BY Women and Hollywood
Women & Hollywood’s Recommended Reads: Week of October 2
Lupita Nyong’o Shines a Light on Africa (NY Times) Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald on New ‘Malala’ Doc, Feminist Barbie and a Revived ‘Men in Black’ (Sans Will Smith) (THR) Patricia...
Weekly Update for October 2: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Freeheld “Freeheld” tells the story of Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore), a veteran police detective who is diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, and her fight to...
Join LA Women in Film’s #52FilmsByWomen Movement
Trailblazing Women, the multi-year initiative by Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Women in Film (WIF LA), kicked off last night with a month-long programming event. As we previously reported, TCM...
TIFF to Honor Indian-Canadian Director Deepa Mehta With 10-Film Retrospective
Deepa Mehta, the director of “Fire,” “Earth,” “Water” and the screen adaptation of Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children,” will be honored by the Toronto International Film...
Prompted by ACLU, EEOC Begins Investigation into Gender Discrimination in Hollywood
Back in May, we reported that the ACLU had sent a letter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requesting that the agency look into the systemic discrimination against women...
Emma Watson, Marion Cotillard and Meryl Streep Talking About Feminism and Film
Remember not too long ago when every actress walking a red carpet would be asked what she was wearing? Remember not too long ago when actresses were asked about their babies and their boyfriends...
Why Horror Is Good for Women
People are always telling me they don’t like horror. Like rightafter I tell them I make horror films. Or programmers pickingme up from the airport who have barely said hello and whose festival...
Liz Feldman Scores Put Pilot Commitment for New CBS Comedy with “a Gaggle of Lesbians”
“One Big Happy” creator Liz Feldman has landed a put pilot commitment from CBS for her new comedy series “Hello Again.” Deadline reports that the show will focus on a “mostly happy”...
Trailer Watch: Natalie Dormer Searches for Her Twin in Spooky ‘The Forest’
The bond between identical twin sisters takes a supernatural and sinister turn in “The Forest,” starring “Game of Thrones” star Natalie Dormer and co-written by Sarah Cornwell. Dormer plays...
Apply for a Black List Mini-Lab at the 2016 Athena Film Festival
The Athena Film Festival is now accepting applications for its Black List mini-lab. The Manhattan-based festival has partnered with The Black List for the inaugural mini-lab. Four women...
Trailer Watch: ‘Marvel’s Jessica Jones’ Makes Sure Everyone Remembers Her in Teaser
‘Addicted to Fresno’ Director Jamie Babbit on Hiding Pregnancies and Embracing Diversity
There’s been a lot of talk lately about Judy Greer’s summer of tiny, thankless roles, in which she plays characters designed to be instantly forgettable in “Tomorrowland,” “Entourage,”...
Billboard Women In Music Event to Air on Lifetime; Lady Gaga Honored as Woman of the Year
Lifetime and Billboard have signed a three-year deal that will see the network airing the music brand’s Women in Music event for the first time in its decade-long history. Lady Gaga will be...
Julie Taymor Becomes First Woman Director to Win Shakespeare Award for Classical Theatre
Julie Taymor, the first woman to win a Tony for directing a musical, will be adding yet another award to her mantel: She’s been named the 2015 recipient of the William Shakespeare Award for...
Chicago’s Goodman Theatre Announces All-Female Playwrights Unit
The Goodman Theatre has announced that its new playwrights unit will be comprised entirely of women. The writers selected for the Chicago-based theater’s 2015–16 season are Kristiana Rae Colón,...
‘The Second Mother’ Director Anna Muylaert Speaks Out About Film-Festival Sexism
“Men think it’s lovely if a woman makes a lovely film that nobody sees.” That’s the scathing highlight of the interview writer-director Anna Muylaert gave to Women and Hollywood when her...
Comedy About Nicki Minaj’s Trinidadian-American Childhood in Queens to Air on ABC Family
Hip hop’s reigning queen is getting her own TV show — kind of. Nicki Minaj’s childhood in ’90s Queens as the daughter of Trinidadian-immigrant parents will be the inspiration for a new...
