ALL POSTS
The Hustle and Homesickness of Being an Artist of Color: July’s Web Series and VOD Picks
It’s hard to make it in the city, not least in the world of entertainment. Our two July picks for web series both feature strugglingartists trying to succeed. The Spurlock sisters’ satirical...
Trailer Watch: Mother and Daughter Clash Over Class Expectations in Sundance Hit ‘The Second Mother’
A devoted and hardworking live-in housekeeper’s professional and personal lives are turned upside down when her estranged daughter comes to stay with her in writer-director Anna Muylaert’s...
Apply Now for a New Musical-Theater Female Composer Award
The Ziegfield Club, one of the first not-for-profit organizations in the Broadway community, is launching a new award for an emerging female composer-lyricist who “compellingly demonstrates...
Volleyball Olympics Medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings to Get Doc Treatment
Beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings, who won the gold medal at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics with partner Misty May-Treanor, will be the subject of a new documentary. Walsh...
Trailer Premiere: A Mother Saves Her Daughter From Child Marriage in Pakistan’s Oscar Submission ‘Dukhtar’
“I was 15 when I got married,” a woman named Allah Rakhi (Samiya Mumtaz) says bitterly in Afia Nathaniel’s gorgeous thriller “Dukhtar.” “After that, my story ends.” Allah Rakhi is...
Guest Post: Midwives Finally Get the Spotlight They Deserve in ‘The Mama Sherpas’
After having myfirst child, I always got a lump in my throat when noting that my son was bornvia cesarean birth. Whether rational or irrational, I felt a sense of failure that my body couldn’t do...
Carol Burnett to Receive SAG Lifetime Achievement Award
Comedy pioneer Carol Burnett is set to receive SAG-AFTRA’s highest tribute: the SAG Life Achievement Award. The eponymous star of “The Carol Burnett Show” is the 52nd recipient of the...
Emma Thompson on the Climate for Women in Hollywood: “I Think It’s Still Completely Sh*t, Actually”
Emma Thompson was characteristically blunt when asked recently about sexism and ageism in the film industry. “It is in a worse state than I have known it, particularly for women,” the “Saving...
Cate Blanchett to Make Directorial Debut With TV Drama About Real-Life Government Detention Victim
Cate Blanchett will go behind the camera for the first time with the Australian TV series “Stateless,” a drama she also developed. The prestige project is based on the experiences of Cornelia...
Cicely Tyson Returning to Broadway in Silver-Haired Tragi-Comedy ‘The Gin Game’
Last week, Cicely Tyson earned an Emmy nomination for her guest appearance on “How To Get Away With Murder.” Now comes word that the busy actress is headed back to Broadway. Starting in the fall,...
BlogHer 2015: Ava DuVernay Talks “Follow[ing] the White Guys,” Turning Down Marvel (VIDEO)
Ava DuVernay offered advice on getting ahead and turning down what would probably have been the biggest paycheck of her career during a keynote discussion at the 2015 BlogHer conference in NYC this...
#Femvertising Honors Empowering Ads For Women; Adweek Recognizes Kaling, Rhimes, Schumer and More
Most people — and research — would agree that advertising can have a corrosive effect on people’s self-esteem and body image, especially women. Ads traditionally work by making women...
Joy Bryant Joins Amazon Pilot About Female Journalists Demanding Equality During Women’s Movement
The team behind the Amazon pilot “Good Girls Revolt,” about a group of female journalists who demand equal pay and opportunity at a prominent magazine at the dawn of the women’s movement, has...
Amy Schumer’s ‘Trainwreck’ is This Week’s Real Box Office Winner
Amy Schumer has officially become part of Hollywood’s A-list — according to Variety and box-office receipts, at least. Schumer’s debut feature, “Trainwreck,” is an undisputed success....
Trailer Watch: Judy Greer Finally Gets the Starring Role Worthy of Her in ‘Addicted to Fresno’
There’s been a lot of talk lately about Judy Greer’s summer of tiny, thankless roles, in which she plays characters designed to be instantly forgettable in “Tomorrowland,” “Entourage,”...
The Art of Discovery: Jane Anderson discusses ‘Packed in a Trunk: The Lost Art of Edith Lake Wilkinson’
Jane Anderson is an award winning playwright, screenwriter and director. As well as being nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Dramatic Series for her work on the second season of...
