Women in Film – 77 Films to Look Forward to in 2017

In honor of International Women’s Day, a terrific list of 77 films by and about women upcoming in 2017, assembled by our good friend ‘phantom’ at AwardsCorner.

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Will the Academy finally give Judi Dench the Lead Actress Oscar for playing Queen Victoria ? Will it be finally the year for Glenn Close ? Michelle Pfeiffer ? Annette Bening ? Will Kate and Rooney Mara join the exclusive club of Joan Fontaine, Olivia de Havilland, Vanessa & Lynn Redgrave as sisters nominated in Lead Actress in the same year ?

Just some of the intriguing questions waiting to be answered this year. Here is, in no particular order, a no doubt incomplete list of 77 films (24 directed by women) featuring some of the most anticipated female performances in 2017 (and beyond).

The List

Natalie Portman & Jennifer Jason Leigh (Annihilation)

A biologist (Natalie Portman) signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition where the laws of nature don’t apply. Written and directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina).

Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes)

The true story of the 1973 tennis match between World number one Billie Jean King (Emma Stone) and ex-champ and serial hustler Bobby Riggs (Steve Carrell). Written by Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) and directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine).

Nicole Kidman (The Killing of a Sacred Deer)

A teenager’s attempts to bring a brilliant surgeon into his dysfunctional family takes an unexpected turn. Written and directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster).

Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning, Angourie Rice, Oona Laurence (The Beguiled)

At a girls school in Virginia during the Civil War, where the young women have been sheltered from the outside world, a wounded Union soldier is taken in. Soon, the house is taken over with sexual tension, rivalries and an unexpected turn of events. Written and directed by Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation).

Julianne Moore & Michelle Williams (Wonderstruck)

The story of a young boy in the Midwest is told simultaneously with a tale about a young girl in New York from fifty years ago as they both seek the same mysterious connection. Written by Brian Selznick (Hugo) and directed by Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven).

Brie Larson, Naomi Watts & Sarah Snook (The Glass Castle)

A young girl comes of age in a dysfunctional family of noncorfomist nomads with a mother who’s an eccentric artist and an alcoholic father who would stil the children’s imagination with hope as a distraction to their poverty. Written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12)

Saoirse Ronan & Annette Bening (The Seagull)

The Seagull centers on the romantic and artistic clashes between fading actress Irina (Annette Bening) and fresh-faced ingenue Nina (Saoirse Ronan). Based on Anton Chekhov’s play. Directed by Michael Mayer.

Saoirse Ronan (On Chesil Beach)

A drama set in the early 1960s and centered on a young couple on their honeymoon. Based on the novel of the same name by Ian McEwan (Atonement). Directed by Dominic Cooke (The Hollow Crown).

Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird)

The adventures of a young woman living in Northern California for a year. Written and directed by Greta Gerwig.

Jennifer Lawrence & Michelle Pfeiffer (Mother!)

Centers on a couple whose relationship is tested when uninvited guests arrive at their home disrupting their tranquil existence. Written and directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Isabelle Huppert (Happy End)

A drama about a family set in Calais with the European refugee crisis as the backdrop. Written and directed by Michael Haneke.

Alicia Vikander (Submergence)

In a room with no windows on the eastern coast of Africa, an Englishman, James Moore (James McAvoy), is held captive by jihadist fighters. Thousands of miles away in the Greenland Sea, Danielle Flinders (Alicia Vikander) prepares to dive in a submersible to the ocean floor. In their confines they are drawn back to the Christmas of the previous year, where a chance encounter on a beach in France led to an intense and enduring romance. Directed by Wim Wenders (The Salt of the Earth).

Alicia Vikander & Eva Green (Euphoria)

Sisters in conflict travelling through Euroepa toward a mystery destination. Written and directed by Lisa Langseth.

Alicia Vikander (Tulip Fever)

An artist falls for a young married woman while he’s commissioned to paint her portrait during the Tulip mania of the 17th century Amsterdam. Written by Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) and directed by Justin Chadwick (Mandela : Long Walk to Freedom).

Kate Winslet & Juno Temple (Wonder Wheel)

A period drama set in New York in the 1950s. Written and directed by Woody Allen.

