Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Late last month, Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy made some headlines with her claim that, while they’d love to hire a woman to direct a Star Wars movie, they’ve had trouble finding one who meets the requirements. As you might expect, this caused a bit of an uproar, mostly because it’s a baffling statement that flat-out ignores just how many fantastic women directors there are working in the industry today. But it also points out a glass ceiling that still exists.
You wouldn’t think it’s a point that needed proving, but with women still underrepresented in the ranks of film and television directors, we’ll happily shine a light on the fact that some of the best entertainment of 2016 was brought to you by women directors. From indie thrillers to relationship dramas to edgy animation and sobering documentary, women have been responsible for some of the best things you’ve watched (or haven’t watched yet but should) this year.
In the interests of celebrating these women and the movies and TV they brought to us this year, we gathered 16 of the best female-directed episodes and films for this year-end retrospective. From established names like Ava DuVernay and Kelly Reichardt to newcomers like Julia Hart and Elizabeth Wood, there’s directorial talent on hand for the next dozen Star Wars spinoffs or more.
DuVernay, the director of Selma and Middle of Nowhere, returned this year with this documentary about the history of mass incarceration, how its roots go back to Jim Crow and beyond and stretch right up to the present day. DuVernay's social conscience and righteous verve are so essential to the current film landscape, and 13th is a jewel in Netflix's 2016 crown.
[Where To Stream 13th]Photo: Everett Collection
British filmmaker Arnold came to the United States this year and delivered a golden-hued vision of American youth at the margins. A roving band of young wanderers, selling magazine subscriptions, throwing bonfires, singing along to the radio, it all could have been unbearably trite if Arnold wasn't so meticulous in digging out the small moments of beauty from her cast, from the environment, from the great, gorgeous, doomed American experience.
[Where To Stream American Honey]Photo: Everett Collection
Season 3, Episode 6: "Brrap Brrap Pew Pew"
Directing the abortion episode of an animated series about a depressed horse who used to be a sitcom star is a tall order regardless. Winfrey's episode delivers and then some, with an escalation of absurdity that never loses sight of the subject matter at hand.
[Where To Stream Bojack Horseman]Photo: NETFLIX
Reichardt has made a living off of quiet, deliberate stories about women. Her best -- Wendy and Lucy; Meek's Cutoff -- give time and attention to women who otherwise don't get either. In that way, Certain Women is the most Kelly Reichardt move of them all, a loosely interwoven anthology about three women (Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and Lily Gladstone) straining to make themselves -- and their lives -- heard.
[Where To Stream Certain Women]Photo: Everett Collection
Season 1, Episode 18: "Paula Needs to Get Over Josh"
Aline Brosh McKenna is the co-creator of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but since her counterpart, Rachel Bloom, also plays the series lead, her contributions aren't as heralded. Call it Larry David Syndrome. But just as Larry David eventually broke out into his own thing, so too do we want to recognize McKenna's work behind the camera. In particular, the season 1 finale built expertly to a crescendo that was eighteen episodes in the making.
[Where To Stream Crazy Ex-Girlfriend]The CW
The presence of a really great teen comedy has become as rare as a solar eclipse, which makes it all the more noteworthy when a writer/director like Kelly Fremon Craig blots out the won the way she did with Edge of Seventeen. Harnessing a next-level performance from Hailee Steinfeld as a depressed high-school student who can't stop dive-bombing on everything (and everyone) in her life, Craig's movie is written with brains, heart, and an impatience for the cliches and shortcuts that plague lesser movies.
[Where To Stream The Edge of Seventeen]Photo: Everett Collection
Season 3, Episode 7: "The Threshold"
Kusama, whose feature film credits include Girlfight and Jennifer's Body, took to TV for the most emotionally fraught episode of Halt and Catch Fire's superb third season. With tensions between Cameron and Donna at an all-time high, Kusama presided over a conference-room showdown that counts as the most terrifyingly tense closed-door experience on TV all year.
[Where To Stream Halt and Catch Fire]Photo Amazon
Season 1, Episode 6: "Ex"
Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld teamed up to direct all six of High Maintenance's first-season episodes. "Ex" is the strongest of the bunch, a sweet and sad tale about a shut-in who finds wonderment in the city and The Guy finding himself without a place to lay his head. A perfectly enigmatic end to one of TV's most interesting series.
[Where To Stream High Maintenance]Photo: HBO
Season 1, Episode 1: "Insecure As Fuck"
Few shows had as confident a debut in 2016 as Insecure, created by and starring Issa Rae. For the premiere episode, director Melina Mastoukas establishes an aesthetic of intimacy and relatability, and by the time we get to Issa's "Broken Pussy" improv performance, the whole episode hits another level.
[Where To Stream Insecure]Photo: HBO
Rozema brings an air of desperation and dread to the vaguely-rendered post-apocalyptic setting of Into the Forest. This story, about sisters Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood who must fend for themselves after the power goes out and never comes back, is so dependent on the mood, is one of the hidden gems that's lurking and available to stream in these waning days of 2016.
[Where To Stream Into the Forest]Photo: Everett Collection
She's back! Kusama not only did a bang-up job on TV's Halt and Catch Fire, but she also directed the most unsettling feature film of 2016 as well. Centering on a group of friends gathered at a Hollywood Hills home to reconnect, only to discover that one of them has fallen in with a cult, The Invitation sees Kusama presiding over a dinner-party scenario that counts as the most terrifyingly tense closed-door experience at the movies all year.
[Where To Stream The Invitation]Photo: Everett Collection
The micro-genre of "lonely woman of a certain age who finds her groove and a gruff gentleman besides" is one of my favorites, and Scafaria -- director of Seeking a Friend for the End of the World -- delivers a note-perfect example of it. Sarandon digs into her best role in years, and both women team up for a movie that is both sensitive and sly.
[Where To Stream The Meddler]Photo: Everett Collection
If you're looking to place your bets on a director who's going to have a huge breakthrough some day, Julia Hart should be on your list. The back-to-back achievements of The Keeping Room (the 2015 Civil War thriller with Brit Marling) and now Miss Stevens demands attention. With her latest, Hart harnesses a killer lead performance from Lily Rabe for a story about a school teacher who longs for the wild, messy freedom of her students.
[Where To Stream Miss Stevens]Photo: Everett Collection
Season 3, Episode 10: "Exciting and New"
The third season finale of Transparent takes things on the road ... or at least on the high seas. The cruise-ship setting is the perfect purgatory for the Pfeffermans, as they work through their myriad issues. But in bringing the season home via the most unexpected of set-pieces: Shelly's one-woman show, and in particular her "One Hand in My Pocket" that is so unexpectedly emotional, it takes your breath away.
[Where To Stream Transparent]Photo: Amazon
The energy and focus present in Elizabeth Wood's feature film debut suggest a career that could be very exciting indeed. White Girl follows a college student who moves to Queens, does a crap-ton of drugs, and gets mixed up in some bad shit. You've seen this movie before. Only you haven't. Wood resists the temptations to fall into easy sensationalism and instead delivers a movie that is far more clear-eyed than the protagonist deserves.
[Where To Stream White Girl]Photo: Everett Collection
Season 3, Episode 10: "No Longer Just Us"
The third season finale of You're the Worst brought some characters to a crossroads and took at least one relationship to the next level. It also took Gretchen and Jimmy into the Hollywood Hills, whereupon the audience (and Gretchen) was placed on a rollercoaster to hit the highest highs and lowest lows in a matter of minutes. Credit to Wendy Stanzler for helping to rip our hearts out so effectively.
[Where To Stream You're the Worst]Photo: FX
