‘52 Films by Women’ 8th edition – some reflections

Pictured: Students at the Talent Campus practice 'conscious eating' in a scene from Jessica Hausner's 2023 film, 'Club Zero'. (Still: Coop 99)

Over the period 1 November 2023 and 31 October 2024, I watched and reflected upon a further fifty-two fiction films directed by women. 28 of these films had American finance. Six could be classed as British films. Three were French, a surprisingly low number given the number of French auteurs currently working. Two had Indian subjects, if not finance. Two were Belgian, another two Canadian (one in French, the other English). The remaining nine films were from Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, Morocco, Netherlands and Spain. Of the fifty-two, three movies officially grossed more than $100 million (either superhero sequels or spin-offs, namely Venom: The Last Dance, The Marvels and Madame Web). One (Yolo) unofficially grossed this sum; Box Office Mojo does not offer reliable figures on Chinese movie attendance. Horror films directed by women performed moderately well (The Substance, The Watched), with the exception of Wicked Little Letters, comedies significantly less so (Liza Frankenstein, Babes, The Pod Generation, My Old Ass, Nightbitch, Paris Paradis, She Came to Me, Timestalker, Your Monster).

Of the fifty-two fiction films, twenty-three could be considered as first features. At least one of these (Annie Baker’s Janet Planet) was one of the best films of the year by any reasonable measure. Jessica Hausner’s Club Zero, her second successive film in English, its release staggered over eighteen months since its premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, is the work of a writer-director with a strong authorial vision equal to any male director working today. While the work of male directors featured car chases and explosions, women directors featured theatre or performance (Janet Planet, The Watched, Your Monster, Club Zero, The French Italian). Outside of superheroes, films featuring celebrities – Amy Winehouse, Elvis Presley (Back to Black, Priscilla) – did well. The majority of films directed by women were also written by women, either as principle or co-writer.

Pictured: Zoe Ziegler and Julianne Nicholson in a scene from 'Janet Planet', written and directed by Annie Baker. Still: A24 Films

Seven of the fifty-two fiction films reflected upon record no box office gross at time of writing (With Love and a Major Organ, Kalak, The French Italian, Quiz Lady, This Closeness, Audrey, Familiar Touch). Screening at a film festival does not guarantee a cinema release. No fiction film directed by a woman won the top prize at a festival in the period, though Mati Diop’s documentary Dahomey won the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin Film Festival and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance won the best screenplay at Cannes, where Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light also won the Grand Prix (runner up) prize.

Themes explored in the fifty-two films reflected upon include old age and fading looks, warring neighbours, pregnancy and motherhood, romance, parent-child relationships, the role of women in war, obsessive-compulsive behaviour, aunt-niece relationship, child abuse, the neglect of marginalised communities, extreme dieting, abusive relationships, video art, self-actualisation, refugees, loss and the relationship between the powerful and powerless. Three of the films could be classed as science fiction.

Of the performers in these movies, only Marisa Abela (as Amy Winehouse) emerged as a star to watch. Ilana Glazer, Jessie Buckley and Rachel Sennott’s comic gifts were showcased. In Kalak Isabella Eklof showed us Greenland. In Jeanne du Barry, Maïwenn turned Johnny Depp from a subject to an object.

Pictured: Marisa Abela as Amy Winehouse in Sam Taylor-Johnson's film, 'Back to Black'. Still: Studio Canal

The box office failure of 2022’s She Said put an end to Hollywood’s interest in ‘Me Too’. Marvel unsuccessfully tried to turn Dakota Johnson into a superhero. She was more believable and compelling as the unnamed passenger in a taxi in Christy Hall’s Daddio, who re-thinks her relationship with a married man whilst travelling from JFK. Aside from Depp, no major star put themselves at the disposal of a woman, in contrast with Ryan Gosling’s movie-stealing appearance in 2023’s Barbie and at the 2024 Academy Awards ceremony, performing ‘I’m Just Ken’.  

In 2025, outside of China, it is unlikely that any film directed by a woman will gross more than $100 million, except perhaps the sequel to Five Nights at Freddy’s, directed like its predecessor by Emma Tammi. Prestige 2025 releases include The Salt Path directed by Marianne Elliott, Die, My Love (director: Lynne Ramsey) and Hamnet directed by Chloe Zhao. The remake of I Know What You Did Last Summer (director: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson) and the sequel Freakier Friday (director: Nisha Ganatra) may prove popular. The forthcoming slate of superhero movies are all directed by men.

It is too early to say what impact Donald Trump’s second term as President will have on Hollywood, though at least one billionaire said to have ‘kissed the ring’ post-election, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, has a stake in the entertainment business. The gap between films that do really well in cinemas and those that don’t has widened. Outside of film festivals, I have often watched films attended by only a handful of viewers. Some cinemas are closing. At least one UK chain is restructuring its business. Food and drink are increasingly more important to the revenue streams of cinemas as is ‘event cinema’, the screening of plays and musical performances.

Cinema’s resilience has based on innovation. Women directors have played their part in this. There is no shortage of new directors coming through and as Joker: Folie a Deux proved for Todd Phillips in 2024, ‘sure things’ don’t exist. 

Pictured: Elizabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) reads the instruction pack in a scene from the critical and commercial success, 'The Substance', written and directed by Coralie Fargeat. Still: Mubi.

15 December 2024