Zoe Saldana and Cynthia Mort’s Nina Simone Biopic Finds Distribution
“Nina,” starring Zoe Saldana as singer, pianist and civil rights activist Nina Simone, will enjoy a December release. That development is the result of a new distribution deal for the biopic,...
Forgiveness and Ferguson: October 2015’s Crowdfunding Picks
This week’s women-centric crowdfunding picks could hardly be more different in subject and form: a personal documentary about a strained mother-daughter relationship, a comedic short about a baby...
Julie Schumacher Wins the 2015 Thurber Prize for American Humor
Julie Schumacher has been named the 2015 winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor. The University of Minnesota instructor was honored for her novel “Dear Committee Members,” a satire...
‘Agent Carter’ Showrunners Sell Latina-Led Supernatural Revenge Drama to ABC
“Marvel’s Agent Carter” showrunners and executive producers Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters have sold a new series, “The Death of Sofia Valdez,” to ABC. This is the first project to come...
October 2015 Film Preview
October sees the release of a number of women-centric films. The highly anticipated release of “Suffragette,” directed by Sarah Gavron and written by Abi Morgan — a partnership that first...
Jennifer Lopez Makes History as UN Advocate for Girls and Women
Multi-talented Jennifer Lopez can add an impressive new title to her stacked resume: The “American Idol” judge has been named the United Nations Foundation’s first-ever Global Advocate for...
A Guide to All the Queer Female Characters on TV This Fall
Welcome to fall, when you can smell the pumpkin spice lattes in the air and see all the shiny new shows longing for your approval and a full season pick-up. The new television season also brings...
Women and Hollywood to Submit Names for Fox Writers Intensive
Women and Hollywood has been given the opportunity to recommend five writers for the Fox Writers Intensive (FWI). This needs to happen very quickly, as the whole process needs to be completed by...
Erin Cressida Wilson to Adapt Art-Forgery Thriller ‘Maestra’ With Producer Amy Pascal
“Secretary” screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson has been tapped to pen the screen version of “Maestra,” the publishing industry’s latest sensation. That’s a second victory for Wilson this...
Trailer Watch: Dianna Agron Is Forever Changed by a Female Drifter in ‘Bare’
A trailer has been released for writer-director Natalia Leite’s “Bare,” which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year. Sarah (Dianna Argon, “Glee”) finds herself working...
Kate Winslet, Emma Stone and Olivia Colman in Talks to Star in Queen Anne Film
Formidable trio Kate Winslet, Emma Stone and Olivia Colman (“Broadchurch”) are in talks to star in “The Favourite,” a period piece exploring Queen Anne’s brief reign from 1702 to 1707....
Variety’s Power of Women Salutes Oprah, Salma Hayek, Anna Kendrick and More
Variety has named Oprah Winfrey, Salma Hayek Pinault Anna Kendrick, Gwyneth Paltrow and YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki as Lifetime Impact Honorees. They’ll be feted at an Variety-hosted luncheon...
Melissa Rosenberg Expands Her Producing Empire
Melissa Rosenberg, best known as the screenwriter behind “Twilight” and a head writer for Showtime’s “Dexter,” is making her Tall Girls Productions a busy place. Rosenberg has recently...
What I Learned From Finding My Lead Actress Through ‘Women and Hollywood’
In January 2013, I wrote a guest post forWomen and Hollywood about my difficulties casting a curvier woman for my low-budget indie film. I had decided to Kickstart my first feature, “Bread and...
The Contradictory Feminism of Nancy Meyers’ ‘The Intern’
I like Nancy Meyers movies. I have seen every single one. I have seen “Something’s Gotta Give” alone about a thousand times. When it is on TV, I will watch it. It is that good. I know exactly...
“Beyond Badass” Female Action Heroes Celebrated in New Toronto Film Series
The 40th Toronto International Film Festival officially wrapped up September 20, but that doesn’t mean TIFF is over. The festival offers programming year-round, and starting this October, a new...
