ALL POSTS
Weekly Update for January 29: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Jane Got a Gun A woman (Natalie Portman) asks her ex-lover (Joel Edgerton) for help in order to save her outlaw husband (Noel Emmerich) from a gang out to kill...
Which Studios Have the Most Women in Decision-Making Roles?
In the midst of ongoing pressure on the film industry to embrace gender and racial inclusion, particularly at the studio level, The Hollywood Reporter has published a “diversity scorecard” for...
Trailer Watch: Amateur Opera Singer Screeches Toward Stardom in ‘Marguerite’
“There are two ways to live life,” explains the titular character of “Marguerite” in a new trailer for the film. “We can dream it or achieve it.” Marguerite (Catherine Frot, “Family...
Clea Duvall’s Directorial Debut ‘The Intervention’ Acquired By Paramount
Clea Duvall first effort behind the camera has paid off in spades. The character actress’s directorial debut, “The Intervention,” has been sold for “just north of $2 million” at Sundance...
Julia Roberts to Play Erin Brockovich-like Prisoners’ Rights Crusader in ‘ADX’
Julia Roberts is set to star in and produce “ADX,” about a real-life attorney’s fight to improve conditions at America’s only supermax prison. The HBO Films project is based on the NY Times...
The Trials of Marcia Clark: Sarah Paulson in ‘American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson’
Kathryn Bigelow Announces Next Film: Drama About 1967 Detroit Riots
More than three years after the release of her last film (“Zero Dark Thirty”), Kathryn Bigelow has finally announced her next project. The first and only woman filmmaker to ever win the Best...
Varda On Demand: Two Newly Restored Films from Legendary Feminist Filmmaker to Stream
Two newly restored films from the doyen of feminist filmmaking are set for VOD release. Agnès Varda made the relatively neglected “Jane B. By Agnès V.” and “Kung-Fu Master!” in 1988, with...
Kelly Reichardt Retrospective to Tour Europe
After her latest feature, “Certain Women,” gained unanimously rapturous reviews out of Sundance, Kelly Reichardt will have her filmography travel Europe in a career-long retrospective. The...
Trailer Watch: A Gymnastics Diva Refuses to Grow Up in ‘The Bronze’
Hope Gregory (Melissa Rauch, “The Big Bang Theory”) was an Olympic athlete, but when we’re introduced to her in the trailer for “The Bronze,” the gymnast’s glory days are long behind...
Chloë Sevigny’s Directorial Debut Headlines Refinery29 Female Filmmaker Short Film Series
Lifestyle website Refinery29 is putting female filmmakers in the spotlight with a series of short films. The appropriately named ShatterBox Anthology promises to showcase the work of an array of...
ABC Picks Up Legal Drama and Soccer Comedy Pilots From ‘Jessica Jones’ and ‘Will & Grace’ Writers
ABC has picked up the pilots of two women-created and -written series. “Jessica Jones” writer Liz Friedman received a formal pilot order from the network for “Conviction,” while Kari Lizer,...
Sundance Deals: ‘Audrie and Daisy’ to Netflix, ‘Weiner’ to Hulu and Showtime
Two high-profile docs that made their world premieres at Sundance 2016 have found new distribution deals. Netflix acquired all rights to Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s “Audrie & Daisy,” about...
February 2016 Film Preview
February’s slate of female-centric and/or women-directed films begins with “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” — a fun spin on the Jane Austen classic that takes the Elizabeth Bennett’s...
J.K. Rowling to Receive Free-Speech Award from PEN
J.K. Rowling, the real-life wizard behind the “Harry Potter” franchise, has been named as the 2016 recipient of the PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service award. PEN (Poets, Essayists and...
NBC Gives Pilot Orders to Comedies From Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones
Former “Parks and Recreation” stars Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones have received pilot orders from their old network. NBC has given the go-ahead on the first episode of an untitled single-cam...
