Weekly Update for September 15: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

First They Killed My Father — Directed by Angelina Jolie; Written by Angelina Jolie and Loung Ung (Available on Netflix)

A five-year-old girl (Sareum Srey Moch) embarks on a harrowing quest for survival amid the sudden rise and terrifying reign of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. (Press materials)

mother!

A couple’s relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home, disrupting their tranquil existence. Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeiffer star in this psychological thriller about love, devotion, and sacrifice. (Press materials)

Find tickets and screening info here.

All I See Is You

A blind woman’s (Blake Lively) relationship with her husband changes when she regains her sight and discovers disturbing details about themselves, their marriage, and their lives. (Press materials)

In Search of Fellini — Co-Written by Nancy Cartwright (Opens in NY and LA)

A shy small-town Ohio girl (Ksenia Solo) who loves movies but dislikes reality discovers the delightfully bizarre films of Federico Fellini, and sets off on a strange, beautiful journey across Italy to find him. (Press materials)

Find tickets and screening info here.

Alina (Opens in NY)

“Alina” follows the odyssey of a young Russian woman (Darya Ekamasova) who arrives in New York looking for her father, with only a 25-year-old photo in her possession to help. She finds a freedom she has never experienced and becomes immersed in the party scene, trying everything from sex to drugs until things go sour. With the help of friends, Alina discovers a raucous, loving Italian family who help her discover her father’s true identity and the secrets her mother has been keeping. The film explores the hardships of immigration and assimilation as well as the joy in finding real friendships and love. (Press materials)

Easy Living (Opens in NY) (Available on VOD September 19)

Sherry (Caroline Dhavernas), a self-destructive makeup saleswoman, hopes a new man and business venture will provide her a fresh start. After her plans are foiled, she takes control of her life in a dramatic turn of events. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Simran

A Gujarati housekeeping lady in the U.S. allows ambition to get the better of her and gets involved in a world of crime. “Simran” is a racy, fun film with Kangana Ranaut in the titular role. (Press materials)

Thirst Street (Opens September 20)

Alone and depressed after the suicide of her lover, American flight attendant Gina (Lindsay Burdge) travels to Paris and hooks up with nightclub bartender Jerome (Damien Bonnard) on her layover. But as Gina falls deeper into lust and opts to stay in France, this harmless rendezvous quickly turns into unrequited amour fou. When Jerome’s ex Clemence (Esther Garrel) reenters the picture, Gina is sent on a downward spiral of miscommunication, masochism, and madness. Inspired by European erotic dramas from the ’70s, “Thirst Street” burrows deep into the delirious extremes we go to for love. (Press materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

Home Again — Written and Directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer
Lipstick Under My Burkha — Directed by Alankrita Shrivastava; Written by Alankrita Shrivastava, Suhani Kanwar, and Gazal Dhaliwal
Motherland (Documentary) — Directed by Ramona S. Diaz
Year by the Sea
The Unknown Girl
Fallen — Co-Written by Kathryn Price and Nichole Millard (Also Available on VOD)
Anti Matter (Also Available on VOD)
Twenty Two (Documentary)
Napping Princess
Beach Massacre at Kill Devil Hills
Clowntergeist (Also Available on VOD)
The Vault (Also Available on VOD)
Dalida — Written and Directed by Lisa Azuelos
Kill Me Please — Written and Directed by Anita Rocha Da Silveira
Heat and Dust (Theatrical Re-Release) — Written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Dolores (Documentary)
Tulip Fever
Served Like a Girl (Documentary) — Co-Written and Directed by Lysa Heslov
Polina — Written and Co-Directed by Valérie Müller
Leap! — Co-Written by Carol Noble
The Villainess
The Teacher
Marjorie Prime
Patti Cake$
The Glass Castle
Ingrid Goes West
Annabelle: Creation
Once Upon a Time
A Life in Waves (Documentary)
Kidnap
Step (Documentary) — Directed by Amanda Lipitz
Atomic Blonde
Women Who Kill — Written and Directed by Ingrid Jungermann
The Girl Without Hands
The Untamed
The Midwife
Landline — Directed by Gillian Robespierre; Written by Gillian Robespierre and Elisabeth Holm
Girls Trip — Co-Written by Tracy Oliver
Wish Upon — Written by Barbara Marshall
Lady Macbeth — Written by Alice Birch
Birthright: A War Story (Documentary) — Directed by Civia Tamarkin; Written by Civia Tamarkin and Luchina Fisher
The Little Hours
Marie Curie: The Courage of Knowledge — Directed by Marie Noelle; Written by Marie Noelle and Andrea Stoll
Maudie — Directed by Aisling Walsh; Written by Sherry White
47 Meters Down (Also Available on VOD)
Lost in Paris — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Fiona Gordon
Megan Leavey — Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite; Co-Written by Pamela Gray and Annie Mumolo
Beatriz at Dinner
Moka
Wonder Woman — Directed by Patty Jenkins
Letters from Baghdad (Documentary) — Directed by Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum
Love, Kennedy
The Women’s Balcony — Written by Shlomit Nehama
Paris Can Wait — Written and Directed by Eleanor Coppola
Hidden Figures — Co-Written by Allison Schroeder

