A painfully true paean to the peculiarities of female friendship, Claudia Weill's low-budget indie is a minor-key marvel, funny, painful, and affecting—and recently celebrated by Illeana Douglas and Girls creator Lena Dunham.

The girlfriends of the title are NYC photographer Susan (Melanie Mayron), who supports herself shooting weddings while trying to get her work into galleries, and her roommate and best friend Anne (Anita Skinner), an aspiring writer who slowly shucks her artistic dreams (and Susan) when she moves in with her boyfriend (Bob Balaban) and settles into marriage and motherhood. Feeling abandoned by Anne and frustrated by constant professional rejection, Susan keeps plugging away, accidentally acquiring a boyfriend (Christopher Guest) even as she determinedly maintains her independence.

"Girlfriends deserves to be recognized as one of the best American films of the last half-century."—Andrew Tracy

"One of the very rare American films that I would compare with the serious, intelligent, sensitive writing and filmmaking that you find in the best directors in Europe."—Stanley Kubrick


Tickets: www.tiff.net/films/girlfriends/

Part of TIFF Cinematheque Special Screenings: tiff.net/special