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A Frozen/Fire Holiday Weekly Update for November 27: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening Frozen — Co-Directed and Written by Jennifer Lee: I was hugely surprised by how much I loved Frozen, which is written and co-directed by Jennifer Lee. It is about...
The Punk Singer Director Sini Anderson: “It’s Not Hard to be Drawn to Kathleen Hanna’s Story”
Sini Anderson has worked in film for over ten years as a producer, first assistant director, and creative consultant. The Punk Singer is Anderson’s first feature length documentary. She has served...
5 TV Women to be Thankful for This Thanksgivukkah
Writing about women and popular culture can be an exercise in enormous frustration, given how few women are in positions of power in the entertainment industry, how few of them get the funding and...
Black Nativity Director Kasi Lemmons Talks About Langston Hughes, Making a Musical
Kasi Lemmons adapts Langston Hughes’ musical retelling of the Nativity story in her new film Black Nativity, which features a superstar cast of Forest Whitaker, Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson,...
Quote of the Day: President Obama to Hollywood “You Help Shape the World’s Culture”
President Obama went to Hollywood yesterday, and publicly, for the first time, spoke about what the entertainment business means to the US and to the world. From The Wrap Entertainment is one of...
Saving Mr. Banks Producer Alison Owen on Making a Film About Disney with Disney
Alison Owen is one of the most successful independent producers working in the UK. Her incredibly diverse list of credits includes Elizabeth, Shaun of the Dead, Jane Eyre (2011), and, most recently,...
Women Dominate First Feature, Documentary Categories in Spirit Awards Nods
Women directors outnumbered the men among the Independent Spirit Awards’ Best First Feature and Best Documentary nominees. Women writers were also well represented in the Best Screenplay and Best...
Infographic: Gender Inequality in Hollywood (It’s Worse than You Think)
In honor of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, the blockbuster success of which should disprove every industry myth about women-led films being unprofitable, the New York Film Academy shares this...
With Frozen, Director Jennifer Lee Breaks the Ice for Women Directors
It has taken 53 films, starting with 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, for theMagic Kingdom to reach this historic point. But Walt Disney Animation Studios hasfinally placed a woman in the...
Emma Thompson Calls Out Hollywood Sexism in Ten Different Ways at THR Actress Roundtable
One of the great things about this awards season is he re-emergence of Emma Thompson. We have got to say that she has been missed. We need to see her more because she is a rare, unfiltered, delight....
Katie Couric is the New Face of Tech
Silicon Valley is a boys’ club — some might even call it a Fortress of Boy-itude. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg made herself one of the few female public figures in San Jose (AKA “Man...
Two Women Directors Nominated for Oscars’ Live-Action Short Category
The ten preliminary nominees for the Oscars’ live-action shorts category have been announced. Among the ten directors on the long list, two were women: Miranda de Pencier and Selma...
Despite the Lack of Opportunities UK Female Screenwriters and Directors Are Successful
In late July the BFI published their statistics yearbook for 2013, it sent an unwelcome call to women screenwriters and directors that their numbers were depleting. The bleak news was that only...
TV: Oprah Winfrey and Diablo Cody to Partner for HBO Comedy
In her last major role, Oprah Winfrey played against type as an alcoholic, adulterous housewife in The Butler. Winfrey will continue to show an edgier side with her most recently announced project,...
The Double Standards for TV’s Male and Female Politicians
Bad-boy politicians are nothing new in popular culture. Mr. Smith was lamenting the sorry state of our politics and Joe Tynan was getting seduced by a lobbyist long before I was born. And television...
Hunger Games Producer Nina Jacobson on Creating a Female-Centric Blockbuster
This weekend, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire became the highest-grossing November release ever with a box-office take of $161 million — $30 million over its production budget. Though star...
Catching Fire Does Super Hero Numbers and Becomes Highest Opening Weekend Starring a Female Lead
My latest Forbes piece: It’s been a big fall for movies starring women at the box office. First, Gravity starring Sandra Bullock broke all October records. That film opened at over $55 million...
