Underrated Female Filmmakers: 7 Movies to Watch - September 2026

Written by Kendall Whitmire

The general audience’s cinematic experience has often been dominated by male voices, male perspectives, and the male experience. But it is so important to make the effort to watch and support films by female filmmakers, from the past and present. 

So we are back again back this month for another set of underrated films by female filmmakers!

Rye Lane (2023)
Directed by Raine Allen Miller

Many huge romcom enjoyers already know about this one, but it has yet to truly hit the mainstream. Rye Lane came out a few years ago, and it’s definitely proof that romcoms in the 2020s can be just as good as the 1990s and 2000s "golden" age of the subgenre. The performances given by David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah are so fun; their chemistry is amazing, and it’s so much fun to watch. 

Jonsson has been in the headlines lately since his casting announcement as T’Challa’s son in the next Black Panther, and he was getting some attention from The Long Walk last year, but make sure you familiarize yourself with the true heights of his charisma. Rye Lane is so much fun to look at; all the colours are so bold and vibrant, and all of the locations in the film look so heightened and beautiful on camera. Between this and the recent Finding Emily (2026), I think it’s safe to say the British know what they are doing in the romcom department! 

Available on Hulu (U.S.) and Disney+ (Canada)

How to Have Sex (2023)
Directed by Molly Manning Walker

How to Have Sex is a brilliantly vulnerable and authentic portrait of girlhood turning into womanhood, the terrifying loss of control, and the tragic loss of innocence, but the film still remains hopeful for the future despite it all. It follows three British teenagers as they spend a summer holiday together, and I was so taken by how the friendships felt so real to my own experiences at that age. Friendships with toxicity lying just below the surface, thinly veiled jealousy, and the confusion when the tension starts to bubble up out of what seems like nowhere. Besides the writing being wonderful, it’s also shot so well, and the performances feel plucked straight out of reality. How to Have Sex is a difficult watch at times, but it’s extremely necessary and such an impressive debut feature film. TW for sexual assault.

Available to watch on Netflix/Mubi (U.S.) and Crave/Mubi (Canada)

Janet Planet (2023)
Directed by Annie Baker

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Annie Baker’s first feature film is heartwarming and gentle, with fully realized characters and amazing performances. Julianne Nicholson is definitely the standout here; she had an incredible turn in Mare of Easttown, so I was not surprised to see her break my heart in half as a single mom of an imaginative 11-year-old girl (Zoe Ziegler). The film is split up by the different people that come into Janet and young Lacy’s lives, and each part peels back some of the layers of their personalities, their relationship, and the issues simmering below the surface. It’s an incredible coming-of-age story and an important one. Excellent if you feel like having your heartstrings tugged.

Available Free with Ads on YouTube (U.S.) and on Crave (Canada)

Amanda (2022)
Directed by Carolina Cavalli

Another coming-of-age film, but this one centers the late teenage-early adulthood experience, trying to figure out who you are and how you fit into the world by trial and error. Amanda (Benedetta Porcaroli) is such a funny character, and the way the story unfolds reminds me of films like Lady Bird (2017) or Edge of Seventeen (2016), but in the Italian countryside. 

Porcaroli is really incredible in it as Amanda, and her charm absolutely captures the quirkiness and generally bizarre, yet incredibly compelling and alluring, vibe that the character has going on. She’s strange, she’s lonely, she’s a liiiittle bit delusional, but she still feels so authentic. The cinematography is amazing, the writing is really good; overall, it’s just an extremely underrated but very good film. I think I’m due for a rewatch myself soon! 

Available to rent on Apple TV (U.S. & Canada)

The Watermelon Woman (1996)
Directed by Cheryl Dunye

The Watermelon Woman made history as the very first feature film directed by a Black lesbian. Cheryl Dunye, who wrote, directed, and starred in it, primarily crowdfunded the $300,000 budget film, with about 10% of the budget financed by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. 

The Watermelon Woman is a mockumentary that follows a fictionalized version of Cheryl who works at a video store and becomes obsessed with watching 1930s and 1940s films that feature Black actresses, and she becomes particularly fascinated by one film with a woman who is simply credited as "The Watermelon Woman." Cheryl begins documenting her research and interviewing subjects, trying to get closer to the truth behind this mysterious actress. The actress depicted in the movie is fictional, but she was inspired by and dedicated to real women such as Louise Beavers, Hattie McDaniel, and Butterfly McQueen. Cheryl Dunye's work is so important for queer history, women's history, and Black history, and her unique perspective and style allow the film to only get better with age.

Available on Criterion Channel and Kanopy (U.S.) and Criterion Channel (Canada)

Women Talking (2022)
Directed by Sarah Polley

One of the most underrated movies to come out in 2022, Sarah Polley's Women Talking is such a moving and heart-wrenching meditation on womanhood, patriarchal oppression, community, female rage, and faith. I read the book first, and while I liked it, I had a few issues with some structural aspects of the novel. Remarkably, Polley's adaptation was very faithful to the book, except for some clever changes she made, in which she resolved every issue I had with the source material. 

The performances are all incredible, especially those given by Claire Foy and Jessie Buckley, but it is a true ensemble piece where every cast member shines. I was so elated that this earned Sarah Polley a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar win, but I still think it's incredibly underrated in my social circles and with the general public. It's a fantastic film, shot beautifully, and it's full of empathy for every woman and her grief. It explores how each character processes the realization that the very worst possible thing that could happen has happened, and they all argue their positions on what to do next.

Available on Prime Video (U.S.) and Prime Video and Crave (Canada)

Daisies (1966)
Directed by Věra Chytilová

I’m not quite sure how underrated this one is because I do see a lot of love for it, but it’s pretty niche, so just in case you haven’t heard of it, Daisies is a masterpiece! 

Made in the ‘60s, the film is about two young women, both called Marie (Jitka Cerhová & Ivana Karbanová), who embark on a journey to commit destructive pranks until the spoiled rotten world around them crumbles. It’s a feminist surrealist romp in and out of reality, and everything about the way it was created is so inventive and interesting. 

Chytilová had such an incredible vision, and the fact that it came to life in this way is so exciting. It’s nearly unfathomable that the film was made so long ago; it’s definitely aged very well. At one point, it was banned by the Czech government because it depicts wasting food and reckless destruction of property. As ridiculous as that is, they must’ve recognized it for what it was, which was a slap in the face to societal decorum, the bourgeoisie, and all of the ridiculous restrictions in place. It’s such a special film, and it really deserves all the recognition possible for how inventive and exploratory it was. 

Available on HBO Max and Criterion Channel (U.S.) and Criterion Channel (Canada)

I hope you were able to find something new that sounds exciting in this list — I’ll be back next month with more recommendations; see you there!