10 Best New Hollywood Movies Directed by Women, Ranked

There is no soft way to say that Hollywood is an extremely male-dominated industry, where women-driven projects have to fight for a (rarely given) seat at the table. Just look at how long it's taken for Kristen Stewart to secure financing for her project based on Lidia Yuknavitch's book The Chronology of Water. When women do get a chance to direct a movie, they're much more likely to hire other women (61% of writers are women vs. only 9% of women writers on films directed by men, for example). Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, was the biggest box office winner in 2023. Though nominated for many Academy Awards, Best Director was not one. In fact, 99% of all Best Director Academy nominations have gone to men. Only seven women have ever been nominated for Best Director, and only three have won: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2009), Chloé Zhao for Nomadland (2020), and Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog (2021).

During the era of New Hollywood (roughly mid-1960s to early 1980s), it was even rarer for a studio to back a female director. Hollywood was competing with television and foreign cinema, the baby boomers had changed the demographics of moviegoers, and legislation had broken up the monopolies of the Big Studios that dominated the Golden Age of Hollywood, a time when studios controlled every aspect of filmmaking. New Hollywood was a time when directors were given major control over their movies for the first time, backed by studio funding in hopes of winning bigger audiences. Directors such as Martin Scorsese, John Cassavetes, Steven Spielberg, Roman Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas emerged during this time. While there were lots of short films directed by women during that time, feature-length movies were not as common. Here are 10 of the best New Hollywood-era movies that were directed by women (by the way, it wasn't until 1992 that a feature movie directed by an African American woman would be distributed theatrically in the United States. That movie was Daughters of the Dust, written and directed by Julie Dash.)

10 'Chilly Scenes of Winter' (1979)

Directed by Joan Micklin Silver

Originally released as Head Over Heels, and based on the novel by Ann Beattie, Chilly Scenes of Winter was Silver's first studio-backed film. Silver had no formal film training but had already directed two independent movies (Hester Street and Between the Lines).

Starring a riveting John Heard as Charles and Mary Beth Hurt as Laura, Chilly Scenes of Winter is a story about obsessive love. Although Silver described it as a rom-com, Charles borders on creepy in his need to dominate and control Laura. Silver keeps the lens unflinchingly focused on Charles, resulting in an uncomfortably tender examination of a potential aggressor. Actors reportedly loved working with Silver, who would go on to direct many more movies and TV shows, including Crossing Delancey in 1988.

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9 'Mikey and Nicky' (1976)

Directed by Elaine May

John Cassavetes and Peter Falk in Elaine May's Mikey and Nicky — Image via Paramount Pictures

Elaine May, one of the most prolific directors of New Hollywood, wrote and directed this film. Mikey and Nickey has the gritty, realistic feel of similar New Hollywood movies, like Taxi Driver. Peter Falk and John Cassavetes star as two lifelong friends, one of whom has a hit out on him by their mutual boss. The movie takes place over one night in New York City.

May was more of a Hollywood insider than other women directors, having been a long-time collaborator with Mike Nichols. Mikey and Nicky is her third feature-length film.

8 'The Heartbreak Kid' (1972)

Directed by Elaine May

Charles Grodin and Jeannie Berlin in The Heartbreak Kid — Image via 20th Century Studios

Also directed by Elaine May, The Heartbreak Kid has a very different feel from Mikey and Nicky. Ben Stiller remade this movie in 2007, and whether or not you like the remake, the original is worth seeing. Starring Charles Grodin as the impulsive newlywed Lenny, Jeannie Berlin as his devoted new wife Lila, and Cybill Shepherd as the "perfect" woman Lenny meets and falls in love with on his honeymoon, the movie ranks 91 on AFI's list of 100 Funniest American Movies of All Time.

The Heartbreak Kid is rife with social commentary, with the Village Voice calling it "the culminating work of Hollywood's Jewish new wave". Neil Simon wrote the screenplay based on a short story by Bruce Jay Friedman. May elicited wonderful performances from the entire cast.

7 'A New Leaf' (1971)

Directed by Elaine May

A New Leaf 3 — Image via Paramount Pictures

Elaine May wrote, directed, and starred in A New Leaf, her feature-length directorial debut. Walter Matthau co-stars as Henry, a committed bachelor who has spent all his money and targets Henrietta (May), a wealthy single botanist, as the answer to his money problems. This dark romantic comedy follows Henry's plot to murder Henrietta, while slowly realizing she's actually perfect for him.

Stylistically, A New Leaf straddles New Hollywood and Golden Hollywood with its crisp sets, witty banter, and modern female heroine. Like many New Hollywood films directed by women, the themes grapple with women moving into the workforce and what this means for hetero relationships.

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6 'Girlfriends' (1978)

Directed by Claudia Weill

Girlfriends tells the story of Susan (Melanie Mayron) and Anne (Anita Skinner), two young women trying to make it in New York City as a photographer and a writer, respectively. Anne chooses to get married and move to the suburbs, while Susan clings to her independence and life in the city.