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

Red Trees (Documentary) — Directed by Marina Willer; Co-Written by Marina Willer and Leena Telén (Opens in NY and LA)

Award-winning filmmaker Marina Willer creates an impressionistic visual essay as she traces her father’s family journey as one of only 12 Jewish families to survive the Nazi occupation of Prague during World War II. The film travels from war-torn Eastern Europe to the color and light of South America and is told through the voice of Willer’s father, Alfred (as narrated by Tim Piggot Smith), who witnessed bureaucratic nightmares, transportations, and suicides but survived to build a post-war life as an architect in Brazil. As the world struggles with the current refugee crisis, “Red Trees” is a timely look at a family besieged by war who finds peace across an ocean. (Press materials)

Read Marina Willer’s guest post for Women and Hollywood.

Find screening info here.

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

Trophy (Documentary) — Co-Directed Christina Clusiau
School Life (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Neasa Ní Chianáin (Also Available on VOD)
Company Town (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Natalie Kottke-Masocco and Erica Sardarian
Nobody’s Watching — Directed by Julia Solomonoff; Written by Julia Solomonoff and Christina Lazaridi
Spettacolo (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Chris Shellen
I Do… Until I Don’t — Written and Directed by Lake Bell
Viceroy’s House — Written and Directed by Gurinder Chadha; Co-Written by Moira Buffini
Beach Rats — Written and Directed by Eliza Hittman
Lemon — Co-Written and Directed by Janicza Bravo (Also Available on VOD)
Whose Streets? (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Sabaah Folayan
Detroit — Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Bonni Cohen
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World (Documentary) — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Catherine Bainbridge
False Confessions — Co-Directed by Marie-Louise Bischofberger
Swim Team (Documentary) — Directed by Lara Stolman
Pop Aye — Written and Directed by Kirsten Tan
Hare Krishna! The Mantra, The Movement and the Swami Who Started It All (Documentary) — Co-Directed by Jean Griesser and Lauren Ross
Obit. (Documentary) — Directed by Vanessa Gould

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

None.

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

The Limehouse Golem — Written by Jane Goldman (Also Available on VOD)
True to the Game — Written by Nia Hill
Logan Lucky — Written by Rebecca Blunt
The Fencer — Written by Anna Heinämaa
13 Minutes — Co-Written by Léonie-Claire Breinersdorfer
The Big Sick — Co-Written by Emily V. Gordon
Cars 3 — Co-Written by Kiel Murray

TV Premieres This Week

The Vietnam War (Docuseries) — Co-Directed by Lynn Novick (Premieres September 17 on PBS)

This 10-part, 18-hour documentary series tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film. Visceral and immersive, the series explores the human dimensions of the war through revelatory testimony of nearly 80 witnesses from all sides — Americans who fought in the war and others who opposed it, as well as combatants and civilians from North and South Vietnam. Ten years in the making, the series includes rarely seen and digitally re-mastered archival footage from sources around the globe, photographs taken by some of the most celebrated photojournalists of the 20th century, historic television broadcasts, evocative home movies, and secret audio recordings from inside the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon administrations. (Press materials)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

The Bad Batch — Written and Directed by Ana Lily Amirpour (DVD, September 19)
The Big Sick — Co-Written by Emily V. Gordon (VOD/DVD, September 19)
By the Time It Gets Dark — Written and Directed by Anocha Suwichakornpong (DVD, September 19)
Certain Women — Written and Directed by Kelly Reichardt (VOD/DVD, September 19)
Lina Wertmüller: Behind the White Glasses (Documentary) (DVD, September 19)
Wonder Woman — Directed by Patty Jenkins (VOD/DVD, September 19)