25 new films by female direc­tors you need to see in 2018

It’s an oft repeat­ed fact that there are far too few female direc­tors being giv­en a chance to make films. You can roll out the num­bers – that in 2016 female direc­tors made up account­ed for just sev­en per cent of Hollywood’s total out­put. You could also peel away the imbal­ance for a moment and high­light the num­ber of bril­liant female direc­tors head­lin­ing an array of titles com­ing out in 2018. With that in mind, here are 25 new works by female film­mak­ers worth keep­ing an eye out for.

Direct­ed by Josie Rourke
Released 14 Sep­tem­ber, 2018

There’s a lot of hype orbit­ing the lat­est effort from famed the­atre direc­tor Josie Rourke, as it pits two Oscar-win­ning actors against one anoth­er. Saoirse Ronan plays the tit­u­lar Mary Stu­art attempt­ing to over­throw Mar­got Robbie’s Queen Eliz­a­beth I – with dire consequences.

Direct­ed by Jen­nifer Yuh Nel­son
Released 10 August, 2018

Get ready for your next dose of adapt­ed YA fic­tion that could eas­i­ly spawn a fran­chise. The woman behind Kung Fu Pan­da 2 and 3 is bring­ing Amand­la Sten­berg, Har­ris Dick­in­son, Mandy Moore and Gwen­do­line Christie along for this future-set sci-fi. Resis­tance fight­ing teenage pro­tag­o­nists tack­le an oppres­sive regime, and they’ve got the super­nat­ur­al abil­i­ties to do so.

Direct­ed by Bani Khosh­nou­di
Released TBC

It’s been six years since the Iran-born, Texas-raised director’s last fea­ture, Ziba, so it’s excit­ing to see Bani Khosh­nou­di return with what looks like anoth­er tight­ly wound dra­ma. Chart­ing the escape of Ramin, a gay man in his thir­ties, from the repres­sion of Iran, Luciér­na­gas fol­lows his slow inte­gra­tion to a new way of life in Mexico.

Direct­ed by Miran­da Bai­ley
Released TBC

Not con­tent with being a very suc­cess­ful pro­duc­er of inde­pen­dent films in the US, Miran­da Bai­ley has decid­ed to step up to the director’s chair for her fea­ture debut. Join­ing her for this com­e­dy-dra­ma are stand-up come­di­an Jim Gaffi­gan as the father with a secret fam­i­ly who gets rum­bled by his son.

Direct­ed by Amma Asante
Released TBC

Amma Asante is a very intrigu­ing film­mak­er, some­one who is will­ing to turn her hand to a wide vari­ety of projects. Fol­low­ing the suc­cess of 2013’s Belle and 2016’s A Unit­ed King­dom, the British writer/​director is back with a sto­ry of bira­cial love and sur­vival, set in Nazi Germany.

Direct­ed by Eliz­a­beth Chomko
Released 12 Octo­ber, 2018 (US); TBC (UK)

Play­wright and actress Eliz­a­beth Chomko has pulled in the big guns here, includ­ing Michael Shan­non, Blythe Dan­ner, Josh Lucas and Robert Forster. But it’s Hilary Swank lead­ing the charge in What They Had as the woman who returns home to con­front her past.

Direct­ed by Agniesz­ka Smoczyńs­ka
Released TBC

Agniesz­ka Smoczyńska’s musi­cal mer­maid comedy/​drama/​horror The Lure was one of the most inter­est­ing releas­es of 2015. Details for her fol­low-up, Fuga, are scarce; a dra­ma about the social pres­sure of how a woman should live her life and the bur­den of moth­er­hood. Expect it to be far dark­er and less straight­for­ward than this.

Direct­ed by Veroni­ka Franz
Released TBC

As far as psy­cho­log­i­cal hor­rors go, 2014’s Good­night Mom­my was the hor­ri­fy­ing shot in the arm the genre bad­ly need­ed. Veroni­ka Franz teams up again with Sev­erin Fiala on direct­ing duties for The Lodge, a film revolv­ing around yet more famil­ial issues as a moth­er bat­tles cab­in fever and psy­cho­log­i­cal demons while snowed in with her two children.

Direct­ed by Nicole Holofcener
Released TBC

Arguably the queen of the Amer­i­can inde­pen­dent scene, Nicole Holofcener is an assured film­mak­er who doesn’t get the acco­lades she deserves. The Land of Steady Habits sees her join forces with the great Ben Mendel­sohn for a midlife crisis/​early retire­ment melodrama.

Direct­ed by Yulene Olaizo­la
Released TBC

Olaizola’s 2011 debut Arti­fi­cial Par­adis­es was a thing of beau­ty. The qual­i­ty of her films has wavered since, so hopes are high for her lat­est, which has just been select­ed for the Cine­fon­da­tion Ate­lier at the 71^st Cannes Film Fes­ti­val. Lit­tle is known about the project oth­er than it is a 1920s-set sus­pense thriller with a Mayan theme.

Direct­ed by Desiree Akha­van
Released 31 August, 2018

Per­haps best known for 2014’s sharp and acer­bic Appro­pri­ate Behav­iour, the buzz around Desiree Akhavan’s lat­est has been noth­ing but pos­i­tive. It stars Chloë Grace Moretz, in a poten­tial­ly career-defin­ing role, as a high school ath­lete forced to attend a gay con­ver­sion ther­a­py centre.

Direct­ed by Maya Drei­fuss
Released TBC

Anoth­er film set for this year’s Cannes, High­way 65 sees young police offi­cer Daph­na attempt­ing to deal with the dual respon­si­bil­i­ties of her per­son­al life as well as try­ing to solve the dis­ap­pear­ance of a for­mer beau­ty queen.

