BY Women and Hollywood
The 10 Best Feminist TV Shows of 2015
Guest Post: “Waking The Feminists” Starts A Revolution In Ireland
Next year will mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising, when Ireland fought for and won its independence. 2016 will thus be a momentous year to celebrate and reflect on our past and our future. Front...
Former ‘Veep’ Producer Stephanie Laing Launches Online Network for Women-Driven Comedy
Former “Veep” producer and director Stephanie Laing is building a new forum for female-centric comedy. The online network PYPO will debut on January 4, 2016, with sketches, animation,...
Seeking Our Story: An Animated Life: Director Vicky Jenson
Vicky Jenson was bornin Los Angeles to a highly talented family that was led by her mother Ana, animmigrant from Costa Rica who encouraged her children to explore the arts. Vicky’s sister became a...
Nancy Meyers Named Filmmaker of the Year by American Cinema Editors
The American Cinema Editors board has named Nancy Meyers the recipient of its ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award. Steve Martin, who has starred in a number of films written and directed by...
Mira Nair to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at 2016 Athena Film Festival
Director Mira Nair will receive the 2016 Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement Award at the sixth annual Athena Film Festival next year. The cast and crew of “Suffragette” will be recognized with...
The Most Epic Feminist Moments of 2015
2015 marked a gender quake in the film and TV worlds. The conversation surrounding women in Hollywood — both those working onscreen and behind the scenes — is in a very different place...
Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn and Diane Keaton Comedy ‘Divanation’ Acquired by Netflix
Netflix’s star wattage continues to impress. The streaming service has acquired “Divanation,” a comedy that will star three of Hollywood’s funniest leading ladies : Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn...
Two Female-Centric, Women-Directed Features Receive Most Goya Nominations This Year
A pair of films by and about women dominate this year’s Goya nominations. Also known as Spain’s Oscars, the Goyas have recognized Paula Ortiz’s Lorca adaptation “The Bride” with the most...
20% of 2015 Black List Scripts Written by Women
The 2015 Black List was released yesterday. In total, 16 of the 81 scripts featured, or 20%, are written or co-written by women. The selection process is highly competitive, and the scripts that...
Margaret Cho to Star in Amazon Comedy About a Dysfunctional Family With a Pot Business
Twenty freaking years after her last show went off the air, Margaret Cho finally has another one on the way. The Korean-American comedian will star in Amazon’s “Highland,” an hour-long...
Sam Taylor-Johnson in Talks to Helm Black List Script ‘Chappaquiddick’ About Ted Kennedy
“Fifty Shades of Grey” director Sam Taylor-Johnson appears close to booking her next project. Taylor-Johnson will be ditching Christian Grey’s red room in favor of Martha’s Vineyard with...
Women in Film Announces 30th Annual Finishing Fund Recipients
Three narrative features, four documentary features and a pair of shorts — all from female filmmakers — have been selected to receive Women in Film’s finishing funds this year....
Guest Post: Closing the Confidence Gap One Female Hero at a Time
Last year, while working on the edit of my film “Bleeding Heart,” I heard the phrase “the confidence gap” for the first time. The confidence gap seemingly explains why women haven’t broken...
Kathryn Bigelow Developing HBO Drama About Jihadi Recruitment in the U.S.
Kathryn Bigelow has finally announced a substantial project since “Zero Dark Thirty.” The first female filmmaker to win an Oscar for Best Director is currently developing a drama for HBO....
Tony-Winning Broadway Musical ‘Fun Home’ Recoups
“Fun Home,” the Broadway musical based on Alison Bechdel’s bestselling and beloved graphic memoir, has recouped the $5.25 million investment behind the production. Earlier this year, the...
The 12 Best Films About Girls and Women of 2015
2015 has been a remarkable year for female-led films. The Women and Hollywood team struggled to compile this list because there were just so many worthy candidates this year — a problem we’re...
Weekly Update for December 11: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Bleeding Heart — Written and Directed by Diane Bell “Bleeding Heart” follows the story of May (Jessica Biel), a yoga instructor who finds herself...