Trailer Watch: Ellen Page Travels Around the World in LGBT-Centered Docuseries ‘Gaycation’
Ellen Page’s new docuseries project has been hotly anticipated since a video released online last summer showed the “Freeheld” star confronting Texas senator Ted Cruz about LGBT rights at the...
Chloe Zhao’s ‘Songs My Brothers Taught Me’ Lands Distribution Deal With Kino Lorber
Writer-director Chloe Zhao’s festival gem “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” has been acquired by Kino Lorber. Made with a largely unprofessional Lakota Native American cast, the drama focuses on...
Cesar Nods Announced: ‘Mustang’ and Other Female-Directed Films Crowd the Nominations
The Cesar nominations are in, and contrary to most award shows on most years, women-helmed films are well represented. The Cesars are most often compared to the Oscars, but the list speaks for...
Vicky Zhao to Direct Animated Feature Adaptation of Iconic TV Series ‘My Fair Princess’
Vicky Zhao, one of China’s most popular actresses, will return behind the camera to helm a feature-film version of “My Fair Princess,” the TV show that launched her to stardom. The animated...
Spring 2016 Women on Broadway Preview: Milestones and Misses
Broadway will hit two important milestones this spring. Themusical “Waitress” is the first Broadway musical to have an all-female creativeteam, which includes the composer-lyricist, bookwriter,...
Docu-Series About Hollywood’s Gender Inequality to Air on Epix
Gender inequality has persisted in Hollywood since the early days of the silver screen, but it’s only in recent years that the mainstream media has devoted much attention to sexism on screen and...
Gina Rodriguez Launches Social-Media Movement to Spotlight Latino Performers
The #OscarsSoWhite movement that has dominated headlines for over a week has been a necessary reckoning with the institutional exclusion that plagues Hollywood. But that all-important protest has...
Women in Film Awards $32,000 in Grants to Sundance Filmmakers
Women In Film, Los Angeles (WIF-LA) awarded $32,000 in cash and in-kind grants at Sundance over the weekend. The honors were presented at the 10th annual Women in Film Sundance Filmmakers Panel...
Horizon Awards Winners Named: Four Young Female Filmmakers to Watch
The winners of the 2016 Horizon Award have been announced. This year’s recipients are emerging filmmakers Macarena (Macqui) Gaona, Shanice Malakai Johnson, Juliette Gosselin and Florence...
DGA President Paris Barclay Responds to #OscarsSoWhite: “Structural Changes Are Needed”
Paris Barclay, the president of the Directors Guild of America, weighed in yesterday on the #OscarsSoWhite movement and the new changes to Academy membership that have resulted thereof. Barclay,...
Meera Menon’s Female-Led Wall Street Drama ‘Equity’ Acquired by Sony Pictures Classics
Meera Menon’s banker drama “Equity” has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics. The deal took place on the day before the film’s world premiere at Sundance 2016. “Breaking Bad”...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Jessie Kahnweiler — ‘The Skinny’
Jessie Kahnweiler can’t afford therapy, so she makes films. Her work has been featured on CNN, TMZ, People, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Magazine, Mashable, Buzzfeed, Elle, The Daily Beast,...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Anne Fontaine — ‘Agnus Dei’
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Anne Fontaine — “The Innocents” Anne Fontaine is an actress, screenwriter and director born in Luxembourg. Her film “Dry Cleaning” won Best...
‘Homeland’s’ Lesli Linka Glatter to Direct Navy SEAL Series ‘Six’
Veteran TV director Lesli Linka Glatter (“Homeland,” “Mad Men,” “The Leftovers,” “The Walking Dead”) will helm the first two episodes of and executive produce the military drama...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Rita Coburn Whack — ‘Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise’
Rita Coburn Whack is an award-winning writer, producer and director for television, magazines, series, news, talk shows, documentary programming and social media. Coburn Whack is the owner of RCW...
