ALL POSTS
‘Motley’s Law,’ About an American Lawyer’s Fight for Afghan Human Rights, to Air on Al Jazeera Am
Nicole N. Horanyi’s “Motley’s Law,” a documentary profile of human rights lawyer Kimberley Motley, has found a new home at Al Jazeera America (AJAM). The winner of the Grand Jury Prize at...
Trailer Watch: ‘Agent Carter’ Gets a New, Violent Hobby and Relocates to LA in Season 2
Peggy Carter is back, but Season Two of “Marvel’s Agent Carter” will see the secret agent working in a new locale. Like so many mid-century dreamers and schemers, she’s moving from New York...
Reese Witherspoon to Produce Movie About Barbie Inventor Ruth Handler
Reese Witherspoon has optioned a biography about Ruth Handler, the creator of the Barbie doll. It is being considered as a starring vehicle for the Oscar-winning actress. Author Robin Gerber’s...
Jennifer Lawrence to Direct, Continues to Speak Out Against Sexism
Katniss Everdeen is reigning over the box office for the second week in a row in “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2,” but we’re currently most inspired by her real-life counterpart,...
Carol Morley Wins 2015 Wellcome Trust Screenwriting Fellowship
Carol Morley has been named the 2015 Wellcome Trust Screenwriting Fellowship recipient. Best known as the writer-director of the 2014 fainting-epidemic drama “The Falling,” Morley also penned...
Weekly Update for November 25: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Janis: Little Girl Blue (Documentary) — Directed by Amy Berg (Opens November 27) Musician Cat Power narrates this documentary on Janis Joplin’s evolution...
Spirit Award Nods Announced: ‘Carol,’ ‘Tangerine,’ ‘Diary of a Teenage Girl’ and More
The nominations for the Film Independent Spirit Awards are in, and while the indie film world — including its own awards circuit — is slightly more hospitable to female filmmakers than...
Films by 15 Queer Female Filmmakers To Stream This Thanksgiving
With the prospect of a long holiday weekend surrounded by family and/or loved ones ahead, the question naturally arises of what to do with all that free time after digesting your turkey (or Tofurky,...
Listen: Women & Hollywood Podcast #21: ‘Hunger Games’ Producer Nina Jacobson
Nina Jacobson is best known as a producer of the four “Hunger Games” films, the three “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” movies and FX’s “American Crime Story.” Women and Hollywood spoke with...
“The Hunting Ground,” “Meru,” “Something Better to Come” Nominated for PGA’s Top Doc Award
Two documentaries directed/co-directed by female filmmakers have been nominated for the Producers Guild of America’s nonfiction award. Hanna Polak’s “Something Better to Come,” a portrait...
THR Roundtable Actresses on Ageism, the Pay Gap and Playing “Strong Women” & Gender-Swapped Roles
Much of the response to The Hollywood Reporter’s 2015 actress roundtable, published last week, focused (rightly) on the all-white line-up. But the roundtable participants — Jennifer Lawrence,...
Trailer Watch: Samantha Bee Can’t Harness The Force in Star Wars-Themed ‘Full Frontal’ Spot
A new spot for “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” has been released, and the setting isn’t exactly what you’d associate Bee with: She’s in a galaxy far, far away from the “Daily Show”...
Isabel Coixet’s Production Company Announces 5 Upcoming Women-Directed Titles
The upcoming slate of “Learning to Drive” director Isabel Coixet’s production company, Miss Wasabi Films, has been unveiled. Among the titles will be five female-helmed features, including...
Black Female Friendship and Women’s Suffrage Revisited: November 2015’s Crowdfunding Picks
This month’s crowdfunding picks all feature women breaking glass ceilings in male-oriented fields. “Mothers of Men” is a newfound 1917 suffrage film about a woman running for governor in...
Jennifer Cho Suhr to Write/Direct Estranged Korean-American Sisters Tale ‘You & Me Both’
Jennifer Cho Suhr will make her directorial debut with “You & Me Both,” a road-trip movie about two estranged Korean-American sisters in search of their birth mother. After the death of their...
