BY Casey Cipriani
TV Land Renews “Younger” for Fourth Season
TV Land’s Sutton Foster comedy “Younger” has been renewed for a fourth season, Broadway World reports, shortly after production began on the third, which is set to premiere on September...
Watch: Samantha Bee Rips Apart the NRA on “Full Frontal”
“After a massacre,” Samantha Bee said on the most recent episode of her show “Full Frontal,” “the standard operating procedure is that you stand on stage and deliver some well-meaning...
Mindy Kaling Signs Multi-Year Deal with Universal TV
Mindy Kaling has secured a multi-year deal with Universal TV, Variety has reported. The deal is for acting, producing, and writing. Universal produces her current series “The Mindy Project,”...
Trailer Watch: “Yarn” Explores a Forgotten Art Form
Knitting might not seem like a modern day art, but a new documentary is out to prove that assumption incorrect. Una Lorenzen’s “Yarn” explores a quirky art form often ignored by the mainstream...
New TV Adaptation of “Portrait of a Lady” in the Works
A new television adaptation of Henry James’ “Portrait of a Lady” is in the works. As Variety reports, Number 9 Films, one of the producers of “Carol,” is teaming up with Red Production...
Akosua Adoma Owusu Will Adapt Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “On Monday of Last Week”
Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who last year granted Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years a Slave”) the film rights to her novel “Americanah,” will now see another of her works adapted for the...
Lisa Joy to Write “Battlestar Galactica” Movie
A long-awaited, new big-screen adaptation of the 1970s TV series “Battlestar Galactica” is in the works at Universal with a female screenwriter. Lisa Joy, executive producer and scriptwriter for...
Teaser Watch: “Moana” Presents Disney’s Next Feisty Heroine
Disney’s next adventurous heroine just got a little closer and a little more real, with the official teaser trailer for “Moana” released last night during the Tony awards. As we previously...
Exclusive: Hilarious Video from “Adult Life Skills” Director Rachel Tunnard Nails Industry Sexism
One of the things we love about Rachel Tunnard’s “Adult Life Skills” is how it rejects the notion of a “strong female character” in favor of an interesting one that is allowed to mess up,...
Claire Carré’s “Embers” Will Be First Narrative Released By Slamdance Presents
Claire Carré’s directorial debut “Embers,” which closed this year’s Slamdance Film Festival, will be the first narrative feature released by the new Slamdance Presents label, Variety has...
“Nashville” Renewed For Fifth Season at CMT
After being cancelled last month at ABC, “Nashville,” created by Callie Khouri, has officially been renewed for a fifth season airing on CMT, Variety reports. “CMT heard the fans. The wave of...
Genne Murphy Wins Leah Ryan Prize for Emerging Women Writers
Leah Ryan’s Fund for Emerging Women Writers has announced Genne Murphy as the winner of the seventh annual prize for her play “Giantess.” Ryan was a playwright, essayist, writer of post-modern...
LA Film Fest Winners: “HEIS (chronicles),” “Political Animals,” “Paint it Black” All Honored
The LA Film Festival, produced by Film Independent, has announced the winners of the 2016 fest. The festival, which ran from June 1–9 this year, handed out juried awards in the categories of:...
Trailer Watch: Winona Ryder’s Creepy Quest in Netflix’s “Stranger Things”
If 99 times out of 100, a missing kid is with a parent or a relative, what about the other one time? That’s what Winona Ryder’s character wants to know in this creepy new trailer for Netflix’s...
Robin Thede Calls for Support for WGAE’s Diversity Tax Credit
Robin Thede, a writer and performer for “The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore,” has penned a personal essay for Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter in which she calls for the support of Writer’s Guild...
Hettie MacDonald to Direct “Howards End” Miniseries for BBC
Hettie MacDonald will direct a miniseries adaptation of “Howards End” for the BBC, Deadline has reported. The series will be a four-parter. Based on the classic 1910 E. M. Forster novel of the...
Ingrid Veninger’s “He Hated Pigeons” to Open Female Eye Film Festival
Ingrid Veninger’s “He Hated Pigeons” will open the 14th annual Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto. The fest is an international showcase of female directors, and runs from June 14–19 this...
