2024 saw some huge films directed by women, including The Substance, Love Lies Bleeding and Nightbitch, but a recent report found that women still only accounted for 16% of directors working on the 250 highest-grossing domestic releases, according to new research from the Centre for the Study of Women in Television and Film in the US. And the higher you climb, the worse the situation gets: women directed just 11% of the 100 most popular films.

Even though some women directors are working on high profile projects, such as the likes of Greta Gerwig and Sofia Coppola, these women still only remain a handful of directors when compared to the wider film industry. With such disheartening findings, we wanted to highlight the women-led films that are slated for release this year that we’re really excited about.

So, here are the best female-led films to look out for in 2025.

The Last Showgirl, directed by Gia Coppola

In Gia Coppola’s stunning new film, the glittering Las Vegas revue she has headlined for decades announces it will soon close, so a glamorous showgirl, Shelly (played by Pamela Anderson), must come to term with the decisions she’s made and the community she has built as she plans her next act.

Babygirl, directed by Halina Reijn

An early but strong favourite for 2025 is Babygirl. The film brilliantly captures a woman’s erotic experiences without shying away from the jagged edges of these desires, and Nicole Kidman’s performance is already one of the main talking points of awards season.

Kidman plays a powerful CEO, Romy, who engages in a forbidden affair with an alluring and much younger intern, Samuel, played by Harris Dickinson. Romy seems to have it all. A glamorous job at a robotics firm. A handsome theatre director for a husband and two teenage daughters. A beautiful home in the New York suburbs. But she still feels as though something is missing from her life – in particular her sex life.

The Salt Path, directed by Marianne Elliott

Based on Raynor Winn’s bestselling memoir of the same name and starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, The Salt Path sees a married couple receive a bad health diagnosis and forcibly removed from their home, and so, they make the desperate decision to walk. They decide to walk the South West Coast Path – the longest uninterrupted footpath in England – from Minehead to Poole along the Devon, Cornwall and Dorset coast. In their walking, they hope they will find solace and a sense of acceptance.

The Bride!, directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal

One of two Frankenstein adaptations we’re getting this year, The Bride! is set in 1930s Chicago and puts a spin on the iconic Frankenstein story we’ve all come to know and love. But this story has a twist. Jessie Buckley’s murdered young woman is revived, and her new life surprises her creators as she lusts for romance and ignites a radical social movement. Christian Bale also stars as Frankenstein’s monster, as well as Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard and Annette Bening.

Materialists, directed by Celine Song

With Past Lives becoming one of the biggest films of 2023, fans have been eagerly awaiting details of Celine Song’s next project. Her directorial debut warmed and devastated our hearts, and now, we’ve seen our first glimpses of Song’s new film, Materialists.

A lot of the plot details are still being kept under wraps, but we do know that the film will be a New York-set romantic comedy that follows a professional matchmaker called Lucy (Dakota Johnson) who gets involved with a wealthy man, but still harbours feelings for the broke actor-waiter she left behind.

Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao

Directed by Oscar-winning Chloé Zhao, Hamnet reimagines the story of Agnes – the wife of the world’s most famous writer, William Shakespeare – as she comes to terms with the loss of her son, Hamnet. “It is a story of the bond between twins, and of a marriage pushed to the brink by grief… and an unforgettable reimagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, but whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays ever written,” reads the novel’s synopsis.

The film stars Paul Mescal as a character based loosely on a young William Shakespeare, and Jessie Buckley as his wife, Anne Hathaway (named Agnes in the book).

Die, My Love, directed by Lynne Ramsay

Die, My Love is the new thriller from Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, which adapts the 2017 novel of the same name by Ariana Harwicz. Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson and LaKeith Stanfield, the film is set in rural America and is a portrait of a woman (Lawrence) who is struggling with motherhood and her sanity and ends up being engulfed by love and madness. Pattinson plays her husband, and Stanfield, her lover.

Images: A24; Black Label Media