Weekly Update for July 17: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Trainwreck — Written by Amy Schumer It’s Amy Schumer’s time. The woman is everywhere, mostly in a good way. She’s brash, funny, feminist and riding...
Study Shows That More Plays Written by Women Are Being Staged
One month ago the women responsible for bringing “Fun Home” to the stage made history at the 69th annual Tony Awards. Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron became the first all-female writing team to win...
Sundance Launches New Resource Map for Female Filmmakers
There are dozens of grants, workshops, blogs, archives, film festivals, resource lists and mentoring programs out there for female filmmakers, but finding the ones relevant to you can be a...
Karen McCullah and Tamra Davis Team Up for R-Rated, ‘Bachelorette’-Style Comedy
Screenwriter Karen McCullah and director Tamra Davis have announced their next project: a R-rated comedy about four female friends, one of them pregnant, who end up stranded overseas and pursued by...
Kevin Feige Deflects Like Crazy to Avoid Answering Why Marvel Still Hasn’t Made a Superheroine Film
From 1998’s “Blade” to today’s release of “Ant-Man,” Marvel Studios and Marvel Entertainment have made 36 films. Only one of them, 2006’s “Elektra,” has a female protagonist. At...
Zoe Kravitz Was Told She Was Too “Urban” to Get an Audition for ‘The Dark Knight Rises’
In news that would be funny if it weren’t so sad, Zoe Kravitz revealed in an interview that she was denied an audition for a minor role in “The Dark Knight Rises” because “they weren’t...
Trailer Watch: Amy Berg Tackles Cult Leader and Child Rapist Warren Jeffs in ‘Prophet’s Prey’
Prolific filmmaker Amy Berg has yet another movie set for release in 2015. It was only last month that the Academy Award nominee debuted the documentary “An Open Secret” and her first narrative...
Seven New ‘Twilight’ Shorts Directed by Female Filmmakers Keep the Franchise Alive
This Monday, the seven finalists in a “Twilight” short film competition presented their work to a theater full of fans and industry insiders. Back in October of 2014, Lionsgate, the studio...
Trailer Watch: Sarah-Violet Bliss’s SXSW Winner ‘Fort Tilden’ Is All About the Journey
Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers’ feature directorial debut, “Fort Tilden,” made a big splash at the 2014 SXSW, where it scored the Grand Jury Prize. The comic tale — of two young...
2015 Emmy Nod Favorites: ‘Bessie,’ ‘Transparent,’ ‘Olive Kitteridge,’ Amy Schumer, Black Actresses
The Emmys are usually as staid as the entertainment industry gets, with the same group of people getting nominated and winning for the same roles year after year. There are a lot of old favorites...
Carly Simon Memoir Hitting Shelves in November 2015
Singer-songwriter Carly Simon is writing a memoir. While many outlets have giddily speculated that the inspiration for “You’re So Vain” will be revealed in the book, Simon’s description of...
Athina Rachel Tsangari Named Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 2015 Filmmaker in Residence
Greek-born director Athina Rachel Tsangari has been named Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 2015 Filmmaker in Residence. Tsangari’s features include “The Slow Business of Going” (2000),...
Catherine Hardwicke To Direct New YA Adaptation: ‘Stargirl’
Catherine Hardwicke is getting back into the YA game with an adaptation of Jerry Spinelli’s 2000 bestseller “Stargirl.” The “Twilight” director reportedly sign on to helm after reading...
Locarno Film Festival Announces 2015 Lineup with Few Women Directors
The lineup for the 68th edition of the Locarno Film Festival has been unveiled, and the program is sorely lacking in female-helmed features. Only two of the 16 titles, or 13 percent, in the...
Claire Denis, Agnieszka Holland to Judge Inaugural TIFF Competition for Int’l “Directors’ Cinema”
Acclaimed directors Claire Denis, Agnieszka Holland and Jia Zhangke will make up the three-person jury for the Toronto International Film Festival’s inaugural Platform category, a new program...
Comedy Club in Phyllis Diller’s Hometown Raising Funds for an Exhibit Dedicated to the Comedian
A comedy club in Lima, Ohio, is raising money to launch a museum exhibit honoring trailblazing stand-up comic Phyllis Diller. Lima was Diller’s hometown. Limaland Comedy is hosting the third...
