ALL POSTS
Watch: Jessica Chastain Calls for More Diversity in Hollywood
The Oscars have always been dominated by white men, but its demographic lopsidedness became a flashpoint of anger yesterday when this year’s nominations failed to include Selma director Ava...
Thoughts on the Oscar Noms from Female Film Writers and Experts
Here are some thoughts from some people I reached out to earlier today about the Oscar nominations, in alphabetical order. Thelma Adams, Film Editor at ZEALnyc: First of all, I welcome more voices...
The Big O: In Directing, a Sin of Omission — But At Least ‘Selma’ Makes the Final 8
We had a dream last fall: that two female directors, Ava DuVernay for Selma and Angelina Jolie for Unbroken, would compete in the Best Director category at the 87th Academy Awards. Considering that...
‘Broad City’ Renewed for Season 3
Get your celebratin’ on, because Broad City has been renewed for a third season. The second season of Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson’s sketch-sitcom hybrid premiered just this week, but the...
2015 Oscar Nominations: A Dark Day for Women in Hollywood
I couldn’t sleep at all last night because I knew in the pit of my stomach exactly what was going to happen this morning. Based onthe wind and on the hatchet job against Selma, I knew that Ava...
Jodie Foster, Lisa Cholodenko, Jill Soloway, Laura Poitras Nominated by DGA
Yesterday’s Directors Guild of America Awards coverage was dominated by one major (and painful) snub: that of Ava DuVernay for the entirely deserving Selma. But we should also talk about some of...
Trailer Watch: Emma Thompson Urges Dakota Fanning’s ‘Effie Gray’ to Flee a Bad Victorian Marriage in Newly Cut Promo
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Suffragettes, Action Heroines, and BDSM: Most Anticipated Films By and About Women in 2015
Our 2014 end-of-year coverage highlighted the good and the bad for women and Hollywood in 2014. As we usher in a new year, let’s focus on some of the exciting female-centric films that await us in...
Listen: Women and Hollywood Podcast #8: ‘Appropriate Behavior’ Writer-Director Desiree Akhavan
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Trailer Watch: Melissa McCarthy is a Different Kind of ‘Spy’
Trailer Watch: New Promo for ’50 Shades of Grey’ Offers a Different Kind of Lady Porn
Trailer Watch: Juliette Binoche and Rinko Kikuchi Explore the Arctic in ‘Nobody Wants the Night’
Quote of the Day: Patricia Arquette on Making Less Money Than Her Dog Walker
Artists can’t get by on awards and adulation alone, so we’re thrilled that Patricia Arquette is using her post-Globes spotlight to bravely broach the topic of compensation. “It’s important...
Study: Fewer Women Directing and Writing Movies Than 17 Years Ago
If Hollywood were graded on how well it excluded women directors from making films, it’d receive an A. The newest Celluloid Ceiling Report from Dr. Martha Lauzen at San Diego State finds that men...
Trailer Watch: Female Friendship is the Heart of Celine Sciamma’s Black Parisian Coming-of-Age Drama ‘Girlhood’
2015 Golden Globes: Fey, Poehler, Fonda, Tomlin, Moore, Adams, Arquette, and Gyllenhaal Speak Out for Women
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler set the theme for the 2015 Golden Globes in more ways than one last night. Perhaps it was Fey or Poehler’s gender-conscious jokes the two years before — or maybe it...
Greta Gerwig’s ‘Mistress America’ Sold at Sundance
Ten days before the launch of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, Park City’s first major deal has been struck. Fox Searchlight has bought Mistress America, Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s...
Hailee Steinfeld to Play Carrie Pilby in YA Adaptation
Oscar-nominated teenage actress Hailee Steinfeld will join Jennifer Lawrence, Shailene Woodley, and Chloe Grace Moretz in laying claim to a popular YA adaptation of her own. Steinfeld will star as...
Trailer Watch: Hollywood Drives Julianne Moore and Mia Wasikowska Insane in New ‘Maps to the Stars’ Promo
Weekly Update for January 9: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Vessel (doc) — Directed by Diana Whitten Vessel begins with a young doctor who lived by the sea — and an unlikely idea. Rebecca Gomperts, horrified by...
Tig Notaro Gets Her Own HBO Special
Grammy-nominated comedienne Tig Notaro will appear in her first HBO special later this year. Notaro will record an all-new standup performance before a live audience in the coming months. A guest...
DGA Study: “Women and Minority Directors Face Significant Hiring Disadvantage at Entry Level”
The Directors Guild of America has revealed the results of a five-year study examining the gender and ethnic diversity of first-time directors on scripted series. In the five-year span from the...
‘Selma’ Director Ava DuVernay is a Woman Daring to Tell History
From my latest Forbes post on how Ava DuVernay is making history by interpreting our shared past and defending Selma from its short-sighted critics: Whether we like it or not, there are different...
