Directed by Women, Filmed in LA

Barbie

Celebrate Women’s History Month and the 97th Academy Awards with movies directed by women, spanning the 1950s to the present. Discover Los Angeles film locations that range from "the last of the great train stations" in Downtown LA to an iconic shopping mall in the Valley and world-famous Venice Beach.

1) "Barbie" - Greta Gerwig

Directed by Greta Gerwig, Barbie stars Margot Robbie in the title role and Ryan Gosling as Ken, and follows their adventures in Barbieland and the Real World. Barbie was released in the U.S. in July 2023. To date, Barbie has grossed nearly $1.5 billion at the box office and became the highest-grossing movie of 2023, the highest-grossing global release in Warner Bros. history, and the 14th highest-grossing film of all time. Barbie was nominated for eight Oscars (including Best Picture) and won for Best Original Song - Billie Eilish's "What Was I Made For?".

Barbie filmed at L.A. County locations from Downtown LA to Venice to Long Beach. It's no coincidence that many of the locations are historic sites that exemplify art and design movements that emerged between the 1930s and 1970s. Read our guide and scout Los Angeles locations from Barbie for your own adventure in the Real World.

• Bank of America Plaza (333 S. Hope St)
• The Boardwalk / Venice Beach
• Century Plaza Towers (2029 and 2049 Century Park East)
• Downtown Long Beach
• Santa Monica City Hall (1685 Main St)

2) "The Bigamist" - Ida Lupino

Union Station entrance 

Released in 1953, The Bigamist has the distinction of being the first U.S. feature film directed by and starring the same woman. Ida Lupino began her career as an actress, but turned her focus towards writing and directing in the late 1940s. She was a trailblazer, noted for being the first woman to direct a noir film (The Hitch-Hiker, also released in 1953) and often tackled taboo subjects. The Bigamist is about a man who juggles two lives and two wives, one in San Francisco and one in Los Angeles. In the L.A. portions of the film, you’ll catch a glimpse of classic movie star homes via a scene on a tour bus. Much of this storyline, though, takes place along Wilshire Boulevard and into Downtown LA. Look for the Bullocks-Wilshire Building (now Southwestern Law School), The Town House, Union Station, the Hall of Justice and Chinatown’s Central Plaza.

• Bullocks Wilshire (3050 Wilshire Blvd.)
• Chinatown Central Plaza (943 N. Broadway)
• Hall of Justice (211 W. Temple St.)
• The Town House (2959 Wilshire Blvd.)
• Union Station (800 N. Alameda)

3) "Clueless" - Amy Heckerling

Clueless

Amy Heckerling’s second entry on this list, and the canon of teen films, is Clueless. In the 1995 film, Cher, Dionne and their friends make tracks around Los Angeles, from driving around Beverly Hills to venturing to a party in the Valley. You might have more of an adventure seeking out the locations used in the now-classic film.

In fact, Discover Los Angeles has a two-part guide to Clueless locations that includes Occidental College, The Witch’s House in Beverly Hills and North Hollywood’s Circus Liquor.

4) "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" - Amy Heckerling

Heckerling’s first feature film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, is a teenage classic filled with star-making roles for several of its actors, including Sean Penn, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge Reinhold and Phoebe Cates. The movie also made stars of its locations, amongst them, Sherman Oaks Galleria. If you visit the Galleria now, though, you’ll find an altogether different space. It's living its current life as an outdoor mall. Similarly, you can still drive down Chatsworth Street near White Oak Avenue in Granada Hills like Brad did as a Captain Hook delivery driver, but your surroundings will have changed quite a bit from 1982. Meanwhile, you might still recognize Van Nuys High School for its role as Ridgemont High.

• Sherman Oaks Galleria 15301 Ventura Blvd.
• Van Nuys High School 6535 Cedros Ave.

5) "Kajillionaire" - Miranda July

Kajillionaire

The family of con artists at the center of Miranda July’s 2020 film Kajillionaire live adjacent to a soap factory, whose product continually seeps through the shared wall. The trio is also late on the rent, so they tend to creep around the factory, bending beneath the low, dark green fence in front of the teal factory building. You’ll find this distinctive complex in a warehouse-heavy neighborhood in Huntington Park.

• 2529 E. 55th Street, Huntington Park.

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