Where’s Rey? Toymakers Were Told To Exclude Her
The feminist force is strong with the latest “Star Wars” movie, which introduced the 38-year-old franchise’s first female protagonist in orphaned scavenger Rey, played by dynamo newcomer Daisy...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Sara Jordenö — ‘Kiki’
Sara Jordenö is a New York- and Gothenburg-based Swedish visual artist and documentary filmmaker. Her stories often concern communities facing different types of marginalization and how they...
Shonda Rhimes on PGA Diversity Award: “It’s Not Trailblazing to Write the World As It Actually Is”
Shonda Rhimes delivered a tongue-in-cheek speech challenging writers and producers to be more inclusive while receiving the PGA’s Norman Lear Achievement Award at the PGA Awards on Saturday....
Saoirse Ronan to Star in Greta Gerwig’s Directorial Debut ‘Lady Bird’
A double dose of good news: As previously announced, Greta Gerwig is set to make her solo directorial debut, and now we know that Saoirse Ronan will star in it. “Lady Bird” will see the...
Finding Inspiration at Sundance 2016
So I’ve been a bit logistically challenged here at Sundance, meaning that I have missed a films and been shut out of others. That’s the way it goes here. You have to surrender to it. But the one...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Meera Meenon — ‘Equity’
Meera Menon was recently selected to be a fellow at 20th Century Fox’s Global Directors initiative. Her directorial debut, “Farrah Goes Bang.” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where she...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Bonni Cohen — ‘Audrie & Daisy’
Since co-founding Actual Films in 1998, Bonni Cohen has produced and directed an array of award-winning films, including “The Island President,” “Inside Guantanamo,” “The Rape of Europa”...
Sundance 2016 Movies, Part 1
So I’ve been here on the ground at Sundance for a little over three days, and it feels like it’s been three weeks. This is my second real Sundance, and I’m finding it to be an acquired taste....
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Maya Goded — ‘Plaza de la Soledad’
Through her photographs and now on film, Maya Goded explores the subjects of female sexuality, prostitution and gender violence in a society in which the role of women is narrowly defined and...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Stephanie Soechtig — ‘Under the Gun’
Stephanie Soechtig is an award-winning writer, producer and documentary-film director. Her most recent film, “Fed Up,” premiered at Sundance and was acquired by Radius-TWC. It also received a...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Chris Hegedus — ‘Unlocking the Cage’
Chris Hegedus has been making films as a director, cinematographer and editor for 40 years. She received the 2001 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for “Startup.com.” With her...
The Academy Steps Up to the Diversity Challenge in a Big Way
Sundance is in full swing but the big news today came out of LA, where Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs and CEO Dawn Hudson, with the support of the Board of Governors, unveiled radical changes...
Weekly Update for January 22: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekThe 5th Wave — Co-Written by Susannah Grant In the new film “The 5th Wave,” four waves of increasingly deadly attacks have left most of Earth decimated....
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami — ‘Sonita’
Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami studied filmmaking and animation at Tehran Art University. Ghaemmaghami is the author of “Animated Documentary, a New Way to Express,” which is a product of her research on...
Book Excerpt: The Future of Feminist Film
The following is excerpted from Sophie Mayer’s “Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema,” published in December 2015. Just over a year ago, the 2014 European Film Awards might have thought...
Vimeo Launches Initiative Supporting Female Filmmakers
Vimeo is making an effort to give more women the opportunity to get behind the camera. The video-sharing website is kicking off a new program for female filmmakers, offering them both financing,...
Watch: Elizabeth Banks, Retta and More Tell Abortion Stories
Actresses from the big and small screen are speaking out about abortion in a new series of videos launched by the Center for Reproductive Rights. The Draw the Line monologues, which feature stars...
Agents Scully and Carter Return
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Elite Zexer — ‘Sand Storm’
Elite Zexer received her BFA and MFA from Tel Aviv University, the latter in film directing. Her previous short films are “Take Note,” which won the Best Fiction Film Award at the Tel Aviv...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Dawn Porter — ‘Trapped’
Dawn Porter is an award-winning filmmaker whose 2013 documentary, “Gideon’s Army,” won the Sundance Film Festival Editing Award, the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award and was nominated...