20 Rising Women Directors You Need to Know in 2020

Maite Alberdi (“The Mole Agent”)

The third time is the charm for Chilean producer and filmmaker Maite Alberdi, who follows documentaries “The Grown-Ups” and “Tea Time” with the delightful non-fiction feature “The Mole Agent.” IndieWire’s Eric Kohn gave the film an A review out of the Sundance Film Festival, calling it “the most heartwarming spy movie ever made.”

The movie follows an 83-year-old widower who infiltrates a nursing home at the behest of a private detective. Alberdi blends a humorous character study with the intricate thrills of a spy movie to deliver a comical and touching documentary that is just begging for an American narrative remake. 

Maureen Bharoocha (“Golden Arm”)

Maureen Bharoocha has directed dozens of short films over the years and was destined to be one of the breakouts of SXSW with her feature directorial debut “Golden Arm,” starring rising comedian Mary Holland as a woman who enters the world of female arm wrestling competitions in order to get some quick cash. IndieWire’s Kate Erbland wrote of the film, “A nifty spin on the sports drama formula, the film is a breezy watch and also establishes Bharoocha as a skilled filmmaker and Holland as a major comedy star to watch.” “Golden Arm” is included on IndieWire’s list of SXSW premieres that deserve distribution.

Radha Blank (“The 40-Year-Old Version”)

One of Sundance’s biggest breakout directors in 2020 is Radha Blank, the director, writer, and star of “The 40-Year-Old Version.” Blank won the Directing Award in the U.S Dramatic Competition thanks to her feature directorial debut, which also landed a buzzy distribution deal from Netflix.

Blank stars in the film as a failed New York City playwright whose spark for life is reignited after she decides to start a new career at age 40 as a rapper. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn called Blank’s directing debut a “smart and scrappy crowdpleaser with purpose,” and it should be a big hit for Netflix when the streamer releases it later this year.

Garrett Bradley (“Time”)

Garrett Bradley emerged from Sundance this year with some of the strongest reviews thanks to her documentary “Time,” which IndieWire named one of the best films of the 2020 festival. In just 81 minutes, Bradley cuts together 21 years of one woman’s fight to get her husband out of jail. The final result is a monumental portrait of mass incarceration in American that’s made all the more powerful through the intimacy of its home movie footage.

Amazon picked up “Time” out of Sundance and the film is expected to be one of the studio’s top Oscar contenders later this year. Bradley won the Best Director prize in the festival’s U.S. Documentary Competition. After a string of documentary shorts, Bradley is now one of the doc genre’s most promising new filmmakers.

Janicza Bravo (“Zola”)

Janicza Bravo was already an established industry name when she came to Sundance earlier this year to world premiere her A24-backed second feature “Zola.” Bravo has directed episodes of television series such as “Atlanta” and “Forever,” won a Grand Jury Prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival for her short film “Gregory Go Boom,” and earned considerable praise for her 2017 feature directorial debut “Lemon,” a cringe comedy of the highest order.

With “Zola,” Bravo takes on a ripped-from-the-headlines story and infuses it with an impassioned style that is bound to elevate the director’s profile when A24 releases the film later this year. IndieWire named “Zola” a Sundance highlight and a rambunctious crowdpleaser.

Maïmouna Doucouré (“Cuties”)

Maïmouna Doucouré won the Cesar Award for Best Short Film with her 2015 project “Maman(s),” and her career continued to rise at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival with the world premiere of her feature directorial debut “Cuties.” Doucouré’s film centers around an 11-year-old girl who joins the eponymous group of dancers at school and comes into her own sense of femininity, much to the growing worry of her mother.

IndieWire’s Kate Erbland wrote out of Sundance that “Doucouré’s even-handed approach to the film’s grounded first half is what makes it so moving and relatable.” “Cuties” already has the backing of Netflix on its side, which should only help more eyeballs discover Doucouré’s talents moving forward.

Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”)

English screenwriter Emerald Fennell was one of the biggest breakouts of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival with her feature directorial debut “Promising Young Woman,” starring Carey Mulligan as a woman who goes to controversial lengths to punish predatory men.

Fennell’s breakthrough arrived after Phoebe Waller-Bridge selected her to be the showrunner of “Killing Eve” Season 2. Fennell wrote six episodes of the drama’s second season, and it was a gig that redefined her career after a successful run as an actress in popular shows such as “Call the Midwife” and “The Crown.”

Focus Features delayed “Promising Young Woman” from its original April release date and has yet to announce a new opening. The film’s Sundance premiere was so buzzy that Mulligan launched into the Oscar race for Best Actress.