Trailer Watch: A Mom Attempts to Rejoin the Family She Abandoned in ‘Krisha’
“I have tried to become a better person,” says Krisha (Krisha Fairchild) to explain why she abandoned her family years ago. “I have stayed away while I was healing myself,” she adds...
Jennifer Cho Suhr to Write/Direct Estranged Korean-American Sisters Tale ‘You & Me Both’
Jennifer Cho Suhr will make her directorial debut with "You & Me Both," a road-trip movie about two estranged Korean-American sisters in search of their birth mother. After the death of...
Leena Yadav’s ‘Parched’ Wins Stockholm Impact Award Recognizing “Headstrong Filmmakers”
Writer-director Leena Yadav’s “Parched,” about four rural Indian women fighting against sexist traditions, has received the inaugural Stockholm Impact Award. Granted by the Stockholm...
Mainstreaming the Conversation About Discrimination Against Women Directors
The New York Times has written about Hollywood sexism before. Last year, we saw a three-part series from ManohlaDargis on the institutional discrimination against women directors in the industry. But...
‘Wonder Woman’ Movie Begins Filming
The most anticipated female superhero movie has begun production. Over the weekend, star Gal Gadot tweeted the picture above with the caption “Almost 75 years in the making… #WonderWoman is...
Amy Pascal, Elizabeth Cantillon Option Eve Babitz Memoirs for TV Adaptation
Eve Babitz’s quadrilogy of memoirs, which chronicle LA in the ’60s and ’70s from the POV of a young bohemian, has been optioned by former Sony execs Amy Pascal and Elizabeth Cantillon. TriStar...
Trailer Watch: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Bell Take Over the Brownie Business World in ‘The Boss’
Chicken & Egg Pictures Launches New Diversity Initiative and Announces Inaugural Fellows
Chicken & Egg Pictures, longtime champion of women directors, has launched a new diversity fellows initiative and announced its first batch of participants. The organization will support seven...
Weekly Update for November 20: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2 Three years have passed since Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) fired her first arrow in “The Hunger Games.” She...
5 Women-Centric Pop Culture Essentials This Weekend
Thanksgiving is still a week away, but there’s a lot to feast on in the next few days, especially if you’re looking for female-centric entertainment. Everywhere you look — the multiplex,...
Quote of the Day: Lou Diamond Phillips Feels “Incredibly Fortunate” to Work With Women Directors
Former “Numb3ers” and current “Longmire” star Lou Diamond Phillips has had great experiences working with women directors, and he recently shared some insight into why that’s the case with...
‘Mustang’ Director Deniz Gamze Ergüven on Creating a Sisterhood, Representing France at the Oscars
“Mustang” is both a powerful coming-of-age story and a touching tribute to sisterhood. The story follows five sisters in Turkey who cause a stir in their ultra-conservative village when...
Trailer Watch: Maura Considers Gender-Reassignment Surgery in ‘Transparent’ Season 2
Apply for the Roger Ebert Fellowship for Film Criticism
During the press tour for “Suffragette,” Meryl Streep brought renewed attention to the gender lopsidedness plaguing film criticism. Here’s one way emerging female (and male) critics can get...
Listen: Women & Hollywood Podcast #20: Producers Liz Karlsen and Christine Vachon on ‘Carol’
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Trailer Watch: A Gymnastics Diva Returns Home, Refuses to Mellow Out in ‘The Bronze’
The All-White THR Actress Roundtable Is a Perfect Example of #HollywoodSoWhite
Yesterday, The Hollywood Reporter postedits annual actress roundtable, and not surprisingly — but certainly disappointingly — all of the eight performers on the cover were white. Steven...
Nominate a Female-Created, Female-Starring TV Pilot Script for the 2016 WriteHer List
TV has a reputation for being a more inviting place for women, but female storytellers are still outnumbered nearly 3 to 1 as writers and creators for the small screen. WeForShe, an advocacy group...
Quote of the Day: Ava DuVernay Explains Why It’s a Problem There Are So Few Women Directors
Recently asked what her “leading frustration about Hollywood” is, Ava DuVernay offered a characteristically insightful and honest response. She identified gender inequality behind the camera as...
