ALL POSTS
Beyoncé, Lupita Nyong’o, Nicki Minaj Among BET Awards Winners
Beyoncé was the big winner at last night’s BET Awards, where she was named Best Female R&B/Pop Artist, won Best Collaboration (with husband Jay Z for “Drunk in Love”), and nabbed the...
Judy Blume to Publish Her First Novel for Adults in More than Fifteen Years
Mark your calendars: Judy Blume will publish her first novel for adults since 1998’s Summer Sisters next year. Blume is the author of such school-library staples as Are You There God? It’s Me,...
Donna Tartt and Doris Kearns Goodwin Awarded Carnegie Medals
Novelist Donna Tartt and historian Doris Kearns Goodwin received Carnegie medals in a Las Vegas awards ceremony this past Saturday. Tartt was honored for her bestselling (and prize-collecting)...
Snow White Sequel Ditches Snow White
Where a poisoned apple failed, Hollywood sexism will succeed. News arrived last week that a sequel to Snow White and the Huntsman, the 2012 action-oriented feminist revision of the fairy tale, will...
How Melissa McCarthy Became a Box-Office Powerhouse
From my latest Forbes post on Melissa McCarthy’s savvy handling of her post-Bridesmaids career: Tammy is the next step in McCarthy’s career in a variety of ways. One, it’s the first time...
Trailer Watch: Gugu Mbatha-Raw is a Troubled Pop Star in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Beyond the Lights
After starring in Amma Asante’s Austenesque romance Belle, Gugu Mbatha-Raw will next be seen as a troubled pop star in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s Beyond the Lights. At the Los Angeles Film...
Redemption Trail Director Britta Sjogren Talks About Her Modern-Day, Northern Californian Feminist Western
Whether we like it or not, some fictional genres are associated with men. What is more essential to American iconography than the brooding cowboy, standing alone on desert plains as he stares down...
Karen Leigh Hopkins’ Tribeca Film Miss Meadows Finds Distribution
In writer-director Karen Leigh Hopkins’ Miss Meadows, you can see Katie Holmes as you’ve never seen her before: as an elementary-school teacher by day and a gun-toting vigilante (in a...
Only One Female Filmmaker Invited to Join the Academy as a Director; Only 28% of Invitees Are Women
Only 75 74 of the 271 invitees announced yesterday to join the Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences were women. That constitutes a paltry 27% of invitees. It’s not just the numbers that paint a...
Sarah Polley to Direct John Green’s Looking for Alaska
Now that The Fault in Our Stars has grossed $166 million on a $12 million production budget — thanks to the irrationally underestimated loyalty of fangirls — Hollywood is looking to...
Wendy and Lisa Win ASCAP’s First Shirley Walker Award
Wendy and Lisa, the musical duo formerly of Prince’s The Revolution band, received the inaugural Shirley Walker Award at the 29th ASCAP Film and Television Awards yesterday. The 500,000-member...
Bound by Flesh Director Leslie Zemeckis on the Love Story Between Two Conjoined-Twin Sisters
Atthe height of their fame, conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton were thetoast of vaudeville. They were among the highest-paid entertainers on thecircuit, and a young Bob Hope was part of their...
Rooney Mara and Megan Ellison to Adapt Somalia Kidnapping Memoir
In 2008, adventurer Amanda Lindhout was kidnapped by Somali ransom-seekers and held and tortured for 460 days. During that time, she converted to Islam for survival, received “wife lessons,” was...
Out in the Night Traces an Attempt to Seek Justice for Queer Women of Color
In Newark, New Jersey, in May 2003, 19-year-old butch lesbian Sakia Gunn was stabbed to death after she politely turned down a sexual advance by an unknown man by telling him that she was a...
Sarah Jessica Parker Eyes Return to TV in Cop Drama
Now that film romantic comedies have gone the way of the dinosaur, and while TV continues to provide rich, substantial roles to women, Sarah Jessica Parker is eyeing a return to the small screen....
Munich Film Festival to Honor Isabelle Huppert with Lifetime Achievement Award
Legendary actress Isabelle Huppert will receive a lifetime-achievement award — one of many already received, and many, many more to come, no doubt — from the 2014 Munich International...