Gina Prince-Bythewood & Sanna Lathan’s Police-Shooting Drama ‘Shots Fired’ Picked Up to Series
“Shots Fired,” the racially flipped police-shooting drama that’ll reunite “Love and Basketball” writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood and actress Sanaa Lathan, has been picked up to series....
Only 6 Women Directors in the UK’s Top 100 Films of 2015
Elizabeth Banks’ “Pitch Perfect 2,” Ava DuVernay’s “Selma,” Sarah Gavron’s “Suffragette,” Nancy Meyers’ “The Intern,” Sam Taylor-Johnson’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” and...
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin’s ‘Grace and Frankie’ Renewed for Third Season
Netflix has renewed “Grace and Frankie” for a third season in a big show of support for the Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin series. The streaming site’s decision was announced the same day Tomlin...
Netflix Goes for Holiday Chills With ‘Making a Murderer’
[Some spoilers for the first three episodes of “Making a Murderer” follow.] It’s high times for true crime, between this week’s debut of the second season of NPR’s “Serial” podcast and...
‘Mad Max: Fury Road,’ Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett Honored at 2015 Australian Oscars
“Mad Max: Fury Road” took home the best-film and best-director prizes at the 2015 Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards on Wednesday. The feminist action flick received...
Jessica Chastain Publishes Essay on the Value of Women-Directed Films
“I want to make sure I’m contributing to creating diversity in the industry,” wrote Jessica Chastain in a guest feature for The Hollywood Reporter yesterday. Chastain has a long and inspiring...
Lifetime Guarantees a Job to Every AFI DWW Grad
Lifetime has been putting its money where its mouth is by investing in women — and being handsomely rewarded for it. Now, the female-targeted cable network is making one of its biggest steps...
Inaugural DGA Diversity Report: Women Make Up Only 6.4% of Film Directors
The DGA’s inaugural Feature Film Diversity Report confirms what we already knew: the employment numbers for women directors are deplorably low. The DGA crunched the numbers for the 376 features...
6 Actresses of Color Nominated by Golden Globes for TV, 0 for Film
TV proved itself not just a medium for women, but especially one for women of color, with this year’s Golden Globes nominations. Six actresses of color — Queen Latifah, Viola Davis, Taraji...
Quote of the Day: Time Warner CEO on Wonder Woman’s Power to Boost the Box Office
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes has high hopes for the “Wonder Woman” movie. At a press conference this week, Bewkes identified why he’s so confident about the superheroine’s success at the box...
Lionsgate Planning on ‘Hunger Games’ Prequels
Lionsgate Vice Chairman Michael Burns promised that “The Hunger Games” franchise would “live on and on and on” in a company press conference on Tuesday. The Jennifer Lawrence-led franchise...
Sundance’s Shorts Program is 39% Female-Helmed
The short film programs at Sundance 2016 have been announced, and of the 72 shorts being screened across various subsections, 28 are directed or co-directed by women. That means that, overall, the...
Margaret Atwood to Write Superhero Graphic-Novel Series Called ‘Angel Catbird’
Margaret Atwood is getting into the superhero genre. The author of “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “Cat’s Eye” will publish the first installment of her graphic-novel trilogy, “Angel...
Abigail Breslin to Star in ABC’s ‘Dirty Dancing’ Musical
Abigail Breslin danced her way into our hearts — and all the way to an Oscar nod — with her hilariously inappropriate striptease in 2006’s “Little Miss Sunshine.” And now the teen...
Feminist Comedy, Deaf Ears in War Zones & the Tangerine Juice Fund: This Week’s Crowdfunding Picks
This week’s crowdfunding picks include two projects by women determined to make a difference. “Tangerine Juice Fund” is the financing section of “Tangerine Entertainment,” a female-driven,...
New Female-Centric FX Comedy to Focus on TV Writer Returning Home to Rural PA
“You’re the Worst” writer Alison Bennett and creator Stephen Falk are creating a new comedy for FX. The untitled series is described as “a dirty, female-driven take on the “you can’t go...
