Monthly Archive for January, 2009

You all know the goal for this site is to support women’s films.  So I get no pleasure to report that New in Town has many problems.  Watching the film actually made me feel bad for Renee Zellweger.  Where are the movies for a funny, quirky 40ish woman?  Right, I forgot, there are none.  On the surface, New In Town must have seemed really promising.  A 30-something female executive gets the opportunity of her career when she takes on an assignment refitting a Midwestern plant.  She overcomes the difficulties of being “new in town” wins over the locals with her competence, is successful and falls for the hottest guy in town.

Not a bad idea, except for the fact that the movie just doesn’t work at all.  First, there’s Renee as the executive.  She’s employed at a company where all the senior people besides her are guys.  When the new assignment comes up one of her enlightened colleagues says: “send Lucy she’s single.”  Cringe.  As if she has no life at all because she is a single and interested in her career.  What year is this?  1987?  Oh, but if it were 1987 I would be happier because I would be watching Baby Boom starring Diane Keaton written by Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer and directed by Shyer.   I love that film.

Continue reading ‘Review: New In Town’

Here are some of the pilots being made for consideration for the next TV season

• Inside the Box (ABC) about an ambitious female news producer and her colleagues from Shonda Rhimes of Grey’s Anatomy.  (The Black Box Office)

• Untitled Ellen Barkin (HBO).  Script is written by Shauna Cross who has penned Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut Whip It. “Story revolves around a woman famous for her high-profile marriage who divorces and re-enters the singles market and finds herself developing a close, platonic bond with the 24-year-old son of her ex-husband.” (Variety)

• Let It Go (ABC)  starring Lauren Graham from the Gilmore Girls.  She stars as “a female talkshow host who is dumped by her boyfriend — and isn’t able to follow her own advice of “letting things go.” (Variety)

• I, Claudia (ABC)  is a drama about a young prosecuting attorney who doesn’t know that one day she is going to be a serious contender for the presidency of the U.S. (Hollywood Reporter)

• Absolutely Fabulous (Fox) redo will be set in LA.

Now that President Obama has signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act will that mean that female actresses will get paid equal to their male peers?  Doubt it.  Here’s just one example: Harrison Ford – $20 million (plus 20% of the gross) for K-19 The Widowmaker, Meryl Streep, $5 million for The Devil Wars Prada.  Does that seem fair?  Which movie did you see?

Here’s what Lilly Ledbetter had to say on the signing of the law after a 10 year fight:

I will never see a cent from my case. But with the passage and President’s signature today, I have an even richer reward. I know that my daughter and granddaughters, and your daughters and your granddaughters, will have a better deal. That’s what makes this fight worth fighting. That’s what made this fight one we had to win. And now with this win we will make a big difference in the real world.

Thanks to About.com Women’s Issues

Looks like even though one of the stage manager’s was caught stealing from the set, Lipstick Jungle may not be dead at all.  NBC chief Ben Silverman acknowledging that women are an important demographic says they are looking for way to keep the show alive:

“Lipstick Jungle is so strong and has such a passionate base among a coveted demographic,” Silverman said. “That kind of show will have the same approach, and we’ve already begun that approach, as we’ve used with Friday Night Lights. We have some incredible channels in our portfolio and we have sister networks that love the show as well. We are analyzing what we need to do to keep that show on the air.”

Good news indeed.
‘Lipstick Jungle’ May Get ‘Friday Night Lights’ Treatment (Broadcasting & Cable)

Darnell Martin and Beyonce Knowles

A couple of weeks ago the NY Times ran a piece about the lack of progress of African American directors over the last decade.  It seems that African American filmmakers suffer the same issues as women filmmakers — being stuck in a niche and unable to get out.  Whether it’s right or not, or desired or not, most African American directors get pigeon holed into creating stories for African American audiences which are still not seen as “mainstream.”  Personally, I would rather see a film like The Secret Life of Bees directed by an African American woman like it was, because I would venture to say that Gina Prince-Bythewood would do a better job than a white woman or white man.  I don’t see anything wrong with that.  But because women and people of color are seen as “niche audiences” anyone who is in those groups gets stuck.  I don’t think the problem is with the audiences.  The Secret Life of Bees was a steady earner all through the fall with black and white women.  I think the word niche is evil and should be banished.  Why aren’t stories like Cadillac Records which boasts an amazing performance from Beyonce (tell me why they couldn’t sell her?) seen as American stories?  Once the movie business figures out that they can make money by getting people beyond the “niche” maybe we will see more opportunities for African American directors and women directors.

