BY Women and Hollywood
Trailer Watch: Elizabeth Bennet Fights the Walking Dead in ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’
A teaser has been released for the big-screen adaptation of the best-selling novel “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.” This gory take on Jane Austen’s 19th-century romance about lovers from...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli — ‘Frame by Frame’
Alexandria Bombach is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who lives on the road. The founder of Red Reel, Bombach is known to sell all her belongings to tell a story she believes in. Mo Scarpelli is a...
Australian Directors Guild Proposes 50–50 Quotas at Screen Australia for Women Filmmakers
Last year, the Swedish Film Institute reached 50–50 gender parity in its funding distribution between male and female helmers. Some in Australia, including noted filmmaker Gillian Armstrong, are...
Gwyneth Paltrow Was Told Not to Use “S.A.T. Words” in Interviews to Avoid Seeming “Unlikable”
Gwyneth Paltrow was honored at Variety’s Power of Women Luncheon on Friday for her support of LA Kitchen, a non-profit focused on food-related issues. The Oscar winner delivered a speech at the...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Johanna Schwartz — ‘They Will Have to Kill Us First: Malian Music in Exile’
Johanna Schwartz is an award-winning, American-born, UK-based filmmaker. Working across the world — with a particular focus on Africa — she has produced and directed films for...
Amma Asante’s Royal Interracial Romance ‘A United Kingdom’ Begins Filming
The cameras have begun rolling on “A United Kingdom,” BAFTA-winning director Amma Asante’s follow-up to “Belle.” Starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike and set in British-colonized...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Turner — ‘Public House’
Sarah Turner is an artist, filmmaker, writer, curator and academic. Her feature films include “Ecology” (2007), “Perestroika” (2009) and “Perestroika: Reconstructed.” Turner’s short...
Weekly Update for October 9: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week A Ballerina’s Tale (Documentary) — Opens October 14 There are not enough words to describe the joy and sheer feeling of inspiration watching Misty...
Filmmaker Elizabeth Giamatti on Making a Film While Her Co-Director Battled Terminal Breast Cancer
15% of Oscars Submissions for 2016’s Best Foreign Language Film Category Directed by Women
Twelve films directed or co-directed by women have been submitted by their respective countries for the 2016 Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film category. Those dozen works make up about 15% of...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Hanna Polak — ‘Something Better to Come’
Hanna Polak is an Oscar-nominated director. She has worked on various movies as producer, director, cinematographer and still photographer. In 2002, she was awarded Best Producer of Documentary and...
ArcLight Cinemas to Launch Women in Entertainment Summit
Theater chain ArcLight Cinemas will launch the inaugural ArcLight Presents Women in Entertainment Summit, set to take place at the Hollywood Dome on November 5. ArcLight’s first venture into live...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Paz Fábrega — ‘Viaje’
Paz Fábrega is an award-winning director who has studied at the University of Costa Rica, the Colegio Universitario de Alajuela and the London Film School. Her filmography includes the short...
California’s Fair Pay Act May Help Solve Hollywood’s Pay Gap Problem
A groundbreaking new law is predicted to shake up Hollywood by — gasp! — paying women what they deserve. This week, California Governor Jerry Brown signed the state’s Fair Pay Act....
Effie Brown on Matt Damon’s Diversity Comments: “This is No Longer OK”
With staggeringly low statistics for women and racial minorities behind and in front of the camera in Hollywood, it’s easy to lose hope that the tables will ever turn. Yet there seems to be a...
‘Big Stone Gap’ Director Adriana Trigiani Discusses Her Novel’s 15-Year Road to the Big Screen
In “Big Stone Gap,” Ave Maria Mulligan (Ashley Judd), the town’s self-proclaimed spinster, has resigned herself to a quiet life of singlehood and being useful. She works in her family’s...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari — ‘The New Classmate’
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari spent 16 years in the advertising agency Leo Burnett telling stories for the biggest brands in India and South East Asia. “The New Classmate” is her first feature film....
