For Netflix and chillers. Based on what we’ve already seen, what’s in our queue, and what got the most recommendations from our beloved community, we’ve put together a definitive list of 15 must-see movies, docs, specials and series that are driven by women… in front of and/or behind the cameras. Let the streaming and binging commence.

PS – We loved all the recommendations that flooded in, including some classics that date back more than 25 years, but for this list we stuck to what premiered in 2018 or January 2019. Stay tuned for our “of all time” list.

Dumplin’

To prove a point about measuring up and fitting in, Texas teen Willowdean Dickson enters a local pageant run by her ex-beauty queen mom.

Starring: Danielle Macdonald, Jennifer Aniston, Odeya Rush
Director: Anne Fletcher

Bird Box

Five years after an ominous unseen presence drives most of society to suicide, a survivor and her two children make a desperate bid to reach safety.

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Trevante Rhodes, John Malkovich
Director: Susanne Bier

ROMA

A vivid, emotional portrait of a domestic worker’s journey set against domestic and political turmoil in 1970s Mexico.

Starring: Yalitza Aparicio, Marina de Tavira
Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Private Life

Struggling to conceive, a couple in their 40s are almost out of options — until a sliver of hope arrives in the form of their visiting step-niece.

Starring: Kathryn Hahn, Paul Giamatti, Kayli Carter
Director: Tamara Jenkins

Shirkers

In 1992, teenager Sandi Tan and her friends Sophie and Jasmine shot Singapore’s first indie — a road movie called “Shirkers” — with their enigmatic American mentor, Georges Cardona. After shooting wrapped, Georges vanished with all the footage, sending her on a hunt for answers.

Director: Sandi Tan

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

When her secret love letters somehow get mailed to each of her five crushes, Lara Jean finds her quiet high school existence turned upside down.

Starring: Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Janel Parrish
Director: Susan Johnson

Sunday’s Illness

Decades after being abandoned as a young child, Chiara finds her mother and asks her to spend 10 days together in a remote location.

Starring: Bárbara Lennie, Susi Sánchez, Miguel Ángel Solá
Director: Ramón Salazar

Set It Up

In desperate need of a break from the office, two beleaguered assistants team up to trick their workaholic bosses into falling in love.

Starring: Zoey Deutch, Glen Powell, Lucy Liu
Director: Claire Scanlon

Reversing Roe – Documentary

Through interviews with abortion rights supporters and opponents, this film lifts the lid on a decades-long political campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Directors: Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern

Feminists: What Were They Thinking? – Documentary

Revisiting 1970s photos of women that captured a feminist awakening, this film explores those women’s lives and examines the continued need for change.

Director: Johanna Demetrakas

Seeing Allred – Documentary

A warrior for change. A lightning rod for controversy. Gloria Allred has devoted 40 years to asserting and protecting the rights of women, overcoming personal trauma, media scrutiny, and powerful men. Explore the public and private sides of feminist firebrand attorney who’s battled some of the biggest names in politics and business.

Directors: Roberta Grossman and Sophie Sartain

Hannah Gadsby: Nanette – Comedy Special

Australian comic Hannah Gadsby reshapes standard stand-up by pairing punchlines with personal revelations on gender, sexuality and childhood turmoil.

Directors: Madeleine Parry, Jon Olb

Seven Seconds – Series

The death of a 15-year-old African American boy in Jersey City sets off a police cover-up and a search for the truth.

Starring: Clare-Hope Ashitey, Regina King, Beau Knapp
Creator: Veena Sud

Grace and Frankie – Series

They’re not friends, but when their husbands leave them for each other, proper Grace and eccentric Frankie begin to bond in this Emmy-nominated series. Season 5 available 1/18/19.

Starring: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen
Creators: Marta Kauffman, Howard J. Morris

BONUS

So many of you recommended the BBC America series Killing Eve. Though it streams on Hulu, we’ve made an exception to include it on this list, since even Netflix is telling people to head to its competitor to watch it!

Killing Eve

Eve is a bored, whip-smart, pay-grade MI5 security officer whose desk-bound job doesn’t fulfill her fantasies of being a spy. Villanelle is a psychopathic assassin, and Eve is the woman charged with hunting her down; the two fiercely intelligent women, equally obsessed with each other, go head to head in an epic game of cat and mouse.

Written by: Phoebe Waller-Bridge, based on the novellas by Luke Jennings
Starring: Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer

Lead photo: Unsplash