5 Girl-Power Films To Watch Right Now

Rex Features

Despite the Academy's recent efforts to diversify its largely homogenous membership, women remain severely underrepresented in cinema. In 2016's highest-grossing films – only half of which passed the sexism-measuring Bechdel test – they comprised a meagre 29 per cent of protagonists. Given that women account for 52 per cent of moviegoers, this simply is not good enough. But there is hope. This year, the smash hit Wonder Womanbecame the most profitable female-directed film of all time; Sofia Coppola's Best Director win at Cannes disrupted 56 years of male dominance; and actresses' co-stars are accepting lower salaries to fight the gender pay gapTo quote Cate Blanchett: "Films with women at the centre are not niche experiences. Audiences want to see them and, in fact, they earn money." As London's Feminist Film Festival draws to a close, we round up five of our favourite girl-power movies.

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5. Step (2017)

Winner of Sundance’s Special Jury Prize, this uplifting documentary follows the lives of a high-school step-dance team, all struggling to fit this extra-curricular commitment with the demands of their academic schedules, as they vie to become the first ones in their families to attend university. Step provides these inspiring women with a vessel through which they can release pent-up tensions and free themselves from the everyday pressures of inner-city Baltimore. Amid unapologetically loud bouts of raucous clapping, stomping and shouting, the team lift each other up (in all senses of the word), showing themselves as role models for young girls everywhere.

Watch for…

A feel-good jolt of musical magic as you await the release of Pitch Perfect 3.

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