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Zoe Kazan getty 1.jpg

Films by Women and Non-Binary Directors to Look Out For in 2024

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | January 3, 2024 |

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Film | January 3, 2024 |

Zoe Kazan getty 1.jpg

It’s easy to fall into the trap of saying ‘this was a good year for women directors’ because we’re so used to times where female filmmakers were either ignored or absent altogether. Doing so overlooks how women have always been present behind the camera and are often doing some of the most exciting work outside of the cinematic mainstream. Still, 2023 was pretty impressive for a number of prominent directors, like Greta Gerwig, Celine Song, Ava DuVernay, and Justine Triet.

The goal is to always be aware of female and non-binary filmmakers and their work, to have it be so omnipresent and anticipated that it’d be weird to not notice it. One day, I hope we’ll be so deluged by such excellent works that we’ll see a horde of think pieces lamenting that those poor bearded white dudes in their baseball caps aren’t getting enough opportunities. For now, I think it’s worth shouting out some exciting works to look forward to in 2024. Some of these films don’t have concrete release dates, and I’m making a calculated guess that they will drop sometime between now and December, but nothing is guaranteed, especially post-lockdown and strikes.

I.S.S. (Dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite)

This sci-fi thriller opened to strong reviews last year at the Tribeca Festival and is one of the few gems of potential in a dry January. Ariana DeBose stars alongside Chris Messina and Pilou Asbæk as a group of astronauts living aboard the International Space Station. As war breaks out on Earth, tensions flare in space that reflect the international conflicts. Soon, they each receive orders from below: take control of the station by any means necessary.

I.S.S. opens in theatres on January 19.

MILLER’S GIRL (Dir. Jade Halley Bartlett)

Fresh from her star-making turn in Wednesday, Jenna Ortega has several films in the pipeline for 2024. This drama pairs her up with Martin Freeman as a student and teacher whose relationship grows messy and dangerous when they’re paired together for a creative writing assignment.

Miller’s Girl will be released on January 26.

SOMETIMES I THINK ABOUT DYING (Dir. Rachel Lambert)

Fran (Daisy Ridley) is an introvert office worker who is floating through life, mostly resigned to a humdrum existence in her office cube, ignored by her colleagues and thinking about her own death. A new coworker, however, seems eager to connect with her. Perhaps he can force her out of her own head and into something more meaningful. This one played at Sundance last year.

Sometimes I Think About Dying will be released on January 26.

LISA FRANKENSTEIN (Dir. Zelda Williams)

Zelda Williams makes her directorial debut with a horror comedy with serious Weird Science vibes. What happens when an ’80s goth girl reanimates a handsome corpse from the Victorian era? She makes him into the man of her dreams, of course. And it all goes horribly wrong. Diablo Cody is on screenwriting duties.

Lisa Frankenstein will be released on February 9.

MADAME WEB (Dir. S.J. Clarkson)

It’s webbing time? Look, I’m still not entirely sure that Madame Web is a real movie and not a tax write-off in waiting. Sony made viewers care about Venom by turning him into a sweaty man’s emotional support parasite but no number of memes could stop Morbius from flopping. Can they get people to care about a clairvoyant with vague connections to spiders, as played by Dakota Johnson?

Madame Web will be released on February 14. Happy Valentine’s Day?


YOU SING LOUD, I SING LOUDER (Dir. Emma Westenberg)

Ewan McGregor teams up with his daughter Clara for this indie drama that she helped to write the story for. A father secretly drives his estranged daughter to rehab after her latest overdose, which brings to light his own history of addiction problems and the reverberations they created for his family.

You Sing Loud, I Sing Louder will be released on February 16.

LOVE LIES BLEEDING (Dir. Rose Glass)

Aw yeah, this is what I’m talking about. Rose Glass’ debut Saint Maud was a Bresson-ian examination of zealotry with one of the most haunting endings I’ve seen in a long time. Her follow-up is a romantic thriller with heavy ’80s pulp energy and a ton of chaotic queer energy. Kristen Stewart and her mullet play a gym owner with a skeezy crime lord father (Ed Harris) who falls for a bodybuilder and gets caught up in his dangerous schemes. Katy O’Brian and her delts have already captured our hearts.

Love Lies Bleeding will be released on March 8.

THE FIRST OMEN (Dir. Arkasha Stevenson)

Horror revivals and reboots are all the rage these days, so it was only a matter of time before the devil’s spawn got in on the action. Yes, it’s a prequel. It’ll also be the feature directorial debut of Arkasha Stevenson, whose TV credits include Legion. The cast includes Nell Tiger Free and Bill Nighy. Here’s hoping for some gruesome deaths since the original had a few of the greatest on-screen kills committed to horror cinema.

