Women's Stories Come to Life on Film | Part I

For Women's History Month, we are sharing the stories of real women who lived extraordinary lives, changed history, or made the world a better place. As a film and television studio production company, we naturally love to learn and share these stories via film. Learn about the lives of entertainers, writers, artists, athletes, activists, and more women by checking out these acclaimed biopics, many of which are available to rent on streaming services.

"Hilary and Jackie" (1998)

British sisters Jacqueline (Jackie) and Hilary du Pré both excelled in music at a very young age, with Jackie on the cello and Hilary on the flute. Younger sister Jackie proved to be a virtuoso and was playing packed concert halls as a teenager and earning international acclaim by the time she was 20. While Jackie toured Europe, Hilary remained in London and started a family.

Tragedy struck as Jackie developed multiple sclerosis in her late 20s, which slowly robbed her of her motor skills. She died in 1987 at the age of 42. She is considered to be one of the greatest cellists of all time.

The film "Hilary and Jackie" recounts the lives of the two sisters as they find fame and overcome tragedy. The film earned positive reviews, and Emily Watson and Rachel Griffiths each earned Academy Award nominations for portraying Jackie and Hilary, respectively.

Learn about other entertainers and musicians by watching: "Respect" (2021), "Being the Ricardos" (2021), "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (2020), "Judy" (2019), "La Vie en Rose" (2007), "Selena" (1997), "What's Love Got to Do With It" (1993), "Coal Miner's Daughter" (1980), "Lady Sings the Blues" (1972), "Funny Girl" (1968)

"Madame Curie" (1943)

While Marie Curie may be a household name, few people know much about her beyond her discoveries of radioactive elements. "Madame Curie" chronicles her life as she begins sharing a laboratory with French physicist Pierre Curie, who she would later marry. They won the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics (along with physicist Henri Becquerel) for their work developing the theory of radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and in 1911 she became the first person to win two when she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements polonium and radium.

The film "Madame Curie" earned seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Greer Garson, and Best Actor for Walter Pidgeon.

Learn about other women who excelled in scientific, mathematical, and medical fields by watching: "Hidden Figures" (2016), "Gorillas in the Mist" (1988), "Temple Grandin" (2010), "The Lady With a Lamp" (1951), "Nurse Edith Cavell" (1939)

"Nyad" (2023)

Diana Nyad made history in 2013 when, at the age of 64, she swam from Havana, Cuba to Key West, Florida without the use of a shark cage. She had first attempted this 110-mile swim in 1978 in a shark cage, but had to stop after swimming 76 miles in 42 hours due to large swells and high winds. Throughout the decade she set several open-water swimming world records.

From 2011 to 2013, Nyad made five attempts to swim from Cuba to Florida and eventually completed the trek with a protective jellyfish suit and electronic shark repellent devices. She also had a large support team of navigators, doctors, and trainers that accompanied her in a boat, including her best friend Bonnie Sue Stoll, an athletic trainer and businesswoman.

Streaming on Netflix, "Nyad" shows the treacherous hurdles that Nyad had to face to make history and highlights the powerful friendship of Nyad and Stoll, portrayed by Annette Bening and Jodie Foster respectively. Both actresses earned Academy Award nominations for their performances.

Learn about other female athletes by watching: "Battle of the Sexes" (2017), "Queen of Katwe" (2016), "As One" (2012), "From the Rough" (2011), "A League of Their Own" (1992) – a fictionalized account of the real-life All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, "Heart Like a Wheel" (1983), "Little Mo" (1978), "The Other Side of the Mountain" (1975)

"Philomena" (2013)

Philomena Lee spent five decades trying to find her son who she was forced to give up for adoption in the 1950s. As a pregnant teenager in Ireland, she was sent to live in an abbey (a Magdalene Laundry run by nuns) that housed unwed mothers. At the abbey, she gave birth to a son then spent several years working unpaid. When she was 22, the nuns sold her three-year-old son to a family in the United States for adoption, against her wishes.

She later married and had several more children, but she kept her son a secret for nearly 50 years. In 2003, she revealed her secret to her family, and her daughter connected her with a journalist who helped her track down her son.

Today, she is an advocate and spokesperson for adoption rights. She established The Philomena Project in 2014 to raise awareness about adoption laws and encourage their improvement.

Judi Dench earned an Academy Award nomination for her performance in "Philomena," and the film earned three additional nominations, including Best Picture.

Learn about other female activists, advocates, and leaders by watching: "Shirley" (2024) – coming to Netflix on March 22, "Till" (2022), "On the Basis of Sex" (2018), "First They Killed My Father" (2017), "Woman in Gold" (2015), "Iron Lady" (2011), "Erin Brockovich" (2000), "Dead Man Walking" (1995), "Blossoms in the Dust" (1941)

"The Lost King" (2023)

Philippa Langley is a British writer and scholar who led the project to locate the long-lost remains of King Richard III, the final ruler of the Plantagenet dynasty. He was killed in 1485 during the Wars of the Roses and buried in a simple church plot. The exact location of his tomb was lost when the church disbanded in the 1530s.

Langley spent more than a decade learning about the king and visiting potential sites of his burial. In 2012, she contracted a team of archeologists to exhume his body from under a parking lot in Leicester, England, where it had been buried more than five centuries earlier.

"The Lost King" chronicles the challenges Langley (played by Sally Hawkins) overcame in trying to convince historians and scholars to support the project.

Learn about other female writers and journalists by watching: "Boston Strangler" (2023), "She Said" (2022), "A Private War" (2018), "The Zookeeper's Wife" (2017), "10 Days in a Madhouse" (2015), "Wild" (2014), "A Mighty Heart" (2007), "Veronica Guerin" (2003), "Born Free" (1966)