In this 2020 film, a teenage girl struggles to take care of herself and her younger brother after her mother’s abrupt departure. We get joyful and uplifting moments in her friendships with her female school friends, and it showcases teenage girlhood so beautifully.

Directed by Lorene Scafaria, this brilliant film crackles with energy about power dynamics, friendship and female empowerment. It shows the dancers as three-dimensional humans, even though the world around them doesn’t treat them with such dignity.

Plus, it’s packed with A-listers such as Jennifer Lopez, Constance Wu, Lili Reinhart, Keke Palmer, Madeline Brewer, Lizzo and Cardi B.

A girls’ holiday, what could go wrong? Amy Poehler even revealed that the film was inspired by the real-life holidays that she and the SNL gang have been taking for years, ensuring that they get quality time together away from their work schedules.

Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) are best friends, both equally committed to their goal of studying hard to get into the best colleges. But on the night before graduation (Molly is valedictorian, naturally) the pair discover that their classmates who partied hard also got into good colleges. The pair decide that this is their last chance to have the high school experience they’ve always railed against, and thus begins their quest to go to dance the night away at a truly epic house party.

Written and directed by Olivia Wilde, Booksmart is an intelligent and modern approach to female friendship when it is at its most heightened and most fraught – high school. 

In Animals, based on the book by Emma Jane Unsworth of the same name, Laura (Holliday Grainger) and Tyler (Alia Shawkat) are two 30-year-olds wrestling with the idea that the party might be over. As Laura commits to a new relationship and struggles to turn her ideas into a novel, Tyler battles against the idea that turning 30 means that you have to slow down. The film is a bittersweet meditation on growing up.

In this, the ultimate friendship movie, Thelma and Louise are bonded together in their desire to live on their own terms. And, for 129 magnificent minutes, they do. Real heroines who would kill or be killed for each other, they are icons of freedom and friendship.

A black and white indie that made huge waves at Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals back in 2012, Frances Ha centres on the life of hapless dancer Frances (Greta Gerwig) and her friendship with best buddy Sophie (Mickey Sumner) as she attempts to overcome her chronic arrested development.

Oh, how we weep when Beaches comes on the telly. The tale of an unlikely friendship between rich debutante Hillary (Barbara Hershey) and brash child performer CC (Bette Midler), as they navigate the ups and downs of life – love triangles and terminal diseases included – before realising they really are the wind beneath each other’s wings.

Who doesn’t want to be friends with Romy and Michele? They make their own clothes, create amazing dance routines, watch Pretty Woman and eat crisps while flicking through Vogue. Plus they totally love each other and realise their friendship is way more important than impressing the A-group. They also have a flip-phone, in case anyone needs to make a call.

Jokes about anal bleaching don’t pop up in movies every day but such is the level of intimacy in Bridesmaids, a comedy with a band of strong female leads, including Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Rose Byrne, which prompted a “women can be funny” shocker the world over.

Who isn’t in Steel Magnolias? Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts laugh, cry and compare menfolk in a Louisiana beauty parlour and rally round each other with an iron will when one of the Southern belles tragically dies.

There are many, many reasons why we love Clueless (not least Cher’s revolving wardrobe and matching plaid mini-suit) but it’s the friendship between Cher, Dionne and Tai that comes top. Hurling an insult like “you’re a virgin who can’t drive” in the middle of a fight may be harsh but who hasn’t fought with their best friend like that?

An unapologetically non-romantic drama about women and female friendships, The Help deserved every Oscar it got. Black maids Aibileen and Minny support each other through hardships and develop an unexpected bond with ambitious Skeeter, played by Emma Stone. The friendship between Skeeter and her bigoted school friends is equally compelling, showing how friendship changes as we mature.

With Ivana Trump’s advice – “Don’t get mad; get everything” – in mind, Diane Keating, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler unite to exact revenge on their ex-husbands. While it might be hard to find positive tales of female friendship on film, it’s practically impossible to find examples where the women are over 50. Plus, they’re all hilarious, which makes it a great all-rounder.

Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell are a pair to be reckoned with in this classic 1950s film with its unexpectedly feminist storyline about sexually confident showgirls Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw. Marilyn Monroe may have sung that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but her loyalty to her buddy comes before any rich suitors.

Following four best friends on a trip to New Orleans, Girls Trip is a riot of bonding, partying and reminiscing. Unmissable.

Lady Bird and Julie go through the classic rollercoaster of teen life, but one thing stays the same: their friendship. 

Screenwriter Callie Khouri (of Thelma & Louise fame) made her directorial debut with this adaptation of a pair of popular novels by author Rebecca Wells. Starring Sandra Bullock, it’s the story of a secret society of feminist empowerment and friendship dubbed the “Ya-Ya Sisterhood.”

Challenging the idea that women’s only happily-ever-after life choice is in marriage, Julia Robert’s first major film follows three teenagers working in a pizza restaurant one summer as they try to decide what route to take through life. Unfortunately the girls’ friendships with each other ends up acting as a backdrop to their various romantic entanglements.