Some points from the article:

You could now literally count on one hand (using two fingers) the number of black directors who can get their projects made and distributed at a steady rate. One is (Spike) Lee…while the other is Tyler Perry.

Momentum for African-American cinema, it would seem, has been curtailed or at least stalled in part by studio executives’ preconceptions that black films are “niche product” with limited appeal. Yet at the same time black directors and producers still express optimism that they not only can continue to cultivate their black audiences but also can reach out further and wider to the mainstream…

Gina Prince Bythewood

Darnell Martin, the director of Cadillac Record is a cautionary, yet surprisingly typical tale of what happens to women directors:

Ms. Martin places much of the blame for her sporadic career in the feature-film business on the conflicts she had over the promotion of “I Like It Like That.” “They insisted on making me the poster child for the film, the ‘female Spike Lee,’ and I said, ‘Look, I don’t mind that. I’m proud to be a black woman director, and I want that out there.’ But we’d gotten some great reviews, and I felt that was what they should be leading with. If it had been a white director, they would have emphasized the reviews, but instead they were trying to get people to see it only because I was black.

“So I fought pretty hard over that. Actually it was more like a head-on collision. And I was told, ‘If you continue like this, you will never work again.’ And I thought, ‘That’s O.K., I paid off my student loans what’re they going to take away from me?’ So I was getting known for being someone you couldn’t control.”

She also held on to a stubborn selectivity. “I was offered a lot of things that were about women of color, but I didn’t know yet how to make those things good.

Though the success of movies like “The Secret Life of Bees” perpetually makes black filmmakers more hopeful about their prospects, African-American films still have barriers to break. “The biggest,” Mr. Berney said, “is outside the U.S. where the perception remains within the industry that the international audience for African-American product is close to zero. And yet when you consider the global popularity of hip-hop culture and by extension, black culture, you have to wonder whether this perception comes from outmoded thinking from international buyers who aren’t in tune with today’s audience.”

Black Directors Look Beyond Their Niche (NY Times)

Here are some links of interest (many I should have posted long ago):

Cinematical Seven: Women to Watch in 2009 (Cinematical)

Five Sexist Trends the Advertising World Just Can’t Shake (Huffington Post)

Brandy McDonnell: “Twilight” and the year of women in the movies (Oklahoma Film Critics Circle)

Top Ten Moments of Feminism in 2008 (change.org)

2008’s Top Ten Best Written Female Characters (Awards Daily)

Why the Comic-Book Movie Industry Needs a Female Superhero (Rope of Silicon)

Interview with Christine Vachon (AfterEllen)

Nudity in Film: Why Bare Chests Do Not Equal Bare Breasts (MovieCity News)

How Hollywood Insults Women (Penn Live.com)

Yesterday was Holocaust Remembrance Day, the day where we pause to remember the millions of people killed in Europe by the Nazis.  Today, building on that theme, the documentary Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh opens in NY at the Sunshine  (It opens in LA next week).  The film tells the story of poet and young women Hannah Senesh who after escaping from Europe to Palestine volunteered to go back and parachute behind enemy lines to try and free Jews.  She participated in the only military rescue attempt.  That’s right there was only one, and it was done by kids trained in Palestine who felt compelled to go and try and save their fellow Jews.

The film is moving on so many levels.  First it shows the progression of this young woman from a frivolous young girl living in pre-Nazi Hungary to scared young woman whose world has collapsed around her.  We know all this because she left behind her diaries and poems.  Hannah is so different from the only other woman whose story we all know about — Anne Frank.  Hannah got out and then went back.  SPOILER Suffice is to say she never made it back from Hungary but amazingly, she managed to see her mother when they were held in the same jail.  Mama Senesh, as she was known in Israel, was able to make it out and spent the rest of her life knowing that she was alive because of what her daughter did and made it her business to let people know about her daughter and her sacrifice.  Let’s make sure that more people know about her bravery as well as her poetry.

