Need to be a hero however don’t wish to get off your sofa? No worries! You may assist get extra motion pictures made by ladies greenlit by the easy act of streaming nice female-helmed flicks out there to you proper now. OK, feminist icon, have you ever solved sexism now???
No, you haven’t. But it surely’s truly not a foul first step — streaming knowledge is a big a part of studio choices for future tasks. That will help you begin saving the world, we’ve put collectively an inventory of the very best and most cherished motion pictures on Disney+ written, directed, and/or produced by female-identifying creatives. Thanks on your service!
1. Black Widow
Credit score: Walt Disney Studios / Moviestore / Shutterstock
Earlier than her standalone film in 2021, Scarlett Johansson’s iconic ass-kicking Black Widow character had appeared in eight Marvel motion pictures: Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil Conflict, Avengers: Infinity Conflict, Avengers: Endgame, and a Captain Marvel finish credit scene. However in any case that point within the MCU, her origin story was nonetheless nebulous. How did she turn into a human that holds her personal alongside superpowered heroes? What led her to turn into a Black Widow murderer, and why did she defect? Does she have any household? Black Widow, directed by Cate Shortland, solutions all these questions and extra with a humorous, partaking script and a knockout forged that features Florence Pugh and David Harbour.
How one can watch: Black Widow is now streaming on Disney+.
2. Inside Out
Inside Out takes all of the complexities of human consciousness and manifests them right into a bodily airplane. Our principal character, Riley, has 5 feelings — Pleasure, Disappointment, Worry, Disgust, and Anger — who every monitor and management Riley’s reactions all through the day from a futuristic management panel in her mind. For the previous 11 years of Riley’s life, Pleasure has been working the present. However when Riley’s household strikes from Minnesota to San Francisco, Disappointment begins inserting herself extra. Pleasure can’t stand this. Pleasure can’t see the purpose of any emotion apart from Pleasure… and her stubbornness places Riley in danger.
Director Pete Docter got here up with the thought for Inside Out whereas noting how his daughter’s persona modified as she received older, contending with extra emotional nuance than she did as a baby. And whereas that will sound fairly dry, don’t worry, Inside Out is an journey and a half, a curler coaster by a pun-filled wonderland (Pleasure and Disappointment experience the literal practice of thought). It is exhilarating, laugh-out-loud humorous, and deeply shifting. And because of an Academy Award-nominated script by Docter, Meg LeFauve, and Josh Cooley, it’d even have you ever fascinated by your individual emotional depths.
How one can watch: Inside Out is now streaming on Disney+.
3. The Lion King (1994)
Who might have predicted Hamlet with lions can be the film reward that retains on giving? 1994’s The Lion King is one for the historical past books. The story of Simba, a younger lion attempting to avoid wasting his pleasure from his usurping Uncle Scar, gained two Academy Awards and spawned two sequels, a stay motion remake AND prequel, a Beyoncé album, and a jaw-dropping Broadway musical — and it is as universally beloved as ever. Elton John and Tim Rice’s iconic soundtrack paired with Irene Mecchi, Jonathan Roberts, and Linda Woolverton’s hermetic script created not only a film, however a second in cinema historical past.
How one can watch: The Lion King is now streaming on Disney+.
4. Turning Pink
Credit score: Disney / Pixar
Pixar’s Turning Pink is one in every of its greatest. Like so many Pixar classics earlier than it, it completely explores the massive emotions that include rising up — solely this time, there is a crimson panda-shaped twist.
Meilin Lee might appear to be your common 13-year-old lady, however she’s received a secret: When her feelings develop too sturdy, she turns into a large, fluffy, cute crimson panda. As Mei balances gaining her mom’s approval and obsessing over boy band 4*City along with her pals, it will get tougher to maintain the panda beneath management. Written by Domee Shi and Julia Cho, directed by Shi herself, and produced by Lindsey Collins, Turning Pink is a considerate and groundbreaking tackle puberty that’s relatable, hilarious, and sob-worthy all of sudden. Plus, it is received some killer boy band tunes: Good luck getting “No person Like U” out of your head.* — Belen Edwards, Leisure Reporter
How one can watch: Turning Pink is now streaming on Disney+.
5. Bend It Like Beckham
Jesminder “Jess” Bhamra (Parminder Nagra) is an 18-year-old in London whose solely outlet for her love of soccer is pickup video games within the park with a bunch of men. So when Jules (Keira Knightley’s breakthrough position) convinces her to check out for an newbie ladies’s soccer group — coached by a good-looking Irishman (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) — Jess goes for it, regardless that she is aware of her Punjabi household wouldn’t approve.