Director Afia Nathaniel Talks ‘Dukhtar,’ Pakistan’s Oscar Submission About Fleeing Child Marriage
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Svetla Tsotsorkova — ‘Thirst’
Svetla Tsotsorkova graduated from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2004. Since then, she has been working mainly as a producer and actress. Her first short film...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Evangelia Kranioti — ‘Exotica, Erotica, Etc.’
Evangelia Kranioti is a Greek-born visual artist based in France. She is the 2015 recipient of the Special jury Prize and the Elie Saab Prize at the 30th Hyères Fashion and Photography festival,...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Olivia Wyatt — ‘Sailing A Sinking Sea’
Olivia Wyatt is a filmmaker and photographer based in Los Angeles. She is a member of the Sublime Frequencies film and music collective. Her first feature, “Staring Into the Sun,” is about...
UK Program Launched to Get More Women into Film Exhibition Management
Independent Cinema Office, the U.K.’s national organization for the development and support of international film, is teaming up with “strategic skills body” Creative Skillset with the aim of...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Małgorzata Szumowska — ‘Body’
Małgorzata Szumowska is one of Poland’s most prominent Polish filmmakers and covers a broad spectrum of filmmaking duties, from screenwriting and producing to documentary and narrative-film...
‘Suffragette’ Screenwriter Abi Morgan on Feminism and the Challenges of Casting Men for the Women’s Rights Film
“Suffragette” screenwriter Abi Morgan was recently interviewed by Variety and touched on everything from female-driven narratives and the difficulty of casting men in supporting roles to the...
Ava DuVernay: For Women and People of Color, Hollywood is “A Whole Bunch of Locked Doors”
Ava DuVernay was her usual candid self in a fantastic new interview with NBC News, in which she described Hollywood as “a whole bunch of locked doors,” revealed what she plans on doing as an...
Female Teenage BFF Inmates From Liz Garbus’ Doc ‘Girlhood’ to Get Movie Treatment
A narrative feature based on the two subjects of Liz Garbus’ 2003 documentary “Girlhood,” young female inmates Shanae Watkins and Megan Stahl, is in the works. The project, titled “Hood...
Amy Berg’s Janis Joplin Doc ‘Janis: Little Girl Blue’ Acquired by FilmRise
2015 is turning out to be quite the year for documentary portraits of female musicians. “Amy,” Asif Kapadia’s Amy Winehouse doc, is the year’s second biggest nonfiction film so far, while...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Christina Comencini — ‘Latin Lover’
Cristina Comencini began her career as a screenwriter, with co-writing credits for “Il matrimonio di Caterina” (1982), “Quattro storie di donne” (1986) and “Buon Natale… Buon anno”...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Laura Citarella — ‘Dog Lady’
Laura Citarella is a member of the production company El Pampero Cine, along with Mariano Llinás, Alejo Moguillansky and Agustín Mendilaharzu. In 2006 she won the Historias breves 5 contest and in...
Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple Getting a Youthful Makeover at CBS
Yesterday we reported that CBS is developing a series centered on Nancy Drew, and today brings word that another procedural with a famous female crime-solver with literary roots is in the works at...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Maya Newell — ‘Gayby Baby’
Maya Newell is an Australian filmmaker with a focus on directing documentaries. Her award-winning short “Two” screened at festivals internationally and she was awarded Best New Documentary...
Ashley Judd Calls Out Studio Mogul for Sexual Harassment
Ashley Judd is making headlines for describing how she was sexually harassed by one of the industry’s “most famous, admired-slash-reviled bosses” as a young actress. The actress and...
‘Tangerine’ Team Launches First-Ever Oscar Campaigns for Transgender Actresses
Playing a transgender character has recently joined starring in a biopic and “going ugly” as surefire ways to grab the Academy’s attention. Jared Leto won an Oscar for “Dallas Buyers...
Trailer Watch: Katniss Everdeen Finishes What She Started in ‘Mockingjay — Part 2’
The last installment of “The Hunger Games” franchise is nearly upon us, and a new trailer has been released for the final chapter of Katniss Everdeen’s epic journey with suitably epic drums....
