Weekly Update for December 16: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You

Films About Women Opening This Week

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

The first of the Star Wars standalone films, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is an all-new epic adventure. In a time of conflict, a group of unlikely heroes — led by Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) — band together on a mission to steal the plans to the Death Star, the Empire’s ultimate weapon of destruction. This key event in the Star Wars timeline brings together ordinary people who choose to do extraordinary things, and in doing so, become part of something greater than themselves. (Press materials)

The Bad Kids (Documentary) (Opens in LA; Opens in NY December 23)

Located in an impoverished Mojave Desert community, Black Rock Continuation High School is one of California’s alternative schools. Every student here has fallen so far behind in credits that they have no hope of earning a diploma at a traditional high school; Black Rock is their last chance. “The Bad Kids” is an observational documentary that chronicles one extraordinary principal’s mission to realize the potential of these students whom the system has deemed lost causes. The film follows Principal Vonda Viland as she coaches three at-risk teens — a new father who can’t support his family, a young woman grappling with sexual abuse, and an angry young man from an unstable home — through the traumas and obstacles that rob them of their spirit and threaten their goal of a high school diploma. (Press materials)

Read Women and Hollywood’s interview with Vonda Viland.

Find screening info here.

Julieta (Opens in NY and LA December 21)

Julieta (Emma Suarez) lives in Madrid with her daughter, Antía (Blanca Pares). They both suffer in silence over the loss of Xoan (Daniel Grao), Antía’s father and Julieta’s husband. But sometimes grief doesn’t bring people closer; it drives them apart. When Antía turns 18 she abandons her mother without a word of explanation. Julieta looks for her in every possible way, but all she discovers is how little she knows about her daughter. (Press materials)

Films About Women Currently Playing

All We Had — Directed by Katie Holmes; Written by Jill Killington (Also Available on VOD)
Abattoir (Also Available on VOD)
Jackie
Things to Come — Written and Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
Best and Most Beautiful Things (Documentary)
The Eyes of My Mother (Also Available on VOD)
Miss Sloane
Always Shine — Directed by Sophia Takal (Also Available on VOD)
A United Kingdom — Directed by Amma Asante (Playing in the UK)
The Edge of Seventeen — Written and Directed by Kelly Fremon Craig
Moana — Co-Written by Pamela Ribon
I Am Not Madame Bovary
Daughters of the Dust (Re-Release) — Written and Directed by Julie Dash
Arrival
The Love Witch — Written and Directed by Anna Biller
Elle
Shut In — Written by Christina Hodson
The Eagle Huntress
The Handmaiden
Christine
The Girl on the Train — Written by Erin Cressida Wilson
Denial
Queen of Katwe — Directed by Mira Nair
Ixcanul

Films Directed by Women Opening This Week

None

Films Directed by Women Currently Playing

National Bird (Documentary) — Directed by Sonia Kennebeck

Films Written by Women Opening This Week

A Kind of Murder — Written by Susan Boyd (Also Available on VOD)

In 1960s New York, Walter Stackhouse (Patrick Wilson) is a successful, married architect who leads a seemingly perfect life. But his fascination with an unsolved murder leads him into a spiral of chaos as he is forced to play cat-and-mouse with a clever killer and an overambitious detective, while lusting after another woman at the same time. (Press materials)

Find screening info here.

Films Written by Women Currently Playing

Office Christmas Party — Co-Written by Laura Solon
The Bounce Back — Co-Written by Staci Robinson
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them — Written by J.K. Rowling
Bad Santa 2 — Co-Written by Shauna Cross
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children — Written by Jane Goldman

TV Premieres This Week

First Lady Michelle Obama Says Farewell to the White House — An Oprah Winfrey Special (News/Interview Special) (Premieres December 19 on CBS and December 21 on OWN)

Oprah Winfrey will conduct the final one-on-one interview with Michelle Obama in the White House. They will discuss Obama’s eight years as First Lady, her accomplishments in the White House, and her plans for the future. (CBS News)

VOD/DVD Releasing This Week

Auld Lang Syne — Directed by Johanna McKeon; Written by Kimberly Dilts (Refinery29, Available Now)
The Convention (Short) — Directed by Jessica Dimmock (Refinery29, December 18)
The Disappointments Room (DVD, December 20)
It Had to Be You — Written and Directed by Sasha Gordon (DVD/VOD, December 20)
Maximum Ride — Co-Written by Angelique Hanus (DVD/VOD, December 20)
Roseanne for President! (Documentary) (DVD/VOD, December 20)

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