Chicken & Egg Awards 23 Follow-Up Grants; Places Open Call for New Projects
Chicken and Egg Pictures, the only nonprofit film fund devoted solely to supporting women documentary directors, has announced that it will endow follow-up grants to 23 ongoing feature-length...
Review: The Lost Women of The Leftovers
I’ll say this for The Leftovers: it is equal-opportunity sad. Men, women, children: there is enough existential despair in HBO’s new drama to go around, and then some. Damon Lindelof’s...
Trailer Watch: Maggie Gyllenhaal is a British Arms Dealer in The Honorable Woman
Maggie Gyllenhaal has joined the mass migration of prestige film actresses to television. The Dark Knight and Crazy Heart co-star has finally found a role worthy of her considerable talents in...
Why Maleficent is the Rape Revenge Film That We Need
Warning: Lots of Maleficent spoilers ahead.Not since I Spit on Your Grave have I seen such an intrepid and compelling rape-revenge film. I am talking, of course, about Disney’s Maleficent, the...
Trailer Watch: Abigail Breslin is the Final Girl
The Final Girl — the purehearted stock character who turns the tables on the killer by the end of the horror movie — has become so famous she’s gotten her own movie. A blonde Abigail...
Ava DuVernay’s Selma to Be Released Christmas Day
After directing two independent features and one documentary, Ava DuVernay is poised for her Hollywood — and possibly Oscar — breakthrough with Selma, the MLK biopic that’s her biggest...
Will 2014 Be a Breakthrough Year for Women Directors at the Academy Awards?
From my latest Forbes post on the potentially record-breaking awards season to come: “I know it is overly optimistic and a tad delusional to think that women could get two nominations for best...
Feminist Western The Homesman Gets Release Date
One of the films most anticipated by Women and Hollywood is the 2014 Palme d’Or competitor The Homesman. As a dusty, female-centric Western about doing the right thing despite enormous and...
Trailer Watch: Reese Witherspoon Continues Her Comeback Tour with The Good Lie
Fans of Reese Witherspoon will have plenty of chances to see her this Oscar season. She’ll be in the big-screen adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild (out December 5) and the much-anticipated...
Julie Taymor Wraps Up Shooting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Film and theater director Julie Taymor has just wrapped up shooting on her fifth film: a big-screen version of her visually lavish reimagining of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The...
Women Directors Win Majority of LAFF Awards for Features
A majority of the feature prizes at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival Awards went to women-directed projects. Winter’s Bone director Debra Granik took home the best-documentary trophy for her...
Orange is the New Black and Fargo Tie for Most Critics’ Choice Wins
With three wins each, Orange is the New Black (Netflix) and Fargo (FX) took home the most trophies at the 2014 Critics’ Choice Awards. OITNB won Best Comedy Series, a tie for Best Supporting...
Weekly Update for June 20: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs (doc) — Directed by Grace Lee One of the most notable women in 20th-century American history gets her due...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Zeina Daccache (Scheherazade’s Diary)
Zeina Daccache is a Lebanese actress, director, and drama therapist. She has directed the award-winning film and stage versions of 12 Angry Lebanese (2009, First Prize — Muhr Arab Documentary...
Human Rights Watch Women Directors: Meet Anne de Mare & Kirsten Kelly (The Homestretch)
Filmmakers and theater artists Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly have been making documentaries together for over a decade. Their work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Sundance...
Federation of European Film Directors Demands “Urgent Action” to Tackle the Underrepresentation of Women Filmmakers
In the wake of Cannes jury president Jane Campion’s condemnationof the “inherent sexism” in the film industry last month, the Federation of European Film Directors(FERA) has called for...
Do Colorism Issues Threaten to Stain the Aaliyah Biopic?
After years of rumors, it’s official: Aaliyah is getting a biopic. Lifetime Original Movies announced on Monday that it will adapt Aaliyah: More Than a Woman by former Time music editor...
Iranian Director Mahnaz Mohammadi Jailed, Inspires Petition Demanding Her Release
The imprisonment of Iranian filmmaker, actress, and women’s rights activist Mahnaz Mohammadi since June 7 has sparked international concern and outrage. Mohammadi has been sentenced to a...
