BY Women and Hollywood
Hysteria — Directed by Tanya Wexler, co-written by Jonah Lisa Dyer
Here is a repost of the review of the review I wrote after I saw the film at the Toronto Film Festival. The film opens in the US today. One of the most vivid memories I have of my college learning...
Trailer Watch: Won’t Back Down
This is my kind of movie. It stars Maggie Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, and Holly Hunter. Look for it in Theatres September 28. Yahoo! Video Player
Interview with Tanya Wexler — Director of Hysteria
Hysteria first premiered at the Toronto Film Festival and it recently screened at Tribeca. It opens in the US tomorrow, Friday, May 18. Women and Hollywood: This movie feels very contemporary in...
Good Lord — Please Leave These Women Alone
In the last couple days I have seen several disturbing stories about two actresses being harrassed for their post partum appearances. Both Bryce Dallas Howard and Aishwarya Rai have given birth in...
Cannes Watch: Why We Need Films Directed By Women AND Films About Women
Cannes is kicking off right now. I’ve spent the last two days putting together a petition that will be sent to the festival about the lack of female directors in competition. You can sign the...
Cannes Watch: The First Female Saudia Arabian Director Hits Cannes
Haifaa Al Mansour may not be able to drive in her country but she seems to have accomplished something no other woman — or man — has done in Saudia Arabia — directing the first...
Females Grossly Underrepresented and Misrepresented in Top Grossing Films of 2011
New stats are out from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film. This time the research takes a look at the amount of female characters onscreen in the top grossing 100 films...
Cannes Film Festival Slammed By Feminist Group La Barbe For Excluding Women Directors
The French feminist group La Barbe which was started several years ago in response to the sexist media treatment of Segolene Royal in her race against Nicholas Sarkozy, has taken on one of the most...
Julie Delpy and Her Love/Hate Relationship with Hollywood
Julie Delpy is no a shrinking violet. She has many awesome opinions about how Hollywood treats women, which could be one of the reasons why, according to her, she has been fired by every agency...
New TV Shows Created by Women for 2012–2013
It’s that tme of the year again. When your favorite shows get cancelled, and shows that you have no idea why they exist get renewed again for another year. For renewals, one piece of good news is...
Women’s Films Opening — May 11, 2012
Where Do We Go Now? — written and directed by Nadine Labaki Where Do We Go Now? is about how the women in a Lebanese village come together across religious differences to make peace in their...
Guest Post: What It Feels Like for a Girl
I really never thought I’d hear a sentence like this in 2012: “I can see making a coming-of-age story about a boy. But when it’s a girl… it’s just creepy.” And yet, that’s what a...
Interview with Lisa Robinson and Annie J. Howell — Directors of Small, Beautifully Moving Parts
Women and Hollywood: How was it directing a movie together? How did you divide the work? Lisa Robinson and Annie J. Howell: In short, it was a very satisfying experience. We found that two brains...
Repost: Interview with Nadine Labaki — Writer and Director of Where Do We Go Now?
Here’s the repost of the interview I did with Nadine Labaki in September at the Toronto Film Festival. The film opens in the US today. Women and Hollywood: Congratulations. I read your film is...
Trailer Watch: Forbidden Voices — Directed by Barbara Miller
An incredibly moving story of three women bloggers fighting to keep telling the truth. As First Lady Michelle Obama says: “courage can actually be contagious.” This film opened in Switzerland...
Jessica Chastain Passes on a Part in Iron Man 3
When the news surfaced last week that Jessica Chastain was circling a part in Iron Man 3 I was a bit surprised. I just doesn’t seem to be her type of film. She does not scream big Hollywood action...
First Feature on Hollywood Legend Mary Pickford to Go Into Production Next Year
It’s always good news when a woman whose contributions to our culture have receded from contemporary knowledge gets brought back into mainstream culture. Producers Julie Pacino and Jennifer DeLia...
Hollywood Feminist Couple of the Day: Idina Menzel and Taye Diggs
The singing and acting couple (did you know they met while performing in the original company of Rent?) have started A Broader Way Foundation which created a camp for girls focusing on the creative...
Tribeca Watch: Speaking With Writer/Director Jenny Deller and Producer Kristin Fairweather of Future Weather
I didn’t get to see many Tribeca Fest films in the theatre this year due to my travel schedule at the beginning of the festival, but I was so glad to be able to catch the film and post screening...
Guest Post: Highlighting New Directing Talent
Tonight, AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women will have its 2012 showcase at the DGA. Each year this highly selective program offers eight talented women a tuition-free training program and the...
Chicken & Egg Pictures Call for Entries
For all female filmmakers- Chicken & Egg Pictures is looking for talented and amazing women filmmakers. They have only ONE open call in 2012. The deadline is June 29th 2012! Chicken & Egg...
Lady Filmmakers at the LA Fest
The LA Film Festival runs from June 14–24. Here are the female directed films. Galas Middle of Nowhere, Ava DuVernay Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Lorene Scafaria Summer Showcase ...
Funny or Die: Don’t You Want Your Dad in Your Vagina?
These people at Funny or Die are really doing a great job of keeping this issue in focus and making sure we see how absurd it is. This one stars Kate Beckinsale, Judy Greer,...
The Marginalization of Women’s Stories During The Summer Movie Season
The summer movie season kicked off this weekend with gusto with the record breaking $200 million opening of The Avengers. I joined the throngs on Friday afternoon for a showing and there was much...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Julia Bluhm
Maybe it will take an awesome girl to get people to think differently about how absurd and damaging it is that we live in a world dominated by photoshopped pictures. We never get to see anyone real,...
