BY Women and Hollywood
New Study from Quebec Finds Female Directors Face Tough Road Getting Films Made
A new study released last week by Anna Lupien and Francine Descarries, researchers at the Université du Québec à Montréal in partnership with the Réalisatrices équitables an association of...
The DGA Celebrates International Women’s Day with a Tribute to Kathryn Bigelow by Laura J. Shapiro
The DGA and its Women’s Steering Committee celebrated International Women’s Day on Tuesday night with a heartfelt tribute to director Kathryn Bigelow as part of their year long 75th Anniversary...
Red Riding Hood — Review
You have to give it to Catherine Hardwicke. She specializes in making movies for teenage girls. She seems to be able channel that teen angst and language better than anyone else. The problem is that...
Noticing Sexism
This just really annoyed me this morning. And it was at the top of a story about Catherine Hardwicke. Couldn’t it say say for your inner fan? Why does it have to be for fanboys only?
Jane Eyre — Review
The moment you see Jane running through the Moors breathless you are sucked into her world. Jane Eyre is played by Mia Wasikowska, in another stellar performance (The Kids Are All Right,) proving she...
Julie Taymor Exits Spider-Man Musical
Reports were confirmed last night that director Julie Taymor has departed the Spider-man musical which she had been working on for years. The visionary directory who rose to the stratosphere of her...
Sneak Preview: Interview with Susanne Bier
Here’s a brief snippet of my interview with Susanne Bier, Academy Award winning director of In a Better World. The film opens here in the US on April 1. The full interview will be up in a week...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Gabourey Sidibe
Gabourey Sidibe’s new film Yelling to the Sky had its world premiere last month in Berlin. This month it premieres stateside as SXSW. When doing press for the film in Berlin, Sidibe talked about...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Michelle Rodriguez
I love how this woman is able to talk about the roles women play in Hollywood because she doesn’t play them. She entered into the business in Girlfight and has been the action go to girl since...
Tribeca Film Festival Competition Lineup- 2011
The 10th anniversary of the Tribeca Film Festival will take place next month starting April 20th. They have started rolling out the lineup. Here are the women directed films from the World Narrative...
Recent Media Pieces
Here are some cool pieces that I was interviewed for: Oscar Watch: The Most Powerful Women Of The 2011 Academy Awards — ForbesWoman Pre-Oscar Radio piece from Uptown radio Feminism, Film and...
Thelma and Louise and What Could Have Been
When you spend so much time online one thing that suffers is off line reading. So, I am perpetually playing catch up to things that can’t be read online. One of the pieces I just caught up with is...
Happy 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day
Here’s to hoping there is a time when women are treated equally. When we don’t have to fight twice as hard for half the pie. For girls to be able to go to school without regard for being...
Are We Equals?
With Daniel Craig- voice over by Dame Judi Dench. Directed by Sam Taylor-Wood. AWESOME
Check Out Tina Brown’s First Newsweek Cover
Bold move. The first female Newsweek editor puts a woman (Hillary Clinton) on her first cover. Tomorrow is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day and in honor of that, Newsweek has a...
Opening Night at the Athena Film Festival
Pepsico’s WIN (Women’s Inspiration Network) was one of the sponsors of the Athena Film Festival. They took some great footage and edited together short pieces throughout the weekend. Here’s the...
The Girls on Film Presents The Town
It’s not like Hollywood is pulling the wool over anyone’s eyes when it comes to the gender disparity. But these young men and women have taken it to a whole different level. I got turned onto to...
Catherine Hardwicke Walked Away From New Moon
They has been much speculation as to whether Catherine Hardwicke was fired or walked away from the Twilight sequel, New Moon. But nobody ever heard from Catherine Hardwicke what actually happened. In...
Emily Blunt Does Not Want To Be The Girlfriend in a Comic Book Film
I could not love this young woman anymore. Everything I’ve seen her in has been fantastic. If you haven’t seen her debut in My Summer of Love you are missing something. She’s been on the junket...
The Culture Wars Are Back: Mike Huckabee Slams Natalie Portman For Being Single and Pregnant
The steam is coming out of my ears. It’s like deja vu. Twenty years ago we had Dan Quayle going after Candice Bergen on Murphy Brown and now we have Mike Huckabee going after...
Julie Taymor Talks About The Struggle With Spiderman
Julie Taymor has been in NY working non-stop on trying to get the Spiderman Musical to a place where it can finally open. The knives have been out for some time for many reasons. One, this is the...
Three Vie for Next Female Franchise
Variety reported yesterday that three Oscar nominated young actresses Hailee Steinfeld, Abigail Breslin and Jennifer Lawrence are all in the race to play the lead in The Hunger Games based on the...
More Good News on Bridesmaids
This film is shaping up to be the one of the movies I am most looking forward to seeing this year. Now I know that it is a movie about a wedding, and I have said that I would be perfectly fine with...
Angelina Jolie in Afghanistan
Bravo for her to keep raising awareness about the plight of refugees. It’s heartening that not everyone in the world knows who she is and that she could care less. At the end of the piece the...
Guest Post: Premiering Yelling to the Sky at the Berlin Film Festival by Victoria Mahoney
The freakiest thing about indie filmmakers is that we are bred and conditioned for harsh news. We wake up to 32,000 “nos” a day, and self-preservation protects us from the ambush of let down. We...