Director Roberta Grossman answered some question about her film (which was shortlisted for the documentary Oscar.  Sadly, it didn’t get a nomination.)

Women & Hollywood: What drew you to make this movie?

Roberta Grossman: I first read Hannah Senesh’s diary when I was in junior high and was really taken with her poetry and her passion, her writing and her high minded idealism.   And I became a filmmaker right out of college and from that time I always tried to make a film about Hannah Senesh.  I was always writing proposals and grants and it never came together, happily, because by the time I was able to make the film about 3 and half years ago I was a mother closer in age to Catherine Senesh, Hannah’s mother and I realized that the way to tell the story was really as a mother-daughter story.  Hero stories can be quite dull but the story of a mother watching her headstrong daughter doing something that could take her life and also of coming to rescue her that was a potentially profound way to tell the story that would transcend ideas of heroism and would even transcend the Holocaust.  Happily Catherine Senesh published her diary and I guess I missed it the first time around and then she wrote a beautiful memoir about her childhood, the mission and their time and that became the basis of the film.  Catherine’s memoir becomes the narration of the film voiced by Joan Allen.

W&H: How did you get Joan Allen involved?

RG: I was just really lucky.  It’s 6 degrees of separation.  I knew somebody who knew her lawyer and her lawyer was open to talking with me and we sent her the film and she watched it and said yes.  And she completely elevated the film.  We worked with a scratch track for over a year and when Joan’s voice was dropped into the film it changed the film profoundly because she brought so much warmth and intelligence to her read.

W&H: Why did it take so long for a woman about this woman to be made?

RG: That’s a really good question.  I think that the family was very protective of Hannah’s legacy and every time they had encounters with filmmakers and production companies they didn’t feel comfortable that turning over Hannah’s story to that kind of exposure.  It was the passage of time on the part of the family and the development of a relationship with me as someone they thought they could trust to tell the story. Continue reading ‘Interview with Roberta Grossman, Director of Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh’

Kay Yow

While this blog pretty much focuses on Hollywood, I am also very interested in other aspects of pop culture including issues related to women’s sports and how that intersects with pop culture.

As you can already guess, I am a big women’s sports fan and have written articles (and tried to write a book) on Title IX.  This past week was a sad week for women’s basketball with the passing of legendary coach Kay Yow who was an incredible example of fortitude and perseverance having fought breast cancer for 20 years.  Watching some games this weekend, even men’s games, I noticed that all the commentators were talking about her and contributions to the sport.  It made me realize how far we have come.  If you are into basketball you have to listen to Beth Mowins and Debbie Antonelli’s Shootaround podcast from the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.  They never fail to teach me and crack me up each week.  It’s one of my favorite podcasts and I never miss it.

Women’s basketball has really taken up the cause of breast cancer in a big way.  A fund in Yow’s name was created at the Jimmy V Foundation and you can’t make it through a game without someone talking about supporting the Fund.  That’s awesome.  I just wish they weren’t so obsessed with the pink.

Candace Parker

Point 2 is the pregnancy of Candace Parker. Parker is arguably one of the biggest stars in women’s basketball, if not the biggest.  She’s 22, just finished her first season in the WNBA, was the MVP of the league, won 2 college championships and has an amazing career ahead of her.   Then a couple of weeks ago the news trickled out that she was pregnant and due in the spring around the same time that the WNBA season starts.  She gave up a $1.5 million to play in Europe this winter, and I guess money is not an issue for her since she is married to a male pro basketball player who I guarantee makes way more money than she ever could. Continue reading ‘A Moment to Talk about Women’s Sports’

Glenn Close who is now on TV in Damages (Wednesday nights, 10pm FX) recently received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This honor, of course, leads to many interviews and I found some comments about Fatal Attraction quite interesting. Firstly, the producers didn’t want her for the role because they didn’t think she could be sexy (haven’t recently come off The Natural and the World According to Garp) but she fought them and proved she could do it. But what I didn’t remember (or maybe never knew) is that they changed the ending to make it more “crowd pleasing” AKA making her character more menacing and evil (as if they really needed to do that).  Close said she really tried to fight them even refusing to do reshoots for a couple of weeks.

