BY Women and Hollywood
J.K. Rowling to Receive Free-Speech Award from PEN
J.K. Rowling, the real-life wizard behind the “Harry Potter” franchise, has been named as the 2016 recipient of the PEN/Allen Foundation Literary Service award. PEN (Poets, Essayists and...
NBC Gives Pilot Orders to Comedies From Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones
Former “Parks and Recreation” stars Amy Poehler and Rashida Jones have received pilot orders from their old network. NBC has given the go-ahead on the first episode of an untitled single-cam...
Trailer Watch: Ellen Page Travels Around the World in LGBT-Centered Docuseries ‘Gaycation’
Ellen Page’s new docuseries project has been hotly anticipated since a video released online last summer showed the “Freeheld” star confronting Texas senator Ted Cruz about LGBT rights at the...
Chloe Zhao’s ‘Songs My Brothers Taught Me’ Lands Distribution Deal With Kino Lorber
Writer-director Chloe Zhao’s festival gem “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” has been acquired by Kino Lorber. Made with a largely unprofessional Lakota Native American cast, the drama focuses on...
Cesar Nods Announced: ‘Mustang’ and Other Female-Directed Films Crowd the Nominations
The Cesar nominations are in, and contrary to most award shows on most years, women-helmed films are well represented. The Cesars are most often compared to the Oscars, but the list speaks for...
Vicky Zhao to Direct Animated Feature Adaptation of Iconic TV Series ‘My Fair Princess’
Vicky Zhao, one of China’s most popular actresses, will return behind the camera to helm a feature-film version of “My Fair Princess,” the TV show that launched her to stardom. The animated...
Spring 2016 Women on Broadway Preview: Milestones and Misses
Broadway will hit two important milestones this spring. Themusical “Waitress” is the first Broadway musical to have an all-female creativeteam, which includes the composer-lyricist, bookwriter,...
Docu-Series About Hollywood’s Gender Inequality to Air on Epix
Gender inequality has persisted in Hollywood since the early days of the silver screen, but it’s only in recent years that the mainstream media has devoted much attention to sexism on screen and...
Gina Rodriguez Launches Social-Media Movement to Spotlight Latino Performers
The #OscarsSoWhite movement that has dominated headlines for over a week has been a necessary reckoning with the institutional exclusion that plagues Hollywood. But that all-important protest has...
Women in Film Awards $32,000 in Grants to Sundance Filmmakers
Women In Film, Los Angeles (WIF-LA) awarded $32,000 in cash and in-kind grants at Sundance over the weekend. The honors were presented at the 10th annual Women in Film Sundance Filmmakers Panel...
Horizon Awards Winners Named: Four Young Female Filmmakers to Watch
The winners of the 2016 Horizon Award have been announced. This year’s recipients are emerging filmmakers Macarena (Macqui) Gaona, Shanice Malakai Johnson, Juliette Gosselin and Florence...
DGA President Paris Barclay Responds to #OscarsSoWhite: “Structural Changes Are Needed”
Paris Barclay, the president of the Directors Guild of America, weighed in yesterday on the #OscarsSoWhite movement and the new changes to Academy membership that have resulted thereof. Barclay,...
Meera Menon’s Female-Led Wall Street Drama ‘Equity’ Acquired by Sony Pictures Classics
Meera Menon’s banker drama “Equity” has been picked up by Sony Pictures Classics. The deal took place on the day before the film’s world premiere at Sundance 2016. “Breaking Bad”...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Jessie Kahnweiler — ‘The Skinny’
Jessie Kahnweiler can’t afford therapy, so she makes films. Her work has been featured on CNN, TMZ, People, The Hollywood Reporter, New York Magazine, Mashable, Buzzfeed, Elle, The Daily Beast,...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Anne Fontaine — ‘Agnus Dei’
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Anne Fontaine — “The Innocents” Anne Fontaine is an actress, screenwriter and director born in Luxembourg. Her film “Dry Cleaning” won Best...