The First Omen will be released on April 5.

I SAW THE TV GLOW (Dir. Jane Schoenbrun)

Jane Schoenbrun made a splash with their hyper-indie internet horror We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, which offered one of the sharpest critiques of modern online isolation and copypasta myth-making. Their follow-up has a similar vibe, but with more star power. Emma Stone is on producer duties for this horror about a pair of teens who bond over their love of a TV series. After its mysterious cancellation, the teens fall into a stupor where reality and their beloved series begin to blur. The extremely intriguing cast includes Justice Smith, Danielle Deadwyler, Phoebe Briders, and Fred Durst.

I Saw the TV Glow will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 18.

THE PEOPLE’S JOKER (Dir. Vera Drew)

Actress-writer Vera Drew worked on shows like Comedy Bang Bang and On Cinema as an editor before crowd-funding this queer superhero parody that immediately attracted the ire of Warner Bros. It premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, but almost every screening was cancelled when ‘rights issues’ from a major media conglomerate brought a halt to its rollout. Frankly, I think we need more DC pastiches wherein the Joker is a trans woman, Batman is a closeted gay-man right-winger, and Lorne Michaels is played by Maria Bamford.

The People’s Joker will premiere on April 5.

BACK TO BLACK (Dir. Sam Taylor-Johnson)

Look, sometimes we anticipate something with dread, and I can’t for the life of me claim that I’m in any way optimistic about the Amy Winehouse biopic. I love Amy. Her music means the world to me. I don’t even necessarily dislike Sam Taylor-Johnson as a filmmaker. Hell, she almost made Fifty Shades of Grey sorta watchable, despite the best efforts of E.L. James. But biopics exist to make money for brands, and Winehouse’s skeezy father is shepherding this project, so I don’t expect it to be anything beyond a whitewash of Winehouse’s complicated life that makes him out to be the hero. It’d be nice to be proven wrong, though.

Back to Black will be released on April 12 in the UK and May 10 in America.


THE WATCHERS (Dir. Ishana Night Shyamalan)

M. Night’s daughter has been a regular part of his team for a few years now, working as his assistant director on Old and being behind the camera on a number of episodes of Servant. She’s continuing the family business of horror with her feature debut, The Watchers. Dakota Fanning plays an artist who finds herself stranded in a seemingly never-ending forest in Ireland and becomes trapped alongside a group of strangers as a dark creature stalks them each night. Her dad will surely be proud.

The Watchers will be released on June 7.

FLINT STRONG (Dir. Rachel Morrison)

Rachel Morrison made history when she became the first woman to ever be nominated for the Best Cinematography Oscar way back in the olden times of 2017. Barry Jenkins has written the screenplay for her feature directorial debut, Flint Strong, based on the true story of boxer Claressa “T-Rex” Shields training for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Ryan Destiny from Grown-ish is in the lead, with Judy Greer and Brian Tyree Henry among her co-stars. We do love a good boxing movie.

Flint Strong will be released on August 9.

ROSALIE (Dir. Stéphanie Di Giusto)

Clémentine Delait was a French bearded lady who became a celebrity when she toured with circuses and later opened a café. Stéphanie Di Giusto has taken inspiration from her for Rosalie, a historical drama about a hirsute young woman who tries to hide her secret with regular shavings before finding freedom in her bearded self.

Rosalie is set to be released in France on 24 January. It currently does not have an American release date.

GOOD ONE (Dir. India Donaldson)

India Donaldson’s (great surname) feature debut follows Sam (Lily Collias) a teenage girl on a backpacking trip in the Catskills with her father. As the break draws on, her dad’s focus falls onto his oldest friend, with whom he seems to be engaged in an endless battle of egos. Soon, Sam is stuck in the middle of a macho war she has no idea how to navigate.

Good One is set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

SUNCOAST (Dir. Laura Chinn)

You might recognize Laura Chinn as an actress the cruelly cancelled series Florida Girls, which she also wrote on. Her directorial debut Suncoast is a coming-of-age drama inspired by her own experiences. Set in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2005, the film follows a young woman who strikes up an unlikely friendship with an activist who is protesting a major medical case.

Suncoast is set to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

THE OUTRUN (Dir. Nora Fingscheidt)

Scottish journalist Amy Liptrot won a slew of awards with her memoir The Outrun, which documented her experience of returning home to the Orkney Islands after bad experiences with drug and alcohol dependency. While there, she found a job mapping rare corncrakes for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Actress Saoirse Ronan acquired the rights for the book as a star project for herself (her partner, Jack Lowden of Slow Horses fame, is also a producer.) German director Nora Fingscheidt is behind the camera.