Kate Winslet (The Mountain Between Us)

A pair survive a plane crash in the mountains where they are forced to trust each other and find safety while badly injured. Directed by Hany Abu-Assad.

Rachel Weisz & Rachel McAdams (Disobedience)

A woman returns to her Orthodox Jewish home after the death of her rabbi father and stirs up controversy when she shows interest in an old childhood friend. Written and directed by Sebastian Lelio (A Fantastic Woman).

Rooney Mara (Mary Magdalene)

The story of Mary Magdalane. Directed by Garth Davis (Lion).

Rooney Mara (Vox Lux)

An unusual set of circumstances brings unexpected success to a pop star. Written and directed by Brady Corbert (The Childhood of a Leader), original music by Sia.

Rosamund Pike (Hostiles)

In 1892, a legendary Army captain reluctantly agrees to escort a Cheyenne chief and his family through dangerous territory. Written and directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart)

Rosamund Pike & Mia Wasikowska (The Man with the Iron Heart)

1942 : The Third Reich is at its peak. The Czech resistance in London decided to plan the most ambitious military operation of WWII : Anthropoid. Directed by Cedric Jimenez.

Reese Witherspoon (Home Again)

Life for a single mom in Los Angeles takes an unexpected turn when she allows three young guys to move in with her. Written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer.

Keira Knightley (The Aftermath)

In the aftermath of World War II, a British colonel and his wife are assigned to live in Hamburg during the post-war reconstruction, but tensions arise with the German widower who lives with them. Directed by James Kent (Testament of Youth).

Judi Dench (Victoria and Abdul)

Queen Victoria strikes up an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim. Written by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) and directed by Stephen Frears (The Queen).

Sally Hawkins (Maudie)

An arthritic Nova Scotia woman works as a housekeeper while she hones her skills as an artist and eventually becomes a beloved figure in the community. Directed by Aisling Walsh.

Julia Roberts (Wonder)

A young boy born with a facial deformity is destined to fit in at a new school, and to make everyone understand he’s just another ordinary kid, and that beauty isn’t skin deep. Directed by Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)

Jessica Chastain (The Zookeeper’s Wife)

The Zookeeper’s Wife tells the account of keepers of the Warsaw Zoo, Antonina and Jan Zabinski, who helped save hundreds of people and animals during the German invasion. Directed by Niki Caro (North Country).

Jessica Chastain (Molly’s Game)

Molly Bloom, a young skier and former Olympic hopeful becomes a succesful entrepreneur (and a target of an FBI investigation) when she establishes a high-stakes, international poker game. Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network).

Jessica Chastain (Woman Walks Ahead)

The story of Catherine Weldon, a portrait painter from 1890s Brooklyn, who travels to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull, and becomes embroiled in the Lakota peoples’ struggle over the rights to their land. Written by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) and directed by Susanna White (Our Kind of Traitor).

Noomi Rapace (Callas)

A biopic about the operatic star, Maria Callas. Directed by Niki Caro (The Whale Rider).

Anne Hathaway (Colossal)

A woman discovers that severe catastrophic events are somehow connected to the mental breakdown from which she’s suffering. Written and directed by Nacho Vigalando.

Glenn Close (The Wife)

A writer decides to leave her husband while traveling to receive a prestigious award. Directed by Bjorn Runge.

Annette Bening (Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool)

A romance sparks between a young actor and a Hollywood leading lady. Directed by Paul McGuigan.

Helena Bonham Carter & Hilary Swank (55 Steps)

Based on the inspiring true story of Eleanor Riese, a mental illness patient herself, who brings a class action suit to give competent mental patients the right to have a say in their medication while they are in a hospital, and Colette Hughes, the lawyer appointed to her case. Directed by Billie August.

Carey Mulligan (Wildlife)

A boy witnesses his parents’ marriage falling apart after his mom finds another man. Written and directed by Paul Dano.

Mary J. Blige & Carey Mulligan (Mudbound)

Two men return home from World War II to work on a farm in rural Mississippi where they struggle to deal with racism and adjusting to life after war. Written and directed by Dee Rees (Pariah).

Vera Farmiga (Boundaries)

Laura and her son Henry are forced to drive her estranged, pot-dealing, carefree father Jack (Christopher Plummer) across country after being kicked out of a nursing home. Written and directed by Shana Feste (Country Strong).