Stripping Down to the Truth: November 2015’s VOD and Web Series Picks
Jenica Bergere’s comedy “Come Simi” follows a pregnant woman’s efforts to unite with her estranged family before letting a new member of it enter the world. If only she had the...
Marvel Steps Up Its Game With ‘Jessica Jones’
Betsy Steinberg Takes Over Leadership of Doc Collective Kartemquin Films
Betsy Steinberg has been named the new executive director of Kartemquin Films, an award-winning non-profit documentary production collective. Steinberg will be following in the footsteps of another...
‘Lord of the Rings’ Writer Philippa Boyens to Pen Disney’s ‘Young Merlin’
“Lord of the Rings” screenwriter Philippa Boyens has signed on to pen another wizard’s tale. Best known for her writing and producing duties on the “LOTR” movies, “King Kong” and...
Trailer Watch: Charlize Theron and Emily Blunt Wreak Havoc in ‘The Huntsman Winter’s War’
A trailer for “The Huntsman Winter’s War” has dropped, and as The Ice Queen (Emily Blunt), a new addition to the franchise, announces, “If it’s a fairy tale you’re hoping for, prepare...
Havana Marking Wins Sundance Institute and TED Award For Doc on Political Corruption
Havana Marking has been named the recipient of the Sundance Institute | TED Prize Filmmaker Award, an honor that includes a $125,000 grant. Making won for “Bloody Mary,” a documentary short...
Women & Hollywood Is Coming to London
Over the last several months, the conversation surrounding gender inequality in Hollywood has grown much louder. This new conversation with Melissa Silverstein — writer, founder and editor of...
Guest Post: How London’s Underwire Festival is Supporting the Next Generation of Female Filmmakers
In March 2010, over a caramel latte in aShoreditch café in London, the idea for the Underwire Festival was born. Since setting it up with Gemma Mitchell, I am co-producing Underwire, now in its...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sabrina Schmidt Gordon — ‘BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez’
Sabrina Schmidt Gordon is a documentary producer, editor and director from NYC. Her editing debut won an Emmy for WGBH (public broadcasting from Boston), and she has continued to distinguish herself...
Julianne Moore to Team Up Again With Director Todd Haynes for ‘Wonderstruck’
Julianne Moore has signed on to “Wonderstruck,” director Todd Haynes’ follow-up to “Carol.” Their previous collaboration, “Far From Heaven,” resulted in Oscar nods for the actress and...
Guest Post: Producer Lydia Dean Pilcher on the Great Conundrum Facing Feminist Progress in Hollywood Today
With “Suffragette” now in theaters, what lessons can we glean from this powerful story in thecurrent struggle for gender equality in Hollywood? While women in entertainment certainly aren’t...
Is This the End of the Model Gay Character?
Earlier this month, Oscar-nominated screenwriter Ron Nyswaner reignited a debate that has long been percolating in the LGBT community about our representation in media and entertainment. At the...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Shannon Post — ‘Circle of Poison’
Shannon Post is a filmmaker, sociologist and food and garden educator based in Brooklyn. “Circle of Poison” is her first film. Post is also the co-founder of Player Piano Productions, a company...
Exploring Internal Lesbian Discrimination in ‘The Same Difference’
Within the lesbian community — especially in communities of color (in the United States but also around the globe) — there are a lot of rules and internal discrimination that take place....
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Dyllan McGee — ‘MAKERS: Once and For All’
Dyllan McGee is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and the founder and executive producer of “MAKERS,” an Emmy Award-nominated series on women in space, Hollywood, politics, war, comedy and...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Nicole N. Horanyi — ‘Motley’s Law’
Acclaimed Danish filmmaker Nicole N. Horanyi has screened her award-winning documentary films around the world. “Motley’s Law” is her most recent collaboration with leading European film...
Trailer Watch: A Scottish Woman Struggles with Abuse in Period Drama ‘Sunset Song’
If you loved “The Danish Girl” star Alicia Vikander in her real breakout role of 2015, “Testament of Youth,” as much as we did, you might want to keep your eye out for “Sunset Song,”...