Kerry Washington Will Receive SAG-AFTRA’s Actors Inspiration Award
Kerry Washington, star of ABC’s “Scandal” and HBO’s “Confirmation,” has been selected as the recipient of the Actors Inspiration Award by the SAG-AFTRA Foundation. Washington, Variety...
Geena Davis to Produce Hollywood Gender Inequality Doc, But a Man Will Direct
Geena Davis will produce a a documentary on Hollywood’s gender inequality, Variety has learned. Davis, a prominent activist about this issue, is teaming up with Creative Chaos vmg and their...
“Homeland” Season 6 Will Have a Female President
Mere hours before Hillary Clinton became the first woman in U.S. history to secure a major party’s presidential nomination, it was revealed that the next season of Showtime’s hit series...
“From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series” Announces Season 3 Directors with Only One Woman for 10 Episodes
Miramax and El Rey Network have announced the directors for Season 3 of “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series,” and only one of the 10 episodes will be directed by a woman. As a press release...
“Tomorrowland’s” Britt Robertson to Star in Netflix’s “Girlboss”
Britt Robertson, who starred in last year’s Disney sci-fi film “Tomorrowland,” will topline an upcoming Netflix original series called “Girlboss.” The 13-episode comedy was inspired by the...
Kathryn Bigelow and Amy Sherman-Palladino Both Have Pilots in the Works
Two new shows are in the works from a couple of our favorite women in the industry. According to The Hollywood Reporter, HBO has ordered a pilot from “The Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow....
Zoe Saldana to Produce Documentary About Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
According to Hollywood’s Black Renaissance, Zoe Saldana will produce a powerful feature documentary titled “Gone Missing.” Saldana is producing along with her sisters Cisely and Mariel Saldana...
Ava DuVernay Honored at LAFF, Promotes Diversity in Film
Last week at the Los Angeles Film Festival (LAFF), director Ava DuVernay was recognized with the Spirit of Independence honor. DuVernay, who directed “Selma,” and became the first...
“Me Before You” Defies Expectations at Box Office Proving the Power of Female Audiences
If you build it, they will come. No, we’re not talking baseball, we’re talking movies marketed to women, specifically the new romantic drama “Me Before You,” which outperformed projections...
Trailer Watch: “When the Bough Breaks” Doc Captures Postpartum Depression
Brooke Shields’ struggle with postpartum depression was documented in her 2005 memoir “Down Came the Rain.” Now, to continue her quest to raise awareness for the cause, she has executive...
Diane Lane Commits $20,000 for Female Music Educators Grant, Applications Open
Diane Lane has committed $20,000 towards a four-year, $5,000 annual grant for New York-based female educators focused in music in honor of late composer Elizabeth Swados. Swados, Broadway World...
Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith Team Up for a “Girl Trip”
Though they have a long history of working together off-screen, Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett Smith haven’t appeared on-screen together since 1996’s “Set it Off,” but that may...
Iranian Actress Causes Uproar Over Feminist Tattoo
Consider Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti our hero of the week. At a press conference on Monday for the movie “The Salesman,” photographers captured what appears to be a tattoo of the “woman...
Julie Andrews Will Star in Netflix Preschool Series with The Jim Henson Company
Netflix has announced that Mary Poppins herself Julie Andrews will star in “Julie’s Greenroom,” a new preschool show with puppets from The Jim Henson Company that will feature “an all-new...
Why Isn’t Emily Blunt in the Sequel to Her Own Movie?
It’s bad enough when women aren’t even considered for roles that typically go to men, but when a film like “Sicario,” which was notable for having a female lead in an action-thriller, omits...
Oscar Winner Brie Larson May Play Captain Marvel
Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel: Marvel.com Rumor has it we’re getting another Oscar-winning superhero. As Variety reports, Brie Larson, who won Best Actress this year for her performance in...
Athena Film Festival 2017 Submission Period Now Open
The 2017 Athena Film Festival, co-founded by Women and Hollywood’s Melissa Silverstein, and Kathryn Kolbert of the Athena Center for Leadership Studies at Barnard College, is now accepting...
Susanne Bier May Be James Bond’s First Female Director
Well this would be a first. According to The Guardian, “The Night Manager” director Susanne Bier is on a shortlist of directors being eyed for the next James Bond film. The Guardian nabbed the...