TV Trailer Watch: Lena Dunham’s ‘Girls’ Season 3: “I’m Someone Who Can’t Keep My Mouth Shut”
“Everything that’s been so terrible and so painful in the last few months is leading me to this point. It’s amazing to realize I hold the keys to the prison that is my mind,” says Hannah...
Shonda Rhimes to Publish Memoir About TV Writing and Single Motherhood
If it wasn’t yet clear that Shonda Rhimes is totally a celebrity in her own right, here’s one more sign: the Scandal creator has signed a book deal, a la Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling, that will...
Latest Forbes Piece: A Female Revolution at the Box Office
When you spend your time writing about women and Hollywood there are many, many days when things seem bleak and downright depressing. But not this week. This week I am filled with hope, and that...
Weekly Update for November 22: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Philomena — The wonderfully fierce Judi Dench gives a masterful performance in the stolen-children drama Philomena. In The Village Voice, I described it...
Trailer Watch: Jessie McCormack’s Baby-Swap Dramedy ‘Expecting’
Thirtysomething friendship is the focus of first-time writer-director Jessie McCormack’s upcoming dramedy Expecting, which finds two gal pals (Michelle Monaghan and Radha Mitchell) in a fairly...
Guest Post: Turning My Camera on Detroit’s Arab Community
The metropolitan Detroit area, where I have lived for over fifteen years, is home to one of the largest Arab-American and African-American populations in the United States. The people of Detroit are...
Quote of the Day: Michelle Rodriguez Criticizes Guys Version of Strong Women
In a wide-ranging interview with Latina Magazine, Michelle Rodriguez proves yet again that she’s one of the gutsiest actresses in Hollywood by calling out the film industry’s skewed vision of...
TV Roundup: Kristen Schaal, Kate Walsh Get New Shows, ‘Homeland,’ ‘Rizzoli & Isles’ New Showrunners
The Daily Show’s Kristen Schaal and Private Practice’s Kate Walsh were among several women to sell network shows this week, while Showtime’s Homeland and TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles gained new...
Ava DuVernay on Directing Tonight’s Scandal Episode
Middle of Nowhere director and Women and Hollywood hero Ava DuVernay helmed tonight’s episode of ABC’s Scandal. DuVernay spoke to us (by email) about her own Scandal fandom, Shonda Rhimes’...
‘Variety’ Columnist: Female Comics Shouldn’t Tell Dirty Jokes
Sarah Silverman is arguably one of the most famous female comic working today. She’s a household name and can boast among her achievements an Emmy-nominated TV show, over two dozen film credits,...
Director Andrea Arnold On Her Next Film: “It’s Going to Involve Lots of Wild Kids, Rihanna and a Bear.”
Fish Tank and Wuthering Heights director AndreaArnold recently spent over a month in the U.S. as the first filmmaker-in-residence at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Her residency coincided...
In Praise of Hollywood’s Working Actresses
For years, when anyone asked whatadvice we had for aspiring actors, our knee-jerk response was, “Don’t do it!” But now, as we look back on careers that add up to almost four decades, we have...
The Hollywood Decision Makers
Hollywood is a town where many people can say no and few people can say yes. The Wrap did a studio by studio look at the people in the town who can say yes, and no surprise, there are just a few...
Madonna and Lady Gaga Are Music’s Top Earners
Pop is a woman’s game. And a pseudonym is apparently a girl’s best friend, since Forbes has named Madonna and Lady Gaga music’s first and second highest earners, respectively. Though Madonna...
Watch This: Anita Sarkeessian Posts Brilliant New Video about the “Ms. Male Character”
True Canadian-American Hero Anita Sarkeesian delivers another whip-smart, nuanced, and necessary critique of sexism in the gaming industry, this time about a trope she calls the “Ms. Male...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Laura Checkoway
Journalist Laura Checkoway has penned revealing celebrity profiles and investigative features for numerous publications and is the former senior editor of Vibe magazine. Her acclaimed first book, My...