Meet ‘The Nightly Show’s’ Robin Thede, Late Night’s First Black Woman Head Writer
‘Tig’ Offers an Intimate Look at the Comic’s Darkest Moments and Unexpected Joys
Overnight success in the Internet age is often equal parts skill, timing and luck. Or, in the case of comic Tig Notaro, really bad luck. While well known in comedy circles, Notaro wasn’t a...
Trailer Watch: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Throw the Party of a Lifetime in ‘Sisters’
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have called a wrap on their Golden Globe hosting duties, but mercifully it won’t be long until we see them partner up on another grand stage — the big screen. A...
Trailer Watch: Jennifer Lawrence Falls in Love, Shoots a Gun, Tries to Get What She Wants in ‘Joy’
Finalists Announced for ‘The Next (Female) MacGyver’ Competition
Twelve finalists have been announced in The Next MacGyver competition. A joint initiative of the National Academy of Engineering and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, the contest hopes to offer...
‘Citizenfour’ Director Laura Poitras Suing US Government Over “Kafkaesque Harassment”
From 2006 to 2012, documentarian Laura Poitras has been detained at the border more than four dozen times, often for hours. Despite never being charged with a crime, the Oscar-winning...
Lena Dunham to Launch Lenny, a Newsletter for Young Women, Where “There’s No Such Thing as TMI”
Lena Dunham is teaming up with Jenni Konner, her production partner and “Girls” co-showrunner, to launch Lenny, a weekly newsletter for young women. In an interview with Buzzfeed, Dunham...
‘Downton Abbey’ Actress Michelle Dockery to Star in TNT Drama ‘Good Behavior’
Now that “Downton Abbey” has announced that its upcoming sixth season will be its last, Michelle Dockery is seeking new leading roles. The erstwhile Mary Crawley has landed a TNT drama called...
New ‘Suffragette’ Poster Art Released on Emmeline Pankhurst Day
On the occasion of Emmeline Pankhurst Day, devoted to the political activist who played a pivotal role in securing British women the right to vote, official “Suffragette” poster art has been...
How Girl Power Made This Year’s Comic-Con the Best in Recent Memory
Comic-Concarried me away this year — sometimes quite literally. As I exited Hall H on Sunday and was swept into a direction I didn’t mean to go by a wave ofthousands, I thought about my...
Five Most Girl Power Moments from Comic-Con 2015
Despite the rampant misogyny in some nerd circles, it’s increasingly clear that girl power and feminism is a pretty great way to sell a movie or TV, since most of us prefer to live in the 21st...
Female Membership in Academy’s Board of Governors Rises by 6% for 2015–2016
Though 40% of this year’s candidates to join the Academy’s Board of Governors were women, female membership increased by only 6% after ballots were tallied. The 51-member Board — made up...
Guest Post: Directing Young Men as a Female Filmmaker
A few years ago, if you had told me that myfirst feature would follow three ten-year-old boys growing up in Palo Alto in1985, I probably wouldn’t have believed you — especially since one is...
Film in Development About Real-Life African-American Women NASA Mathematicians
Here’s the kind of news we’d like to hear more of: Currently in the works is a film about the first group of black women mathematicians at NASA who helped the moon landing happen. Producer Donna...
Trailer Watch: Kate Winslet Asserts Her Independence (and Innocence of Murder) in ‘The Dressmaker’
Kate Winslet commands the screen with sass and midcentury flair in “The Dressmaker,” director Jocelyn Moorhouse’s Aussie dramedy about a sophisticated couturier who returns to her...
Weekly Update for July 10: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Tangerine It’s Christmas Eve in Tinseltown, and Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) is back on the block. Upon hearing that her pimp boyfriend hasn’t been...
Watch: New ‘Mockingjay — Part 2’ Teaser Released
New details from the land of Panem have been coming in waves this week, as the stars and creators of “The Hunger Games” franchise revealed teasers and thoughts in a Comic Con panel. A new...
Trailer Watch: Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette Are Inseparable Besties in ‘Miss You Already’
Fresh off the news that Catherine Hardwicke will direct a $50 million romantic epic set in China comes the trailer for a different kind of romance helmed by the “Twilight” director, “Miss You...
Winners Announced For the HBO Diverse and Emerging Writers Fellowship, Six Women Chosen
Back in February we reported that HBO was launching a writing fellowship to find diverse and emerging writers. This week, the premium cable network announced the names of the nine aspiring writers...