightly-colored visuals. There’s a fantastic duel between Charlize Theron’s Andy and her estranged ex-girlfriend Quyhn, played by Victoria Ngô, that I’m still thinking about. While I think I still prefer the first film, it felt good to see these characters again. I love how they fight and I love how they enjoy each other’s company. More, please?
Oh, Hi!
Director: Sophie Brooks
Big for those who support women’s rights and women’s wrongs. Big for those who love to say “good for her” whether they mean it or not. The film follows a woman who accidentally kidnaps a guy she’s been seeing. She pulls a teeny tiny bit of a Misery. Who among us, you know? Molly Gordon, who co-wrote the screenplay with Sophie Brooks, is not afraid to do err on the side of unlikable. She’s kind of like a martyr for female protagonists in that way. It’s funny, dangerous, perverse, and ultimately not that serious. Like it’s fine. Right? It’s fine.
Materialists
Director: Celine Song
Celine Song’s follow-up to Past Lives looked like an 90s/00s romantic comedy and been marketed like an 90s/00s romantic comedy. But tonally, we were in for a few surprises. It was far more of a character study than a paint-by-numbers romcom. Materialists had, in my humble opinion, a lot more to say about the nature of attraction and the economy of love than even its biggest champions give it credit. There’s a moment where Dakota Johnson’s character silently realizes that she’s dating a stranger that I found so striking. Unfortunately, barely anybody talked about that moment because a very silly (but not not planted in the script) reveal happened seconds later and upstaged it… tough!
Sorry, Baby
Director: Eva Victor
What an incredible writing and directing debut for Eva Victor, actor and former Reductress writer. It doesn’t hurt that their ensemble cast includes Naomi Ackie, who also had a great year with roles in Mickey 17 and The Thursday Murder Club, as well as Louis Cancelmi and Lucas Hedges. Sorry, Baby has already been nominated for and won a ton of awards this year. Here’s hoping for more!
The Testament Of Ann Lee
Director: Mona Fastvold
A few years ago, Amanda Seyfried won a Golden Globe but was not present at the ceremony because she was, and I quote, “deep in the process of creating a new musical.” Now we finally know what that’s all about, right? At least, that’s what I think this is about. Mona Fastvold directed and co-wrote the film with her husband Brady Corbet (who was responsible for last year’s The Brutalist, which Fastvold co-wrote with him) about the community that would become the Shakers in 18th century America and England.
A House of Dynamite
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director in 2010 for The Hurt Locker. May we never forget that it took that long. Her latest stars Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, and Anthony Ramos. Like many of Bigelow’s films, it’s a political thriller. We may never get Point Break‘s Bigelow back… but that’s okay!
Merrily We Roll Along
Director: Maria Friedman
I’m smuggling this onto the list, a bit, because it’s a professionally shot Broadway stage production from 2023 that was filmed in 2024 and released in cinemas in 2025. But how can you not talk about how Friedman turned Steven Sondheim’s infamous flop into a massive hit? How can you not celebrate the chemistry between Daniel Radcliffe, Lindsey Mendez, and Jonathan Groff both on the stage and during the press tour? Friedman caught lightning in a bottle multiple times with this one.
Freakier Friday
Director: Nisha Ganatra
The legacy sequel to the 2003 body-swap comedy was sort of a salute to all things Lindsay Lohan for reasons I still don’t understand. Why were there Mean Girls and Parent Trap references? That said, I’m not complaining. Ganatra made a laugh-out-loud studio comedy and we need more of those! She also cast Manny Jacinto as a romantic lead, which the people have been rightfully clamoring for, and therefore deserves some kind of medal of honor.
Five Nights At Freddy’s 2
Director: Emma Tammi
Finally, it was cool to see the 2023 surprise box office smash from female director get a sequel in 2025. There’s already a third one lined up, as well! Women love horror! (Well, I personally don’t… but I wouldn’t dare speak for every one of us.) Give them all the keys to the franchises! Somebody’s gotta do it.
(featured image: Focus Features)
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