BY Women and Hollywood
About F-cking Time: ACLU Requests Feds Investigate Systematic Bias Against Women Directors
Today is a great day for gender justice in Hollywood. There are not many great days in this fight, but this is one of them. News broke today that the ACLU has asked the Equal Employment Opportunity...
Meryl Streep’s Eccentric Socialite Comedy ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’ Begins Filming
After belting out Swedish pop in “Mamma Mia!,” show tunes in “Into the Woods” and rock in the upcoming “Ricki and the Flash,” Meryl Streep will turn to opera in the period comedy...
Guest Post: Why We Desperately Need More Girls On Screen for Both Our Sons and Daughters
I’m an independent filmmaker who tells stories about girlsand women. It wasn’t intentional, at least not at first. But having justfinished my fourth documentary, “Winning Girl,” about a...
Why It Matters Who’s Sitting in the Director’s Chair
Gender diversity behind the camera remains an important and under-appreciated ideal. Over at the Washington Post, I discuss why the underemployment of female filmmakers is an issue everyone should...
Watch: Ingrid Bergman Speaks in New Cannes Doc
Ingrid Bergman’s status as a screen legend is secure — her three Academy Awards can attest to that — but during the actress’s lifetime, the “Casablanca” star was just as famous...
Trailer Watch: Amy Berg Uncovers Molestation of Child Actors in Hollywood as ‘An Open Secret’
“I think every little kid dreams about being famous and being in movies.” The trailer for Amy Berg’s “An Open Secret” begins with those words — then reveals how high the cost of...
New and Noteworthy VOD Films and Webseries: May 2015: Breastfeeding, Campus Rape, ‘My Gimpy Life’
This month’s female-centric VOD releases and noteworthy webseries showcase women at their boldest and bravest. On the VOD front, we have Lisa F. Jackson’s “It Happened Here,” a powerful...
Carol Morley’s High-School Fainting Drama ‘The Falling’ Gets US Distribution Deal
One of Women and Hollywood’s most anticipated titles of 2015, Carol Morley’s “The Falling,” has received a North American distribution deal from Cinedigm. Set in 1969 at an all-girls...
Women and Hollywood Meet-Up in LA: Come and Network on June 5!
Women and Hollywood is hosting a LA meet-up next month, and you’re invited! The event will be a networking opportunity for people at all levels of the business to make connections in a relaxed...
Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman’s ‘Big Little Lies’ Miniseries to Air on HBO
Two of Hollywood’s biggest A-listers, Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman, are coming to HBO. The Oscar winners will star in “Big Little Lies,” a limited series based on Liane Moriarty’s...
Natalie Portman to Play Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Athena List Biopic
Natalie Portman will star as Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a biopic that focuses on the Supreme Court justice’s early career as a feminist legal crusader. Written by Daniel Stiepleman, “On the Basis...
Agnès Varda to Become First Woman Director to Receive Honorary Palme d’Or
Agnès Varda will become the first female filmmaker — and only the fourth director period — to receive an honorary Palme d’Or from the Cannes Film Festival. Varda will be feted at...
Quotes of the Day: Elizabeth Banks and Amy Berg Talk Women Directing
Elizabeth Banks and Amy Berg have a lot to say about being women directors in Hollywood. 2015 is a big year for both female filmmakers, with Banks making her feature directorial debut with the...
Weekly Update for May 8: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Hot Pursuit (Don’t Mess With Texas) — Directed by Anne Fletcher Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara play opposites on a road trip fleeing for their lives....
Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer of ‘Broad City’ to Write and Produce Movie with Paul Feig
We couldn’t possibly imagine better news to start your weekend than this: The stars and creators of Comedy Central’s “Broad City,” Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, are reportedly developing...
UPDATED: Women of Color’s Voices Diminished on TV with Cancellations of ‘Mindy Project’ and ‘Cristela’
Update: Hulu confirmed on May 15 that it has ordered 26 episodes of “The Mindy Project” for a fourth season on the streaming site. Yesterday dealt a one-two punch with the cancellations of Mindy...
Charlize Theron Demands Equal Pay
Charlize Theron is set to reprise her role as Queen Ravenna in a prequel to “Snow White and the Huntsman” and was paid handsomely to do so. What’s more notable than the size of her paycheck,...
