BY Women and Hollywood
SXSW 2016 Women Directors: Meet Anne Hamilton — ‘American Fable’
Anne Hamilton is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She got her start in the business as an intern on Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life.” Hamilton was selected to be one of eight women in the...
16 Emerging Filmmakers Sent to Cannes, Only 4 Are Women
16 emerging filmmakers are headed to Cannes Film Festival — but only a quarter of them are women. L’Atelier de la Cinéfondation will host the directors at the 2016 edition of the...
Trailer Watch: James Franco Is An Unreliable Narrator in Pamela Romanowsky’s ‘The Adderall Diaries’
A trailer has arrived for Pamela Romanowsky’s debut feature film, “The Adderall Diaries.” The drama is based on Stephen Elliott’s bestselling memoir of the same name and made its world...
Variety’s Power of Women Event To Honor Julianne Moore, Lupita Nyong’o, Misty Copeland and More
Variety’s 2016 Power of Women Event will celebrate five women who have been named as Lifetime Impact Honorees: Academy Award-winning actresses Julianne Moore and Lupita Nyong’o, everyone’s...
IFC Films Picks Up Kelly Reichardt’s ‘Certain Women,’ Starring Michelle Williams
IFC Films has acquired the U.S. rights to Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women.” The star-studded drama premiered in January at Sundance to strong notices. Stage 6 Films scooped up the...
Trailer Watch: Meryl Streep is Fabulously Off-Key in ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’
In the opera biopic “Florence Foster Jenkins,” it ain’t over ’til the deluded lady sings. Meryl Streep plays the aging socialite of the title, a woman who is not very talented, but wholly...
14 Women Directors Included in Second Half of Tribeca Fest’s Feature Film Lineup
The Tribeca Film Festival has announced the second half of its feature slate for 2016. This newly announced 55-film lineup is 25% female directed, with the work of 14 women directors being featured...
SXSW 2016 Women Directors: Meet Julia Hart — ‘Miss Stevens’
Julia Hart’s debut script “The Keeping Room” landed on the Black List and was made into a feature directed by Daniel Barber starring Brit Marling. She’s written for John Requa and Glenn...
The National Film Board of Canada to Divide Funding 50/50 Between Female and Male Directors
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB), an agency of the country’s federal government, is working to close the gender gap in Canadian filmmaking. On Tuesday the public agency announced that at...
Julie Taymor Launches Fellowship for Young Theater Directors
Julie Taymor, the first woman to win a Tony Award for directing a musical, has created a fellowship for young theater directors. The Julie Taymor World Theater Fellowship is designed to enable...
Guest Post: Why Are People Concerned Directing Is “Too Much” for Women? We Can Handle It, Thanks
When I was a little girl my mother worked in an unheated factory five days a week and cleaned houses on weekends. Never once did anyone tell her, “Well, that’s too big a job for a woman.” Nor...
Jill Soloway to Helm Coming-of-Age Movie About a Woman Who Moves to a Pot Farm for Amazon Studios
The love affair between the folks over at Amazon and “Transparent” creator Jill Soloway continues to bear fruit. Only a few weeks ago, we reported that Soloway was working on a new television...
Focus World Picks up Natalie Portman’s Directorial Debut
The U.S. rights for “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” Natalie Portman’s directorial debut, have been acquired by Focus World, a division of Focus Features. The Oscar winner premiered the drama,...
Longlist Announced for Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction
Literary debuts dominate this year’s longlist for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction. 20 novels appear on the longlist, and 11 of them are by first-time authors, marking a tie for the highest...
Gina Torres To Star As a Mega Successful Entrepreneur with a Secret in Soapy ABC Drama
Gina Torres is getting her own show. The “Suits” star will topline ABC’s soapy drama pilot “The Death of Sofia Valdez.” Torres plays the titular character, an immigrant who is, on the...
Guest Post: How the Female Directors in Film Fatales Are Tackling Hollywood’s Inclusion Problem
By now we have all heard the statistics. The film industry is facing a crisis of inclusion. According to research by the Media, Diversity and Social Change Initiative at USC Annenberg, less than 20%...