Weekly Update for September 25: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week The Keeping Room — Written by Julia Hart Unlike most war narratives, this one tells the story of women left behind after the men go to war and never...
Reed Morano to Direct ‘Lioness,’ Starring Ellen Page as Closeted Lesbian Soldier
Help Send Two Young Women Directors to Sundance
An Indiegogo campaign is seeking funds to help send two young female filmmakers to the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. The goal is to raise $20,000, which will cover all of their Park City-related...
Film London, British Council Launch New Shorts Fund for Female Filmmakers
In 2012, women directors made only 7.8% of the films released that year in the U.K., while women writers penned just 13.4% of them. (Depressingly, those numbers are slightly higher than the numbers...
Sony Classics Buys Rebecca Miller’s ‘Maggie’s Plan’ Starring Greta Gerwig and Julianne Moore
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the North American rights to “Maggie’s Plan,” writer-director Rebecca Miller’s comedy about a love triangle between a young woman eager to get pregnant...
New Site Tracks Women Directors at Festivals, Publishes Stats for Venice and TIFF
When festivals announce their lineups, Women and Hollywood crunches the numbers to determine the percentage of female directors behind the films being screened. While the numbers vary according to...
Bollywood Musical ‘Monsoon Wedding’ Heads to Broadway
Mira Nair’s Bollywood breakout hit “Monsoon Wedding” is one step closer to Broadway. Playbill reports that the cast of the stage adaptation enjoyed a recent workshop and commemorated the...
How Viola Davis is Using Her Emmy Win to Inspire
Viola Davis’ historic Emmy win as the first African-American woman to clinch the Best Actress in a Drama trophy (in 2015!) became the news out of the awards show. That was in part because of the...
Only Four Women Make the List of the Top 20 Most-Produced Playwrights
In our Fall 2015 theater preview, we noted that no new plays or revivals of plays by women are being produced on Broadway this autumn. If you’re left wondering how well women playwrights are...
Amy Heckerling Advises How NOT to Lose Your Virginity in ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’
The following is excerpted from Tara Ison’s book “Reeling Through Life: How I Learned to Live, Love, and Die at theMovies.” I’m a child of the movies, a movie freak, a film junkie; movies...
Philiane Phang Named the Inaugural Phosphate Prize at IFP Winner
Writer-director Philiane Phang has been named the inaugural winner of The Independent Filmmakers Project’s Phosphate Prize. IFP launched the prize to recognize narrative-feature-film screenplays...
Trailer Watch: Sisters Band Together in ‘Virgin Suicides’-esque ‘Mustang,’ France’s Oscar Pick
A full-length trailer with English subtitles has been released for “Mustang,” Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s beautiful story of girlhood interrupted. Winner of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight Europa...
The Many Faces of Feminism in ‘The Women’s List’
Elizabeth Banks On Directing, Playing the Hero in ‘Love & Mercy’ and Concluding ‘The Hunger Games’
Elizabeth Banks is everywhere. Producing, directing and acting. She just completed a stint on the jury at the Venice Film Festival and has been doing a round of press for “Love and Mercy,” the...
Trailer Watch: Olivia Wilde Doesn’t Know How to Stop Self-Destructing in ‘Meadowland’
50% of Amazon’s Next Pilots Created by Women; Tig Notaro, Anna Camp, Christina Ricci to Headline
Three days after “Transparent” put Amazon on the Emmy map with five wins, including a Best Director prize for creator Jill Soloway and a Best Actor award for Jeffrey Tambor, the streaming site...
Maisie Williams to Star in Kate Maberly’s Dystopian Drama ‘The Forest of Hands and Teeth’
“Game of Thrones” actress Maisie Williams appears to be the frontrunner to star in “The Forest of Hands and Teeth,” a zombie-apocalypse drama based on Carrie Ryan’s best-selling novel....
Trailer Watch: Cate Blanchett is Burned by the ‘Truth’ in Journalism Drama
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