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 ...

television movies Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, e ...

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

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 el ...

and academic sources.

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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 Sini Anderson (born November 6, 19??) is an American film director, producer, performance artist, choreographer, dancer and poet, from Chicago, Illinois. Anderson is widely known for directing ''The Punk Singer'' (2013), a documentary about riot ...

(USA) *

Chantal Akerman Chantal Anne Akerman (; 6 June 19505 October 2015) was a Belgian film director, screenwriter, artist, and Film studies, film professor at the City College of New York. She is best known for films such as ''Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 108 ...

(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 prog ...

(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 Katja Blichfeld (born 1979) is an American writer, director, producer and casting director. She is known for co-creating and directing ''High Maintenance'', a Vimeo web series and HBO television series. She won a Primetime Emmy award for Outst ...

(USA) * Maureen Bradley (Canada) *

Netalie Braun Netalie Braun (Hebrew: נטעלי בראון; born June 12, 1978) is an Israeli poet, writer and filmmaker. She won the 2017 Ophir Award for the best short documentary film. Career Braun completed her BA in literature and philosophy, and an MA ...

(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 Dominique Cardona (born 1955) is an Argentinian-born Canadian film director, producer, and screenwriter. She works primarily but not exclusively in collaboration with Laurie Colbert.Seana Stevenson"Catch and Release Interview: Dominique Cardona an ...

(Canada) *

Ilene Chaiken Ilene Chaiken (born June 30, 1957) is an American television producer, director, writer, and founder of Little Chicken Productions. Chaiken is best known as being a co-creator, writer and executive producer on the television series ''The L Word' ...

(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 (film), Laurel Canyon'' (2002), and ''The Kids Are All Right (film), The Kids Are All Right ...

(USA) *

Zero Chou Zero Chou (; born 24 July 1969) is a Taiwanese director and screenwriter. Life and career Chou was born in Keelung, Taiwan in 1969. She earned a B.A. in Philosophy from National Chengchi University in 1992. She worked as a journalist before beco ...

(Taiwan) *

Laurie Colbert Laurie Colbert is a Canadians, Canadian film director, producer, and screenwriter. She works primarily but not exclusively in collaboration with Dominique Cardona.Seana Stevenson"Catch and Release Interview: Dominique Cardona and Laurie Colbert" '' ...

(Canada) *

Janis Cole Janis Cole (born 1954) is a Canadian filmmaker, producer, writer, editor and professor. She has directed several films over the span of her career. Most of these films were done in cooperation with her friend and professional partner, Holly Dale. ...

(Canada) *

Nicole Conn Nicole Conn (born October 29, 1959) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter most famous for her debut feature, the lesbian love story '' Claire of the Moon'' (1992). Her screenplay for ''Claire of the Moon'' was also released a ...

(USA) *

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

(France) *

Jeanne Crépeau Jeanne Crépeau (born 1961 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from Montreal, Quebec,Thomas Waugh, ''The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas''. McGill-Queen's University Press, ...

(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 Lynne Fernie (born 1946) is a Canadian filmmaker and interdisciplinary artist. She spent fourteen years as the Canadian Spectrum programmer for the Hot Docs Festival from 2002 to 2016, and was described as having a passion as "deep as her knowled ...

(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 ho ...

(USA) * Su Friedrich (USA) *

Maya Gallus Maya Gallus is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, and co-founder of Red Queen Productions with Justine Pimlott. Her films have screened at international film festivals, including Toronto International Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, ...

(Canada) *

Nisha Ganatra Nisha Ganatra (born June 25, 1974) is a Canadian-American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actress of Indian descent. She wrote, directed, and produced the independent comedy drama ''Chutney Popcorn'' (1999) and later directed the indepe ...

(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 Aurora Guerrero is a writer-director from California. Early life Guerrero was born in the Mission District of San Francisco, California to Mexican immigrant parents, later growing up on the border of the cities of Richmond and El Cerrito wh ...

(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 Barbara Jean Hammer (May 15, 1939 – March 16, 2019) was an American feminist film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer. She is known for being one of the pioneers of the lesbian film genre, and her career spanned over 50 years. Hamm ...

(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 G. B. Jones (born 1965) is a Canadian artist, filmmaker, musician, and publisher of zines born in Bowmanville, Canada. She is known for producing J.D.s with her acclaimed''Tom Girls'' drawings before going on to create more musically, cinematica ...

(Canada) *

Ingrid Jungermann Ingrid Jungermann (born August 23, 1977) is an American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. She is best known for '' Women Who Kill'', her directorial film debut, and web series '' The Slope'' and '' F to 7th''. Career Jungermann is o ...

(USA) *

Ana Kokkinos Ana Kokkinos is an Australian film and television director and screenwriter of Greek descent. She is known for her breakthrough feature film, '' Head On'' (1998), and has also directed television shows such as ''The Secret Life of Us'' and '' ...