In the original cut of the film, Close’s character commits suicide.

Test audiences wanted a more crowd-pleasing finale, so the producer’s ordered a rewrite. Close didn’t like it, because she felt it wasn’t true to her character.

“It wasn’t, it wasn’t,” she said. “I thought it was a real betrayal of her character to have her become a murderer. Because I think she would have killed herself before she killed anyone else.”

The film now 22 years old (yikes), is one of the prime examples of a backlash film (powerful woman goes nuts) and in writing this I was thinking about my ambivalence about it. Firstly, would a movie like that be made today? Secondly, would I go and see it?

The other news about Close is that looking to produce and star in The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs which “tells the story of a woman in 1860s Ireland who changed her name and disguised herself as a man to gain employment.” She also co-wrote the screenplay. Rodrigo Garcia is set to direct. (Glenn, how about hiring a woman director?)

That’s a movie I’ll be psyched to see.

Q&A with the Hollywood Reporter (Hollywood Reporter)
A Close Encounter With Glenn Close (CBS News)
Close plans to reprise role onscreen (Variety)

Women & Hollywood has won its first blog award — The best Hollywood blog in the totalfilm.com blog awards of 2009.

Yeah!

Thanks to everyone who voted. I’m honored.

Sigourney Weaver joins the parade of film actresses now feeling comfortable on TV with the new Lifetime film Prayers for Bobby which premiered on this past weekend.  The film re-airs tonight.

Prayers for Bobby is about a devoutly Christian woman Mary Griffith who disowns her son when he comes out.  He subsequently kills himself and Griffith blames herself.  She works towards tolerance through PFLAG and over time became an activist for gay rights.

Here’s what Sigourney had to say about the film:

“I think all I did was think about how much I love my daughter and if she had something that was weighing on her, that she felt was bigger than her and that she wouldn’t be able to come to me and have me listen,” Weaver said, getting teary. “I’m not saying it’s not frightening for the parents. I think it would be very frightening. I think all parents do is try to keep their kids from leading lives that are dangerous or unsafe. And this is a tough life.”

Weaver says ‘Prayers’ for Lifetime (AP via Yahoo)

There has been some buzz about the recent piece in the New Yorker featuring on Tim Palen co-head of theatrical marketing at Lion’s Gate one of the only remaining independent studios around.  Lion’s Gate is an interesting studio of late because their slate of films are so different from slasher porn to Tyler Perry to the upcoming New in Town starring Renee Zellweger which is opening Friday.

As a person who does marketing/publicity  for women’s films my job is to get the word out about a certain film and I focus on making people aware of what I have and not trying to deny what I don’t have.  Because women’s films generally don’t get paid enough attention, getting the word out just to get people to notice a film is always a challenge.  But then again, I don’t have to promote slasher porn and honestly don’t think that I could.

The article was quite depressing on many levels especially when it talks about how deception is used to lure audiences and it exemplified the ongoing difficulties in marketing movies about women to women.

I was also surprised that Palen’s partner in theatrical marketing Sarah Greenberg was basically missing from the piece.  She focuses on the publicity front but it sucks that the article made it seem that Palen did everything to make these films successful.

The one thing I got out of the piece is that marketing is king and movies are made today not necessarily because it might be a good movie, but because it can be sold and marketed.  So it doesn’t come as a surprise that women are not valued since we are harder to market to.  Lots of industries have figured out how to market to women because they think it’s worth it because women make most of the purchasing decisions.  (Some studies say that women make over 80% of all purchasing decisions.)  The thing to note is that because women are harder to reach you also get the guys cause they are easier to sell to.  Motto of the story — if you figure out how to get women you get men and women.  If you figure out how to reach guys, you just get guys. Continue reading ‘Marketing Movies to “Discriminating Women”’

I so love this woman!