Taraji P. Henson (Proud Mary)

A hit woman’s life is upturned when she meets a young boy who awakens the maternal instinct she never knew she had.

Ellen Page (The Third Wave)

A disease that turned people into zombies has been cured. The once-infected zombies are discriminated against by society and their own families, which causes social issues to arise. This leads to militant government interference. Directed by David Freyne.

Ellen Page (Lioness)

U.S. Marine officer, Leslie Martz, is sent to Afghanistan on a mission to work with Afghan women and gain intelligence about their Taliban husbands. Directed by Reed Morano.

Kate Mara & Ellen Page (Mercy)

The daughter of a man on death row falls in love with a woman on the opposing side of her familiy’s political cause. Directed by Tali Shalom-Ezer.

Kate Mara (Megan Leavey)

The strue story of Marine Corporal Megan Leavey, who forms a powerful bond with an aggressive combat dog, Rex. While deployed in Iraw, the two complete more than 100 missions and save countless lives, until an IED explosion puts their faithfulness to the test. Written by Pamela Gray (A Walk on the Moon) and Annie Mumolo (Bridesmaids); directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite (Blackfish).

Charlize Theron (Tully)

A comedy about motherhood. Written by Diablo Cody (Juno), directed by Jason Reitman (Juno).

Kate Mara (Chappaquiddick)

Ted Kennedy’s life and political career become derailed in the aftermath of a fatal car accident in 1969 that claims the life of a young campaign strategist, Mary Jo Kopechne. Directed by John Curran (The Painted Veil).

Rachel Weisz (My Cousin Rachel)

A young Englishman plots revenge against his mysterious, beautiful cousing, believing that she murdered his guardian. But his feelings become complicated as he finds himself falling under the beguiling spell of her charms. Written and directed by Roger Michell (Notting Hill).

Salma Hayek (Beatriz at Dinner)

A holistic medicine practitioner attends a wealthy client’s dinner party after her car breaks down. Directed by Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl), written by Mike White (School of Rock).

Diane Lane (Paris Can Wait)

Annie is at a crossroads in her life. Long married to a succesful, driven but inattentive movie producer, she unexpectedly finds herself taking a car trop from Cannes to Paris with a a business associate of her husband. Written and directed by Eleanor Coppola.

Diane Lane (Felt)

The story of Mark Felt, who under the name of “Deep Throat” helped journalists Bob Woddward and Carl Bernstein uncover the Watergate scandal in 1974. Directed by Peter Landesman (Concussion).

Halle Berry (Kings)

The story of a foster family in South Central a few weeks before the city erupts in violence following the verdict of the Rodney King trial in 1992. Directed by Deniz Gamze Erguven.

Lily James & Kristin Scott-Thomas (Darkest Hour)

Winston Churchill leads a charge against Adolf Hitler’s army in the early days of World War II. Directed by Joe Wright (Atonement), written by Anthony McCarten (The Theory of Everything).

Emma Thompson (The Children Act)

British High Court judge Fiona Maye toils over a case involving a young boy diagnoes with cancer who refuses treatment on his family’s religious beliefs. Directed by Richard Eyre (Notes on a Scandal), written by Ian McEwan (Atonement).

Debra Winger (The Lovers)

The story of a long-married, dispassionate couple who are both in the midst of serious affairs. But on the brink of calling it quits, a spark between them suddenly reignites, leading them into an impulsive romance. Written and directed by Azazel Jacobs.

Catherine Deneuve & Catherine Frot (The Midwife)

A midwife gets unexpected news from her father’s old mistress. Written and directed by Martin Provost (Seraphine).

Daisy Ridley (A Woman of No Importance)

The story of American spy, Virginia Hall, who worked for the British intelligence during World War II.

Chloe Sevigny, Kristen Stewart & Kim Dickens (Lizzie)

A psychological thriller based on the infamous 1892 murders of the Borden family. Directed by Craig William Macneill.

Daisy Ridley, Michelle Pfeiffer & Judi Dench (Murder on the Orient Express)

Renowned Belgian detective Hercule Poirot investigates the murder of a wealthy American on the Orient Express, the most famous train in the world. Directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Jessica Brown Findlay (This Beautiful Fantastic)

A young woman who dreams of being a children’s author makes an unlikely friendshup with a cantankerous, rich old widower. Directed by Simon Aboud.