‘Homeland’s’ Lesli Linka Glatter to Direct Navy SEAL Series ‘Six’
Veteran TV director Lesli Linka Glatter (“Homeland,” “Mad Men,” “The Leftovers,” “The Walking Dead”) will helm the first two episodes of and executive produce the military drama...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Rita Coburn Whack — ‘Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise’
Rita Coburn Whack is an award-winning writer, producer and director for television, magazines, series, news, talk shows, documentary programming and social media. Coburn Whack is the owner of RCW...
Where’s Rey? Toymakers Were Told To Exclude Her
The feminist force is strong with the latest “Star Wars” movie, which introduced the 38-year-old franchise’s first female protagonist in orphaned scavenger Rey, played by dynamo newcomer Daisy...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Sara Jordenö — ‘Kiki’
Sara Jordenö is a New York- and Gothenburg-based Swedish visual artist and documentary filmmaker. Her stories often concern communities facing different types of marginalization and how they...
Shonda Rhimes on PGA Diversity Award: “It’s Not Trailblazing to Write the World As It Actually Is”
Shonda Rhimes delivered a tongue-in-cheek speech challenging writers and producers to be more inclusive while receiving the PGA’s Norman Lear Achievement Award at the PGA Awards on Saturday....
Saoirse Ronan to Star in Greta Gerwig’s Directorial Debut ‘Lady Bird’
A double dose of good news: As previously announced, Greta Gerwig is set to make her solo directorial debut, and now we know that Saoirse Ronan will star in it. “Lady Bird” will see the...
Finding Inspiration at Sundance 2016
So I’ve been a bit logistically challenged here at Sundance, meaning that I have missed a films and been shut out of others. That’s the way it goes here. You have to surrender to it. But the one...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Meera Meenon — ‘Equity’
Meera Menon was recently selected to be a fellow at 20th Century Fox’s Global Directors initiative. Her directorial debut, “Farrah Goes Bang.” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, where she...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Bonni Cohen — ‘Audrie & Daisy’
Since co-founding Actual Films in 1998, Bonni Cohen has produced and directed an array of award-winning films, including “The Island President,” “Inside Guantanamo,” “The Rape of Europa”...
Sundance 2016 Movies, Part 1
So I’ve been here on the ground at Sundance for a little over three days, and it feels like it’s been three weeks. This is my second real Sundance, and I’m finding it to be an acquired taste....
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Maya Goded — ‘Plaza de la Soledad’
Through her photographs and now on film, Maya Goded explores the subjects of female sexuality, prostitution and gender violence in a society in which the role of women is narrowly defined and...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Stephanie Soechtig — ‘Under the Gun’
Stephanie Soechtig is an award-winning writer, producer and documentary-film director. Her most recent film, “Fed Up,” premiered at Sundance and was acquired by Radius-TWC. It also received a...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Chris Hegedus — ‘Unlocking the Cage’
Chris Hegedus has been making films as a director, cinematographer and editor for 40 years. She received the 2001 DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement for “Startup.com.” With her...
The Academy Steps Up to the Diversity Challenge in a Big Way
Sundance is in full swing but the big news today came out of LA, where Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs and CEO Dawn Hudson, with the support of the Board of Governors, unveiled radical changes...
Weekly Update for January 22: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekThe 5th Wave — Co-Written by Susannah Grant In the new film “The 5th Wave,” four waves of increasingly deadly attacks have left most of Earth decimated....
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami — ‘Sonita’
Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami studied filmmaking and animation at Tehran Art University. Ghaemmaghami is the author of “Animated Documentary, a New Way to Express,” which is a product of her research on...
Book Excerpt: The Future of Feminist Film
The following is excerpted from Sophie Mayer’s “Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema,” published in December 2015. Just over a year ago, the 2014 European Film Awards might have thought...
Vimeo Launches Initiative Supporting Female Filmmakers
Vimeo is making an effort to give more women the opportunity to get behind the camera. The video-sharing website is kicking off a new program for female filmmakers, offering them both financing,...