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Gavron — ‘Suffragette’
Sarah Gavron’s feature film debut was “Brick Lane,” which earned her a BAFTA nomination, a BIFA nomination and The Alfred Dunhill Talent Award at the BFI London Film Festival. Prior to this,...
Gina Prince-Bythewood Developing Racially Flipped Police-Shooting Drama for Fox
Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood is re-teaming with her “Love and Basketball” star Sanaa Lathan on a Fox drama about a black cop who kills a white teen. Lathan will play an investigator...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Lyric R. Cabral — ‘(T)ERROR’
Lyric R. Cabral is a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker committed to reporting stories seldom seen in mainstream media. Her documentary work has been supported by artist grants from the BBC,...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sara Blecher — ‘Ayanda’
Sara Blecher is a co-founder of CINGA, a South African-based production company that has made a number of award-winning features, documentaries and drama series. An honors graduate of NYU, Blecher...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Karyn Kusama — ‘The Invitation’
Karyn Kusama wrote and directed her first feature film, “Girlfight,” in 1999. The film won the Director’s Prize and shared the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. It went on...
ABC Gives Liz Friedman and Liz Friedlander’s Legal Drama ‘Conviction’ Put Pilot Commitment
Following the successful launch of “Quantico,” ABC is giving its production company, the Mark Gordon Co., a second deal. Liz Friedman and Liz Friedlander’s “Conviction” has received a put...
Adult Nancy Drew May Solve Mysteries on CBS
Beloved sleuth Nancy Drew may be returning to the small screen after a considerable hiatus. According to The Hollywood Reporter, CBS is developing a “contemporary take” on the bestselling book...
New Refinery29 Series Highlights Leaders on Feminism’s Frontlines
Who are some of the leading activists and revolutionaries fighting for gender equality around the world and what are their main concerns? A new eight-part original series from lifestyle website...
Study: “Female Directors Face a Fiscal Cliff in Their Careers Soon After Making a Short Film”
“Making a short film might be both the launch and the pinnacle of [many female filmmakers’] careers,” concludes a comprehensive new study that looks at how often women start on unequal terrain...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Mor Loushy — ‘Censored Voices’
Mor Loushy graduated from the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in 2007 and has been working as a freelancer ever since. Her debut film, “Israel Ltd.,” world-premiered at International...
TCM’s ‘Trailblazing Women:’ A Q&A with Host Illeana Douglas
As the host of TCM’s new series “Trailblazing Women,” a month-long series highlighting women’s achievements in the film industry, Illeana Douglas brings a widely varied experience to the...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Ondi Timoner — ‘BRAND: A Second Coming’
Director and producer Ondi Timoner won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance twice — for “Dig!” (2004), about the collision of art and commerce through the story of two bands, and “We Live in...
Male Privilege Watch: First-Time Film Director Seth Grahame-Smith To Direct ‘The Flash’
In today’s chapter in the annals of dude with no experience gets job no woman would ever get, our dude with no directing experience is writer Seth Grahame-Smith of “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire...
Bette Midler and Lorraine Touissant to Star in Trudie Styler’s YA LGBT Film ‘Freak Show’
The film adaptation of the Lambda-nominated YA novel “Freak Show” has found a director in Trudie Styler. Styler will make her narrative directing debut adapting author James St. James’...
Trailer Watch: Amazon’s Dystopian ‘The Man in the High Castle’ Imagines a Different Outcome of WWII
What would the U.S. be like had the Allied Powers lost World War II and the Nazis and the Japanese taken over? A new series from Amazon, “The Man in the High Castle,” imagines exactly that...
Guest Post: Continuing the Push Towards Diversity in the U.K.
Despite “diversity” being everyone’s favorite word in the film and TVindustry these days, we seem to be making little headway moving towards it. Last year’s Sex and Power Report showed us...
Sara Bareilles’s ‘Waitress’ Musical Gets Opening Date
The Sara Bareilles’ stage musical “Waitress” has found a debut date. The critically acclaimed production starring Tony-winning actress Jessie Mueller will begin previews on March 25, 2016,...