Listen: Women and Hollywood Podcast #11: Anne Fletcher Talks ‘Hot Pursuit’
https://medium.com/media/129468b3c20fc5f772c4e6ca43d351ea/href
Angelina Jolie’s ‘By the Sea’ to be Released During Awards Season 2015
The marriage drama “By the Sea” will mark Angelina Jolie’s third time behind the camera and her first time directing herself. The film will star Jolie and her real-life husband Brad Pitt as...
The Great Gay Hope of Ellen Page and Julianne Moore’s “Freeheld”
They say good things come to those who wait. So, it only follows that lesbian and bisexual audiences are expecting very good things from “Freeheld” after almost seven long years for the film to...
Women-Centric Panel at Cannes Announced: “Women Make Great Movies: Strategies for Success”
Great news for those attending the Cannes Film Festival. While our recent infographic illustrates how poorly women directors are represented in the festival’s prestigious competition category this...
Watch: Lifetime Launches “Major” Initiative to Promote Women Directors, Writers, Producers
As a network for women, Lifetime is also largely a network by women. Female directors helmed 20% of Lifetime’s movies last year, compared to a paltry 7% for theatrical features. In the same...
CBS’s ‘Supergirl’ Gets Greenlit, Will Likely Become Fall’s Only Female-Centric Superhero Show
“Supergirl” is zooming toward the small screen as we speak. Focused on 24-year-old Kara Danvers/Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist), AKA Superman’s cousin, the CBS series is the first drama to be...
Quote of the Day: Mark Ruffalo on the Need for More Superheroines
The Hulk is channeling his rage for another good cause: the campaign for more movies about superheroines. Mark Ruffalo recently addressed some of the controversy surrounding “Avengers: Age of...
Trailer Watch: Meryl Streep Reconnects with the Family She Abandoned in ‘Ricki and the Flash’
“Ricki and the Flash” tells a familiar tale, a staple of rock bios: A rising star is forced to choose between fame and fans, on the one hand, and domestic responsibilities on the other. Years...
Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin Rise Above Their Material in Netflix’s ‘Grace and Frankie’
I love the premise of “Grace and Frankie,” Netflix’s latest comedy (out May 8), in which two women in their 70s (Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda) are unceremoniously dumped by their husbands...
Cynthia Nixon to Play Emily Dickinson in Biopic; Jennifer Ehle to Co-Star
“Sex and the City” star Cynthia Nixon will star in a new biopic about Emily Dickinson that will trace the poet’s life from her school days to her last years as a reclusive, unrecognized...
LA Film Fest Lineup Released: 40% of Features in Competition Directed by Women
An impressive number of female filmmakers are set to screen their work at the 21st annual Los Angeles Film Festival. The festival released its full lineup on May 5, and 40% of features in...
Judy Greer Delivers a Mic Drop on Hollywood’s Wage Gap Problem
The conversation about Hollywood’s pay gap has been urgent and mounting, but it’s also been largely impersonal, focusing on statistics and a few famous women (understandably) reluctant to...
Laura Dern and Ellen Burstyn to Star in Jennifer Fox’s Narrative Directing Debut ‘The Tale’
Ellen Burstyn and Laura Dern will play a mother and daughter revisiting their past in Jennifer Fox’s “The Tale.” Dern will star as Jennifer, an accomplished journalist who is forced to...
Bentonville Women Producers: Meet Robyn Butler — ‘Now Add Honey’
Robyn Butler is an award-winning Australian actor, writer andproducer. She runs the highly successfulMelbourne-based production company Gristmill with her husband, Wayne Hope. Ahighly regarded...
Emily Blunt to Play Bull-Rider in ‘Bronco Belle’
After being the best thing about last year’s “Edge of Tomorrow” and “Into the Woods,” Emily Blunt finally gets a leading role of her own in “Bronco Belle,” a rodeo drama about a...
Infographic: Cannes Women Filmmakers By the Numbers 2005–2015 #SeeHerNow
In one week, the media and the film world will descend on the South of France for the annual Cannes Film Festival. The worldwide press attention will be staggering. As we know, much of the attention...
Rediscovering Leigh Brackett, Sci-Fi Pioneer and “The Empire Strikes Back” Writer
Here’s more proof that sci-fi isn’t just for boys — and never has been. An essay from io9 published on Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) uncovers some fascinating history about Leigh Brackett...