Directed by Gurinder Chadha and written by Chadha, Paul Mayeda Berges, and Guljit Bindra, 2002’s Bend It Like Beckham is an effortlessly charming sports activities flick about tradition conflict, sporting a soundtrack that boasts each bhangra and the Spice Ladies. The humor right here is lived-in, with palpable affection for its characters. That is pleasure in film kind.
How one can watch: Bend It Like Beckham is now streaming on Disney+.
6. 10 Issues I Hate About You
10 Issues I Hate About You, written by Karen McCullah and Kirsten Smith, is teen film perfection, placing a ’90s twist on The Taming of the Shrew with glorious outcomes.
The scholars at Padua Excessive College weave a tangled romantic internet: Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is besotted with Bianca (Larisa Oleynik), however she will’t date anybody till her clever but abrasive older sister Kat (Julia Stiles) begins relationship. So as to ask out the lady of his desires, Cameron enlists the assistance of unhealthy boy Patrick (Heath Ledger) to woo Kat. What begins as a contentious courtship rapidly evolves into one thing extra, with Stiles giving us an impartial rom-com heroine for the ages and Ledger in full dreamboat mode.* — B.E.
How one can watch: 10 Issues I Hate About You is now streaming on Disney+.
7. Black Is King
Credit score: Disney
Written, directed, and produced by Beyoncé, Black Is King is a shocking visible album and a companion to 2019’s The Lion King. However this immersive, shifting movie is greater than only a attractive retelling of the story we all know and love — it’s an inventive triumph.
Mashable’s Alexis Nedd writes, “[Black Is King] recontextualizes the metaphor of Simba’s journey to that of the African diaspora — faraway from the homeland, denied the reminiscence of our royalty, and rising to retake our cultural legacy. Set with music from Beyoncé’s curated 2019 album The Lion King: The Present, Black Is King is an invite to revel within the variety and great thing about the African continent and a celebration of thriving by survival.”
How one can watch: Black Is King is now streaming on Disney+.
8. Free Solo
A really staggering feat in entrance of and behind the digital camera, Free Solo will deprive you of your fingernails — it is that nervous-making. This Oscar-winning documentary is a shocking portrait of free soloist climber Alex Honnold as he prepares to climb the three,000-feet-high El Capitan in Yosemite Nationwide Park, “essentially the most spectacular wall on Earth,” with no rope. His painstakingly deliberate journey is boldly captured by co-directors (and spouses) Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, together with a group {of professional} climbers and filmmakers.
You may observe Honnold as he plans each transfer earlier than heading up the wall of El Cap with out that all-important rope. “There’s no margin for error,” big-wall free climbing legend Tommy Caldwell says within the doc of his pal’s process. “Think about an Olympic gold medal-level athletic achievement that, if you aren’t getting that golden medal, you are gonna die. That is just about what free soloing El Cap is like. You need to do it completely.”* — Shannon Connellan, UK Editor
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How one can watch: Free Solo is now streaming on Disney+.
9. Saving Mr. Banks
There’s nothing Hollywood loves greater than motion pictures about making motion pictures — and 2013’s Saving Mr. Banks is without doubt one of the better of the bunch. Written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith, Banks tells the surprisingly life-affirming story of how Disney, within the Sixties, lastly secured the rights to Mary Poppins, then a wildly in style youngsters’s ebook.
Emma Thompson is excellent because the cantankerous British writer P. L. Travers, who was deeply averse to any adjustments made to her unique materials by any means. Tom Hanks exudes comforting allure as Walt Disney himself, decided to observe by on a promise to his youngsters to make a film from their favourite ebook. Nonetheless totally different they might appear, these two inventive giants kind an unlikely bond once they uncover how their related upbringings are informing their lives within the current. Saving Mr. Banks hits all the appropriate notes for a light-hearted drama; it’s nostalgic, it’s touching, and it’s filled with pleasant British disdain for American cheeriness.
How one can watch: Saving Mr. Banks is now streaming on Disney+.
10. Freaky Friday
Credit score: Ron Batzdorff / Walt Disney / Kobal / Shutterstock
Anna is a rebellious teen, and that as a result of she has thick highlights, a choker necklace, and a crush on a man with a motorbike. Her band has an enormous audition arising, however she will’t go as a result of it falls on the identical evening as her mom Tess’s wedding ceremony rehearsal — and Tess doesn’t approve of most of Anna’s decisions. The 2 get in an enormous battle, and because of some reductive and vaguely racist, 2000s-era unique mysticism, they get up in one another’s our bodies! Uh oh! Appears to be like like we’ll stroll a mile in one another’s sneakers, actually!
Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis are merely good right here, each embodying a headstrong teen and a reserved middle-aged mother with cheeky aplomb. Written by Heather Hach and Leslie Dixon, 2002’s Freaky Friday is a heat and playful comedy that may delight the entire household.
How one can watch: Freaky Friday is now streaming on Disney+.
11. Encanto
We might not discuss Bruno, however we do discuss Encanto, written by Charise Castro Smith and Jared Bush. This Disney animated movie introduces us to the magical Madrigal household, whose particular items transform burdens in addition to blessings. Encanto is a robust examination of familial bonds and generational trauma, accompanied by attractive animation and catchy tunes courtesy of Lin-Manuel Miranda, together with “Floor Stress” and “We Do not Speak About Bruno.”* — B.E.
How one can watch: Encanto is now streaming on Disney+.
12. The Rescue
Credit score: Nationwide Geographic
In 2018, a rescue mission captured the eye of the world when 12 boys and their soccer coach had been trapped deep inside a flooded collapse northern Thailand. Monsoon rains had minimize off the group, who had been stranded in the dead of night two kilometers into the cave — a labyrinth of tunnels utterly full of water. In opposition to all odds, an extremely high-risk, sophisticated rescue effort was fashioned, and The Rescue, from Free Solo administrators Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, tracks all of it.
“At its core, ‘The Rescue‘ is a narrative a couple of assortment of individuals of all totally different nationalities, languages, and cultures working collectively to realize a typical purpose,” stated Vasarhelyi and Chin in a press assertion. “In making the movie, we had been reminded of the great thing about humanity, particularly after the final a number of years the place the world has appeared extra divided than ever earlier than.” It is a claustrophobic, aggravating look ahead to essentially the most half, and for everybody glued to the information when it was occurring, it’s going to convey again all these feelings of anticipation, stress, and eventually, aid. The second when British divers Richard Stanton and John Volanthen first discover all 13 within the cave is astounding and deeply shifting. But it surely’s just the start of a deadly mission.* — Shannon Connellan, UK Editor
How one can watch: The Rescue is now streaming on Disney+.
13. The Mother or father Lure
Do you know The Mother or father Lure is a Nancy Meyers film? Another reason to like the movie that launched Lindsay Lohan’s profession and despatched a technology of children right into a feverish obsession with overly intricate handshakes. The Mother or father Lure, a remake of the 1961 basic, tells the story of two ladies who meet at summer time camp and understand they’re twins separated at beginning by their now-divorced mother and father. Nothing left to do on this state of affairs however change locations and attempt to get Mother and Dad again collectively, proper?
Lindsay Lohan is precocious and cute, doing double-duty as each of the twins with the assistance of (now-commonplace) film magic. She matches proper in alongside the veteran forged, which features a glowing Natasha Richardson, Dennis Quaid at his dreamiest, and iconic ’90s villain Elaine Hendrix completely stealing the display. The Mother or father Lure is as charming now because it was 20 years in the past, although hopefully fewer youngsters of divorce shall be utilizing it as a blueprint to lock their mother and father in a room collectively whereas laughing mischievously simply exterior the door. It’s only a film, youngsters.*
How one can watch: The Mother or father Lure is now streaming on Disney+.
14. Queen of Katwe
In case you’re in search of an aspirational household movie, look no additional than Queen of Katwe, directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding ceremony, The Namesake). Phiona is a 10-year-old lady dwelling in Katwe, a poor city in Uganda. Her life is usually caring for her youthful siblings and serving to her mom (Lupita Nyong’o) on the market till she stumbles upon a chess class at a neighborhood mission. The trainer quickly acknowledges that Phiona is an especially gifted chess participant, and she or he begins to pursue the sport, each for herself and as a potential avenue to elevate her household out of poverty. Primarily based on a real story, Queen of Katwe is a well-acted, deeply shifting, and finally optimistic film that may stick with you for days.
How one can watch: Queen of Katwe is now streaming on Disney+.
15. Changing into Cousteau
Credit score: Nationwide Geographic
A deep dive by definition, Changing into Cousteau explores the depths of the legendary oceanic explorer and filmmaker. Director Liz Garbus delves into the lifetime of Jacques Cousteau, whose documentation of ocean creatures with newly tailored tools modified the sport — all aboard his boat, the Calypso. His work, together with 50 books, award-winning movies, and long-running tv exhibits, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau and The Cousteau Odyssey, was extremely influential on aquatic exploration. In case you’ve seen Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic, you are gotten a style of the signature aesthetic. Garbus was granted entry to 550 hours of archival materials — together with over 100 hours of audio journal entries and interviews from collaborators and crew members — to create this documentary, and she or he brings to life his innovation and dedication to environmentalism, alongside his household life and creation of The Cousteau Society.* — S.C.
