She has established herself as one of the few women directing films with strong female characters; films whose central themes have dealt with working class people, women in relation to men, and women raising kids alone.
While still at film school, Anders made the cult film Border Radio, a dark story about the Los Angeles punk rock scene, co-written and co-directed with fellow students Kurt Voss and Dean Lent.
Starring John Doe of X and Dave Alvin of the Blasters, Border Radio was nominated for Best Feature of 1989 by the Independent Feature Project.

In 1989, Anders was asked to turn an obscure paperback, Don't Look and It Won't Hurt, into a film, which became Gas Food Lodging (1992). She completely reworked the story and characters to match her own perspective, and Gas Food Lodging had its American premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Anders won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best New Director.

Her next film, Mi Vida Loca, a love story set in the barrios of Los Angeles, made its world premiere at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, and in 1995, Anders was awarded a MacArthur fellowship -- the "Genius Award". She then collaborated with independent filmmakers Alexander Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino on Four Rooms (1995), an outrageous four-part comedy filled with intrigue and irony. Anders' segment, "The Missing Ingredient", pays tribute to the female archetype. Anders' fifth film, Grace of My Heart (1996), is a bright, honest look at a woman struggling to find her own voice in the male dominated world of music. Starring Illeana Douglas, John Torturo, Eric Stoltz and Matt Dillon, the film includes original music written by song-writing teams both past and present, including Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, Dave Stewart and Carol Bayer Sager, Los Lobos and Gerry Goffin. Anders' latest film, Sugar Town (1999), looks at the has-beens and wanna-bes of the rock and roll industry. Anders is the mother of three children and currently is living in London.