BY Rachel Montpelier
Apply Now: 2019 Writers Lab for Women Screenwriters Over 40
The 2019 Writers Lab is now accepting submissions. An intensive screenplay development retreat for women screenwriters who are 40 or older, the program will host its fifth edition October 2-6, 2019...
Berlinale Breaks Down 2019 Gender Stats in New Report
The 69th annual Berlinale begins today and, while the fest will not officially sign the Gender Parity Pledge until Saturday, it’s already stepping up its transparency efforts. The Berlin...
Trailer Watch: Yara Shahidi Only Has One Day for Love in “The Sun Is Also a Star”
“This is my home. New York is my home,” Jamaica-born Natasha Kingsley (Yara Shahidi) pleads in the trailer for “The Sun Is Also a Star.” But it doesn’t matter:...
WeForShe Unveils 2019 WriteHer List
WeForShe has made its selections for its fifth WriteHer List. A curation of the best women-written, women-centric unproduced TV scripts, the annual list “seeks to answer the endemic gender...
Social Media Campaign Examines Gender Rep in Hollywood and U.S. Senate “Then and Now”
The U.S. Senate is far from achieving gender equality: just 25 percent of senators are women. Yet it’s a progressive haven for women compared to Hollywood, as a new social media campaign...
Less Than 20% of Top Musical Artists in 2018 Were Women, Study Finds
A new Time’s Up/Annenberg Inclusion Initiative challenge might be in order. The latter has released its second “Inclusion in the Recording Studio?” report, a study of gender and race...
Weekly Update for February 1: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Miss Bala – Directed by Catherine Hardwicke “Miss Bala”: Columbia Pictures Gloria (Gina Rodriguez) finds a power she never knew she had when she is drawn...
Trailer Watch: “The Chi” Tackles Joy and Despair in Equal Measure in Season 2
When Kevin (Alex R. Hibbert, “Moonlight”) begins speaking in the trailer for “The Chi” Season 2, he seems to be listing his favorite things to do.”Bike, basketball,...
New Ad Campaign Celebrates Women Directors, Brings Attention to Awards Season’s Gender Gap
2018 saw the release of many acclaimed films from women directors, including Chloé Zhao’s “The Rider,” Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace,” and Marielle...
Trailer Watch: Diane Joins the Resistance in “The Good Fight” Season 3
Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski) has always been a devout liberal feminist, so things have been difficult for her since Trump’s election. Happily it looks like she’s reclaiming her...
Women Directing 40 Percent of Upcoming Disney Films, CEO Announces
Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Robert Iger made an exciting announcement via Twitter while addressing the 4% Challenge, the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and Time’s Up campaign...
Berlinale Will Sign the Gender Parity Pledge
The 2019 Berlin International Film Festival won’t kick off until next Thursday, February 7, but it’s already made history. Screen Daily confirms fest artistic director Dieter Kosslick...
Universal Is First Major Studio to Accept 4% Challenge
Universal Filmed Entertainment Group is following in the steps of Tessa Thompson, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Lopez, Lena Waithe, and many others. The Donna Langley-led company is the first major...
“Jagged Little Pill” Musical Going to Broadway
“Jagged Little Pill” is going to have a whole new life on Broadway. The American Repertory Theater musical, based on Alanis Morissette’s 1995 album of the same name, will be opening...
CAA Supporting Rising TV Writers of Color with Showrunner Mentorship Program
Less than a year after creating a searchable database of TV writers of color, CAA is once again striving to make the television writing landscape — and the path to showrunning — more...
Level Forward Secures 50 Percent Stake in Career Site for Women in Show Biz
Level Forward, Abigail Disney’s startup studio, is investing in another company striving to support women in Hollywood. Per the Los Angeles Times, Level Forward has obtained a 50 percent stake...
4% Challenge: Inclusion Initiative & Time’s Up Aim to Boost Number of Women Directing Top Films
Tessa Thompson, Kerry Washington, Brie Larson, Constance Wu, and many more have publicly vowed to announce a project with a woman director in the next 18 months. They’ve signed on to the 4%...
Weekly Update for January 25: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Ánimas – Written and Directed by Laura Alvea and Jose F. Ortuño (Available on Netflix) When her best friend Abraham’s father is killed in a mysterious accident, a...
Study: Sundance Boasts Impressive Pipeline of Women & POC Directors, But Still Has Work to Do
Sundance 2019 is in full swing but the Sundance Institute isn’t resting on its laurels. Far from it. The org released a study with the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, entitled...
Inclusive Film Programming Collective Launches at Sundance
Sundance 2019 is off to a great start. According to a press release, the fest saw the introduction of the Programmers of Colour Collective (POC2), a group of women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ film...
Chicken & Egg Award Winners and (Egg)celerator Lab Participants Announced
Chicken & Egg Pictures has confirmed the 2019 recipients of the Chicken & Egg Award (formerly the Breakthrough Filmmaker Award) and the selected titles for the (Egg)celerator Lab (formerly...
Lilly Wachowski to Co-Write & Co-Direct “Work in Progress” Series Starring Abby McEnany
Abby McEnany and Tim Mason’s pilot, “Work in Progress,” won’t be premiering at Sundance until Tuesday but it’s becoming a series — and a big name has already come...
Glasgow Film Fest 2019: Over Half of the Films Up For the Audience Award Are Women-Directed
The Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) has announced its 2019 lineup and — in news that’s most welcome considering the Oscars failed to nominate a woman director again — most of the films...
Julia Reichert to Receive Outstanding Achievement Award at Hot Docs 2019
Documentarian Julia Reichert will soon have another honor to go with her Emmy and three Oscar noms. Hot Docs has announced it is presenting the director with its Outstanding Achievement Award at...
“Grey’s Anatomy” Showrunner Krista Vernoff Signs Overall Deal with ABC Studios
Krista Vernoff is sticking with ABC and “Grey’s Anatomy.” The Hollywood Reporter confirms the “Grey’s” showrunner has inked a multi-year overall deal with ABC...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Penny Lane – “Hail Satan?”
Penny Lane has previously directed feature documentaries “The Pain of Others,” “Our Nixon,” and “Nuts!” Her work has screened at International Film Festival...
“Mystic Pizza” Musical in the Works from Melissa Etheridge
Good news, ’80s movie fans and lovers of esoteric “30 Rock” references: a “Mystic Pizza” musical is on the way. According to Deadline, Melissa Etheridge will be writing...
Trailer Watch: A Drama Teacher & Her Class Help Heal Their School in “Song of Parkland”
“We were in the middle of rehearsal, the middle of a scene, and I heard some shots,” Marjory Stoneman Douglas High drama teacher Melody Herzfeld recalls about February 14, 2018 in the...
ACLU and “On the Basis of Sex” Team Up for “All Rise” Workplace Equality Campaign
Mimi Leder’s “On the Basis of Sex” traces Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s work in a landmark gender discrimination case. The events depicted in the biopic changed the world. And now the...
Trailer Watch: A Stepmother Crosses the Line in Sundance Pic “Queen of Hearts”
Sundance drama “Queen of Hearts” sees Anne (Trine Dyrholm), a happy lawyer, wife, and mother, upending her life and entering into an affair — with her husband’s troubled son,...
PGA Awards 2019: “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Being Serena” Win Big
“Mrs. Maisel” is still on a marvelous awards season streak. Amy Sherman-Palladino’s tale of a ’50s housewife forging a career in standup comedy won the The Danny Thomas Award...
Weekly Update for January 18: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Adult Life Skills – Written and Directed by Rachel Tunnard (Also Available on VOD) Anna (Jodie Whittaker) is stuck: she’s approaching 30, living like a hermit in her...
Trailer Watch: A Super-Powered Gugu Mbatha-Raw Can’t Save the World in “Fast Color”
Julia Hart’s new film sees Gugu Mbatha-Raw playing a woman with superhuman capabilities without superhuman ambitions. As someone in “Fast Color’s” trailer phrases...
Doc About Hollywood Gender Discrimination “This Changes Everything” Secures Release
“This Changes Everything,” a documentary investigating Hollywood’s decades of discrimination against women on and off-screen, has nabbed distribution. According to a press...
WIF LA Names 2018 Film Finishing Fund Recipients
Women In Film, Los Angeles (WIF LA) has awarded its 33rd annual Film Finishing Fund to nine projects about and/or made by women, a press release announced. The Fund provides cash grants and in-kind...
Berlinale 2019: 41% of Films Eligible for Top Honors in Competition Are Women-Directed
The Berlin International Film Festival has finalized its 2019 Competition. Of the 23 films selected, eight are helmed by women, or about 35 percent. That figure is more than double last year’s...
Upholding Gender Parity Pledge, Cannes Unveils Selection Committee for the First Time
The Cannes Film Festival is sticking to its word. Last year the fest signed the Gender Parity Pledge, promising to make its film selection process more transparent to the public — and inspired...
AFI Directing Workshop for Women Announces Class of 2020
Robin Cloud, Revati Dhomse, Ashley Eakin, Tiffany Huang, Marie Jamora, Bridget Moloney, Lara Panah-Izadi, and Nicole Taylor-Roberts are the AFI Directing Workshop for Women’s (DWW) Class of...
“Grace and Frankie” Renewed for a Sixth Season
“Grace and Frankie” will be sticking together for at least another season. The Jane Fonda-Lily Tomlin Netflix comedy has been renewed for Season 6, Variety confirms. Season 5 drops this...
Heidi Schreck’s “What the Constitution Means to Me” Heading to Broadway
Is the longest government shutdown in U.S. history getting you down? Well, here’s some encouraging (no, really!) civics-related news for you: Heidi Schreck’s play “What the...
ICM’s Lorrie Bartlett Becomes First Black Board Member of a Major Talent Agency
ICM talent agent Lorrie Bartlett has made a historical career move. She has been brought on to her agency’s board of directors, the Los Angeles Times reports. Per ICM, this makes Bartlett the...
Writer to Watch: Marquita Robinson of “GLOW” and “You’re the Worst”
Think about the zeitgeist-y shows from the past five years or so. Whatever series pop into your head, chances are Marquita Robinson has worked on at least one of them. “Black-ish,”...
Box Office Report: “On the Basis of Sex” Hits $10.6M, “Beale Street” $7.7M, & More
Ruth Bader Ginsburg continues to rule at the box office. Last year Julie Cohen and Betsy West’s doc about the Supreme Court Justice, “RBG,” became one of the highest-grossing...
Weekly Update for January 11: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Touch Me Not – Written and Directed by Adina Pintilie (Opens in NY) On the fluid border between reality and fiction, “Touch Me Not” follows the emotional journeys...
NYC’s Film Forum to Host Tribute to Elaine May
New York City cinema Film Forum will pay special tribute to actress-comedian-filmmaker Elaine May during its upcoming “FAR-OUT IN THE 70s: A New Wave of Comedy, 1969-1979” film series....
Jac Schaeffer Will Write and Showrun Scarlet Witch Series Starring Elizabeth Olsen
Jac Schaeffer has signed on for yet another Marvel project. The co-writer of “Captain Marvel” and scribe of the upcoming Black Widow film will pen and showrun a series about Avengers...
Trailer Watch: Penelope Is Still the Best Mom Ever in “One Day at a Time” Season 3
“Life is too short,” Penelope (Justina Machado) announces in the trailer for “One Day at a Time’s” third season. “We’re gonna have differences but what does...
“Captain Marvel” Pre-Sales Among Top Three in MCU History
Carol Danvers has made history yet again — and we still have another two months before her film opens. According to Deadline, “Captain Marvel,” the Marvel Cinematic...
Athena Fest 2019: “Fast Color,” “Knock Down the House,” & More to Screen
If you’re frustrated by awards season’s exclusion of women filmmakers and their stories, or if you’re encouraged by the growing number of film festivals committing to gender parity,...
Trailer Watch: Issa Rae Helps Regina Hall Through a Cursed Situation in “Little”
Jordan Sanders (Regina Hall) is the boss from hell in the new trailer for “Little” — but she gets her comeuppance. After years of bullying her assistant, terrorizing her staff, and...
Trailer Watch: “Grace and Frankie” Say Fuck It & Live Their Best Lives in Season 5
Grace and Frankie have been “parent trapped” in Season 5 of their titular Netflix comedy. A new trailer for the Jane Fonda-Lily Tomlin series has dropped and it sees the duo breaking out...