Writing for International Women’s Day is a bit of a dilemma for me as someone who identifies as a man: Am I taking up someone else’s space on the platform, or am I using my platform to elevate and inform? I have to hope that this comes across as the latter because that’s how this is intended.
Female screenwriters have often been pushed to the fringes when it comes to popular acclaim and the career advances that come with that. So I thought I’d take this opportunity to present some of my favourite screenplays written by women:
| Movie | Screenwriter |
| E.T. (1982) | Melissa Mathison |
| When Harry Met Sally (1989) | Nora Ephron |
| Thelma & Louise (2001) | Callie Khouri |
| Mean Girls (2004) | Tina Fey |
| Juno (2007) | Diablo Cody |
| Jennifer’s Body (2009) | Diablo Cody |
| The Hour (TV – 2011) | Abi Morgan |
| Young Adult (2011) | Diablo Cody |
| Frozen (2013) | Jennifer Lee |
| Gone Girl (2014) | Gillian Flynn |
| Hidden Figures (2016) | Allison Schroeder |
| Fleabag (TV – 2016) | Phoebe Waller-Bridge |
| Tully (2018) | Diablo Cody |
| Lovecraft Country (TV – 2020) | Misha Green |
Some caveats, of course: This list is in no way definitive, and totally reflects my own biases, tastes, and my poor recollection. I’ve also tried to only go with scripts where there were no male co-writers, and I leant towards movies and TV shows where I had the screenplay to hand. I know I’ve got gaping holes in this list, but maybe next year I can build on it a little better.