Kitty Green (“The Assistant”)

Kitty Green’s “The Assistant” opened in theaters in late January following acclaimed festival runs at Telluride and Sundance, and it remains one of the best reviewed films of 2020 so far. Green made a name for herself in the documentary world as the filmmaker behind 2013’s “Ukraine Is Not a Brothel” and 2017’s genre-defying “Casting JonBenét,” which earned major buzz at Sundance and got picked up by Netflix.

“The Assistant” marks Green’s narrative feature debut, but the movie bears all the precision and meticulous investigation that marks Green’s documentary work. Julia Garner stars as an office assistant to a powerful Hollywood mogul who begins to unravel as she becomes exposed to the company’s predatory behavior. 

Natalie Erika James (“Relic”)

Another Sundance breakout this year was Natalie Erika James who, after making four short films delivered a terrifying first feature with the Emily Mortimer-starring “Relic.” Named one of the best horror films out of Sundance this year, “Relic” follows three generations of women who are forced to fight a manifestation of dementia that begins haunting their family home.

IFC Midnight picked up distribution rights to “Relic” afters its Sundance debut and is releasing the horror film July 10, making it one of the summer’s only and best scary offerings. Similar to recent horror hits like “Hereditary,” “Relic” delivers terrifying supernatural thrills by digging into real-world trauma.

Jiayan Jenny Shi (“Finding Yingying”)

Jiayan Jenny Shi’s documentary “Finding Yingying” was destined to be one of the most talked-about projects at SXSW this year before the festival’s cancellation. The director’s former classmate Zhang Yingying disappeared in June 2017 after leaving China earlier that year to attend the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and “Finding Yingying” sees Shi documenting the Zhang family’s search for their missing daughter.

IndieWire’s David Ehrlich praised “Finding Yingying” as a “handmade and haunting true crime documentary about globalism gone bad.” The film is included on IndieWire’s list of SXSW movies that deserve distribution.

Anna Kerrigan (“Cowboys”)

Anna Kerrigan’s “Cowboys” would have been one of the buzziest titles out of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival had the event run as planned. The film is an elegant and tender revisionist Western starring Steve Zahn as a modern-day Butch Cassidy who whisks his adorable kid away to the Montana mountains.

“Cowboys” is Kerrigan’s first feature and she previously garnered attention with her short film “Hot Seat,” which screened at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. IndieWire’s positive review of “Cowboys” reads: “Kerrigan’s script keeps the focus tight on four main characters, effectively crafting a satisfying adventure into a subtle excavation of masculinity — the good, the bad, and the ugly.”

Kelly Oxford (“Pink Skies Ahead”)

Writer-turned-feature-filmmaker Kelly Oxford would have surely been a SXSW breakout had the festival gone on as planned. Oxford’s directorial debut “Pink Skies Ahead” stars “End of the F**king World” breakout Jessica Barden as a young woman struggling with an anxiety disorder after dropping out of college. You know Oxford’s storytelling resonates when her first feature attracts rising young stars like Barden, Rosa Salazar, and Odeya Rush, along with seasoned talents such as Marcia Gay Harden, Henry Winkler, and Mary J. Blige.

Oxford based the film on her own experience dropping out of college, and the result is an intimate indie that’s just waiting for its moment to draw in an audience.

Channing Godfrey Peoples (“Miss Juneteenth”)

Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 new faces of independent film in 2018, Channing Godfrey Peoples became one to watch at Sundance earlier this year with the world premiere of her directorial feature debut “Miss Juneteenth.” Prior to the premiere, Peoples wrote episodes of Ava DuVernay’s OWN drama series “Queen Sugar” and was a recipient of the San Francisco International Film Festival’s Westridge Grant.

Peoples’ “Miss Juneteenth” stars Nicole Beharie as a former beauty queen struggling as a single mother to raise her rebellious teenager daughter and prepare her for her own beauty pageant competition. Beharie and newcomer Alexis Chikaeze’s winning performances add emotional strengths to Peoples’ sprawling storytelling.

Kris Rey (“I Used to Go Here”)

“I Used to Go Here” is Kris Rey’s fourth feature film as director, but its bountiful humor and hard-won honesty make it a mainstream delight that the director’s career has yet to see until now. If her previous three features made her an indie favorite, then “I Used to Go Here” should be the film that crosses her over in a big way.

“Community” favorite Gillian Jacobs plays a writer who slips back into her college glory days when she’s asked to return to her alma mater and give a talk to students. The cancellation of SXSW robbed “I Used to Go Here” of a breakthrough festival debut, but the title made it on to IndieWire’s list of SXSW films that deserve distribution. IndieWire’s Kate Erbland called the project Rey’s best work to date.

Amy Seimetz (“She Dies Tomorrow”)

Amy Seimetz is a beloved actress (“Upstream Color,” “Pet Sematary”) whose directing credits already include her 2011 feature debut “Sun Don’t Shine” and acclaimed episodes of “Atlanta” and “The Girlfriend Experience,” but her feature filmmaking career was elevated in a big way this year with “She Dies Tomorrow.”