Celebrate International Women’s Day With Films By and About Women
Happy International Women’s Day from the Women and Hollywood team. In honor of the occasion, we’ve asked our interns to highlight some of their favorite movies by and about women. They’ve...
Thelma Golden Wins Major Curatorial Award
Thelma Golden, the Director and Chief Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, has been named as the 2016 recipient of the annual Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence. The honor is awarded by...
Trailer Watch: Susan Sarandon Smothers Rose Byrne with Love in ‘The Meddler’
A trailer has landed for “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” writer-director Lorene Scafaria’s latest offering, “The Meddler.” The title refers to the film’s central character,...
Waking the Feminists Comes to New York City
Last week I had the privilege to participate in Waking theFeminists as it arrived in NYC from Dublin. This movement began when womenprotested at the Abbey Theatre about the lack of women playwrights...
Eva Husson’s Teen Sex Drama ‘Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)’ Gets U.S. Distribution
Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired North American rights for “Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story),” Eva Husson’s feature directorial debut. The company bought the rights from Films Distribution....
Watch: Film Community Speaks Out About Hollywood’s Gender Problem
As we reported back in January, a new docu-series from director Caroline Suh will interrogate gender inequality in Hollywood. A video featuring interview clips with a host of high-profile names has...
J.J. Abrams Takes the Lead Towards Making Hollywood Less Pale and Male
J.J. Abrams is working to make Hollywood a little less less white and a little less male. Abrams and his writing team added a female character, Rey (Daisy Ridley,) to the center of one of the most...
YouTube Creates Global Production Program for Women Content Creators
YouTube is making an effort to make digital content creation more female-friendly. The streaming behemoth has launched the YouTube Spaces program, a global production program to support female...
Networking with Women Filmmakers – London 2015
A variety of women filmmakers including Andrea Arnold, Carol Morley, Cairo Cannon, Sophie Fiennes and many others gathered to discuss the state of affairs for women filmmakers. Hosted by Kate...
Weekly Update for March 4: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Tina Fey takes on the female midlife crisis and blows up her life by heading to Afghanistan to cover the war. She has no idea what she is...
Tina Fey’s ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’ Tops Commercial Spending for the Week
“Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” starring Tina Fey, opens on 2,300 screens this weekend. The sheer amount of studio money behind the comedian’s latest project is exciting. Paramount is pushing the war...
Amy Adams on ‘American Hustle’: “I Knew I Was Being Paid Less … It Doesn’t Mean I Liked It”
Amy Adams has spoken out about the “American Hustle” pay gap scandal in an interview with British GQ magazine. The five-time Oscar nominee has revealed that she was aware that she was being paid...
A New International Film Competition Moves Beyond the Bechdel Test
One of the oldest chapters of Women in Film and Video is teaming up with Harvard Square Script Writers to launch Flicks4Chicks, a new international film contest. The two Boston-based non-profits grew...
Fantasy, Horror and Super-Heroines: March 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
This week’s women-centric crowdfunding picks deliver impressive female characters and subjects who take on the world with fighting spirit. Whether they are stoically facing up to their own...
Listen: Women and Hollywood Podcast #24: ‘Trapped’ Director Dawn Porter
Women and Hollywood talked to director Dawn Porter about her timely, high-profile new documentary “Trapped.” The film takes its name from the hundreds of “TRAP” (targeted regulation of...
Tribeca Film Festival Announces 2016 Competition Lineup That’s 33% Female-Helmed
The competition slate for the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival has been announced. The 15th edition of the New York-based festival features three competition sections: U.S. Narrative, International...
Trailer Watch: Hilarious ‘Ghostbusters’ Assemble and Resolve to Save NYC
The first trailer for the new “Ghostbusters” has finally arrived. Only in Paul Feig’s all-female reboot of the classic 80s comedy franchise would we hear one of the parapsychologists confess...
An Open Letter to DGA President Paris Barclay
As President of the Directors Guild of America, your job is to represent all directors in Hollywood. From what I can tell, you are a working TV director with lots of credits and I’m sure you’re...
Oscar-Winning Doc ‘A Girl in the River’ Shines a Light on Honor Killing
When Louis C.K. flawlessly introduced the Best Documentary, Short Subject category at the Oscars, he said it’s his favorite because “this is the one Academy Award that has the opportunity to...