Direct­ed by Mia Hansen-Løve
Released TBC

Crit­i­cal dar­ling and mul­ti­ple award-win­ner Mia Hansen-Løve is back to add to her already very accom­plished cat­a­logue. Still in the throes of post-pro­duc­tion, Maya fol­lows a young French reporter freed from his cap­tives in Syr­ia and head­ing towards India.

Direct­ed by Megan Grif­fiths
Released TBC

A for­mi­da­ble tal­ent behind the cam­era, Megan Grif­fiths has been show­cas­ing her dis­tinct brand of Amer­i­can real­ism for years now. There are plen­ty of famil­iar sup­port­ing faces in this sto­ry of 13-year-old Sadie thread­ing unchart­ed waters when her father goes on a tour of duty and both her and her mother’s loy­al­ty is severe­ly tested.

Direct­ed by Car­ly Stone
Released TBC

Writer/​director Car­ly Stone has enlist­ed the stand-out star of The End of the F***ing World, Jes­si­ca Bar­den, for this one. Bar­den plays finan­cial­ly bur­dened Blake Con­way, a jour­nal­ist deal­ing with the dubi­ous mechan­ics of becom­ing a sug­ar-baby for an arti­cle. Fear of the real world is alive and well in this post-grad­u­a­tion comedy.

Direct­ed by Marielle Heller
Released 19 Octo­ber, 2018 (US); TBC (UK)

After 2015’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Heller has been very busy, with a num­ber of projects in the works. First up is Can You For­give Me?, which throws Melis­sa McCarthy into an unlike­ly role based on a true sto­ry as she plays out of favour writer Lee Israel who turns to forgery to make money.

Direct­ed by Mélanie Lau­rent
Released TBC

There’s some­thing very famil­iar about the plot of Galve­ston, but look­ing at the cast and crew, Mélanie Laurent’s fourth fea­ture still car­ries plen­ty of promise. Adapt­ed from Nic Pizzolatto’s debut nov­el, Ben Fos­ter stars as an injured hit­man seek­ing revenge after escap­ing a set up. Elle Fan­ning co-stars.

Direct­ed by Madeleine Olnek
Released TBC

Anoth­er dram­e­dy, but with the always superb Mol­ly Shan­non play­ing… Emi­ly Dick­in­son! As revi­sion­ist cin­e­ma goes, this one could be a gem. It promis­es to spin Dickinson’s life around and play with the more engag­ing side of things by embrac­ing her roman­tic life, rather than her well-doc­u­ment­ed reclusiveness.

Direct­ed by Haifaa Al-Man­sour
Released TBC

This year sees Haifaa Al-Man­sour return­ing with an Amer­i­can roman­tic com­e­dy star­ring Halle Berry and Ricky Whit­tle. Sounds like a gam­ble, but who knows, it could well pay off… We’ll cer­tain­ly be hop­ing for some­thing more along the lines of 2012’s Wad­j­da than last year’s Mary Shelley.

Direct­ed by Mat­tie Do
Released TBC

Do’s pre­vi­ous film Dear­est Sis­ter was a bril­liant­ly craft­ed and tight­ly wound hor­ror based in Laos. Bor Mi Vanh Chark sees the direc­tor back in her home­land, this time adding a touch of sci-fi to pro­ceed­ings. Not much else is known about the project, but Do’s reg­u­lar writ­ing part­ner Christo­pher Larsen is on board.

Direct­ed by Nora Twom­ey
Released 25 May, 2018

Nora Twom­ey goes it alone after shar­ing direc­to­r­i­al duties on 2009’s superb The Secret of Kells with Tomm Moore. Anoth­er sump­tu­ous ani­mat­ed fea­ture, The Bread­win­ner fol­lows young Par­vana as she becomes the soli­tary bread­win­ner for her fam­i­ly in Kab­ul under restric­tive Tal­iban rule.

Direct­ed by Jen­nifer Kent
Released TBC

It’s hard to believe we’ve had to wait four years to find out how Jen­nifer Kent would fol­low her sen­sa­tion­al debut The Babadook, but the Aus­tralian writer/​director is final­ly back – and she appears to have gone in a wild­ly dif­fer­ent direc­tion this time around. A young Irish con­vict woman in 1820s Tas­ma­nia gets more than she bar­gained for while seek­ing revenge for the mur­der of her family.

Direct­ed by Lau­ra Steinel
Released TBC

This is Lau­ra Steinel’s first for­ay into fea­ture film­mak­ing and she’s bring­ing with her SNL’s Kate McK­in­non, Orange is the New Black’s Tay­lor Schilling and – most excit­ing of all – Atlanta’s Bri­an Tyree Hen­ry. McK­in­non plays Jill, an emo­tion­al­ly stunt­ed woman try­ing to bond with her niece.

Direct­ed by Suzi Yoones­si
Released TBC

Sex addict (Char­lene deGuz­man) meets reclu­sive musi­cian (John Hawkes) in Suzi Yoonessi’s musi­cal dram­e­dy Unlov­able. Appar­ent­ly deGuz­man was inspired by her own per­son­al expe­ri­ences and cor­ralled indie mul­ti­tasker Mark Duplass into a co-writ­ing cred­it. Ear­ly reviews have been strong.

Direct­ed by Shana Feste
Released 22 June, 2018 (US); TBC (UK)

2014’s End­less Love was no great shakes but Shana Feste’s lat­est sounds very promis­ing indeed. When elder­ly ras­cal and care­free father Jack (Christo­pher Plum­mer) is kicked out of his nurs­ing home, estranged daugh­ter Lau­ra (Vera Farmi­ga) and her son hop in the car and come to the res­cue. Kris­ten Schaal and Bob­by Can­navale also star.