5 incredible female-led films you need to watch on International Women's Day.

For most of us, when we think of women in film we tend to think of block-busting, big-budget, box-office baiting names like Melissa McCarthy and Meryl Streep.

But out of the shadow of the Hollywood sign, there are other stories being told. Stories told with passion and power, stories that, in some cases, people have risked their lives to tell.

For the next five nights, SBS World Movies is giving them a platform. It’s called Wonder Women – five cutting edge films about fierce, fabulous and feisty females.

You may not have seen these films before nor heard of the places or people in them, but for curator and series host Gretel Killeen, that’s kind of the point.

"These movies aren't made with huge cinematic power houses behind them," said Killeen. "To make a lot of these movies requires grit and determination and smell-of-an-oily-rag kind of production, and I think it allows for a lot of integrity.

"That's the beauty of it. I believe they are films that have been made not for profit for passion and that really shows."

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The films range from Academy Award nominees (Mustang) to little-known African cinema.

"For, me this is about standing on the edge and beginning to fly," she said. "It's about looking forward and being excited about sharing these stories and the possibilities that that opens up."

Possibilities like sparking debate, cultural education, dispelling ignorance, encouraging people to expand their field of vision. And given the spark that's been lit under the gender equality movement recently, Killeen argues, they now hold more weight than ever.

"These films have been made for so many years, but now is the time where the planets are aligning and letting this be shown to a bigger more open audience," she said. "I really feel where on the cusp of a tipping point. All these decades and centuries of women fighting for women's rights and now we're seeing it implemented."

These are the films:

Mustang
Wednesday 8 March 8.30pm

"It's about the spirit of these girls and what the human spirit will do to fight oppression.

"The girls are beautiful, it's beautifully shot, it's funny and profound."

Zoology
Thursday 9 March 8.30pm

"Some people have referred to the comedy but I don't think it is funny at all," said Killeen. "It's like a fable.

"A woman in a seaside town in Russia grows a tail. All of the village spread rumours that the devil has come to town, and so she hides it. But what actually happens is that she starts to love who she is. She discovers sexuality, her outspokenness, her spirit.

"To me this film is about how society persecutes women who are different."

Girls Lost
Friday 10 March 8.30pm

"This is a Swedish film about three teenage girls who are all great mates but get bullied a lot at school," said Killeen. "One day they discover this plant and they drink the juice from it and become boys for a night.

"It's a really interesting film in terms of questioning the binary notion of gender and how been defined as a female perhaps limits our and behaviour and opportunities in life."

The Handmaiden
Saturday 11 March 8.30pm

"This Korean film is an incredibly beautifully shot film about a love story between two women, but it's also a psychological drama. It's amazing it's about how tricky these women can be in the face of their oppressors," said Killeen.

B for Boy
Sunday 12 March 8.30pm

"It takes us to rural Nigeria. It's about this modern woman who is perfectly happy and in love and then tradition comes in - tradition perpetuated by other women - that says if she doesn't have a son all of this will change. It's about her fighting for herself in the people she loves," said Killeen. "I was astounded by what happens in this film."

The five-night Wonder Women series starts tonight at 8:30pm on SBS.

What's your favourite example of female-driven cinema? Tell us in the comments below.(Remember: #nospoilers)