ALL POSTS
Weekly Update for May 30: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
FilmsAbout Women Opening Maleficent– Written by Linda Woolverton We’veall been waiting a long time for Angelina Jolie to be back on the big screen.She’s devoted her time to many worthy...
Guest Post: How to Carry the Collaborative Spirit into the Realm of Distribution
Last summer, filmmakers David Lowery, Destin Cretton, AdamWingard and Joe Swanberg discovered that all of their movies were hittingtheaters and VOD on or around the same date. In this competitive...
Guest Post: Telling a Female Story with a (Nearly) All-Female Crew
“There is a special place inhell for women who don’t help other women.” — Madeleine Albright And even more so when itcomes to making movies. My first feature film, Emoticon 😉, tells...
Women and Hollywood is Hosting an LA Meet Up on June 13
I’m coming to LA and am going to host a meet up where we can all hang out, chat, network and make some trouble on June 13. Details: June 13 7pm to at least 9. Le Zinque in Venice — 600...
Review: We Are the Best! is an Unapologetically Awesome (and Complex) Story of Female Friendship and Rebellion
Somegirls just don’t care about being pretty. That’sa truth that none of the kids around 13-year-old best friends Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin) can comprehend.The other girls...
Maleficent Writer Linda Woolverton on Adapting Fairy Tales for a New Generation
Morethan a decade before Frozen’s Jennifer Lee became thefirst woman to direct a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature and Brave’s Brenda Chapman became thefirst female director of a Pixar film,...
Quote of the Day: Dakota Fanning
Former child-actor prodigy Dakota Fanning has gone from starring in films to critiquing them. The current NYU student, who’s a women’s studies major with an emphasis on studying “the portrayal...
Trailer Watch: Quvenzhane Wallis Anoints Herself Robin to Jamie Foxx’s Batman in New Annie Spot
Though he just starred as a villain in the new Spider-Man sequel, Jamie Foxx styles himself as a hero — namely, Batman — in the new Annie trailer. “This city needs me,” declares his...
Night Moves Director Kelly Reichardt On How Her “Action Film” Is About People, Not Politics
After gaining notice for Wendy and Lucy and Meek’s Cutoff, her small but critically acclaimed collaborations with actress Michelle Williams, director Kelly Reichardt has made the...
Pixar to Release Its Second Movie With a Female Protagonist Next Year
On the heels of Disney’s Frozen becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of all time comes news of Pixar’s next girl-centric movie. Inside Out, which will only be the second Pixar release with a...
Guest Post: The Film Fatales Inspire DIY Chapters
On Tuesday night, afull house of Independent Filmmaker Project members gathered at the Made in NY Media Center in downtownBrooklyn to meet the Film Fatales face-to-face. Earlier this month,...
The Other Women of Mad Men
In a recent Facebook discussion about the awful events of last weekend, and whether or not our sexist cultural landscape was to blame, I was reminded by a brilliant, feminist playwright friend of...
Trailer Watch: Robin Wright Animates Herself in The Congress
Actresses of a certain age will take any number of drastic measures to stop the march of time, but few are probably brave enough to undergo the extreme procedure Robin Wright volunteers for in The...
Nia Vardalos Prepping My Big Fat Greek Wedding Sequel
No success story better exemplifies Hollywood’s inability to cater to female tastes than Nia Vardalos’ sleeper hit My Big Fat Wedding, a romantic comedy written by and starring a then-chubby...
The Mindy Project, The Good Wife, and Orange is the New Black Earn Multiple TCA Nods
Several perpetually overlooked shows when it comes to awards time by and about women were nominated by the Television Critics Association Awards. Robert and Michelle King’s The Good Wife led the...
Killer FIlms and Glass Elevator Merge
Two production companies known for their friendliness to female-centric and women-driven projects have announced a merger. Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler’s Killer Films — the outfit...
Frozen Becomes the 5th Top-Grossing Movie of All Time
Thanks to the international box office, Disney’s Frozen has become the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time, as well as the single highest-grossing film with a clear female protagonist and a...