“G.L.O.W.” Female Wrestler Series Set for Netflix
“Orange is the New Black” creator and showrunner Jenji Kohan is on board for a fun new series for Netflix. The streaming network has green lit “G.L.O.W.” Variety has reported. Kohan will...
Ellen Burstyn Having Trouble Getting Her Directorial Debut Off the Ground
Ellen Burstyn is in the midst of getting her first directing project off the ground, but is running into a few issues that she says epitomize how the industry has changed over the years. The...
Trailer Watch: “Wiener-Dog” Brings Everyone Together
Dawn Wiener is back…sort of. “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” which starred Heather Matarazzo as a character named Dawn Wiener, won the Sundance Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize in 1995, and...
HBO Confirms Fall Debuts for Sarah Jessica Parker’s “Divorce” and Issa Rae’s “Insecure”
HBO has confirmed fall debuts for some upcoming female-centric shows. Though specific premiere dates have not been released, the powerhouse network has revealed that the following shows will hit the...
Taraji P. Henson, Natalie Dormer, Lesli Linka Glatter, and More Win WIF LA Crystal + Lucy Awards
Women In Film, Los Angeles has announced the honorees for the 2016 Crystal + Lucy Awards, which include actresses Taraji P. Henson (“Empire”) and Natalie Dormer (“Game of Thrones”), as well...
Samantha Morton, Jessica Brown Findlay, Lesley Manville Set for Hulu’s “Harlots”
Samantha Morton (“The Last Panthers”), Jessica Brown Findlay (“Downton Abbey”), and Lesley Manville (“Maleficent”) are set to star in “Harlots,” a co-production between Hulu and ITV,...
Tangerine Fellowship for Outstanding Female Screenwriter Now Accepting Applications
Stowe Story Labs and Tangerine Entertainment have announced that the application period for the second annual Tangerine Fellowship for an Outstanding Female Screenwriter is now open. The goal of the...
Barbara Kopple’s “Miss Sharon Jones!” Acquired By Starz Digital
Starz Digital has announced the acquisition of all North American distribution rights to Barbara Kopple’s “Miss Sharon Jones!” Kopple (“Harlan County U.S.A.”, “Shut Up & Sing”) is...
Danica McKellar Appears on PBS NOVA Series “The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers”
“The Wonder Years” star and expert mathematician Danica McKellar has joined PBS NOVA’s “The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers” for an episode of its fifth season. McKellar, though...
Watch: Women and Hollywood at Cannes for Women in Motion Panel “Show Us the Money”
At the Cannes Film Festival last week, Women and Hollywood’s founder and publisher Melissa Silverstein sat down with Francine Raveney of the European Women’s Audiovisual Network and a Elsa...
“Beauty and the Beast” Teaser Breaks “Star Wars” Record
The first teaser for Disney’s live-action “Beauty and the Beast” is now a record breaker, besting the trailers of many films marketed to boys. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the teaser...
The Orchard Acquires Julia Hart’s Directorial Debut “Miss Stevens”
The Orchard has acquired all North American rights to Julia Hart’s (screenwriter, “The Keeping Room”) directorial debut, “Miss Stevens,” Variety has reported. The film stars Lily Rabe...
Whoopi Goldberg to Produce Transgender Model Series for Oxygen
Whoopi Goldberg will executive produce the new series “Strut” for Oxygen, Variety has reported. The show will follow transgender models who are breaking into the industry and trying to become...
Whitney Cummings Making Directorial Debut with “The Female Brain”
Comedian Whitney Cummings is going to be stepping behind the camera and making her directorial debut with the relationship comedy “The Female Brain.” Based on the book by Louann Brizendine, the...
Fans Want Gillian Anderson As the Next James Bond
Anderson. Gillian Anderson. That’s who Twitter wants to be the next James Bond. In light of the news that Daniel Craig, who’s starred in the last three Bond films, is done with the franchise,...
Hedgebrook Screenwriters Lab Now Accepting Applications
Get your applications ready, women screenwriters! The application period for Hedgebrook’s 2nd annual Screenwriters Lab is now open. Hedgebrook’s Screenwriters Lab is one of multiple programs...