Well, with the notional 'year' element that came with the #52FilmsByWomen pledge out the window, this is now my 9th batch of 52 "films" since I started in 2016. Also, the strict "films" also thrown out as a number of these are TV movies and mini-series. This blog covers films/TV shows watched between 12 December 2020 and 8 April 2021 that were directed/co-directed by women.
Read about films: 1 – 52, 53 - 104, 105 - 156, 157 - 208, 209 - 260, 261 - 312, 313 - 365 and 366 - 417.
Films 455 to 463 I watched as part of my March themed viewing of films for Women's History Month, disappointed that only 9 of the 24 were directed by women, will need to do better next year. You can see all films watched for Women's History Month here. The '52' also boosted by some television films via BBC's Sherlock and Wallander, and two mini-series directed by Susanne Bier, The Night Manager and The Undoing and Black Narcissus. So not all films!
From these 52 films,10 were revisits with the remainder being new to me, including a clutch of films directed by the British film director Wendy Toye, her short On The Twelfth Day made my Top 10, and is featured in Mark Cousin's exhaustive documentary, Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema (2018) which I am part-way through watching as I write this blog. From the just over 300 films this documentary features, I've seen about a third, so plenty of catching up to do!
Here's my top 10 from the 42 first-time watches this month, eight live-action feature films, one animated feature and one short film.
Wonder Woman (2009, Lauren Montgomery)
American Honey (2016, Andrea Arnold)
Judy & Punch (2019, Mirrah Foulkes)
Morvern Callar (2002, Lynne Ramsay)
On The Twelfth Day (1955, Wendy Toye)
52 Tuesdays (2013, Sophie Hyde)
Misbehaviour (2020, Philippa Lowthorpe)
Hysteria (2011, Tanya Wexler)
The Glorias (2020, Julie Taymor)
Shirley (2019, Josephine Becker)
You can read reviews of all these films on my letterboxd.
Films 418 - 469
418. Radioactive (2019, Marjane Satrapi)
419. Ornette: Made in America (1985, Shirley Clarke)
420. Wonder Woman (2017, Patty Jenkins)
421. Wonder Woman (2009, Lauren Montgomery)
422. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020, Patty Jenkins)
423. Professor Marston and the Wonder Women (2017, Angela Robinson)
424. Half Baked (1998, Tamra Davis)
425. Making Mr Right (1987, Susan Seidelman)
426. Panto! (2014, Jeane Finlay)
427. The Secret Theatre (2020, Jess & Morg)
428. American Honey (2016, Andrea Arnold)
429. Harlan County U.S.A. (1976, Barbara Kopple)
430. Bride & Prejudice (2004, Gurinder Chadha)
431. Judy & Punch (2019 , Mirrah Foulkes)
432. Morvern Callar (2002, Lynne Ramsay)
433. Ride Like a Girl (2019, Rachel Griffiths)
434. The Stranger Left No Card (1952, Wendy Toye)
435. Stranger in Town (1982, Wendy Toye)
436. Sherlock: The Six Thatchers (2017, Rachel Talalay)
437. All for Mary (1955, Wendy Toye)
438. Death to 2020 (2020, Al Campbell & Alice Mathias)
439. Strange Days (1995, Kathryn Bigelow)
440. True as a Turtle (1957,Wendy Toye)
441. Black Narcissus (2020, Charlotte Bruus Christensen)
442. On The Twelfth Day (1955, Wendy Toye)
443. RBG (2018, Julie Cohen & Betsy West)
444. Poms (2019, Zara Hayes)
445. Peepli Live (2010, Anusha Rizvi)
446. Fool's Fire (1992, Julie Taymor)
447. Vita & Virginia (2018, Chanya Button)
448. Silenced: The Hidden Story of Disabled Britain (2021, Kate Scholefield)
449. Austenland (2013, Jerusha Hess)
450. Boundaries (2018, w/d. Shana Feste)
451. Totally Under Control (2020, Alex Gibney, Ophelia Harutyunyan & Suzanne Hillinger)
452. The Watermelon Woman (1996, Cheryl Dunye)
453. Laggies (2014, Lynn Shelton)
454. 52 Tuesdays (2013, Sophie Hyde)
455. Misbehaviour (2020, Philippa Lowthorpe)
456. Hysteria (2011, Tanya Wexler)
457. Jane Fonda in Five Acts (2018, Susan Lacy)
458. Radium Girls (2018, Lydia Dean Pilcher/Ginny Mohler)
459. A Call to Spy (2017, Lydia Dean Pilcher)
460. Bessie (2015, Dee Rees)
461. The Glorias (2020, Julie Taymor)
462. Shirley (2019, Josephine Becker)
463. Woman Walks Alone (2017, Susanna White)
464. The Night Manager (2016, Susanne Bier)
465. A New Leaf (1971, Elaine May)
466. The Undoing (2020, Susanne Bier)
467. Wallander - Faceless Killers (2010, Hettie MacDonald)
468. Wallander - The Fifth Woman (2010, Aisling Walsh)
469. Material Girls (2006, Martha Coolidge)
Here's to flying through the next 52!