Visible Women is Stylist’s year-long initiative to raise the profiles of important women past and present, and to empower future generations to follow their lead. Here, we highlight the badass female directors that are poised to send serious waves across the film industry in 2018…
As actress Salma Hayek recently highlighted, the number of films directed by women is a staggeringly low 4%. But in 2018, female-helmed movies are among the best.
With this in mind, say hello to the directors you need to watch this year…
Greta Gerwig – Lady Bird
Shut out from Golden Globes glory (much like every other female director), Greta Gerwig deserves huge acclaim for her wise and witty debut. Lady Bird is a 2002 comingof- age tale about student Christine McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) who is desperate to escape home, school and her mother.
Out 16 February.
Ava DuVernay – A Wrinkle in Time
After the Oscar-nominated Selma, Ava DuVernay (pictured) took on Disney’s new $100million sci-fi epic on the condition that she could hire a diverse cast. This is a radical adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 novel, with a black female lead and a cast that includes Mindy Kaling, Reese Witherspoon and Oprah Winfrey.
Out 9 March.
Lynne Ramsay – You Were Never Really Here
Tough films such as We Need To Talk About Kevin (2001) have established Lynne Ramsay as a top-rank director. You Were Never Really Here is a brutal and emotional offering with Joaquin Phoenix as a hitman who saves children from sexual exploitation.
Out 9 March.
Nora Twomey – The Breadwinner
With one Oscar nomination under her belt, Irish filmmaker Nora Twomey’s latest animation, about a young girl in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan who disguises herself as a boy, looks certain to see the animator back on the red carpet.
Out 25 May.
Jennifer Kent – The Nightingale
At the forefront of female directors invading the boys’ club of horror, Jennifer Kent’s 2014 film The Babadook was a genuine spook fest. The Australian director’s latest, The Nightingale, follows a young convict in 1825 Tasmania seeking revenge for her family’s murder, and promises to be equally chilling.
Out 2018.
Desiree Akhavan – The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Iranian-American Desiree Akhavan brought racial and sexual diversity to a post-Girls Brooklyn with Appropriate Behaviour (2014). The Miseducation Of Cameron Post, based on a Nineties-set YA novel about a teen girl sent to a gay conversion camp, stars Chloë Grace Moretz and Sasha Lane, and oozes classic potential.
Out 2018.
Love this? You’ll want to check out our pick of the 25 films every feminist should see in 2018.
To find out more about the Stylist Visible Women initiative, click here.
Main image: Rex Features
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