Cross-Post: 5 Takeaways from the Sundance Institute’s Women in Film Financing Intensive
The following was originally published at Sundance.org. Money may not be the root of all evil, but it’s certainly a root cause of one: holding back women filmmakers. Financing was the most...
Mansplaining Away Hollywood Misogyny
This weekend, Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday took a much needed look at the correlation between Hollywood and violence. This is not the first time a critic has taken on the correlation between...
Director Alice Rohrwacher on Her Cannes Grand Prix-Winning Film The Wonders
Italian director Alice Rohrwacher took home the Cannes Grand Prix, the festival’s silver medal, this weekend. Her sophomore debut, Le Meraviglie (The Wonders), centers on a German-Italian family,...
The Normal Heart and the Erasing of Women
The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer’s critically acclaimed play that was adapted for television in a film produced by HBO, is a dramatic archive of feeling about the profound atrocities of the AIDS...
Cannes Film Festival Wrap Up — Why Gender Matters
Here’s my latest piece on Forbes: This past weekend while we were all barbecuing and relaxing here in the states, the 67th Cannes Film Festival concluded. Not surprisingly, the festival continued...
Weekly Update for May 23: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Currently Playing The Immigrant Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return — Co-Written by Randi Barnes Mom’s Night Out — Co-Written by Andrea Gyertson Nasfell Stage...
Want a Princess Leia Action Figure? Sorry, Disney Doesn’t Sell Them
One of the implicit promises of the sale of the Star Wars franchise to Disney was that its universe would become more inclusive. Big Mouse is a genius at merchandising, after all, and movies have to...
Female-Directed Films Comprise 43% of Student Academy Award Winners
Shorts directed or co-directed by female filmmakers made up 43% of the winners at the 41st Student Academy Awards competition. Fourteen films, representing 16 aspiring helmers, were honored by the...
Trailer Watch: Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart in Clouds of Sils Maria
A tangle of jealousy, co-dependency and desire draws together Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, and Chloe Grace Moretz in French director Olivier Assayas’ Palme d’Or contender Clouds of...
TV: Angela Bassett to Direct Lifetime Movie About Whitney Houston
Lifetime has greenlit a movie about Whitney Houston, with the late singer’s Waiting to Exhale co-star Angela Bassett to direct. Whitney Houston will focus on the R&B diva’s troubled...
Quote of the Day: Shonda Rhimes Says No to Nice
Though she couldn’t attend the 39th annual Gracie Awards, Shonda Rhimes shared her sentiments on why Scandal, honored at the gala for Best Drama, is such a game-changing force. Actress Bellamy...
Female Filmmakers Win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Prize at Cannes Student Competition
Female directors swept the Cinefondation, the student competition at Cannes. Annie Silverstein’s Kickstarter-funded “Skunk” won top honors. The University of Texas at Austin student will...
Emma Thompson on Her “Militant Feminist” Stand-Up Comedy Years
Emma Thompson is her usual, delightfully candid self in a new interview with Vanity Fair. Promoting The Love Punch — her new gray-haired, 99-percenters’ comedy with Pierce Brosnan, in which...
Crosspost: GendRE & IMDb: An Open-Data Analysis of the Film Industry Gender Gap
This post was originally published on No Country for Young Women. Last week, during the annual OECD Forum, I had the pleasure of discovering a new, groundbreaking initiative by entrepreneur Elian...
Why Shonda Rhimes’ Upcoming Fall Drama Is Already a Hit
No network was scrutinized more in this month’s Upfronts than ABC, which, for the past three seasons, has ranked dead last among the big four networks for viewers under 50. The female-skewing ABC...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Seth Rogen
Though Seth Rogen is still best known for his onscreen bromances — an association strengthened by his last starring role in (and co-direction of) the dude-pocalypse comedy This is the...
UK Classical Music Critics Fat-Shame Opera Singer
“Dumpy,” “unsightly and unappealing,” and “a chubby bundle of puppy fat” are some of the insults hurled at Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught in reviews — all written by male...