When Girlfriends came out, movies that centered female friendships were unusual. There is also a plotline about abortion, another topic unusual in cinema at the time. Girlfriends was Claudie Weill's directorial debut. She produced the movie as well, scraping together funds through grants and loans.

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5 'Hester Street' (1975)

Directed by Joan Micklin Silver

A woman (played by Carol Kane) and a man (played by Steven Keats) stand with a rabbi (played by Zvee Scooler) in a room in a scene from the movie Hester Street. — Image via Midwest Films

Adapted from Abraham Cahan's 1896 novella Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto, Hester Street was adapted for the screen and directed by Joan Micklin Silver. Silver's first feature length film, Hester Street is a moving, complicated story about Jewish immigrants living in the Lower East Side of New York City in 1896.

Steven Keats stars as Yankel, a young man immigrating from Eastern Europe in 1896. Yankel arrives before his wife and son, and he decides to assimilate into American culture as quickly as possible, changing his name to Jake and even beginning an affair with a dancer named Mamie. Carol Kane stars as Gitl, Yankel's wife, who struggles to assimilate like Yankel. Their marriage disintegrates while they each try to hold onto their respective values. Shot in black and white, Hester Street is a captivating glimpse into early American Jewish culture.

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4 'Harlan County, USA' (1977)

Directed by Barbara Kopple

Harlan County, USA - 1976 — Image via Cabin Creek Films

Harlan County, USA has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes for good reason. Shot in the style of cinéma vérité, which greatly influenced New Hollywood, Harlan County, USA is an emotionally raw documentary that follows a group of Kentucky coal miners as they go on strike against Duke Power Company in 1973. Kopple and her crew lived with the coalminers' families for years, documenting the strike that eventually led to murder before an agreement was reached.

Kopple's documentary captures a quintessential American story of working class people fighting to keep food on their tables while their employers get ever wealthier. Harlan County, USA feels like an important documentary for all Americans to watch, as it reveals essential truths about what binds us together across political, racial and class divides. Harlan County, USA won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 1975. Kopple has gone on to have a long, successful career directing many movies and television shows, winning multiple Emmys and other awards along the way.

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3 'Losing Ground' (1982)

Directed by Kathleen Collins

A woman named Sara (played by Seret Scott) sits on a couch next to a man named Victor (played by Bill Gunn) in the movie Losing Ground.

Losing Ground was Kathleen Collins's first and only feature film. She died in 1988 at the age of 46. Losing Ground never had a theatrical release and was largely overlooked during Collins's lifetime. Her daughter Nina Collins, restored the film's negatives nearly thirty years after her mother's death. Since then, the film has been widely praised and is considered a landmark of independent movies.

In Losing Ground, Sara (Seret Scott) is a professor who is unhappily married to her painter husband Victor (Bill Gunn). So that her husband can feel inspired, they rent a house for the summer in upstate New York where Victor starts an affair with a woman, and Sara is cut off from her research project on ecstacy. The movie explores race, gender, marital expectations, and sensuality with deftness and a touch of dark humor.

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2 'Wanda' (1971)

Directed by Barbara Loden

Wanda inside a car looking ahead in Wanda — Image via Bardene International Films

Wanda was written by, directed by, and starring Barbara Loden, who was working in Hollywood as a young actress at the time. Loden felt outside of Hollywood, having been raised in the Appalachian mountains by working class parents. She died of breast cancer in 1980 at the age of 48.

Wanda tells the story of Wanda (Barbara Loden), a quiet woman in rural Pennsylvania who has left her husband, her children, and seems to be drifting aimlessly. Wanda is quickly spotted by several men, who use her sexually and discard her. The movie painfully explores the lack of agency most women had in the 1970's. While it never had a wide theatrical release and was panned by many critics at the time, Wanda has gone on to be a favorite of many filmmakers and is now regarded as an essential movie of New Hollywood.

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1 'Not a Pretty Picture' (1975)

Directed by Martha Coolidge

The movie director Martha Coolidge sits on a mattress with two actors in a scene of Not a Pretty Picture — Image via Janus Films

Not a Pretty Picture is available to rent on Prime and Apple TV but it is well worth the small price. Uncomfortable to watch, Not a Pretty Picture is a hybrid documentary and fiction experimental film that explores director Martha Coolidge's own experience of being raped as an adolescent. Coolidge cast Michele Maneti to play herself. Maneti, also a survivor of sexual assault, and her cast mates discuss date rape, consent, and self-blame.

Coolidge kept the cameras running as the project turned into a metafilm, with actors discussing the movie while they made it, and exploring the moral merits of depicting sexual violence on screen. Not a Pretty Picture dove headfirst into the climate of New Hollywood, daring to take the movement to its most uncomfortable edges and asking how real we actually want our movies to get.