Heidi Ewing, Dawn Porter Among Awardees of Catapult Film Fund
Women directors comprised five of the seven awardees of the Catapult Film Fund, which “provides development funding to documentary filmmakers who have a compelling story to tell, have secured...
Directing the Future Panelists Are Beating the Odds
According to an oft-cited statistic, women comprise only 9%of directors in the film industry. But the participants of the “Directing theFuture” panel at Pepperdine University School of Law’s...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Cecilia Peck
Before Brave Miss World, Cecilia Peck most recently directed and produced, with Barbara Kopple, the feature-length documentary Shut Up & Sing, which chronicles the political backlash against and...
Latest Forbes Post: Year End Roundtables and Best of Lists Highlight the Lack of Gender Diversity in Films
Here’s my latest Forbes Post: The awards season is another time of the year where you can literally feel the gender disparity of behind the scenes personnel in the film business. While the summer...
AFI: Roundup of the Women-Directed Foreign Language Oscar Entries
This year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Filmwill be chosen from a field of 76 entries, with each feature submitted to theAcademy by its respective country. Sixteen of these...
Angelina Jolie, Angela Lansbury Honored at the Governors Awards
Angelina Jolie and Angela Lansbury, along with Steve Martin and costume designer Piero Tosi, received honorary Oscars at the Governors Award last night. Awarded by the Board of Governors of the...
Clio Barnard, Claire Denis Awarded at Stockholm Film Fest
The Selfish Giant is quickly becoming Women and Hollywood most anticipated film of 2014. News arrived from Stockholm yesterday that Selfish director Clio Barnard was bestowed yet another...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Vicki Vasilopoulos
Vicki Vasilopoulos is a Greek-American journalist whose articles have been published in The New York Times, Esquire, New Jersey Monthly and Time Out New York. She spent over a decade as Senior...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Lucy Kostelanetz
Filmmaker Lucy Kostelanetz premiered her first documentary feature Sonia in 2007 in film festivals around the world. Her previous work included two award-winning films for children, Rebeka Goes Down...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Gitte Peng
Gitte Peng is an education reform expert who served as Senior Education Policy Advisor in Mayor Bloomberg’s administration, developing and overseeing the City’s school reform policies and...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Therese Shechter
Therese Shechter deftly fuses personal narrative, interactive technologies and grassroots activism to chronicle 21st-century feminism, most recently as the writer and director of the documentary How...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Linda Hoaglund
Since 2007, Linda Hoaglund has produced three films and directed two relating to the Pacific War and postwar Japan. Born in Japan as the daughter of American missionary parents, she attended...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Sierra Pettengill and Jamila Wignot
Sierra Pettengill is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker. Town Hall is her directorial debut. She is the producer of Cutie and the Boxer (U.S. Documentary Directing Award, Sundance ’13) and the archival...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Dori Berinstein
Dori Berinstein is a Broadway producer and a director of feature-length documentaries about theater. Her Broadway producing credits include Carol Channing: Larger Than Life, Legally Blonde,...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Sarah McCarthy
Born in Sydney, Sarah McCarthy studied film in her native Australia. After graduating with first-class honours, she moved to London, where she worked in development for the BBC and RDF Media before...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Samantha Grant
Samantha Grant is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and educator. In 2007, Sam was named a Carnegie/Knight fellow as part of the News 21 Initiative on the Future of Journalism and...
Weekly Update for November 15: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Currently Playing The Broken Circle BreakdownAss Backwards — Written by Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael Reaching for the Moon — Co-Written by Julie Sayres, Carmen...
DOC NYC Women Directors: Meet Beth B
Beth B produced, directed and edited Exposed. She also shot much of the film, and, with composer Jim Coleman, wrote several of the musical numbers. Beth B exploded onto the New York underground...