What can feminism, queer theory and media studies bring to our understanding of cinema and television's older leading ladies? Addressing the groundswell of scholarly interest in age and its representation, Ageing Femininity analyses contemporary screen depictions of older women that have attempted to challenge the history of negative stereotypes such as the grotesque hag or the dotty old dear. Studying recent examples of age-affirmation film and television, this important book considers how issues of cinematic genre (ranging from heritage cinema to the action movie), narrative, aesthetics and strategies of performance, such as age camp and age drag, can promote a sensibility of "successful ageing" on the screen.