What To Watch
19 Movies Directed by Women to Stream Now
Watch them during Women’s History Month — or any other time of year.
By Monica Castillo
March 6, 2026
19 Best Movies Directed by Women to Stream Now - Netflix Tudum
In the early days of silent film, pioneers like Alice Guy-Blaché and Lois Weber were among the first women to call the shots as directors. They paved the way for the cinema we now know and love. Decades of sexism sidelined many others from following in their footsteps, but today, women directors continue to defy the odds by making film history, telling incredible stories and visualizing moments that stick with us long after the credits have rolled.
From documentaries to thrillers, there’s no genre women directors haven’t shaped in a major way. If you’re looking to watch more movies directed by women, Netflix has a collection of them just for you. Don’t know where to start? We’ve curated a list of films you can stream right now.
A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE
What’s the proper response to a single, unattributed missile fired at the United States? Academy Award winner Kathryn Bigelow directs this thriller, which explores the 18 minutes between the weapon’s launch and its potential detonation. The story is told from a variety of key perspectives and acted out by an ensemble cast that includes Rebecca Ferguson, Anthony Ramos, Greta Lee, Moses Ingram, Kaitlyn Dever, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, and Idris Elba.
Atlantics
Mati Diop made her onscreen debut as an actor with another talented director, Claire Denis, in the 2008 film 35 Shots of Rum. Her own feature directorial debut follows a young woman, Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), and her boyfriend, Souleiman (Ibrahima Traoré), as he leaves Senegal for Spain in hopes of a better future. Then Souleiman gets lost at sea, but strange things begin to happen in Ada’s life that suggest she’s not alone.
Bird Box
For years, Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier made complex movies about intense family situations before branching out into TV with The Night Manager and horror with Bird Box, an adaptation of Josh Malerman’s novel about a postapocalyptic future. In the movie, Malorie Hayes (Sandra Bullock) attempts to lead two children to safety, but they must never remove their blindfolds, or they risk seeing the monsters that have driven humanity to the brink of destruction. The deceptively simple premise becomes a formidable lesson in suspense through Bier’s cinematic style.
Do Revenge
Mix Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train with a blend of high school classics like Heathers and Mean Girls, add a heavy dose of Miami Beach pastels, and you’ll get a sense of what Do Revenge is all about. After falling out with, respectively, a former boyfriend and friend, Drea (Camila Mendes) and Eleanor (Maya Hawke) devise a revenge scheme that involves swapping each other’s enemy to get back at them. Director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson also helmed the charming Gina Rodriguez comedy Someone Great and the horror remake I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Fair Play
Chloe Domont’s feature debut is an erotic workplace thriller that doubles as an exploration of gender dynamics in corporate America. Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) look like a power couple to envy, but their dueling ambitions as analysts at a competitive hedge fund soon spoil their promising relationship, warping it into a power struggle. Domont carefully teases Luke’s insecurities about his partner’s success, probing the very real trend of men not coping well with women’s advancement in the workplace.
Goodbye June
Kate Winslet made her directorial debut with this family drama, which follows four adult siblings — played by Winslet, Toni Collette, Andrea Riseborough, and Johnny Flynn — as they put their differences aside to support their mother, June (Helen Mirren), when her health suddenly declines. The siblings spend fraught and difficult days at her bedside in the hospital, but their quick-witted mother orchestrates her decline on her own terms — with biting humor, blunt honesty, and a lot of love.
The Half Of It
Alice Wu’s loose take on Cyrano de Bergerac follows a high-achieving Chinese American student named Ellie (Leah Lewis). She writes love letters and texts for her classmate Paul (Daniel Diemer) so he can impress a girl they both admire, Aster (Alexxis Lemire). Amid the complicated love affair, the three leads navigate their feelings and figure out what they want out of life. Like Wu’s earlierfilm Saving Face, this movie deftly explores Asian American and queer identities.
KPop Demon Hunters
Maggie Kang co-wrote and co-directs this animated musical adventure with Chris Appelhans, telling the story of a K-pop girl group who uses their fans’ devotion in their fight against demons. The band, HUNTR/X, is composed of choreographer Mira (May Hong), rapper Zoey (Ji-Young Yoo), and lead singer Rumi (Arden Cho). Enter Saja Boys, a rival boy band of demons trying to beat HUNTR/X at their own game. The hit movie is filled with chart-smashing K-pop music written by some of the genre’s biggest names.
The Lost Daughter
Maggie Gyllenhaal made her feature directorial debut with this adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel. It follows Leda (Olivia Colman), who’s on vacation in Greece when she bumps into a young mom, Nina (Dakota Johnson), struggling to juggle the demands of motherhood. The incident brings up Leda’s own memories and guilt about her years as an overwhelmed young mother (Jessie Buckley). Moody and mysterious, The Lost Daughter is a haunted and exquisitely acted portrait.
Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado
If you grew up watching Spanish language TV, chances are you remember when famous astrologer Walter Mercado would take over the airwaves in his resplendent robes and read horoscopes at the end of nightly newscasts. Tapping into collective nostalgia as a way to explore Latino identity and LGBTQ representation, co-director Cristina Costantini filmed candid conversations with fans who remember Mercado as well as those who knew him and the caped fortune teller himself to reveal more about the person amid the fog machines, candles, and crystal balls.
Mudbound
Dee Rees made Oscars history with this 2017 film, becoming the first Black woman to be nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. This epic period piece takes viewers back to the Mississippi Delta in the years during and after World War II, following a white family and a Black family who live side-by-side in an uneasy reflection of the racism at that time. Rees gives the audience an unflinching view of the story’s brutality, rooting her characters in a harsh environment that seems impossible to escape until it’s too late.
The Old Guard
After making the sports romance Love & Basketball and the pop star–driven drama Beyond the Lights, director Gina Prince-Bythewood dove into the action genre with The Old Guard. Co-written by Greg Rucka and based on the graphic novel series he co-wrote with Leandro Fernández, the story follows Andy (Charlize Theron), a centuries-old warrior with a team of fellow immortals who take in a new unkillable recruit, Nile (KiKi Layne), just as an evil scientist decides to capture and torture them for their eternal secrets. Their everlasting fight continues: Andy and her immortal crew are back in The Old Guard 2.
Passing
Rebecca Hall jumped into the director’s chair to adapt this tragedy of a complicated friendship in 1920s New York, adapted from the 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen. Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga) are childhood friends who reconnect after a chance encounter at a hotel. Although both women are Black, Clare is passing as a white woman and married to a racist white man. Hall films in a crisp black-and-white style that gives this period piece a distinct look.
The Power of the Dog
With numerous critically acclaimed films and series to her name, including An Angel at My Table, The Piano, Bright Star, and Top of the Lake, there’s no shortage of solid Jane Campion titles to watch. Based on Thomas Savage’s 1967 novel, the Western drama The Power of the Dog follows a surly Montana rancher named Phil Burbank (Benedict Cumberbatch) who makes his brother George’s (Jesse Plemons) soon-to-be bride, Rose (Kirsten Dunst), and her son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee), feel mighty unwelcome for disrupting the life he’s made for himself.
Rez Ball
Based on the book Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation, Sydney Freeland tells the story of the fictional Chuska Warriors, a scrappy high school basketball team in New Mexico who rally together after the tragic death of one of their teammates. They’re helped out by their tough but caring coaches (Jessica Matten and Ernest David Tsosie) and the supportive community. Freeland, who co-wrote the story with Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs), keeps the tension strong on and off the court, weaving in issues facing the Navajo Nation and how they affect the young players.
Ruth & Boaz
Alanna Brown directs this modern-day retelling of one of the most iconic love stories in the Bible. Set in Tennessee, the adaptation centers on a young woman who escapes the Atlanta music scene to care for an elderly widowed woman and in the process finds the love of her life and the mother she never had. The titular couple is played by Serayah and Tyler Lepley, and the ensemble cast also includes Phylicia Rashad, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, and Jermaine Dupri.
The Swimmers
Based on the true story of sisters Yusra and Sarah Mardini, The Swimmers follows their brave escape from war-torn Syria to the Greek island of Lesbos, the first stop on a long road to safety. Sally El Hosaini directed real-life sisters Nathalie and Manal Issa as Yusra and Sarah, following the arc of their story from their days of juggling friends, family, and swim practice before the war to the ways their experiences as refugees changed the course of their lives. El Hosaini’s inspirational portrait of the two sisters humanizes the struggle of migrants fleeing their countries for a better tomorrow.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Susan Johnson directs this adaptation of Jenny Han’s popular book of the same name (which was followed by the sequels To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You and To All the Boys: Always and Forever). In the first movie, Lara Jean (Lana Condor) channels her feelings into writing letters about her crushes that she never mails — until, one day, her youngest sister sends them out. One recipient, Peter (Noah Centineo), offers to play her fake boyfriend to divert attention during this mortifying embarrassment, but the ruse brings these two even closer together.
Woman of the Hour
Anna Kendrick made her directorial debut with this chilling 2024 crime thriller based on a true story. The movie details the horrors of a serial killer (Daniel Zovatto) who murdered women coast to coast in the 1970s yet ended up on the popular show The Dating Game opposite a struggling actor, Sheryl (Kendrick). The movie jumps between the tension-fueled present on a TV soundstage and the killer’s past and future crimes, keeping viewers on the edges of their seats to see if Sheryl will outwit the creepy contestant before it’s too late.
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