Trailer Watch: Michelle Yeoh Returns in ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ Followup
Martial arts films tend to exalt honor and duty, but the trailer for Netflix’s followup to “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” begins with its protagonist, Yu Shu-Lien (Michelle Yeoh, reprising...
Claudia Shear Developing 19th-Century NYC-Set Musical About Show Business for NBC
After finding ratings success in its live stagings of “The Sound of Music,” “Peter Pan” and “The Wiz,” NBC is working on bringing an original musical to its primetime programming....
Trailer Watch: Natalie Portman Pulls the Trigger in Western ‘Jane Got a Gun’
Jane got a gun — and a U.S. trailer. We previously got a peek at the Natalie Portman-led Western in October with a French trailer, and now more footage has been released. This newly cut...
Sundance Announces Its 2016 Premieres
Sundance has revealed the lineups for its narrative and nonfiction Premieres sections. Seventeen narrative films will be making their world premieres at Sundance next year. Only three (or 18% of the...
Queen Latifah to Star in Lee Daniels’ Girl-Group Drama
Queen Latifah has joined the cast of “Empire” co-creator Lee Daniels’ unnamed girl-group drama. An Oscar and Emmy nominee, Queen Latifah will play a beauty-salon owner who becomes a surrogate...
Oprah Winfrey to Pen Definitive Memoir, Establish Her Own Publishing Imprint
One of the most successful media personalities ever has a memoir on the way. Oprah Winfrey’s definitive autobiography, “The Life You Want,” will be published by Flatiron Books in January 2017....
Trailer Watch: Working-Class Pals Breed a Racehorse in Sundance Winner ‘Dark Horse’
Louise Osmond’s “Dark Horse” has a new trailer, and this is an underdog story you won’t want to miss. The documentary, which won the World Cinema Documentary Award at Sundance, focuses on a...
‘The Good Wife’ Creators Sell Drama About Female Papal Spokesperson to Amazon
Michelle King and Robert King, the wife-husband writing partners that created “The Good Wife,” have sold “Vatican City,” a new drama, to Amazon. “Vatican City” centers on an American...
Australia Launches Three-Tick System to Encourage Gender Diversity Onscreen and Behind the Scenes
Only fifteen percent of features backed by Screen Australia, that country’s state film fund, are directed by female filmmakers. Just 23% are written by women, and a mere 32% are produced by women....
Jennifer Johnson and Sue Chung Developing Female-Vigilante Drama for The CW
TV writers Jennifer Johnson (“Lost”) and Sue Chung (“Gotham,” “Marvel’s Agent Carter”) are teaming up for a new CW series about a team of female vigilantes. Previously titled...
Quote of the Day: Tina Fey: “When We Choose Projects, We Do Have Our Own Internal Bechdel Test”
Today’s New York Times profile of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler is full of wonderful details: Poehler’s nickname for Fey is “Betty,” the duo have ruled out hosting the Oscars and even they hope...
Ava DuVernay Barbie Goes on Sale Today
Great news just in time for the holiday season — the Ava DuVernay Barbie is available for purchase starting today. Mattel first introduced the doll back in April as part of its “Sheroes”...
Margaret Betts to Direct Melissa Leo in Nun Drama ‘Novitiate’
Writer-director Margaret Betts will make her narrative-feature debut with “Novitiate,” a coming-of-age drama that takes place in a convent during the early ’60s. Starring Margaret Qualley with...
Watch: Sisters Jessica Biel and Zosia Mamet Argue Who “Counts” in Intimate ‘Bleeding Heart’ Clip
Yoga instructor May (Jessica Biel) attempts to help her sex-worker sister Shiva (Zosia Mamet) get out of an abusive relationship in writer-director Diane Bell’s “Bleeding Heart.” The first...
Weekly Update for December 4: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekChi-Raq “Chi-Raq” is a modern-day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group...
Theater Now Has Its Own Bechdel Test
Just over a third of theater roles in England are for women, according to a 2014 study by Tonic Theatre. To help correct the gender lopsidedness on stage, the London-based Sphinx Theatre Company has...
Trailer Watch: Helen Mirren’s ‘Eye in the Sky’ Makes Black Comedy Out of Drone-Warfare Morality
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