Casey Wilson to Play a Mayor in ABC Comedy Pilot Directed by Julie Anne Robinson
“Happy Endings” alum Casey Wilson is returning to ABC. The actress will headline the network’s comedy pilot “Hail Mary,” playing Mary Wolf, the overworked, charismatic mayor of a...
Mary Stuart Masterson Wants to Open A Movie Studio in Upstate NY
Mary Stuart Masterson plans to open a movie studio away from the bright lights of New York City and even further from Hollywood. The actress, producer, director and writer, best known for starring in...
Vanessa Williams to Star in VH1 Series Based on Star Jones’ Book
Vanessa Williams is returning to television, and this time around, she’ll be the star of the show. The three-time Emmy nominee will topline VH1’s “Satan’s Sisters,” a scripted series based...
Ellen Page’s ‘Gaycation’ Is a Fascinating, Moving Look at Gay Culture Around the Globe
Do not be fooled by its glib title, “Gaycation” is no mere gay travelogue. The new TV project from out star Ellen Page and her gay best friend Ian Daniel takes them on a journey to visit LGBT...
This Film Description is a Reminder of All That is Wrong in Hollywood
Yesterday I received a press release for the upcoming film “Knight of Cups.” The drama, which opens this weekend, is written and directed by Terrence Malick. He’s one of the dudes who floats a...
Watch: John Oliver and ‘Trapped’ Set the Stage for Historic Supreme Court Case on Abortion
A recent episode of HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” tackled insidious abortion laws and their devastating impact on women nationwide. In typical Oliver fashion, the segment was...
Teaser Watch: Edina and Patsy Luxuriate on the Beach in ‘Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie’
Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) are coming to the big screen, and a teaser offers a peak at what the tremendously entertaining twosome are up to. A clip promoting “Absolutely...
PBS’s ‘POV’ to Stream Groundbreaking Women Make Movies (WMM) Films for Women’s History Month
PBS series “POV” is spotlighting four influential Women Make Movies (WMM) films in honor of Women’s History Month: Judith Helfand’s “A Healthy Baby Girl,” Annie Goldson and Peter...
Sarah Shahi Cast as Nancy Drew in New CBS Series
Sarah Shahi (“Person of Interest, “Fairly Legal”) has been announced as the star of CBS’s “Drew.” The Texas-born Persian actress will portray iconic detective Nancy Drew in the...
March 2016 Film Preview
March’s female-centric and/or women-directed films spread wide across all genres, ranging from comedies and the return of a cult favorite to suspenseful action flicks by and about women. First to...
Quote of the Day: Amy Pascal Says The System is “Geared for Women to Fail in Films”
In a new interview with Britain’s The Sunday Times Magazine, former Sony co-chairperson Amy Pascal described the lack of opportunities for female directors as “a travesty, a real travesty.”...
Trailer Watch: A Mexican Woman Risks Her Life to Cross the ‘Hostile Border’ to the U.S.
A tense, atmospheric trailer has been released for indie thriller “Hostile Border,” co-directed and written by Kaitlin McLaughlin. “There are people who struggle and people who get what they...
‘Mustang’ Wins Four Cesar Awards
Sadly “Mustang” didn’t come out victorious at the Oscars, but Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s powerful coming-of-age story did pick up an impressive four statuettes at France’s Cesar Awards in Paris...
Guest Post: What I Learned Shadowing on ‘Homeland’
A year ago, I went to a “diversity” lunch at Directors Guild of America in Los Angeles. I was hesitant to attend, because the overwhelming majority of those who currently fill this position are...
The Highs and Lows of Oscar 2016 Weekend
We called the 2015 Oscar nominations “a dark day for women in Hollywood.” Unfortunately that description fits most years, and certainly this one. #OscarsSoWhite rightfully dominated headlines...
Jenna Coleman’s ‘Victoria’ to Take Over ‘Downton Abbey’ Slot on PBS
If you’re looking for the next “Downton Abbey,” which wraps up its sixth and final season this winter, PBS has a suggestion. Next year, the network will air in its Sunday night...