Chelsea Handler to Take Over Netflix with Talk Show, Stand-Up Special, and Four Docu-Comedies
Late night’s only female host has just signed a new deal with Netflix. Having just departed E!, Chelsea Handler will first appear on the streaming site-turned-mini-network in a stand-up special...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Joanna Lipper (The Supreme Price)
JoannaLipper is an award-winning filmmaker and a lecturer at Harvard University, where sheteaches a course called “Using Film for SocialChange.” Her work as a documentary filmmaker has been...
Lupita Nyong’o Becomes 2nd African Woman to Land Vogue Cover
Scroll down for the full Vogue cover. A couple of weeks after the announcement that she’d optioned Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Lupita Nyong’o has graced the cover...
AFI Docs Women Directors: Meet Laura Naylor (The Fix)
Writer-producer Laura Naylor first discovered her interest in documentary-style representation while studying visual arts and art history at Columbia University in New York City. In 2011, she...
Will the Female-Driven Drama Chasing Life Dare to Get Real About Leukemia?
Cancer is having a definite pop-cultural moment, given The Fault in Our Stars’ recent trouncing of Tom Cruise at the box office. Lucky timing for Chasing Life, the new ABC Family drama that...
Janet Malcolm, Hanya Yanagihara, and Victoria Wilson Among 2014 PEN Literary Award Nominees
Janet Malcolm, Hanya Yanagihara, and Victoria Wilson are some of the female writers shortlisted for the 2014 PEN Literary Awards. Yanagihara is the only woman writer eligible for one of the PEN...
LAFF Women Directors: Meet Gren Wells (The Road Within)
Gren Wells was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. After attending Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY, Wells moved to New York City, where she starred in six...
Human Rights Watch FF Director: Meet Blair Dorosh-Walther (Out in the Night)
Director and producer Blair Dorosh-Walther (who identifies as gender non-conforming and uses both male and female pronouns) is a social-issue documentary director, an experienced production...
The Four Things I Learned on My Recent Trip to Hollywood
From my latest Forbes post on the four things I learned on my recent trip to Hollywood: People are talking and looking for ways to make in roads all across the business. From what I’ve noticed,...
Ann Hui’s The Golden Era to Close Venice Film Festival
The world premiere of Hong Kong director Ann Hui’s The Golden Era will close the 71st Venice Film Festival (August 27-September 6). It will be screened out of competition. The Golden Era centers...
LAFF Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Prediger and Jess Weixler (Trouble Dolls)
Trouble Dolls marks Jennifer Prediger and Jess Weixler’s writing and directing debuts. Prediger has starred in Joe Swanberg’s Uncle Kent, Madeleine Olnek’s Foxy Merkins, and Hanna Fidell’s A...
Alice Rohrwacher to Head Venice Film Fest’s Best First Film Jury
Italian director Alice Rohrwacher, who won the 2014 Cannes Grand Prix with her sophomore film The Wonders, will head the Venice Film Festival’s jury for best first film. Also called the Luigi de...
New Annual List Launched to Spotlight Women’s Plays
The latest effort to combat gender inequality in theater comes courtesy of The Kilroys, a group of LA-based women playwrights and producers founded last year. The Kilroys have launched The List,...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Iva Radivojevic (Evaporating Borders)
Iva Radivojevic is an award-winning filmmaker who spent her early years in Yugoslavia and Cyprus before settling in NYC over a decade ago. Her work explores the themes of identity, migration and...
Kathryn Bigelow Eyeing Movie Project About Bowe Berghdal
Just last month, Kathryn Bigelow announced that she would adapt Anand Giridharadas’ The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, a dual portrait of domestic terrorist Mark Stroman and the...
DC Comics President Challenged on “Embarrassing” Record of Excluding Women
Last Friday, a male shareholder asked DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson about her studio’s “embarrassing” lack of superheroine movies. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the unnamed...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Rachel Beth Anderson (First to Fall)
Rachel Beth Anderson, a Sundance Award-winning cinematographer, has filmed around the world in several conflict zones, including Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Turkey, and South Sudan, for...