Seimetz’s acclaimed seriocomic thriller would have certainly been a major hit at the 2020 SXSW Film Festival. IndieWire’s Eric Kohn awarded the feature an A- review, and it landed a buzzy distribution deal with Neon even without its planned festival debut. “She Dies Tomorrow” stars Kate Lyn Sheil as a woman who gets infected by an illness that convinces her she will die the following morning. IndieWire praised “She Dies Tomorrow” as a “gripping thriller that combines classic David Cronenberg body horror and with the scathing surrealism of Luis Buñuel.”

Emma Seligman (“Shiva Baby”)

First-time feature filmmaker Emma Seligman mines a wild premise for dark laughs in her debut “Shiva Baby,” which follows a college student who runs into her sugar daddy at a Jewish funeral service she’s attending with her parents. The film was set to world premiere at SXSW, but the festival’s cancellation limited its breakout potential.

IndieWire’s Jude Dry wrote in their positive review, “Bearing a likeness to the early work of Jill Soloway and Jennifer Westfeldt, ‘Shiva Baby’ blends a claustrophobic Jewish humor with a sexy premise to deliver a lively debut.”

Autumn de Wilde (“Emma”)

It’s never too late to become a breakout filmmaker. Autumn de Wilde made her directorial debut at age 49 this year with “Emma,” which earned strong reviews and just over $25 million at the worldwide box office before theaters across the world shut down. IndieWire named “Emma” the most stylish Jane Austen film adaptation ever made, which has everything to do with de Wilde’s sumptuous visuals and sharp comedic pacing.

De Wilde got her start as a photographer, shooting album covers for major artists such as The White Stripes, Fiona Apple, and Beck. The artist transitioned into video by directing music videos for the likes of Ingrid Michaelson, The Raconteurs, and Death Cab for Cutie, and then she helmed concert documentaries for The Flaming Lips and Arcade Fire. Thanks to “Emma,” de Wilde now has a feature filmmaking career on everyone’s radar.

Zoe Wittock (“Jumbo”)

With four short films under her belt, Zoé Wittock ventured to the 2020 Sundance Film Festival with her feature directorial debut “Jumbo,” starring “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” favorite Noémie Merlant as a loner who develops a deep psychosexual attraction to the tilt-a-whirl ride at the rundown Belgian amusement park where she works. A rather unusual premise gives way to a stirring dissection of the loner’s relationship with her mother, played by the great Emmanuelle Bercot. The script may turn into a rather conventional European dramedy, but Wittock’s tender and erotic filmmaking make for a film that brings reliable charms to an unusual relationship.

Alice Wu (“The Half of It”)

Alice Wu was such a breakout in 2004 with her lesbian romance “Saving Face” that she earned a Gotham Award nomination for Breakthrough Director. So why include her on a list of rising women directors in 2020? Because Wu’s beloved Netflix romantic comedy “The Half of It” marked only her second directorial effort after a 16-year hiatus from moviemaking.

Wu returned in a major way this year as “The Half of It” not only broke onto Netflix’s weekly most-watched chart but also won the Best Narrative Feature prize at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. Many critics are hoping it doesn’t take 16 years for Wu to deliver her third feature.

Cathy Yan (“Birds of Prey”)

Women directors such as Niki Caro and Cate Shortland had to put in years of work before landing their studio tentpole debuts (“Mulan” and “Black Widow,” respectively), which makes Cathy Yan’s “Birds of Prey” all the more important. Similar to directors like Colin Trevorrow, Yan landed the keys to a studio franchise based off the strength of one small independent film (in this case, it was Yan’s 2018 debut “Dead Pigs”) and a killer pitch that won over “Birds of Prey” star and producer Margot Robbie.

The Harley Quinn-centric comic book film debuted to positive reviews in February, although its $200 million worldwide gross was below studio expectations. Yan is now in a growing group of woman directors who have helmed a Hollywood-backed franchise film. Even if “Birds of Prey” was a financial disappointment, Yan earned enough solid buzz to ensure that her career should only keep growing.

Bonus Re-Mention: Tayarisha Poe (“Selah and the Spades”)

Tayarisha Poe was included on last year’s list of rising women directors, as her directorial debut “Selah and the Spades” world premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Since the movie was held for release until 2020 and opened on Amazon Prime Video in April, IndieWire thought it was worth re-mentioning Poe this year as “Selah” is one of the most confident and wickedly smart debut films in recent memory. IndieWire’s Kate Erbland called the movie “a new high school classic” in her review. The film is set at an elite Pennsylvania boarding school where the student body is run by five factions. Poe takes a cliched high school set up and gets to its truthful core, proving she has much to say about the current teenage generation and inventive ways to say it.