While International Women’s Day officially began in 1977, its roots stretch back to the early 1900s during women’s battle for fair labor practices and voting rights. Now celebrated on March 8th, it’s a time to spotlight women’s accomplishments across the globe. International Women’s Day serves as a day of celebration and reflection. As far as women have come, there is still work to do.
Movies offer a powerful platform to tell women’s stories. Whether empowering, heartbreaking, or filled with rage, they offer insight into women’s issues, relationships, and how the world chooses to view and categorize them. Here are 10 of the best movies to watch on International Women’s Day and where to stream them. Each film spotlights women, whether in front of or behind the camera.
Jakob’s Wife
Starring horror icon Barbara Crampton, everything you need to know about Jakob’s Wife (2021) is right in the title. Crampton plays Anne, a minister’s wife who’d lost her sense of self in her 30-year marriage until a vampire bite changes everything. Here, vampirism becomes a metaphor for a middle-aged woman rediscovering her agency and grappling with the female rage she’d learned to suppress for the benefit of her husband. With a campy undertone honoring old-school horror, Jakob’s Wife is a hidden gem within the genre.
Hidden Figures
Hidden Figures (2016) recounts the true story of Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe), the mathematicians responsible for pushing the US forward in the Space Race. Unfortunately, men taking credit for women’s scientific achievements is so common it has a name: the Matilda effect. While getting credit as a woman is never easy, it was a near-impossible feat for Black women in 1960s America. Critically acclaimed performances aside, the best part about Hidden Figures is learning the names of three women that history so desperately tried to conceal.
Mulan
In a retelling of the famous Chinese legend, Fa Mulan (Ming-Na Wen) impersonates a man to take her aging father’s place in battle. Mulan (1998) might be a Disney movie aimed at younger audiences, but it nonetheless packs a dazzling amount of depth. Mulan’s resourcefulness and independence are demonstrated right from the movie’s start. Even when discredited by her fellow soldiers, she remains dedicated to saving her country, proving that bravery isn’t just synonymous with “manliness.” In fact, Mulan’s entire premise questions gender stereotypes, both masculine and feminine.
Lady Bird
If you could capture girlhood in a bottle, you’d get something similar to Lady Bird (2017). The film follows a teenage girl (Saoirse Ronan) during her senior year of high school, chronicling her explosive relationship with her mother and her desire to pursue her own dreams. Even in her directorial debut, Greta Gerwig shines at showcasing authentic female relationships and how societal expectations can shape women.
The Last Showgirl
A middle-aged showgirl (Pam Anderson) goes on a journey of self-reflection after her stable gig comes to an unexpected end in The Last Showgirl (2024). Fast-tracked for award nominations, the Gia Coppola-directed film explores being middle-aged in the youth-obsessed entertainment industry. Being too young to retire and too old to start over leaves Anderson’s character in a tough place. Still, the film offers plenty of endearing moments, rhinestone-soaked drama, and even fun.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Taxes are hard, right? Well, in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), they are multiverse-level hard. When Evelyn Quan Wang (Michelle Yeoh) can’t finish her taxes, she must work with parallel versions of herself to stop the destruction of her universe. Everything Everywhere All at Once is loaded with themes from intergenerational trauma to immigrant struggles. However, Evelyn’s journey of personal growth and empowerment resonates as powerfully feminist, especially when navigating her complex relationship with her daughter (Stephanie Hsu).
Foxy Brown
Foxy Brown (1974) has a rather standard revenge plot: A woman (Pam Grier) takes on a gang that killed her boyfriend. However, “shattering the glass ceiling” is an adage frequently paired with Pam Grier’s name. For starters, there weren’t as many gun-wielding action heroes of the female variety in the early ‘70s. More importantly, Grier became known for subverting gender stereotypes. She showed skin and brandished heavy artillery while playing characters who used their sexuality against men. While Grier has the acting chops for dramatic roles, her ability to reclaim power in Blaxploitation movies like Foxy Brown launched her career and status as a feminist icon.
The Hurt Locker
Chronicling members of a bomb disposal unit in Iraq, The Hurt Locker sits on this list for a reason other than strong female characters. In 2009, Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win an Academy Award for Best Director. Considering the countless women-directed movies, 2009 feels extraordinarily late for the first female Best Director Win. While The Hurt Locker marks a major milestone for women, it’s, ironically, very much a story about men at war. Still, Bigelow manages to capture the struggles of men while delivering an unsettling story about the damages of war.
Real Women Have Curves
Based on the Josefina López play, Real Women Have Curves (2002) stars America Ferrera as Ana García, a Mexican-American teenager navigating the complexities of growing up in a society that likes to tell women how they should look. Although comedic at times, the film delves into body image and how cultural expectations can further complicate it. Real Women Have Curves earned director Patricia Cardoso a well-deserved Sundance Audience Award, making her the first Latin woman to receive the honor.
Frances
Long before Jessica Lange’s resurgence on American Horror Story, she starred in Frances (1982). The biographical film shines a light on old Hollywood actress Frances Farmer, dramatizing her career, personal life, and later involuntary commitment to psychiatric hospitals. Although Farmer struggled with mental illness and substance abuse, the movie highlights the injustice and stigma she encountered as an outspoken, headstrong woman in the 1940s. While much more somber than some of the other entries on this list, Frances (whether an accurate biopic or not) provides impactful insight into history’s troubling treatment of women’s mental health.
Where to watch the best International Women’s Day movies streaming online
To kick off your celebration of women in entertainment, check out our list below. Here you can find where the best movies to watch on International Women’s Day are streaming in the US.
