Historical ContextFilms

A historical action epic directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, starring Viola Davis. Set against the backdrop of the 19th-century West African Kingdom of Dahomey's all-female warrior regiment, the Agojie, following General Nanisca as she trains a new generation of female warriors to defend the kingdom. The film explores important themes of Black female power, African historical narrative, decolonialism, and women's military leadership.

Adapted from Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux's autobiographical novel, following a 23-year-old French university student's desperate and dangerous journey seeking abortion in 1960s France when it was illegal. Directed by Audrey Diwan, this award-winning film deeply explores reproductive autonomy, body politics, class inequality, and women's predicament in patriarchal society, becoming a powerful testimony to contemporary women's rights struggles.

An adaptation of Jane Austen's novel directed by Autumn de Wilde, starring Anya Taylor-Joy. The film follows wealthy young woman Emma Woodhouse in Regency-era England as she enthusiastically matchmakes for others, discovering her own true emotions in the process. The director reinterprets this classic literary work with exquisite visual aesthetics and a modern feminist perspective, deeply exploring important themes including female independence, class consciousness, marriage choices, and coming-of-age awakening.

A tropical melodrama about two sisters separated by patriarchal deception, revealing how women’s ambitions, labor, sexuality, and kinship are made invisible in mid-century Brazil.

Writer and director Alfonso Cuarón has described Roma as a love letter to all the women who raised him. It's a beautiful rumination on all the 'hoods' women go through: girlhood, womanhood, motherhood. A domestic drama about a maid and the middle-class family she cares for in Mexico City, the story is told in crisp black-and-white, but it doesn't take long to see that a woman's work never ventures far out of the gray area.

Set in 18th-century British court, the power game between Queen Anne and two women - Sarah Churchill and Abigail Hill. This dark comedy explores complex themes of female power, gender politics, female friendship and competition through gorgeous visual style and sharp satire, challenging traditional gender role expectations.

Patty Jenkins's Wonder Woman stars Gal Gadot as the titular DC Comics superhero, who fights injustice with strength, courage, and her golden Lasso of Truth. A box-office smash that scored more than $100 million on opening weekend - a record for a female-helmed film - it definitely positions Wonder Woman as the antidote to toxic masculinity her original creator imagined her to be.

A 17th-century New England folktale from Robert Eggers, this spooky picture is more than a supernatural horror - it's an exercise in female rebellion during a time when anyone 'different' was declared a witch.

At the end of the American Civil War, three women living alone on a desolate Southern farm must fight to defend themselves against two rogue soldiers who have broken off from the Union Army. This revisionist feminist western reexamines the brutality of war from a female perspective, exploring complex themes of women's self-defense rights, racial relations, and survival instincts.

Based on the true story of 18th-century historical figure Dido Elizabeth Belle, this costume drama follows a mixed-race aristocratic woman navigating her place in British high society while fighting for justice amid intersecting racism and sexism. The film explores complex themes of race, class, gender intersectionality, and female agency.

Through an Indigenous Peruvian woman living with inherited fear, the film examines how wartime sexual violence survives in bodies, households, music, and unequal relations of service.

In 1987 Romania under Ceaușescu's dictatorship, college roommate Otilia helps pregnant Găbița seek an illegal abortion. This harsh and brutal realist masterpiece reveals the state's control over women's bodies and women's brave resistance for reproductive autonomy within the span of one night.

Feminism isn't just about women kicking ass - it's also about allowing us the freedom to be who we want. For the protagonist sisters in Gillian Armstrong's adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel, that means a writer, a musician, a housewife, and a free spirit.

The late Penny Marshall directed this gem about the very first female professional baseball league. Geena Davis stars as the World War II - era catcher fighting the patriarchy, and Tom Hanks plays the cranky team manager with a heart of gold. As inspirational as it is just plain entertaining, the film encourages female viewers young and old to embrace the champion stifled inside each one of us.

A romp through a Catholic girls' school courtesy of a pair of mischievous teens, this Hayley Mills classic is all about sisterhood. But the real feminism is happening behind the lens: Ida Lupino, the sole working female director of the '50s, was blazing a trail for the women who would follow.

Behind Broadway's glittering stage, a legendary actress and an ambitious young woman engage in a complex battle over age, power, and women's survival space. This classic black-and-white film explores workplace gender dynamics and generational conflict in patriarchal society through sharp dialogue and profound character development.

Carl Dreyer's silent French film is as much an example of female strength today as it was 90 years ago. Based on the actual record of the trial of Joan of Arc, it explores the martyr as a Christlike figure whose strength, will, and determination endures even as she's led to a stake to be burned alive.