Women in Cinema

Two decades after spending their last vacation together, Sophie tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn’t in this searing emotional drama.

In this absorbing family drama, a close-knit clan is plunged into crisis when the land they have farmed for decades is sold to developers.

When the residents of a Colombian youth shelter are asked to imagine a fellow adolescent, “Alis” emerges as an avatar for their own experiences in this innovative and moving portrait of youth and resilience.

This compelling personal history chronicles Goldin’s tragedies and triumphs, as she uses her position as an artist and disrupter to affect cultural and political change.

A heartfelt tribute to activists Art Johnston and Pepe Peña, whose celebrated gay bar Sidetrack has fueled movements and created community on Chicago’s Halsted Street for decades.

In this off-beat send-up of blind ambition that celebrates female friendship, Iceland’s Post Performance Blues Band give themselves one year to become avant-garde pop stars—or relinquish their dream forever.

Set in 1960s Indonesia, this layered, contemplative drama sees a lonely woman forge a life-saving friendship with her husband’s mistress.

An inspiring look at rookie Alderman Robin Rue Simmons’ fight to redress the wrongs of “redlining” and the legacy of slavery through a groundbreaking reparations program in Evanston, Illinois.

After master tailor Halim reluctantly takes on a new apprentice, the two must conceal their mutual attraction in this elegant and sympathetic reflection on adoration, love, and longing.

After a life-threatening heart condition forces a suburban Chicago housewife (Elizabeth Banks) to seek an abortion in 1968, she turns to an underground activist group for help—and joins their cause.

In this taut, understated thriller, a woman of means treads dangerous ground when she agrees to care for an injured member of the political opposition during the Pinochet dictatorship.

Vicky Krieps delivers a tour-de-force performance as Austria’s Empress Elisabeth in a bold and timely revisionist costume drama.

A 14-year-old boy vacationing with his family in rural Quebec falls for a rebellious older girl in this tenderly-observed, haunting rumination on first love.

Just as Alma is preparing to take her vows to become a nun, her estranged brother turns up demanding his share of the family inheritance, setting into motion a haunting tale of love, deceit, and forgiveness.

Believing she has been cursed by a sinister entity, a pregnant woman must embrace dark magic to combat the malicious spirit in this chilling exploration of the anxieties of early motherhood.

In this personal film of memory and discovery, director Mary McCartney gives exclusive access to the most famous and longest-running studio in the world, Abbey Road Studios.

The thrilling life story of the legendary African American powerbroker, who built a multimillion-dollar empire running a racketeering syndicate on Chicago’s South Side in the 1930s and ’40s.

A kaleidoscopic road movie that follows five streetwise boys on a dangerous yet dreamlike journey across Colombia to reclaim a piece of land that they might finally call home.

A headstrong pregnant 14-year-old is sent to live at La Maternal, a support home for young mothers, where she must quickly learn how to be a parent.

When an aging action screenwriter is knocked into a coma by a falling television, she becomes trapped in one of her unfinished scripts and must find a way to complete the story while still unconscious.

In this charming, absurdist tale of mid-life restlessness, an aspiring novelist suffering from writer’s block finds himself out of his depth after he is befriended by his new neighbor who dabbles in petty crime.

In a stunning performance, Anna Diop plays a Senegalese nanny increasingly haunted by the absence of the young son she left behind.

Months after her daughter’s disappearance, a grieving mother sets out on a search for answers and joins an underground network of people risking their lives to search for lost loved ones.

From Cannes winner Mia Hansen-Løve comes this engrossing story of a young widow whose friendship with a married friend soon blossoms into a passionate love affair.

An introverted Foley artist working on a commercial is invigorated when her body begins to transform in unexpected, intoxicating ways.

In a dystopian near-future, the fates of three lonely souls become intertwined as they are drawn into the sphere of Plan 75, a government program that gently coerces senior citizens to be euthanized.

Filmmaker Sinead O’Shea returns to her Irish hometown to scrutinize the Church’s pervasive history of abuse and neglect—and shine a light on the unsung heroes who fought back.

Trailblazing country legend Tanya Tucker makes one of the greatest artistic comebacks in music history, forging an unexpected friendship with the acclaimed singer-songwriter she inspired.

In this visually stunning story of first love, a young woman sets out to bury her father in his rural Illinois hometown and finds connection with a fellow lonely soul.

In this profound character study, a novelist observes the trial of a Senegalese woman accused of infanticide—a crime she admits to having committing yet maintains her innocence.

An indigenous teen joins a youth therapy trip into the Western Australian wilderness, discovering photography as a new lens through which to view her world and her dreams.

A day in the Tunisian fig harvest: fruit pickers young and old gossip, squabble, flirt and reminisce, seeking connection and reflecting on love and life in this sun-dappled slice of life.

A Czech anthropologist discovers her new home on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard is threatened both by melting glaciers and a newly hardened stance against open border immigration policies.

Based on the best-selling novel by Miriam Toews, Women Talking follows a group of women in an isolated religious colony as they struggle to reconcile their faith with a series of sexual assaults committed by the colony’s men.

In her sharply comic feature debut, Chicago filmmaker Alex Heller plays an acerbic college student with bipolar disorder struggling to connect with her parents and make her way in the world.