The holiday movie season is upon us rife with its mix of mega-blockbusters and Oscar contenders, and women are fairly well represented in both arenas from big box office The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 to the indie, lesbian-themed film Life Partners. We’ve scoured the film releases for this holiday season and focused on films directed by women or featuring strong or queer women.

Grab your popcorn and your Swedish Fish and get ready for everything from Angelina Jolie’s directorial Oscar bait, Reese Witherspoon doing battle in the wild, and Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Anna Kendrick singing their way into the woods on Christmas Day. 

November 14 

The Homesman 

Two-time Academy Award winner Hilary Swank stars as a tough pioneer in this Tommy Lee Jones helmed film about a woman who transports women (Meryl Streep's daughter Grace Gummer and Miranda Otto from the lesbian-themed Reaching for the Moon) from the Nebraska Territories to Iowa to escape the drudgery of their lives. Streep makes a brief appearance. 

November 21

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 

Katniss and the gang are back for the third film in the Hunger Games series, and this installment features more badass women than ever including Jena Malone as Johanna Mason, Natalie Dormer as Cressida Bones, and Julianne Moore as President Coin. Frankly, we can't WAIT! Let the slings and arrows fly! 

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night 

From director Ana Lily Amirpour comes this Iranian horror flick about a young female vampire stalking the streets of the depraved ghost town Bad City. Beautifully shot in black and white, the film promises to haunt in more ways than one.  

November 28 

The Imitation Game 

Sherlock's Benedict Cumberbatch steps into the shoes of Alan Turing, the closeted gay code breaker whose work helped the allies win World War II. Always a favorite, Keira Knightley, stars as the whipsmart sole female code breaker who becomes Turing's friend and confidante. 

December 5 

Life Partners

Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester and Community's Gillian Jacobs costar in this sweet film about female friendship from director Susanna Fogel. Meester plays a wayward lesbian trying to fill the gap left when her bestie (Jacobs) gets a steady boyfriend. Kate McKinnon, Gabourey Sidibe, Abby Elliot, and Greer Grammar (Awkward) costar. 

Still Alice 

The buzz is that this is the performance that might finally land the amazing Julianne Moore her overdue Oscar. Based on the book by Lisa Genova, Moore stars as a Columbia professor with early onset Alzheimers. Kristen Stewart, Kate Bosworth, and Hunter Parrish play Alice's kids while Alec Baldwin stars as her husband. We're rooting for Moore and we haven't even seen the movie yet! 

Wild 

We love when Reese Witherspoon plays it dark and serious, and she's getting some serious Oscar buzz for her portrayal of Cheryl Strayed, who packed up her life and headed out alone on the Pacific Crest Trail to work through her mother's death, addiction, and a failing marriage. The film, from Dallas Buyers Club director Jean-Marc Vallée, is based on Strayed's wildly (pun intended) popular memoir. Laura Dern costars as Strayed's mother. The now ubiquitous Gaby Hoffman also appears. 

December 12

Inherent Vice 

Acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson delivers a wild ride starring Joaquin Phoenix as an LA detective who investigates his former girlfriend's disappearance. The film is loaded with testosterone but also features terrific quirky and messed up performances from some of our favorite actresses including Reese Witherspoon, Jena Malone, Maya Rudolph, and Sasha Pieterse (Alison on Pretty Little Liars). 

December 25

Unbroken 

Angelina Jolie directs this biopic about World War II era Olympic runner and prisoner of war Louis Zamperini. Oscar winners Joel and Ethan Coen wrote the film that stars Jack O'Connell as Zamperini, Finn Wittrock, Jai Courtney, and Garrett Hedlund. 

Two Days, One Night

Oscar winner Marion Cotillard stars as a woman whose job hangs in the balance at the whim of her colleagues in this tough, thoughtful film from acclaimed Belgian directors Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. Cotillard's young mother has one week to convince her colleagues to opt out of a pay bonus that would cost her the job. It sounds just brutal, but Cotillard is up to the task. 

Into The Woods 

This is where we will be on Christmas morning -- seated square in a massive movie theater while the likes of Anna Kendrick, Emily Blunt, Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski, Tracey Ullman, Tammy Blanchard, Johnny Depp, and Chris Pine sing Stephen Sondheim to us! Chicago's Rob Marshall directs the big screen adaptaion of the beloved musical, and we can't wait! 

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