“There’s no crying in baseball,” so what does Madonna think she’s doing on the field? When the men-folk were off fighting in the second world war, leaving a shortage of men’s baseball teams, it’s down to Geena Davis and Rosie O’Donnell to play some ball, with a little help from their friends, of course.

Based on a cult comic book, Scarlett Johansson and Thora Birch star as snarky teen buddies who tear down anyone who crosses their path with scathing (and very funny) putdowns. Their high-school graduation party “is so bad it’s gone past good and back to bad again”. They may hate everyone and everything, but at least they have each other.

An all-female cast made the 1939 version of The Women a pioneering film. Joan Crawford stars as husband-stealing Crystal Allen, prompting New York’s society women to rally around Mary, their betrayed friend. The film was remade in 2008 starring Meg Ryan and Eva Mendes, but it lacked the charm and wit of the original.

What is it about beauty salons in movies that bond women together? Whitney Houston stars in this surprise Hollywood hit about four affluent women who share their stories over lunches and conversations at their friend’s salon.

Can you think of anything lovelier than spending the summer sewing a quilt with some old ladies who impart advice and tell stories about the good old days? Lucky old Winona Ryder did just that in How To Make An American Quilt.

This quirky 1988 film stars Marianne Sägebrecht as a German woman abandoned by her husband in the Mojave desert. She is taken in by an unconventional community, where she forms an unlikely friendship with a cafe owner.

Up for a feminist road trip? Anyone unsure what that might entail can ask Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Drew Barrymore who, on a journey to the west coast of America, discover the bonds among women are more powerful than any of life’s obstacles.

Ever had one of those really intense friendships where you plot to murder people who get in your way? No? Well, Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey do when their extreme bond and fantastical imaginings fuel a fatal obsession. Remarkably, the film is based on a true story and Winslet’s character grew up to become a mystery novelist.

The film version of Amy Tan’s bestselling novel about the clash between generations, The Joy Luck Club is formed when four Chinese women arrive in the United States after the second world war and gather weekly to play mahjong and tell stories of their families.

Not your usual light entertainment, Julia was nominated for 11 Oscars in 1977 for its story of the lifelong relationship between struggling playwright Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda) and Julia (Vanessa Redgrave), a wealthy girl who turns her back on her upbringing to battle the Nazi regime.

Demi Moore, Melanie Griffith, Rosie O’Donnell and Rita Wilson are friends from childhood who get together for the first time in years for a wander down memory lane to the summer of 1970, when they were 12 years old and life was all boys, training bras and first kisses.

Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton have been working nine to five for their chauvinistic, sleazy boss until they can’t take it any more. So they do what any sane person would: smoke pot, eat barbecue and concoct hilarious revenge fantasies about killing him.

When times get tough for you and your buddies, it’s tempting to turn to a life of crime. But this thriller about four struggling women who start robbing banks to escape their Los Angeles housing project might put you off.

Pre-Carrie, Sarah Jessica Parker could be found (frizzy hair and out of control eye-brows in tow) hanging out with a totally cool and hip Helen Hunt, who convinces SJP that girls deserve to have fun and she should totally sneak out at night to try out for a spot on beloved show Dance TV.

Sometimes you need a friend to push you out of your comfort zone and, while we all love a bit of Abba, unhappy Muriel (Toni Collette) is in serious need of a wake-up call when she befriends carefree Rhonda (Rachel Griffiths), who, on a road-trip to Sydney, encourages her to take control of her life.

Girls can be mean. Boys can be mean. Hey, we can all be mean sometimes. But no one is meaner than Regina George. Based in part on a book by a professional youth counsellor, Queen Bees And Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends And Other Realities Of Adolescence, the film is brilliant at portraying the pecking order among teenage girls.

Remember when all you wanted to do was start a band with your best friends? Well, Joan Jett and Cherie Currie blazed the trail with their 70s female rock group the Runaways, brought to life here by Kristen Stewart and Dakota Fanning.

Based on the Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple (1985 version) stars Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey as Southern women sold into a life of servitude, whose friendship allows the women to resist oppression and dominance in a world filled with male violence.

A 2010 film dramatising the Ford sewing machinists’ strike in 1968 has a cast of flawed but brilliant women who band together to fight for equal pay.

Anyone who’s a fan of a Hollywood wedding ending might be disappointed by Mona Lisa Smile, where Julia Roberts tries to convince her art history students that there’s more to life than bagging Mr Right.

The story of what happens when women bond in a psychiatric institution. Starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, Girl, Interrupted was based on the autobiography of Susanna Kaysen, who spent 18 months on a psychiatric hospital.

They cheer and they lead; they act like they’re on speed – they’re cheerleaders. And cheerleading is a discipline like any other and requires a great deal of team-work and cooperation – something Kirsten Dunst learns as she and her cheerleading buddies compete for the national championship.

Not only friends but serial entrepreneurs, the seven members of The Baby-Sitters Club are so sweet they’re almost sickly.