Applications Now Open for Women in Film Finishing Fund
Hey lady filmmakers- if your film is ready to go but you can’t raise that last bit to finish it, you should apply to the Women in Film Finishing Fund sponsored by Netflix. You could get a grant of...
Trailer Watch: Miral
The updated trailer — film will open in the US this spring
The Dirty Little Secret in Hollywood
There is a power disparity in Hollywood. A big one. The men have got it. It is never more evident when one of the most high profile people exhibits behavior that makes the whole country and society...
Guest Post: Whither the Feminist Comedy Fan? by Emilie Spiegel
Last week’s 30 Rock raised a lot of questions about the messy and complicated relationship between feminism and comedy. As Rebecca Traister at Salon notes, it’s laudable to see a major network...
Actress Rosamund Pike Talks About Women (in Film) and Ambition
This is from the launch of the Bird’s Eye View Film Festival. The festival is in London from March 8–17.
Tilda a No Go at HBO
This is the second Diane Keaton project that has not made it to series at HBO. First was the Marti Noxon pilot script where she was to play a “Gloria Steinem” like magazine editor who starts a...
Spend International Women’s Day at an Event Honoring Kathryn Bigelow
This is an open invitation to the community of women in Hollywood. You don’t have to be a DGA member. You are crazy if you do not go. I would like someone to cover it for Women and Hollywood.
Sally Menke Interview on The Treatment
Last night at the Oscars editor Sally Menke was one of the people remembered. She died last fall in a freak accident while hiking. I found out recently that her friend Elvis Mitchell of The...
Post-Award Thoughts
As I watched the Oscars and the Independent Spirit Awards this weekend you could see one clear difference between the two events (aside from the formal dresses and the hosts) — the presence of...
Melissa Leo — Hollywood’s Everywoman
I was really glad to see that Melissa Leo was able to pull out the Oscar win. It was looking really shaky there at the end when she got slammed for her “consider” ads. People felt the ads were...
Mildred Pierce — Poster and Trailers
In the good old days this actually would have been a movie (oh, yeah it was.) I’m probably not going out on a limb to think this will be one of the high points of the year creatively. Anything with...
Trailer Watch: Meek’s Cutoff Written and Directed by Kelly Reichardt
Will be released in the US in April
Keeping it All in Perspective
Hollywood is giving out a lot of awards this weekend but it’s also really important to keep a bigger picture in mind. While we fight for women’s rights and visibility in Hollywood, other rights...
Women at the Movies This Weekend — February 25, 2011
Women’s Films Now PlayingThe Other WomanOrgasm Inc. — directed by Liz Canner (doc) When We LeaveThe Roommate From Prada to NadaTrue GritBhutto (doc)The WoodmansThe Tempest — written and...
Who Goes to the Movies? Moviegoers Stats from 2010
The annual look at who went to the movies from the MPAA has been released. Here are the relevant stats. Women and men go to the movies in equal numbers. In 2010 women bought 50% of the tickets and...
From Feminist Frequency: Women’s Stories, Movies and the Oscars
This video completely speaks for itself. Think about it as you watch the Oscars.
Support This Film! — The History of the Universe as Told by Wonder Woman
I am breaking my rule of not posting info about films looking to raise money because I think this one is very important. I so want to see this made so we can have it at a future Athena Film Festival....
Geena Davis: Gender Stereotypes Remain Deeply Entrenched in Today’s Entertainment…
Yesterday, The United Nations celebrated the launch of a new agency — UN Women — which combines all the different women’s organizations under one leader, former Chilean President...
Lisa Cholodenko Talks Women Directors: “There’s a Kind of Fundamental Misogyny in the Culture”
I caught Lisa Cholodenko being interviewed on Tell Me More on NPR yesterday and Michel Martin got Lisa Cholodenko to talk about issues related to female directors that I have not heard any women...
Kathryn Bigelow Was Offered New Spiderman Directing Gig
In a piece in the LA Times about The King’s Speech Tom Hooper’s next gig, I learned something very interesting — that Kathryn Bigelow turned down the Spiderman reboot now to be directed by...
Susanne Bier Talks In A Better World
I am finding it so interesting that Susanne Bier is getting some great press for her Oscar nomination. It makes me think that there is an appetite to hear from women directors especially ones who...
A New Low: Bad Teacher Trailer
This ruined my morning and now I will share with you and ruin yours. I have seem some really horrible trailers in my time, but this film looks beyond dreadful. As teachers are fighting for their...
Oscar Thoughts
This time last year I was giddy with excitement in anticipation of the Oscars. The narrative about the awards was all about a woman finally being able to break through the boys club and claim the big...
EW Picks the 25 Top Working Directors
EW published a list of the “top” 25 working directors and they define top as “most talented, in-demand filmmakers behind the camera today”. Not surprisingly, only one woman, Kathryn Bigelow...
Kristen Schaal Takes on the Republicans War Against Women
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Attention Female Filmmakers: Submit Your Short Film to Lunafest by April 1 and Win $1,000
This is direct from our friends at Lunafest LUNAFEST® is a traveling film festival of notable and award-wining short films by, for and about women. Films tour 150+ venues and screen in front of...