Women Director Watch: Debra Granik and Nicole Holofcener
Some news on two of the top tier female directors- Nicole Holofcener will be directing Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini in a film for Fox Searchlight according to the Playlist. Here’s the...
Another Missed Opportunity — Francis Lawrence Hired to Direct Catching Fire
There are not many times where people have enough juice to make change in a lumbering system that is so resistant to it. But the gig of directing Catching Fire, the second film in The Hunger Games...
Women’s Films Opening — May 4, 2012
The Perfect Family — directed by Anne Renton, written by Paula Goldberg and Claire V. Reily The Perfect Family written by Paula Goldberg and Claire V. Reily and directed by Anne Renton and...
Interview with Anne Renton — Director of The Perfect Family
The Perfect Family written by Paula Goldberg and Claire V. Reily and directed by Anne Renton and produced by Cora Olson and Jen Dubin hits theatres and VOD today. It tells the story of Eileen Cleary...
Trailer Watch: Beast of the Southern Wild
This is the film that won the top narrative prize at Sundance. It stars newcomer Quvenzhané Wallis. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a trailer quite like this. I am looking forward to this one. It...
Guest Post: The Women Who Propel Last Call at the Oasis
When we were first looking around for stories to feature in the film, we noticed that many of the best-known scientists were male. We wondered: “Where are the women in this picture?” During our...
Happy 100th Birthday Universal Pictures
I get a ton of press releases. Most of them I don’t even read. This week I got a release about the 100th anniversary of Universal Pictures that was made up of 100 fun facts. Not too many of the...
The World Before Her Takes Top Doc Prize at Tribeca
The World Before Her directed by Nisha Pahuja is an eye-opening and disturbing documentary about the limited options for girls and young women in India. The film juxtaposes two opposing...
Nancy Meyers to Direct Her Daughter Haille’s Screenplay
Sorry for being a little late on this but I love this story so I wanted to make sure I shared it. Nancy Meyers whose last film was It’s Complicated will direct her daughter Hailee Meyers...
Indiewire Wins Webby for Best Movie and Film Site
Just want to take a moment and congratulate all my colleagues at Indiewire particularly editor in chief Dana Harris for the big webby win. While I am not on staff of Indiewire, Women and Hollywood...
Video Watch: Shit Girls Say About the Show Girls
Produced by Rex (Rachael Mason, Kerry McGuire, Stephanie Bencin). Girls just got renewed for a second season. h/t Laura Shields
Tony Nominations: Good for Female Directors, Horrible for Female Writers
Last June after a season where not a single female playwright was produced on Broadway it was announced that there would be at least five women with plays in the just ended 2011–2012 season. Four...
Guest Post: Collaboration, Not Competition
I’ve always been a woman who liked to think herself in control of her own destiny. What I found, though, was that in order to collaborate with destiny, I had to collaborate with other women. I am...
Trailer Watch: Peace Love and Misunderstanding
Jane Fonda as a hippie in Woodstock. Film is on opens and is available on VOD on June 8. Yahoo! Video Player
The Status of Women’s Film Festivals
One of the reasons I went to Colgone to the International Frauen Film Festival was to be a part of a dialogue on the status of women’s films festivals. The festival invited Skadi Loist a...
The Guthrie Theatre Announces Its 50th Anniversary Season With No Female Playwrights on the Program
The Guthrie Theatre is one of the most prestigious regional theatres in America. Next year it will be celebrating it’s 50th anniversary season. Joe Dowling, the 7th Artistic director of the...
Elles directed by Malgoska Szumowska
Here are my impressions of the film from the Toronto Film Festival. The film opens in NY and LA today with a nationwide release it follow. Elles written by Tine Byrckel and Malgoska Szumowska and...
Trailer Watch: The Perfect Family Directed by Anne Renton
Film Opens May 4 Yahoo! Video Player
Belma Bas Wins Top Award at International Frauen Film Festival for Zephyr
I just am back from Germany where I attended the International Frauen Film Festival, a truly wonderful environment where you can hang out with women working in the film business that you otherwise...
Trailer Watch: Hope Springs Starring Meryl Streep
What do you think about this one. It opens in the slot in August where movies targeted at women like Julie & Julia and The Help have been quite successful. It’s directed by the same guy who did...
A Big Week for Women and Hollywood
Just wanted to make sure that you saw the pieces that I wrote this week for The Washington Post and the NY Times’ website Room For Debate. Tonight at 6pm, in conjunction with the Tribeca Film...
Trailer Watch: Romeo & Juliet in Yiddish Directed by Eve Annenberg
Synopsis: Eve Annenberg’s gritty, funny new feature stars predominantly non-actor twenty somethings who grew up speaking Yiddish as a first language in Brooklyn. This is possibly the first...
Female Reviewer Gets Attacked for Avengers Review
While I am not usually that interested in boycentric blockbusters, I am very into seeing The Avengers. I want to see how an open feminist man like Joss Whedon makes a big budget Hollywood film. Will...
Trailer Watch: Brave
Looks like this will be Pixar’s one shot at a film about a girl because they released the list of the next couple of movies and NONE are about women and NONE are directed by women. We’ve got the...
Happy Birthday Barbra
Today is Barbra Streisand’s 70th birthday. Even if you are not a fan — and I don’t know how you could not be — this woman has had an extremely impressive career. Singer, songwriter,...
Guest Post: Filming Elephant Landmine Survivors Walk on Prostheses is No Small Feat
“The Eyes of Thailand” documentary tells the true story of Soraida Salwala’s quest to help two elephant landmine survivors, Motala and Baby Mosha, walk again on their own four legs by building...