This is a list of lesbian filmmakers. The names listed include directors, producers, and screenwriters of

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

s, television movies, documentaries and

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

s; and have received coverage or been recognized in reliable, authoritative

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

and academic sources.

A-L

Kasia Adamik Katarzyna "Kasia" Adamik (born 28 December 1972) is a Polish director and storyboard artist. She has directed TV series including ''1983'', ''Axis Mundi'' and '' Absentia.'' Her debut film feature as director, ''Bark!'', was in competition at Sun ...

(Poland) *

Jane Anderson Jane Anderson (born 1954 in California) is an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and director. She wrote and directed the feature film '' The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio'' (2005), and wrote the Nicolas Cage film '' It Could Happen t ...

(USA) * Sini Anderson (USA) * Chantal Akerman (Belgium) *

Dorothy Arzner Dorothy Emma Arzner (January 3, 1897 – October 1, 1979) was an American film director whose career in Hollywood spanned from the silent era of the 1920s into the early 1940s. With the exception of longtime silent film director Lois Weber (who d ...

(USA) *

Jamie Babbit Jamie Merill Babbit (born November 16, 1970) is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She directed the films '' But I'm a Cheerleader'', '' The Quiet'' and ''Itty Bitty Titty Committee''. She has also directed episodes of television pr ...

(USA) * Marina Rice Bader (USA) * Christin Baker (USA) * Janet Baus (USA) *

Sadie Benning Sadie T. Benning (born April 11, 1973) is an American artist, who has worked primarily in video, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography and sound. Benning creates experimental films and explores a variety of themes including surveillance, ge ...

(USA) * Caroline Berler (USA) * Katja Blichfeld (USA) * Maureen Bradley (Canada) * Netalie Braun (Israel) *

Katherine Brooks Katherine Brooks (born March 15, 1976) is an American film writer and director. Brooks is a member of the Directors Guild of America, a Jury Member for Samsung Fresh-Films 2007 (the largest teen filmmaking program in the USA) and is the recipie ...

(USA) * Dominique Cardona (Canada) * Ilene Chaiken (USA) *

Lisa Cholodenko Lisa Cholodenko (born June 5, 1964) is an American screenwriter and director. Cholodenko wrote and directed the films '' High Art'' (1998), ''Laurel Canyon'' (2002), and '' The Kids Are All Right'' (2010). She has also directed television, includ ...

(USA) * Zero Chou (Taiwan) * Laurie Colbert (Canada) * Janis Cole (Canada) * Nicole Conn (USA) *

Catherine Corsini Catherine Corsini (born 18 May 1956) is a French film director, screenwriter and actress. Her film '' Replay'' was entered into the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. Her 2012 film '' Three Worlds'' competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2012 C ...

(France) * Jeanne Crépeau (Canada) *

Catherine Crouch Catherine Crouch is an American film director, screenwriter, film producer, producer, cinematographer, and actor. She has been active in independent film-making for over two decades. Most of her work explores gender, race (human categorization) ...

(USA) *

Holly Dale Holly Dale (born December 23, 1953) is a Canadian filmmaker and television director. Over the course of her career, Dale has worked in the Canadian film and television industry as a director, producer, writer, and editor. Although she has comp ...

(Canada) *

Donna Deitch Donna Deitch (born June 8, 1945, San Francisco, California) is an American film and television director, producer, and writer best known for her 1985 film ''Desert Hearts''. The movie was the first feature film to depict a lesbian love story in ...

(USA) *

Katrina del Mar Katrina del Mar is a New York–based American photographer, video artist, writer and award-winning filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) Fellowship in Video, and ...

(USA) * Vicky Du (USA-Taiwan) *

Cheryl Dunye Cheryl Dunye (; born May 13, 1966) is a Liberian-American film director, producer, screenwriter, editor and actress. Dunye's work often concerns themes of race, sexuality, and gender, particularly issues relating to black lesbians. She is known ...

(Liberia) *

Clea DuVall Clea Helen D'Etienne DuVall (born September 25, 1977) is an American actress, writer, producer, and director. She is known for her appearances in the films ''The Faculty'' (1998), '' She's All That''; '' But I'm a Cheerleader''; ''Girl, Interrup ...

(USA) *

Michelle Ehlen Michelle Ehlen is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and actress best known for her comedic feature '' Butch Jamie''. Career Michelle is a graduate of The Los Angeles Film School where she studied writing and directing. She wrot ...

(USA) *

Esther Eng Esther Eng ( – January 25, 1970), born Ng Kam-ha, was a Cantonese–American film director and the first female director to direct Chinese-language films in the United States. Eng made four feature films in America, and five in Hong Kong.Wei, 20 ...

(USA) * Lynne Fernie (Canada) *

Jodie Foster Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and the hono ...

(USA) * Su Friedrich (USA) * Maya Gallus (Canada) * Nisha Ganatra (Canada) * Dana Goldberg (Israel) * Rosser Goodman (USA) *

Marleen Gorris Marleen Gorris (born 9 December 1948) is a Dutch writer and director. Gorris is known as an outspoken feminist and supporter of gay and lesbian issues which is reflected in much of her work. Her film, '' Antonia's Line,'' won an Oscar for Best ...

(Netherlands) * Aurora Guerrero (USA) *

Sonali Gulati Sonali Gulati is an Indian American independent filmmaker, feminist, grass-roots activist, and educator. Gulati grew up in New Delhi, India. Her mother, a teacher and textile designer, raised her independently, getting single custody for her ...