Women Wrote 17% of 2014’s Top 250 Grossing Films
On Wednesday, we revealed that women directed only 17 of last year’s top 250 grossing films — a depressing 6.8%. Fortunately, the number of female screenwriters who penned the scripts to...
Guest Post: How I Met My Mother By Making My Family History Doc ‘Farewell Herr Schwarz’
After two hours of interviews, thecinematographer signals that the battery is running out and that we need tostop. Thank God. I have been interviewing my mother for what feels like aneternity now,...
Isabel Coixet’s ‘Nobody Wants the Night’ to Open the 2015 Berlinale
Prolific Spanish director Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, Learning to Drive) will open the 65th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb. 5–15) with her latest film, Nobody Wants the Night. The...
The 2015 Athena Film Festival Trailer Is Here!
Trailer Watch: Everyone’s Someone’s ‘DUFF’ in New Promo
Guest Post: Inside the Fox Global Director’s Initiative
When I found out that I was invited to take part in the Fox Global Director’s Initiative, I was in Beirut, on my way to the Bekaa Valley. The lab would commence in just seven days — by which...
Dunham does Iowa: ‘Girls,’ Season Four
Trailer Watch: Kat Dennings Struggles to Stay Sober and Alive in ‘To Write Love on Her Arms’
Women Directed 17 of the Top 250 Grossing Films of 2014
Female directors accounted for only 17 of the top 250 grossing films of 2014 — a mere 6.8%. As paltry as this number is, it represents a minor improvement from 2013, when women comprised 6% of...
ABC Family Orders Single-Cam Comedies from Lauren Iungerich, Barbie Adler
ABC Family is expanding its appeal to women in their twenties by adding two single-cam comedies from female creators to its development slate. The cable network has ordered pilots from Awkward...
Quote of the Day: Rose McGowan
Rose McGowan said what we’re all thinking at the New York Film Critics Circle awards ceremony earlier this week when she urged for more films from women directors while accepting the group’s...
Megan Ellison to Produce ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’ Director Ana Lily Amirpour’s Next Film
The critically lauded A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night didn’t just garner writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour a Breakthrough Director Award at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, but a powerful...
The Big O: The State of the Race — and Where the Women Are
I had a sinking feeling when the Producers Guild announced their ten nominees for Best Picture on Monday. Take a gander at what was selected: American Sniper, Birdman, Boyhood, Foxcatcher, Gone...
Trailer Watch: Helen Mirren Returns to Broadway as Queen Elizabeth II in ‘The Audience’
Anglophiles, rejoice! Helen Mirren will reprise one of her greatest roles, albeit in an entirely different production, when she returns to Broadway this winter. Mirren will play Queen Elizabeth II...
‘Orange is the New Black’ Actress Uzo Aduba to Star in Drama About the Aftereffects of ‘Roots’
Emmy-winning actress Uzo Aduba, best known as Suzanne/”Crazy Eyes” on Orange is the New Black, will star with Maggie Grace in a drama called Showing Roots that explores the socio-cultural...
Jodie Foster to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at 5th Athena Film Festival
In honor of Jodie Foster’s five decades behind and in front of the camera, the 5th annual Athena Film Festival (Feb. 5–8) will salute the Oscar-winning actress and director with its Laura Ziskin...
Melissa McCarthy’s Disgraced One-Percenter Comedy Gets Release Date
Melissa McCarthy isn’t letting the unfair maligning that Tammy received from the entertainment press get her down. McCarthy will return to the multiplex this May in the CIA comedy Spy and is...
HBO Renews ‘Girls’ for Fifth Season
Scarlett Johansson Signs Up to Kick More Ass in ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Adaptation
Scarlett Johansson proved she’s a bankable action star last year by delivering $458.8 million in box-office receipts with Lucy (reportedly budgeted at a mere $40 million) after years of playing a...
Bonnie Arnold and Mireille Soria to Head DreamWorks Animation
Veteran producers Bonnie Arnold and Mireille Soria have been named the new co-presidents of DreamWorks Animation, the studio whose last picture with a female protagonist was six years ago (2009’s...
Trailer Watch: ‘Above and Beyond’ Uncovers the Little-Known American Origins of the Israeli Air Force
If Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken whet your appetite for more tales of WWII heroics, Roberta Grossman’s Above and Beyond will likely satisfy that craving. The Nancy Spielberg-produced documentary...
January 2015 Film Preview
January is widely considered to be a dumping ground for bad movies, but there’s actually an embarrassment of art-house riches to be found this month in theaters, from Oscar vehicles to impressive...
Meet Outlander, the Anti-Game of Thrones
Women and Hollywood is taking a break this week. Please enjoy one of our most popular posts of the year below. We will return with new features, editorials, and news stories on Monday, January 5....
Kristin Scott Thomas Quits Film
Women and Hollywood is taking a break this week. Please enjoy one of our most popular posts of the year below. We will return with new features, editorials, and news stories on Monday, January 5....