(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 Desiree Lim (born 1971) is a Malaysian-born Canadian independent film director, producer, and screenwriter. She is known for her films ''Sugar Sweet'' (2001), ''Floored by Love'' (2005), and ''The House'' (2011). Lim tends to work within the realm ...

(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)

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Angelina Maccarone Angelina Maccarone is a German film director and writer. Personal life Angelina Maccarone was born in Pulheim, Germany, 1965. A child of immigration, she is the daughter of an Italian father - who was also a guest worker - and a German mother wh ...

(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 Diane "Dee" Mosbacher, MD, Ph.D., (born January 13, 1949 in Houston, Texas) is an American filmmaker, lesbian feminist activist, and practicing psychiatrist. In 1993, she founded Woman Vision, a nonprofit organization to promote equal treatment ...

(USA) * Brittani Nichols (USA) *

Madeleine Olnek Madeleine Olnek is an American independent film director, producer, screenwriter, and playwright. She has written 24 plays and three feature films, including ''Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, The Foxy Merkins,'' and ''Wild Nights wi ...

(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 Joy ...

(USA) *

Ulrike Ottinger Ulrike Ottinger (born 6 June 1942) is a German filmmaker and photographer. Early life From 1959 she was a visiting student at the Academy of Arts in Munich and worked as a painter. Her mother, Maria Weinberg, was a journalist and her father, Ul ...

(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 Pratibha Parmar is a British writer and filmmaker. She has made feminist documentaries such as '' Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth'' and '' My Name is Andrea'' about Andrea Dworkin. Early life Parmar was born in Nairobi, Kenya to Indian parents and ...

(UK) *

Stacie Passon Stacie Passon (born October 1, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer whose debut film ''Concussion'' premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and subsequently won a Teddy Award Jury Prize at the 2013 Berlin Internat ...

(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 Justine Pimlott is a Canadian documentary filmmaker, and co-founder of Red Queen Productions with Maya Gallus. She began her career apprenticing as a sound recordist with Studio D, the women’s studio at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), ...

(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 Yoruba Richen (born 1972, in New York City, New York) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. Her work has been featured on PBS, New York Times Op Doc, Frontline Digital, New York Magazine’s website -The Cut, The Atlantic and ...

(USA) *

Marialy Rivas Marialy Rivas is a Chilean screenwriter and film director, known for her 2012 film '' Young and Wild'', winner of the World Cinema Screenwriting Award in Sundance Film Festival. She grew up in Chile during a violent dictatorship under Augusto P ...

(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 Marja-Lewis Ryan (born March 19, 1985) is an American writer, director, producer, and actress. She is best known for writing, co-starring, and co-producing the LGBT drama film, ''The Four-Faced Liar'', which won multiple awards, including Outsta ...

(USA) *

Shamim Sarif Shamim Sarif (born 24 September 1969) is a British novelist and filmmaker of South Asian and South African heritage. Her work often focuses on various aspects of identity including gender, race, and sexuality. It often draws upon her own person ...

(UK) *

Greta Schiller Greta Schiller is an American film director and producer, best known for the 1984 documentary '' Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community''. Personal life Schiller received the US/UK Fulbright Arts Fellowship in Film and grants ...

(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 Ellen Spiro is an American documentary filmmaker. She was a producer and director of a television documentary '' Are the kids alright?'', which won an Emmy Award in 2005. She is a professor emerita of the University of Texas at Austin, where ...

(USA) *

Monika Treut Monika Treut (born April 6, 1954, in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) is a German filmmaker. She made her feature film debut with Seduction: The Cruel Woman (co-directed by Elfi Mikesch), a film that explores sadomasochistic se ...

(Germany) *

Rose Troche Rose Troche (born 1964) is an American film and television director, television producer, and screenwriter. Early life and education Troche was born to Puerto Rican parents and grew up on the north side of Chicago. In an interview she stated, "M ...

(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 Louise Wadley is an Australian film director, producer, writer, and cinematographer. She is best known for her piece All About E, ''All About E'' (2015), which she wrote and directed. Wadley is also a director and contributor to Girl’s Own Pi ...

(Australia) * Andrea Weiss (USA) * Aerlyn Weissman (USA-Canada) * Yvonne Welbon (USA) *

Tucky Williams Tucky Williams is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actress. She is known for creating and portraying Evan in the Amazon streaming series ''Girl/Girl Scene''. Personal life Williams began college at the age of fifteen. She stud ...

(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

Kanopy Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video platform for public and academic libraries that offers films, TV shows and documentaries. The service is free for users, but content owners and content creators are paid on a pay-per-view model by the in ...

''Dykes, Camera, Action!''
2018 documentary by Caroline Berler {{DEFAULTSORT:Lesbian filmmakers Film-related lists

Filmmakers Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a Film, motion picture is #Production, produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through scr ...

Lesbians by occupation Lesbian Lesbian Lesbian filmmakers

Lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

Lists of LGBT-related people

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 vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pro ...

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See also

References

Further reading

External links