From her speech:

Can I just say that there is no such thing as the best actress.  There is no such thing as the greatest living actress.  I am in a position where I have secret information that I know this to be true.

I am so in awe of the work of the women this year — nominated, not nominated — so proud of us girls and everybody wins when we get parts like this.

Be gone cold weather!  TNT has something to warm you up with five new episodes of the Closer starting tonight.  The show will spend some serious time dealing with Brenda and Fritz’ upcoming wedding (at least from the first episode which I saw) and it seems that everyone around her — including her team– is more interested in the wedding preparations than Brenda is.  I really hope the episodes don’t deteriorate into a constant wedding drama cause that would make me crazy.  She was always so competent at work and I hope that her home/ wedding issues don’t bleed over too much and effect her credibility at work.

Check it out tonight at 9pm on TNT.

Forbes has just published a list of the top 25 influential liberals in the media.  Women rate four of the slots out of 25.  Give me a break.  Aren’t liberals supposed to be more progressive and in turn more inclusive of everyone including women?  Why aren’t there more influential women in media?  What about some of the women bloggers like Jane Hamsher?  And where are Tina Brown and Katrina vanden heuvel?  What about the women of the View?  Joy Behar totally kicked ass all through the election season.  This list just doesn’t cut it.

The women included are:

2- Arianna Huffington

6- Oprah Winfrey

7- Rachel Maddow

15- Maureen Dowd

The ascent of Rachel Maddow continues at am amazingly breakneck pace.  Hope she can keep up with it all.

The 25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media (Forbes)

It’s now official.  I am old.  I have my 20th college reunion this year and my high school dream BFF Molly Ringwald has also hit the big 4 0.  She has returned to TV in a hit show The Secret Life of the American Teenager about a 15-year-old pregnant teen who decided to keep the baby (would there be show if she decided to have an abortion?), and is having twins of her own (which will be written into the storyline).

I haven’t watched the show but am now intrigued since Molly has some really interesting things to say in an interview with The Daily Beast.

What would you do if your own 15-year-old were pregnant?

I think I’m a lot more pro-choice. My character says she’s pro-choice, but she can’t advise her daughter to have an abortion. It’s a personal thing, an emotional thing. In my situation, it wouldn’t be all that different—I would make my daughter make the choice. I don’t see myself being in that situation, but I guess no one does. I’m a big believer in preventative medicine and communication.

I’m actually pregnant now, and I showed my [5-year-old] daughter a birthing video the other day. I was watching the Ricki Lake documentary The Business of Being Born and there’s a beautiful home birth in it. [My daughter] was so horrified. She announced that she’s decided she’s never going to give birth. She said, “I’m going to marry a woman and she’s going to birth a baby.” I thought that was incredible problem solving! But I’m having twins, so no home birth for me.

Do you miss being a teenager?

I can’t say that I miss the eighties at all. I’m all about the here and now and the future. I have a book coming out next spring called Getting the Pretty Back. It’s about turning forty and that phase where you’ve had kids or decided not to, for me it’s a real turning point. It’s kind of I Feel Bad About My Neck pimped out with illustrations. But I do miss hanging out with my friends, drinking coffee, and not having responsibility.

How cool is it that Molly Ringwald is a feminist.  This show like most shows and films have a seriously hard time talking about abortion and even choice and it’s great that she comes out as pro-choice.  I will totally read her book.

All Grown Up (The Daily Beast)

Push the film based on the novel by Sapphire was the big winner last night when the awards were given out at the end of the Sundance Film Festival.  The film won the Grand Jury Prize for Drama, and the Audience award and a special award for Mo’Nique for her acting.  Wow.

Film doesn’t yet have distribution, but hopefully now someone will sign on.  I think this would be a great opportunity for Tyler Perry.  I know that he is pretty much focused on his own work but he has a built in list and if he (or even Oprah) would put their names and muscle behind this film I bet it could get a release.  Even though I have not seen the film I would guess that from the reception and reviews and awards that the issue with this film will be its hard content especially in this market.

Winning an award at Sundance does not guarantee a distribution deal or success at the box office..  Looking back at the awards of the last couple of years some of the films came and went like Forty Shades of Blue (2005 Grand Jury Prize- Drama); Quinceañera (which won both the audience award and Grand Jury prize in 2006); Padre Neustro (Grand Jury Prize 2007- I don’t think this one ever got a US release); Grace is Gone (Audience Award 2007- made no money at the box office).

But, both of lasts year’s Grand Jury Prize winners Trouble the Water (doc) and Frozen River (drama) are about women and directed by women (Trouble the Water has male and female co-directors) and both are up for Oscars.  So that’s good news.

Here what director Lee Daniels said last night at the ceremony:

“We don’t have no money. We got $2 to make some s— happen. We’re doing this story about this fat black girl who doesn’t have a voice. They’re all in it for the craft.” When asked to look at the bigger picture for his film — which still lacks distribution — he explained, “I think [this win] means there’s hope for people of color. Just because Obama’s president doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to translate down to our world of cinema. And I think what it does is reiterate and strengthen this power of, Get yourself a freakin’ video camera. And you go out and tell your truth. That’s what I started doing as a kid, and I think inevitably, it led to this. It’s just so much hope.”

Here are the other women and women’s films that won awards

Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary We Live in Public directed by Ondi Timoner
Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire
World Cinema Jury Prize: Documentary Rough Aunties directed by Kim Longinotto. (congrats to Women Make Movies who is handling distribution of this film)
World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic The Maid (La Nana)
World Cinema Audience and Directing Award: Documentary Afghan Star directed by Havana Marking
World Cinema Audience Award: Dramatic An Education directed by Lone Scherfig
Directing Award: U.S. Documentary El General, director Natalia Almada
Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award Nicholas Jasenovec and Charlyne Yi, Paper Heart
U.S. Documentary Editing Award Sergio edited by Karen Schmeer
Excellence in Cinematography Award: U.S. Documentary The September Issue, cinematographer Bob Richman
World Cinema Cinematography Award: Dramatic An Education, cinematographer John De Borman
World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Originality Louise-Michel
World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Acting Catalina Saavedra, The Maid (La Nana)
Special Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary Good Hair
Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Independence Humpday directed by Lynn Shelton
Special Jury Prize for Acting Mo’Nique, Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire

‘Push’ wins big at Sundance Awards (Variety)

Interview with Mo’Nique (Spout)

Before I started writing about movies I cared a lot more about the Oscar nominations.  Now, probably because I spend so much time reading about pop culture and how women are treated, most of the excitement I had when I was just a fan is gone.  I used to park myself in front of the TV and furiously write everything down, and yesterday I just went about my day and waited for the noms to be posted on the web.

So here’s what I gleaned from the nominations yesterday:

None of the Best Films Feature A Woman as the Lead

Look at the best pictures noms: Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire.  While both Benjamin Button and The Reader feature strong female performances, neither of them are about women.  Frost/Nixon has nary a single female character of significance, Milk has one woman, and Slumdog has a young woman as the object of the star’s affection.

Even last year with all the talk about how women were missing from No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood we still had Juno.  In previous years there was The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine, Million Dollar Baby and even further back there was Chicago and The Hours.  After a great year for women at the box office, the lack of a film about a woman in the final five stings.  The films with the strongest female roles like Doubt and Revolutionary Road were left of the best picture list.

Directing is Still a Boy’s Club

Slumdog Millionaire has a female co-director which does not seem to get acknowledged publicly due to guild rules and the perception that there needs to be one person at the helm (except of course if you are the Coen Brothers.)  It’s interesting to note that the documentary category has no problem naming more than one director.  The directors of the Betrayal Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath have been identified as co-directors throughout the awards season but now the co-director has been dropped and both are identified as director.  A woman hasn’t been nominated since 2004 when Sophia Copolla was nominated for Lost in Translation.

Meryl Streep Now Has the Most Oscar nominations at 15

She has 12 leading actress nominations and two wins but hasn’t won in 25 years.  Is this her year?  Will the snub of Doubt as a Best Picture contender propel her to the win?