Gemma Arterton (Their Finest)

A British film crew attempts to boost morale during World War II by making a propaganda film after the Blitzkrieg. Directed by Lone Scherfig (An Education)

Rosamund Pike (A United Kingdom)

Prince Seretse Khama of Botswana causes an international stir when he marries a white woman from London in the late 1940s. Directed by Amma Asante (Belle).

Blake Lively (All I See Is You)

A blind woman’s relationship with her husband changes when she regains her sight and discovers disturinb details about themselves. Written and directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland).

Sandra Oh & Anne Heche (Catfight)

The rivalry between two former college friends comes to a head when they both attend the same glamorous event. Directed by Onur Tukel.

Florence Pugh (Lady Macbeth)

In this adaptation of Nikolai Leskov’s novella “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk”, a 19th century young bride is sold into marriage to a middle-aged man. Directed by William Oldroyd.

Amandla Stenberg (Everything, Everything)

A teenager who’s lived a sheltered life because she’s allergic to everything, falls for the boy who moves in next door. Directed by Stella Meghie.

Riley Keough & Jena Malone (Lovesong)

The relationship between two friends deepends during an impromptu road trip. Directed by So-Yong Kim.

Rooney Mara (Una)

When a young woman unexpectedly arrives at an older man’s workplace, looking for answers, the secrets of the past threaten to unravel in his new life. Directed by Benedict Andrews.

Kristen Stewart (Personal Shopper)

A ghost story that takes place in the fashion underworld of Paris. Directed by Olivier Assayas.

Cynthia Nixon (A Quiet Passion)

The story of American poet Emily Dickinson from her early days as a young schoolgirl to her later years as a reclusive, unrecognized artist. Written and directed by Terence Davies (The Deep Blue Sea).

Lily Collins (To The Bone)

A young woman is dealing with anorexia. She meets an unconventional doctor who challenges her to face her condition and embrace life. Written and directed by Marti Noxon.

Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo, Julianne Nicholson, Dianna Agron, Morgan Saylor (Novitiate)

Set in the early 1960s and during the era of Vatican II, a young woman in training to become a nun struggles with issues of faith, the changing church and sexuality. Written and directed by Margaret Betts.

Danielle McDonald (Patti Cake$)

The story of an aspiring rapper Patricia Dombrowski a.k.a. Killa P a.k.a. Patti Cake$ who is fighting an unlikely quest for glory in her downtrodden hometown in New Jersey. Directed by Geremy Jasper.

Chante Adams (Roxanne, Roxanne)

In the early 1980s, the most feared battle MC in Queens, new York, was a fierce teenage girl with the weight of the world on her shoulders. At the age of 14, Lolita “Roxanne Shante” Gooden was well on her to becoming a hip-hop legend as she hustled to provide for her family while defending herself from the dangers of the streets of the Queensbridge Projects in NYC. Directed by Michael Larnell.

Zoey Deutch (Before I Fall)

February 12 is just another day in Sam’s charmed life until it turns out to be her last. Stuck reliving her last day over one inexplicable week, Sam untangles the mystery around her death and discovers everything she’s in danger of losing. Directed by Ry Russo-Young.

Zoe Kazan & Holly Hunter (The Big Sick)

A couple deals with their cultural differences as their relationship grows. Directed by Michael Schowalter.

Jessica Williams (The Incredible Jessica James)

An aspiring playwright in New York strikes up a friendshup with a guy while on the rebound from a break-up. Directed by Jim Strouse.

Shirley MacLaine (The Last Word)

Harriet is a retired businesswoman who tries to control everything around her. When she decides to write her own obituary, a young journalist takes up the task of finding out the truth resulting in a life-altering friendship. Directed by Mark Pellington.

Cynthia Erivo (Harriet)

The story of Harriet Tubman, who helped free hundreds of slaves from the South after escaping from slavery herself in 1849.

Kaitlyn Dever & Hannah Murray (Untitled Detroit Project)

A police raid in Detroit in 1967 results in one of the largest citizen uprisings in US history. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty).