BY Women and Hollywood
IFP’s Independent Filmmakers Lab Seeking New Filmmakers
IFP’s Independent Filmmakers Lab is on the lookout for new voices in film. It’s a year-long fellowship supporting new, independent filmmakers through completion, marketing and...
Trailer Watch: The Sapphires
In 1968, a group of four talented Australian Aboriginal girls (Deborah Mailman, Jessica Mauboy, Shari Sebbens, Miranda Tapsell) start an all girl group called The Sapphires and travel to Vietnam with...
Zooey Deschanel to Launch Production Company and Women Centric TV News Round Up
In television news, New Girl star Zooey Deschanel alongside Hello Giggles co-founder Sophia Rossi have launched their own production company. The pair have signed a two year first look deal...
To the Academy: Consider the Women Directors
It's Academy Awards week and the ballots are closed. While we don't know the winners yet, one thing we know for sure is that no women have again been nominated for best director. This...
Connie Britton on Hollywood, Nashville and Aging
If you are a regular reader of Women and Hollywood, you know that we are big fans of Connie Britton here. We love her as Rayna James in Callie Khouri’s Nashville and Tami Taylor is one of our...
Trailer Watch: Two Mothers – Directed by Anne Fontaine
Anne Fontaine's Two Mothers premiered at Sundance to mixed reviews. The film follows the friendship of two mothers (Robin Wright and Naomi Watts) who both sleep with each other's extremely...
Cross Post: A Female Tarantino
As a recently decided film major midway through the fall of my sophomore year, I was sitting in the back of 511 Dodge Hall at Columbia University, idly doodling in the minutes before my Script...
Lana Wilson and Martha Shane’s After Tiller Picked Up by Oscilloscope Laboratories
The directorial debut from Lana Wilson and Martha Shane, After Tiller, has been picked up by Oscilloscope Laboratories. The documentary, which premiered at Sundance, looks at the state of third...
The 2013 Writers Guild Awards
At the annual Writers Guild Award’s, women writers did well this year — in television. Film, not so much. Lena Dunham’s Girls won best new series, one of Mad Men’s best...
Maggie Smith on 60 Minutes
If you are like me you are devastated that the third season of Downton Abbey is over. I don't know how I will wait at least a year until the fourth season, which they are filming now, and...
Women Directed Film Winners in Berlin
This weekend, the 2013 Berlinale drew to a close and the major awards went to male directed films about strong women. The talk throughout the week was about the Romanian film Child's Play...
Cross Post: My Two Favorite Golden Globe Winners: JLaw & Anne Get it Right on Body Image
As a complete movie nerd, I dragged my reluctant friends and family to my tiny local movie theater quite a few times over this past winter break. There have been just too many great movies to choose...
Guest Post: What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Aging: An Oscar-Nominated Filmmaker’s Conversation-Starter on Women and Aging
Ten years ago, when I began work on the short documentary that would become Kings Point, issues of aging weren’t really a part of the public discussion. In a way, that helped me: because they...
Weekly Update February 15: Women-Centric, Directed, Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Beautiful Creatures Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) longs to escape his small Southern town. He meets a mysterious new girl, Lena (Alice Englert). Together, they...
WGA Awards to Hold Tribute to Nora Ephron
On Sunday, February 17, the Writer’s Guild of America, East will hold their annual awards ceremony. They’ve just announced that included in the ceremony will be a tribute to Nora Ephron,...
Viola Davis Speaks About Beautiful Creatures and Black Characters in 2013
Viola Davis’s latest film, Beautiful Creatures comes out today. Based on a YA novel, the film follows a teen girl, Lena (Alice Englert) who moves to a small Southern town. At her new high...
SXSW Adds More Women Directed Films to Schedule
SXSW has announced another round of films to their lineup, adding more films directed by women. They have also added many films written by women, such as Sundance favorite The East, co-written and...
Tina Fey on her new film Admission, Feminism, Motherhood and Lily Tomlin
At a recent press conference in New York, Tina Fey said that feminism remains a factor in choosing her projects: Feminism is certainly something that appeals to me and I certainly try to avoid any...
FX Picks Up The Bridge from Meredith Stiehm
FX has picked up creator Meredith Stiehm’s The Bridge for a thirteen episodes. Production is set to begin in April. The detective drama stars Diane Kruger and Demian Bichir. Marco Ruiz...
Poster Release: If I Were You Written and Directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin
Here’s a look at the newly released poster for the new film from Joan Carr-Wiggin, If I Were You, starring Marcia Gay Harden. The film follows Madelyn (Gay Harden) who saves a young woman...
On the Ground in Berlin
I arrived in Berlin two days ago from NY after the huge success of The Athena Film Festival. Did you hear we had a blizzard and people still came. I missed the opening weekend craziness...
Rachel Feldman to Direct Lilly Ledbetter Biopic
Lilly Ledbetter has chosen Rachel Feldman to direct a biopic based on her life and her fight for equal pay for women. Ledbetter worked for over two decades in an Alabama Goodyear Factory. After...
Ava DuVernay Directs Short Film ‘The Door’ for Miu Miu
Ava DuVernay has directed a new short film for fashion label, Miu Miu. The film is the fifth in their ‘The Women's Tales’ series. Starring Gabrielle Union, as a woman whose marriage...
Jessica Chastain Shoots Down Fabricated Feud with Jennifer Lawrence
Unsurprisingly, media outlets have created a “feud” between Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence. The Oscar-nominated actresses were apparently fighting because of Jennifer...
Emmanuelle Riva, Lynne Ramsay and Juno Temple Win at 2013 BAFTAS
On Sunday, the BAFTAS held their annual awards ceremony. As awards season comes to a close, there weren’t many upsets but a couple interesting things of note. Emmanuelle Riva won lead actress...
Melissa McCarthy Dominates Weekend Box Office
Sorry Rex Reed—looks like there are many, many people who want to see a Melissa McCarthy starring in a movie. Despite the blizzard on the east coast, McCarthy’s Identity Thief opened...
Hollywood Sexist of the Day: Rex Reed
Rex Reed’s review of Identity Thief in The New York Observer is a scathing takedown of the film, which is fine. He's entitled to his opinion. He's a critic. What’s not...
Trailer Watch: The Brass Teapot – Directed by Ramaa Mosley
The Brass Teapot, directed by Ramaa Mosley, centers around a down on their luck couple (Juno Temple and Michael Angarano) who are struggling to make it until they find a magical teapot at a local...
Let’s Talk About Gender and Women Directors at the Berlin International Film Festival
This year’s Berlin Film Festival kicked off yesterday—screening over 400 films—19 of which are in competition. Festival director Dieter Kosslick says that gender is a central...
Weekly Update: Women-Centric, Directed, Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Side Effects Emily (Rooney Mara) and Martin (Channing Tatum) are a successful New York couple whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily's...
Barbra Streisand, Ellen Page Directing New Films
After yesterday’s news that Melissa McCarthy would be directing her first feature, more news about upcoming women directed films has been announced. The legendary Barbra Streisand will be...
Melissa McCarthy Developing Three New Films and Directing Tammy
The very funny Melissa McCarthy announced three movies that she and her writing partner/husband, Ben Falcone will be developing with their production company, On the Day. They have also signed on to...
Athena Co-Chair Diablo Cody Helps Kicks Off The Athena Film Festival Tonight
As we here at Women and Hollywood gear up for the Athena Film Festival starting tonight at Barnard College, we are so excited and thankful for the press that has been circulating about the festival....
Bonnie Hammer and Lauren Zalaznick Take on New Roles at NBC
Bonnie Hammer will be taking on running the full NBCU’s cable portfolio. Hammer, who previously oversaw USA Network, Syfy, E!, G4, Cloo, Chiller, Universal HD, Universal Cable Productions and...
Interview with Cate Shortland – Director and Co-Writer of Lore
Cate Shortland’s Lore opens on this Friday (2/8) in New York and Los Angeles. Originally published on September 25, 2012. Lore is Cate Shortland's second film after the exciting...
Jane Campion Named President of 2013 Cannes Short Film Jury
In exciting news from Cannes, Jane Campion has been named president of the Short Film Jury and the Cinefondation at this year’s festival. Campion (who we just interviewed at Sundance) has...
Sundance Interview with Sarah Barnett, General Manager of the Sundance Channel
We got to spend a couple of minutes at Sundance with the woman behind the Sundance Channel, Sarah Barnett. We don't get to talk to executives too often so it was really nice to get her...
Julia Stiles Playing Frances Marion in Jennifer DeLia’s Mary Pickford Biopic ‘The First’
Julia Stiles has just signed on to play screenwriter Frances Marion in Jennifer DeLia’s The First, which is based on Eileen Whitfield’s biography Pickford: The Woman Who Made...
Our Favorite Super Bowl Ad Starring Amy Poehler
One of Women and Hollywood's favorite ladies, Amy Poehler, starred in a Best Buy ad during the Super Bowl as an extremely difficult customer, automatically winning our favorite Super Bowl ad of...
Sundance Interview with Lynn Shelton – Director of Touchy Feely
I had never met Lynn Shelton before last month but I already felt like I knew her. She has a way of telling us stories about other people that are really about all of us. Her new film...
A Sisterhood With a Glass Ceiling
The NY Times devoted the top story in the Arts and Leisure section this past weekend to an exciting thing happening off-Broadway, the fact that women are being regularly hired to direct shows. The...
Kerry Washington Wins Big at NAACP Image Awards
Over the weekend at the NAACP Image Awards, Kerry Washington swept the show. She won three awards. She won for outstanding actress in a drama series for her role as Olivia Pope on Scandal, and also...
Guest Post: A Perfect Ending — Lesbian Film, Art House Film or Both?
So what is it that makes a movie a lesbian movie? Does it require lesbians playing the roles of the characters? Does the director have to be gay? Is there a quota of girl on girl...
Lena Dunham’s Big Week: DGA Win, New Show and Entertainment Weekly Cover Story
Things for Lena Dunham are showing absolutely no signs of slowing down—within the past week, she’s won a DGA, is developing a new show for HBO, is Entertainment Weekly’s cover girl...
Julia Ormond’s First US TV Starring Role in Witches of East End for Lifetime
Julia Ormond has had a varied and interesting career from roles in Legends of the Fall to David Lynch’s Inland Empire. Ormond has also had roles in many TV movies and miniseries and guest...
Stoker- Starring Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman
The media and art that I always tend to be attracted to, some would say, could fall into the disturbing spectrum. I like messy, complicated and at times psychotic female characters. This has ranged...
SXSW Line Up: Not Great for Women Directors
Fresh on the heels of Sundance is SXSW’s film line up. While there are some awesome women-directed films featured such as Sini Anderson's documentary, The Punk Singer, about Kathleen Hanna,...
Surprise! Go Daddy’s Sexist Super Bowl Ad is the Worst Ever
While the Super Bowl is bringing us Beyonce at halftime, another thing it annually brings are the worst of the worst in terms of sexist ads. And GoDaddy.com without fail brings the cream of the crop...
Sundance Interview: Concussion – Directed by Stacie Passon, Produced by Rose Troche, Starring Robin Weigert
Concussion was one of my favorite movies at Sundance this year. It was truly a revelation. Robin Weigert who we have seen for so many years as a supporting character in shows like...
Standing Up and For Women
When I first started Women and Hollywood I knew that I wanted to the site to support women and their roles and accomplishments in pop culture but I really did not know exactly what that meant. Now,...
Kathleen Kennedy to Receive Will Rogers Motion Pictures Pioneer of Year Award
Kathleen Kennedy will be receiving the Pioneer of the Year award at this year’s Will Rogers Motion Pictures Pioneers dinner. Last year, Kennedy was picked by George Lucas to lead Lucasfilm....