The Outrun will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

YOUR MONSTER (Dir. Caroline Lindy)

Introverted actress Laura’s life is in shreds, leaving her feeling as though she doesn’t have a voice, when she finds a monster living in her closet. Fortunately, he’s actually very charming and soon she’s dating her hot closet monster and tapping into her inner demon. It’s a Beauty and the Beast retelling, so of course I’m excited!

Your Monster will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.

HUMANE (Dir. Caitlin Cronenberg)

Photographer Caitlin Cronenberg is following in the footsteps of her father and brother by getting into the world of horror cinema. Hey, when you’ve got that pedigree, I think it’s mandatory. She’s also keeping it suitably Canadian, with shooting taking place in Hamilton, Ontario, and Jay Baruchel in the lead role. The plot reportedly takes place over a single day following a global environmental catastrophe that has led to a push to vastly reduce the Earth’s population in a short amount of time.

Humane currently does not have a release date.

THE SUBSTANCE (Dir. Coralie Fargeat)

French filmmaker Coralie Fargeat made her feature debut with 2017’s Revenge, an action thriller that reimagined the rape-revenge genre for a new era. For her follow-up, she’s delving into the body horror genre with Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley. Little is known about the plot, but Fargeat counts both David Cronenberg and Michael Haneke among her inspirations, so expect something dark and gruesome.

The Substance currently does not have a release date.

THE SUPREMES AT EARL’S ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT (Dir. Tina Mabry)

No, this isn’t a biopic of Diana Ross and her band. Based on the novel by Edward Kelsey Moore, this drama is about a trio of best friends who weather various dramas throughout the decades, returning to their favourite diner for solace. The leading trio will be played by Uzo Aduba, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, and Sanaa Lathan, which is reason enough for anyone to get to the movies.

The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat does not currently have a release date.

NIGHTBITCH (Dir. Marielle Heller)

I loved Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch, a satirical novel about the pressures of motherhood with a supernatural twist, but it didn’t necessarily seem like an easy thing to adapt into a film. After all, it’s about a harried wife and mother who’s convinced she’s turning into a dog. But if anyone can pull it off, it’s Marielle Heller, who has become one of the most exciting new directors of the past five years thanks to the critical successes of Can You Ever Forgive Me? and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Nightbitch could also give Amy Adams a much-needed juicy role to get her teeth into after a couple of flop years.

Nightbitch currently does not have a release date.

BIRD (Dir. Andrea Arnold)

Andrea Arnold is one of the true icons of British independent cinema, and some of us are still mad she got screwed over with the second season of Big Little Lies (#ReleaseTheArnoldCut.) She stepped back from fiction to make the moving documentary Cow and is returning with the non-nature drama Bird. If Andrea Arnold’s name isn’t enough to get you excited, how about the presence of Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski in the leading roles? Hell yeah.

Bird currently does not have a release date.

HOLLAND, MICHIGAN (Dir. Mimi Cave)

Nicole Kidman slows down for no man. She has a 2024 roster that could number five projects (one of which is Lulu Wang’s ambitious Amazon series Expats.) Holland, Michigan seems like a more traditional thriller, wherein Kidman plays a Midwesterner who suspects her husband (Gael Garcia Bernal) might be living a double life. This is director Mimi Cave’s follow-up to the cannibal romantic drama Fresh.

Holland, Michigan currently does not have a release date.

HEDDA

Nia DaCosta became one of a tiny handful of Black women to receive a $100m+ budget for The Marvels, and that movie’s underperformance has seen Marvel and Disney a little too eager to throw her under the bus for its post-strike and superhero fatigue struggles. Fortunately, DaCosta has no damn time to wait around and take the blame from Kevin Feige. She’s already finished shooting her latest film, an adaptation of Hedda Gabler starring Tessa Thompson. Too many indie directors get swallowed up by the franchise machine and don’t get to return to making the passion projects that fuel him, so it’s a relief to see DaCosta back to what she does best.

Hedda does not currently have a release date.

PUSSY ISLAND (Dir. Zoe Kravitz)

Well, we have to end this piece on that title, don’t we? Catwoman herself, Zoe Kravitz, is making her directorial debut alongside her beau, Channing Tatum. He plays a skeezy tech bro whose waitress girlfriend accompanies him to his private island where things, of course, go very wrong. The fascinating cast also includes Naomi Ackie, Simon Rex, Geena Davis, and Kyle MacLachlan.

Pussy Island currently does not have a release date, and probably won’t get to keep that title when it does.