Top 20 Ways Women Owned Film

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by Chad Aiggia, Screenmancer Staff

If you’re back here again after my Brad Pitt-dominated, maybe male-skewed Top 100 list for Cinephiles, you might be shocked at my next trick here at Screenmancer, Hollywood’s only Female-run site since 1997. That would be the Top 20 Ways Women Owned Film. These are breakout, stand-out, get the crowd on their feet female movie stars who smacked us in the face with their brilliance on film. This time the criteria for the film is simple: How It Changed the Gender Game. Sounds simple, yes, but is simple in real life, no. Here’s why: unlike their male movie star counter-parts, women in the movies tend to multitask. Not only are they representing their gender, but like the sophisticated thinkers that women generally are, they tend to slip in sidebars about political, racial, social justice issues in the back door of their main narratives.

For example The Turning Point (1977) from Director Herb Ross is about ballet dancers, but not really, right? You’ve got thwarted ambition, women who marry and stay home, others who soar and regret their choices.

We may even ask ourselves, based on this list, ‘What Do We Really Know About Women?’

One thing is for sure, we don’t know what we don’t know until we see it on screen.

That’s the glory of film. If you have a strong reaction to this list, say think Cabaret (1972) or Chicago (2002) should be included, post a comment.

Here’s the list, plus a Top 10 Female Power Players, and a Bonus Pair, plus Unicorns.

Top 20 Ways Women Owned Film

1970s: Rise of Feminism

Black Girl (1972)  – Director: Ossie Davis • Key Cast: Peggy Pettitt, Leslie Uggams • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Explored Black womanhood and mother-daughter dynamics, pushing against stereotypes in early 1970s cinema.

The Stepford Wives (1975)  – Director: Bryan Forbes • Key Cast: Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Satirized suburban expectations of female subservience, mints “Stepford wife” as a metaphor for patriarchal norms.

The Turning Point (1977) – Director: Herbert Ross • Key Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft • Country: USA How It Changed the Gender Game: Centered on professional female dancers negotiating career vs. family, a rare portrayal of aging and ambition among women.

1980s – Representation Pops Up

Desert Hearts (1985)  – Director: Donna Deitch • Key Cast: Helen Shaver, Patricia Charbonneau • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: First feature to positively portray lesbian romance, laying groundwork for LGBTQ+ representation in the mainstream.

The Color Purple (1985) – Director: Steven Spielberg • Key Cast: Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Powerful depiction of Black women’s resilience and sisterhood, giving emotional complexity to women of color in a patriarchal world.

Working Girl (1988)  – Director: Mike Nichols • Key Cast: Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver, Harrison Ford • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Subverted office power dynamics by portraying an ambitious woman who takes control of her career and identity.

1990s – Feminist Goes Worldwide

Antonia’s Line (1995)  – Director: Marleen Gorris • Key Cast: Willeke van Ammelrooy • Country: Netherlands How It Changed the Gender Game: A Dutch feminist fairy tale celebrating female community-building, lesbian relationships, and matriarchal strength.

Thelma & Louise (1991)  – Director: Ridley Scott • Key Cast: Geena Davis, Susan Sarandon • Country: USA How It Changed the Gender Game: Reframed rebellion, giving women agency (meaning empowerment), yet a tragic, non-empowering escape from their oppressive roles. You just hope Ridley Scott didn’t enjoy sending them over a cliff.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)  – Director: Jonathan Demme • Key Cast: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Cast a woman as the intelligent, capable FBI agent, smashing thriller genre expectations.

2000s – Ladies, Girls, Women, We See You

Monster (2003)  – Director: Patty Jenkins • Key Cast: Charlize Theron • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Humanized a female serial killer, challenging the trope of violent women as one-dimensional villains.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (2003–04)  – Director: Quentin Tarantino • Key Cast: Uma Thurman • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Uma Thurman kicked the revenge/action genre in the balls by placing herself as Ms. Antihero.

Boys Don’t Cry (1999)  – Director: Kimberly Peirce • Key Cast: Hilary Swank • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Coughed up a true transgender coming-of-age before it was “a thing.” And you almost want to sidebar Million Dollar Baby here, because Swank kills in both movies, although she just missed the cut on Top 10 Female Players.

2010s – Female Blockbuster is Jazz

Wonder Woman (2017)  – Director: Patty Jenkins • Key Cast: Gal Gadot • Country: USA (DC)  How It Changed the Gender Game: Spare me your Gal Gadot hate, this is a perfectly cast lead here, proving blockbusters starring women can deliver big bang BO.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – Director George Miller [USA/AU production]• Key Cast: Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Hardy How It Changed the Gender Game: Imperator Furiosa sticks her metal arm up the ass of her male counter-parts, devours Tom Hardy like a boss on screen, and generally owns the road genre for 2 hours here.

The Hunger Games (2012)  – Director: Gary Ross (2012) • Key Cast: Jennifer Lawrence • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Meaty blockbuster with a resourceful, non-sex kitten female lead who sparks wrecking-ball breaking resistance based on the idea of fairness and protection of her little sister.

The Help (2011)  – Director: Tate Taylor • Key Cast: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Yes, we can throw this in the trash for patronizing old stereotypes, or we can let in the incredible performances and elevated black wise women storytellers, you decide?

2020s – Feminist R/evolution, Minus Roe v. Wade?

Promising Young Woman (2020) - Director: Emerald Fennell • Key Cast: Carey Mulligan • Country: UK/USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Female assault portrayed as Operatic Revenge, or how Carey Mulligan rips your heart and lungs out through the screen, after someone rips her skirt open and violates her soul.

Nomadland (2020) –  Director: Chloé Zhao • Key Cast: Frances McDormand • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Centered car-dwelling elderly woman thinking she has workforce autonomy, but really showing us all we were too busy shopping to care when our eyeballs signed up for shipping perks at the expense of the barely working class.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) – Directors: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert • Key Cast: Michelle Yeoh • Country: USA (Asian American)  How It Changed the Gender Game: Multi-generational mind-blowing onion layered trauma sandwiched by rarely seen on screen Asian female heroism, mixed with genre-twisting cinematic vision.

Barbie (2023) –  Director: Greta Gerwig • Key Cast: Margot Robbie, America Ferrera, Issa Rae, others • Country: USA  How It Changed the Gender Game: Get over yourself boys and men who hated this movie, because it took a toy with tits and made a story spun from Gerwig and Noah Baumbach that means something to everyone, in some way, like Barbie.

Top 10 Female Power Players

In no particular order, for glass-breaking moments in Hollywood

Gena Rowlands – A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria
Jodie Foster – The Silence of the Lambs, Contact
Jane Fonda – Klute, Nine to Five, Coming Home  

Charlize Theron – Monster, Mad Max: Fury Road, Atomic Blonde
Diane Keaton – Annie Hall, Manhattan
Viola Davis – The Help, Widows, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Michelle Yeoh – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Kristen Stewart – Twilight, Clouds of Sils Maria, Spencer
Sigourney Weaver – Aliens, Gorillas in the Mist, Working Girl
Emma Stone – Birdman, Poor Things

Bonus Pair: Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep – For Playing Themselves and Us Too.

Unicorns: Frances McDormand: North Country, Three Billboards, Nomadland; Susan Sarandon: Rocky Horror, Bull Durham, Dead Man Walking; Sean Young: Blade Runner, Wall Street, No Way Out.

Stay tuned for more round-ups from the Screenmancer data ranch.

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