(USA) * Jill Gutowitz (USA) * Barbara Hammer (USA) *

Leslye Headland Leslye Headland (born 1980) is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter, and playwright. She is known for the play and 2012 film ''Bachelorette'' and 2015 film '' Sleeping with Other People''. She co-created the Netflix se ...

(USA) * G. B. Jones (Canada) * Ingrid Jungermann (USA) * Ana Kokkinos (Australia) *

Jennie Livingston Jennie may refer to: * Jennie (singer), South Korean singer of girl group Blackpink * Jennie, a female given name, variant spelling of Jenny * ''Jennie'' (musical), 1963 Broadway production * ''Jennie'' (novel), 1994 science fiction thriller by ...

(USA) * Desiree Lim (Malaysia-China-Canada) *

Phyllida Lloyd Phyllida Christian Lloyd, (born 17 June 1957) is an English film director and producer, best known for ''Mamma Mia!'' (2008) and '' The Iron Lady'' (2011). Her theatre work includes directing productions at the Royal Court Theatre and Royal Na ...

(UK) * Tucia Lyman (USA)

M-Z

* Angelina Maccarone (Germany) *

Lucrecia Martel Lucrecia Martel (born December 14, 1966) is an Argentine film director, screenwriter and producer whose feature films have frequented Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Toronto, and many other international film festivals. Film scholar Paul Julian Smith w ...

(Argentina) * Dee Mosbacher (USA) * Brittani Nichols (USA) * Madeleine Olnek (USA) *

Jenni Olson Jenni Olson (born October 6, 1962) is a writer, archivist, historian, consultant, and non-fiction filmmaker based in Berkeley, California. She co-founded the pioneering LGBT website PlanetOut.com. Her two feature-length essay films — '' The Jo ...

(USA) * Ulrike Ottinger (Germany) *

Jan Oxenberg Jan Oxenberg (1950) is an American film producer, director, editor, and screenwriter. She is known for her work in lesbian feminist films and in television. Career Oxenberg was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1950. She attended Barnard Colleg ...

(USA) * Pratibha Parmar (UK) * Stacie Passon (USA) *

Kimberly Peirce Kimberly Ane Peirce (born September 8, 1967) is an American filmmaker, best known for her debut feature film, '' Boys Don't Cry'' (1999), which won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Hilary Swank's performance. Her second feature, '' Stop-Los ...

(USA) *

Cristina Perincioli Cristina Perincioli (born November 11, 1946, in Bern, Switzerland) is a Swiss film director, writer, multimedia producer and webauthor. She moved to Berlin in 1968. Since 2003 she has lived Stücken in Brandenburg. Life and career Cristina Peri ...

(Switzerland) * Justine Pimlott (Canada) *

Léa Pool Léa Pool C.M. (born 8 September 1950) is a Swiss-Canadian filmmaker who taught film at the Université du Québec à Montréal. She has directed several documentaries and feature films, many of which have won significant awards including the ...

(Canada) *

Lourdes Portillo Lourdes Portillo is a Mexican film director, producer, and writer. Biography Portillo got her first filmmaking experience at the age of twenty-one when a friend in Hollywood asked her to help out on a documentary. Her formal training began se ...

(USA-Mexico) *

Yvonne Rainer Yvonne Rainer (born November 24, 1934) is an American dancer, choreographer, and filmmaker, whose work in these disciplines is regarded as challenging and experimental.

(USA) *

Dee Rees Diandrea Rees (born February 7, 1977) is an American screenwriter and director. She is known for her feature films '' Pariah'' (2011), '' Bessie'' (2015), '' Mudbound'' (2017), and '' The Last Thing He Wanted'' (2020). Rees has also written and d ...

(USA) * Yoruba Richen (USA) * Marialy Rivas (Chile) *

Chloé Robichaud Chloé Robichaud (born January 31, 1988) is a Canadian director best known for her debut film ''Sarah Prefers to Run''. The film premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. Early life and education Robichaud was ...

(Canada) * Angela Robinson (USA) *

Patricia Rozema Patricia Rozema (born 20 August 1958) is a Canadian film director, writer and producer. She was part of a loosely-affiliated group of filmmakers to emerge in 1980s from Toronto known as the Toronto New Wave. Early life Rozema was born in King ...

(Canada) * Marja-Lewis Ryan (USA) * Shamim Sarif (UK) * Greta Schiller (USA) *

Céline Sciamma Céline Sciamma (; born 12 November 1978) is a French screenwriter and film director. She is especially known for her films ''Girlhood'' (2014), '' My Life as a Courgette'' (2016), and '' Portrait of a Lady on Fire'' (2019), winning many nomina ...

(France) * Avigail Sperber (Israel) * Ellen Spiro (USA) * Monika Treut (Germany) * Rose Troche (USA) *

Guinevere Turner Guinevere Jane Turner is an American actress, screenwriter, and film director. She has written such films as ''American Psycho'' and '' The Notorious Bettie Page'' and played the lead role of the dominatrix Tanya Cheex in '' Preaching to the Per ...

(USA) * Michal Vinik (Israel) * Louise Wadley (Australia) * Andrea Weiss (USA) * Aerlyn Weissman (USA-Canada) * Yvonne Welbon (USA) * Tucky Williams (USA) *

Alice Wu Alice Wu (; born April 21, 1970) is an American film director and screenwriter, known for her films '' Saving Face'' (2004) and ''The Half of It'' (2020). Both of her films feature Chinese-American main characters and explore the lives of intel ...

(USA) * Monica Zanetti (Australia)

References

Film directors A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role in choosing the Casting (per ...

A-L

M-Z

See also

References

Further reading

External links