Maggie Gyllenhaal

Born into a filmmaking dynasty of actors, directors and screenwriters, Maggie Gyllenhaal has excelled in all three roles across a wide range of award-winning cinema, TV and stage work. From performances in indie cult hits (Donnie Darko,  Secretary), blockbusters (World Trade Center and The Dark Knight) and prestige television (The Honorable Woman,  The Deuce) to her own Oscar-nominated directing debut, The Lost Daughter (2021), she has consistently made smart, challenging choices. A similar ethos informs Gyllenhaal’s selection of beloved films, with heavy emphasis on female writer-directors telling complex, socially conscious stories. Alongside classics by Federico Fellini and Ridley Scott, she highlights inspirational heroines including Jane Campion, Claire Denis, Sarah Polley and Alice Rohrwacher. Women filmmakers, Gyllenhaal tells Galerie, speak a different language by necessity. “I don’t think the world is necessarily built for us,” she explains, “so we’ve had to come up with other ways of communicating.”