Watch: Elizabeth Banks, Retta and More Tell Abortion Stories
Actresses from the big and small screen are speaking out about abortion in a new series of videos launched by the Center for Reproductive Rights. The Draw the Line monologues, which feature stars...
Agents Scully and Carter Return
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Elite Zexer — ‘Sand Storm’
Elite Zexer received her BFA and MFA from Tel Aviv University, the latter in film directing. Her previous short films are “Take Note,” which won the Best Fiction Film Award at the Tel Aviv...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Dawn Porter — ‘Trapped’
Dawn Porter is an award-winning filmmaker whose 2013 documentary, “Gideon’s Army,” won the Sundance Film Festival Editing Award, the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award and was nominated...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth Wood – ‘White Girl’
Elizabeth Wood, an Oklahoma City native, moved New York City to study writing at The New School. After a few years of making experimental and documentary films, Wood received a screenwriting...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Frankie Shaw – ‘Too Legit’
Frankie Shaw is an actress/writer/director from Brookline, Massachusetts. She graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University with a degree in English literature. She wrote, directed and...
The Investigative Fund Names Inaugural Doc Award Winners: Lyric R. Cabral and Elizabeth Lo
The Investigate Fund, a New York-based award-winning nonprofit journalism organization, has unveiled the winners of its inaugural documentary film contest. Directors Lyric R. Cabral...
Regina Hall to Star in Napa-Set Hulu Comedy From Writer Tina Gordon Chism
Regina Hall is set to star as the female lead in "Crushed," a single-cam Hulu comedy from writer Tina Gordon Chism. Hall’s screen credits include "Vacation,"...
Watch: New ‘Wonder Woman’ Footage Offers Peek of the Superheroine We’ve Been Waiting For
We finally have the chance to see Wonder Woman as the star of her own film. And from the looks and sounds of it, our long-awaited superheroine is everything we could hope for. Warner Bros....
Berlinale 2016’s Complete Competition Lineup Announced: Only 9% Directed By Women
The 2016 Berlin Film Festival has released its full competition lineup. Now that we can take stock of all the directors screening films in the festival’s most prominent category, we...
Phyllis Nagy Developing Rachel Kushner’s ‘Telex From Cuba’ As ’50s-Set TV Series
"Carol" screenwriter Phyllis Nagy, who received her first Oscar nod for penning the lesbian romance last week, is currently developing a TV adaptation of Rachel Kushner’s 2008 novel...
Guest Post: The Aerial Cinematography and Fearless Living of ‘Sunshine Superman’
As I write this, my documentary "Sunshine Superman" has been out in the world for a little over a year. We have played at over 40 festivals worldwide and had a limited theatrical run...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Liz Garbus – ‘Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper’
Oscar-nominated director Liz Garbus is one of the most celebrated American documentary filmmakers working today. Her films have been acclaimed worldwide and have garnered multiple Academy...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Milica Zec – ‘Giant’
Milica Zec is a New York City-based film and virtual reality director. Raised in war-torn Serbia, Zec’s work is deeply rooted in issues of conflict, identity and the human struggle. Highlights of...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Maggie Greenwald – ‘Sophie and the Rising Sun’
Writer, director and producer Maggie Greenwald is an award-winning filmmaker who began her career as a picture and sound editor. Her 1987 film "The Kill-Off," a noir thriller based on a...
Jennifer Lawrence to Play Real-Life American Spy in Cuba Who Romanced Fidel Castro
Jennifer Lawrence has signed on to portray a woman with one of the strangest life stories we’ve heard in awhile. The actress is set to play Marita Lorenz, a woman who had a relationship...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Penny Lane – ‘NUTS!’
Penny Lane was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2012. Her debut feature-length documentary, "Our Nixon," world-premiered at International...
A24 to Release Andrea Arnold’s ‘American Honey’
Andrea Arnold’s "American Honey," a coming-of-age tale about a girl (Sasha Lane) who joins a group of roving, law-flouting teenagers, has been acquired by A24. Co-starring Shia...