Women of Color Dominate the Supporting Actress Category

Congrats to Viola Davis (Doubt), Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona), Taraji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).  The best actress category is white and not a single of the male acting nominees are of color.

A Woman Still Has Never Been Nominated for Best Cinematography

Maryse Alberti for The Wrestler and Mandy Walker for Australia were getting noticed but neither was able to break through.

Where Are the Women Writers?

Last year we were celebrating Tamara Jenkins (The Savages), Diablo Cody (Juno), Sarah Polley (Away from Her), and Nancy Oliver (Lars and the Real Girl).  This year we will have to settle with Courtney Hunt (Frozen River) and Robin Swicord (with a story credit on the Curious Case of Benjamin Button).

Frozen River Was Able to Sustain Momentum Even Though it was Released in August and Not Seen by Many.

First time writer/direction Courtney Hunt secured a best screenplay nom for her drama about a woman driven to the brink to support her kids.  I love that it is completely a women’s story.  Veteran actress Melissa Leo got her first Oscar nom and this will hopefully signal bigger and better roles for her.  Here’s what she said to the LA Times: Things will be different from now on. This morning, perhaps, my life has changed.”  We can only hope so.  I bet we will see Frozen River back in theatres by next weekend.

Pray the Devil Back to Hell and Blessed is the Match Fall Short in the Doc Category

Heartfelt congrats to Ellen Kuras The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) and Tia Lessin Trouble the Water for their nominations but I would love to have seen those others acknowledged as well. And not to take away anything from the accomplishments of Kuras and Lessin both of those films have co-directors, Blessed is the Match and Pray the Devil Back to Hell both had female directors and tell female stories.

L to R: Julie Janata, Martha Richards, Jacqui Barcos, Julie Forbes, Maria Burton

Guest post from director Maria Burton:

The Alliance of Women Directors (AWD) and The Fund for Women Artists hosted their inaugural Sundance party celebrating Women Filmmakers Sunday night at the gorgeous Queer Lounge.  The evening was a rousing success, with overflow attendance and the crowd partying down — though some were shocked to learn some of the shameful statistics about women directors (i.e. that of the 250 top grossing films of 2007, only 6% were directed by women – certainly not due to lack of interest and availability of women directors!)  Attendees were inspired to work together to make more films with women at the helm, and happy to celebrate (helped along thanks to Absolut Vodka’s sponsorship!) the women filmmakers at Sundance, Slamdance and beyond!

The AWD is a coalition of women directors which both provides a community of peers for mutual support, and furthers the art, craft and visibility of women directors in the film and television industry.  Along with over 200 partiers (many of whom left excited to join AWD!), in attendance were AWD Board members Jacqui Barcos, Julie Janata and Maria Burton as was the Fund for Women Artists Julie Forbes and Executive Director Martha Richards.

Mary Jane Skalski gave the keynote address at this year’s Sundance producers luncheon.  She produced one of my favorite movies of 2008, The Visitor and recently spoke with Women & Hollywood about her work.  She has two films Against the Current and Dare being screened at Sundance.

Here are some highlights:

No one understands what we do – that we all have figured out by now. No one understands it and there really is no short answer, at least none that people want to hear. The truth is, producing is an awesome responsibility. Quite frankly, we make things happen.

When you get a group of producers together you will always get suggestions. Producers are about finding solutions. And that is inspiring to know there almost always is a solution.

How do we survive the combination of tough times and isolation? I think we stay the course, we work harder, maybe focus a little more. In all these things having other people who you can lean on/lean with will help you. People who will be honest with you. People who will inspire you – not necessarily creative inspiration but inspiration to work harder. People who will kick you in the pants sometimes. Someone you can reach out to so your own anxiety won’t do you in.

As producers we are not one another’s competition. Mediocrity is our competition. Bad movies poorly made will beat us. There are more good projects than good producers. We’re stronger together, we’re happier together, we’ll be able to do it longer and I know we’ll all make better movies.

Full remarks (Indiewire)