‘Mad Max: Fury Road’s’ Unexpected Secret Weapon: Eve Ensler
As its title suggests, the highly anticipated “Mad Max: Fury Road” centers on one angry dude (played by Tom Hardy). But the sequel to the 1979 Mel Gibson vehicle boasts not only a presumed...
Anna Kendrick Confirms a Sexist Casting Practice in New Interview
Men are important, women are replaceable. That’s the thinking process that guides casting processes in the film business, where studios and financiers won’t seriously consider an actress until...
Shonda Rhimes and Dee Rees to Make Black Migration Miniseries ‘The Warmth of Other Suns’ for FX
Shonda Rhimes and Dee Rees will adapt Isabel Wilkerson’s bestselling historical book “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” for FX. Rees will write the...
Juliette Binoche to Play Nobel Prize Winner Pearl S. Buck in Roxanne Messina Captor’s Biopic
A new biopic of writer and activist Pearl S. Buck will find Juliette Binoche playing the Nobel laureate. Roxanne Messina Captor will direct Binoche in “Pearl,” which will be filmed in Prague,...
Marvel CEO Doesn’t Believe in Female Superheroes
Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter has his mind made up about superheroines — they aren’t profitable. An email exchange between Perlmutter and Sony CEO Michael Lynton has been made public after...
EXCLUSIVE: First Look at Poster for Isabel Coixet’s ‘Learning to Drive’ Starring Patricia Clarkson
Rose McGowan’s Seven Bold Tips for Fighting Sexism in the Film Industry
The following speech was originally delivered on April 21 to the Sisterhood of Traveling Producers, a small, invite-only group of young female executives and producers founded three years ago by...
Bentonville Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth Van Meter — ‘Thao’s Library’
Elizabeth Van Meter’s documentary work has taken her from the AndesMountains of Peru to the Tohoku region of Japan. Van Meter hasdirected/produced 40 short films for Gorgeous Entertainment,...
Dakota Fanning to Play Autistic Woman in Road-Trip Drama with Helen Hunt
Dakota Fanning and Helen Hunt will star in the road-trip drama “Please Stand By.” Fanning will play an autistic genius who escapes her care facility to enter her screenplay in a screenwriting...
Lucy Walker to Direct ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ Sequel
Oscar-nominated documentarian Lucy Walker (“The Crash Reel,” “Waste Land,” “Devil’s Playground”) will helm a follow-up film to “Buena Vista Social Club.” The original Academy...
Weekly Update for May 1: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Far From the Madding Crowd Carey Mulligan is luminous and inspiring as self-reliant landowner Bathsheba Everdene in “Far from the Madding Crowd.” The Thomas...
Why Wendy Wasserstein’s ‘The Heidi Chronicles’ is Still Relevant Today
Not 24 hours after producers announced that “The Heidi Chronicles” revival will close three months early on May 3rd (after only 80 performances), an article appeared in The New YorkTimes...
Listen: Women and Hollywood Podcast #10: Helen Hunt Directs Herself in ‘Ride’
In “Ride,” Helen Hunt’s second time behind the camera, the actress plays a Type A editor from New York who’s too busy working to see that she has become disconnected from life. When her son...
Leslie Mann to Star in R-Rated Comedy About Motherhood
Leslie Mann is teaming up with “The Hangover” writers for her next project. Details are scarce on the untitled R-rated comedy, but Mann praised Jon Lucas and Scott Moore’s “funny and...
Jennifer Garner and Director Patricia Riggen to Team Up for ‘Miracles From Heaven’
Jennifer Garner has landed her first leading role since 2011’s “Butter” in Patricia Riggen’s faith-based film “Miracles From Heaven.” Based on Christy Beam’s novel, the plot centers on...
Quote of the Day: Kristen Stewart Calls Hollywood “Disgustingly Sexist”
Kristen Stewart’s career trajectory has taken an interesting and exciting turn as of late. But in a new interview with Harper’s Bazaar UK, the young actress argues that the odds are against...
Amy Berg’s Exposé of Hollywood Sexual Exploitation, ‘An Open Secret,’ Gets Distribution Deal
Oscar-nominated documentarian Amy Berg was afraid that the world premiere of her latest nonfiction film, “An Open Secret,” at DOC NYC last November would be its last. “We get one screening,”...