Winnie Holzman to Receive Lilly Award for Lifetime Achievement
Winnie Holzman, best known for creating My So-Called Life, Once and Again and co-creating Huge, will receive a lifetime achievement honor for writing the book and lyrics to the worldwide hit Wicked,...
Pretty Little Liars Showrunner Marlene King to Adapt Teen Occult Thriller
With four seasons of the teen thriller Pretty Little Liars under her belt (the fifth season debuts June 10), showrunner I. Marlene King will adapt the upcoming YA thriller The Merciless for the...
Crosspost: Stories About Women Dominate at Cannes, Even If Female Filmmakers Are Rare
This post was originally published at Awards Daily. In case you’ve been wondering why it’s so difficult to get movies about women made, you don’t have to look any further than 2014’s 67th...
Veep’s Selina Meyer and the Art of the Tantrum
“Temperament” is a word that’s been kicking around a lot over the last week in relation to women and the workplace. But let’s talk about the thing that’s really verboten for female bosses:...
Quvenzhane Wallis Lands Third Starring Role in Counting by 7s
After playing an orphaned Louisiana girl in Beasts of the Southern Wild* and an orphaned New Yorker in the upcoming Annie remake, Quevenzhane Wallis will continue her strange streak of parentless...
Catherine Breillat to Make First English-Language Film
After making the most autobiographical film of her career in Abuse of Weakness, in which she recreated her own victimization by a con artist after a stroke, director Catherine Breillat will veer in...
Patricia Clarkson and Debra Winger to Be Honored by Provincetown Film Festival
The Provincetown International Film Festival will honor actresses Patricia Clarkson and Debra Winger on its 16th anniversary. Clarkson will receive the Excellence in Acting Award, and her most...
Susanna Fogel’s Female-Friendship Comedy Life Partners Finds Distribution
Director Susanna Fogel’s Life Partners, about a couple of almost-thirty BFFs whose friendship becomes suddenly strained when one finds her new life partner, has found a distribution deal with...
Niki Caro to Write and Direct Maria Callas Biopic
Director Niki Caro has lined up her sixth feature: a biopic of Maria Callas that focuses on the iconic opera singer’s two-year relationship with billionaire Aristotle Onassis. Caro, who will also...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Cate Blanchett Defends Mothers
Cate Blanchett has been on a roll calling out double standards in Hollywood. After blasting the film industry for giving movies about women the short shrift and lambasting E! for having its camera...
Cannes Sales Roundup: Films Starring Brie Larson, Anne Hathaway Get Distribution Deals
Several more films by/about women have found distribution deals at the “seller’s market” in Cannes. Among them are: — Anne Hathaway’s romantic drama Song One. Kate Barker-Froyland’s...
Cannes Dispatch: Women Directors Panel Reveal It’s a Man’s World, Suggest Gender Quota
Not manytopics make people squirm more than gender-based quota systems, but afterhearing significant statistics about women in the film and televisionindustries, a somewhat ambivalent panel at...
Guest Post: Directing a Feature Film With Sword in Hand
Myfirst experience in “keiko,” or fight practice in kendo, the Japanese art ofsword play, was over 20 years ago. Confronted with an experienced player’s bamboo sword, I was taken aback by the...
Halle Berry Goes to Space: First Look at Extant
The trailer for Halle Berry’s Extant is here, and it’s mighty creepy. After a 13 month solo space mission, astronaut Molly Woods returns home… pregnant. Piecing together what happened on her...
Weekly Update for May 16: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening The Immigrant In James Gray’s The Immigrant, Ewa Cybulski (Marion Cotillard) and her sister sail to New York from their native Poland in search of a new start and the...
A List of the Women-Directed and Women-Centric Films Looking for Deals in Cannes
It’s a “seller’s market” at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, according to Deadline. Some US sales include The Amy Adams-starring sci-fi pic Story of Your Life which sold for $20 million to...
Glenn Close Books a Movie and a Broadway Show
Big news day for Glenn Close, who will be returning to Broadway and the silver screen. Close’s most recent appearance on Broadway was in Sunset Boulevard back in 1994. Her portrayal of Norma...