How one can watch: Changing into Cousteau is now streaming on Disney+.
16. The Princess Diaries
Anne Hathaway’s profession skyrocketed after her charismatic efficiency as Mia, a gawky excessive schooler in San Francisco who all of a sudden discovers she’s the inheritor to the throne of Genovia, a fictional European nation filled with fairy story castles and makeover montages. Earlier than she will ascend the throne, she’ll need to impress her austere grandmother, the Queen, performed by a completely good Julie Andrews. Written by Gina Wendkos and tailored from the Meg Cabot novel of the identical identify, The Princess Diaries is a feel-good household comedy brimming with heat. An absolute winner.
How one can watch: The Princess Diaries is now streaming on Disney+.
17. Eternals
Marvel strayed a bit from its customary film system with 2021’s moody Eternals, which options celestial beings who’ve been caught on Earth for hundreds of years however had been forbidden to intervene in human dramas. They’ve just one mission: to battle mysterious area creatures referred to as Deviants. So, regardless that the Eternals are technically extra highly effective than any being we’ve met earlier than within the MCU, they largely simply sat round whereas Thanos worn out half of existence.
Nonetheless, when the primary Deviant is seen after many years of peace, the now-scattered group should come collectively (and work by centuries’ value of luggage!) to avoid wasting the planet they had been sworn to guard. Directed by the Academy Award–successful Chloé Zhao, Eternals boasts a sweeping, millennia-spanning story; an impossibly stunning forged (Angelia Jolie, Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Equipment Harington, Salma Hayek, and Kumail Nanjiani, to call just a few); and the MCU’s first overtly homosexual superhero!
How one can watch: Eternals is now streaming on Disney+.
18. Guardians of the Galaxy
Credit score: Marvel Studios / Kobal / Shutterstock
Peter Quill is a charismatic and irreverent human being who grew up within the stars surrounded by aliens and spaceships — therefore his self-styled nickname, Star-Lord. The one factor he has from house is a Sony Walkman and a cassette combine tape of Nineteen Eighties hits, which he commonly listens to whereas choosing up odd jobs like stealing an orb from an deserted planet. Sadly, this explicit orb means loads to somebody, and Peter is chased throughout the galaxy by a ragtag host of bounty hunters. However, Peter included, they quickly discover they every have one thing to realize by working collectively.
Guardians of the Galaxy, directed by James Gunn and written by Gunn and Nicole Perlman, broke the MCU mildew large open on its 2014 launch. Right here was a superhero film that was genuinely humorous, that poked enjoyable at itself with out sacrificing plot complexity or a deep emotional core. It is why a decade and greater than 30 MCU motion pictures later, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1 stays probably the greatest entries within the canon.
How one can watch: Guardians of the Galaxy is now streaming on Disney+.
19. Magnificence and the Beast
It might be a “story as outdated as time,” however Magnificence and the Beast stills rocks any day. Who can neglect Belle’s eager intelligence, the Beast’s compelling change of coronary heart, or Gaston’s tendency to eat far too many eggs? These characters stick to you, as do the various earworms they belt all through the film. For fairy story romance, dancing furnishings, and fascinating songs, you actually cannot go improper with this basic, written by Disney juggernaut Linda Woolverton.* — B.E.
How one can watch: Magnificence and the Beast is now streaming on Disney+.
20. Frozen
Do not fake you do not know what Frozen is. Since its premiere in 2013, we have not been capable of go every week with out somebody mentioning Olaf or Elsa or singing “Let it gooooooooo.” This very good animated musical a couple of sister relationship, not a romantic relationship, modified the Disney princess recreation altogether, and it has dominated the household film area ever since. And what? That is nice with us! Frozen is nice! It is each foolish and heartfelt, thrilling and affecting, magical and really, very human. Written by Jennifer Lee, and directed by Lee and Chris Buck, this story about two sisters, one burdened with secret icy powers, has captured the hearts and minds of the world. Is it time to construct a snowman?
How one can watch: Frozen is now streaming on Disney+.
* denotes that this blurb appeared in a earlier Mashable record.
UPDATE: Mar. 14, 2025, 3:04 p.m. EDT This text was initially revealed on Oct. 8, 2022. It has been up to date to mirror the present streaming choices.
