BY Women and Hollywood
Marielle Heller and Best Director Awardee Małgorzata Szumowska Among Berlinale 2015 Winners
Female filmmakers from around the globe were recognized for their work at the 2015 Berlinale, including Best Director co-winner Małgorzata Szumowska (“Body”), who tied with Radu Jude...
‘Fifty Shades’ Becomes Biggest Box-Office Opening in History for a Female Director
“Fifty Shades of Grey” likely won’t overtake Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck’s “Frozen” as the highest-grossing female-directed film of all time (the Disney fairy tale probably has that...
Weekly Update for February 13: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekFifty Shades of Grey — Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson; Written by Kelly Marcel Forget the haters: the highest-profile woman-directed film of 2015 is a...
Watch: Jodie Foster’s Touching Tribute to Women Directors at the Athena Film Festival
Halle Berry Sells Her Action-Comedy Star Vehicle ‘Mother’ to Universal
Halle Berry hasn’t been in a comedy in just about forever, so it’s interesting that the Oscar-winning actress has been pitching an action-comedy as a star vehicle for herself. That project,...
Quote of the Day: A.O. Scott on the Diminishment of Films About Women
Movies about women make 20% more money than movies about men, but female protagonists continue to disappear from the big screen. Gender in the larger Oscar conversation has largely focused on the...
Trailer Watch: Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara Flee From a Drug Cartel in “Hot Pursuit”
First Winners of Women Cinematographers Grant Announced
Five female DPs have been selected as the first recipients of the Digital Bolex Grant for Women Cinematographers. The grant is the first of its kind, offering more than $10,000 in camera gear and...
Watch: Sundance’s Inspiring ‘She is a Best Director’ Celebrates Women
A new video released by the Sundance Film Festival makes a powerful case for the importance of female voices in film and television, including inspiring bits of wisdom from women spanning...
Trailer Watch: Shailene Woodley is the Chosen One — and a Major Badass — in “Insurgent”
Studio Launched to Create Webseries and Digital Shorts for Women of Color
A new studio has been launched to create digital content for women of color. HB Studios will kick off with “Women on Top,” a 14-minute documentary directed by Leigh Davenport, in which...
HBO’s ‘Togetherness’: Marriage — and Middle Age — From Both Sides
HBO’s Painfully Underrated Comedy ‘Getting On’ Renewed for Third and Final Season
HBO’s hospital comedy “Getting On” has never received the praise and attention it deserves from critics or audiences. The workplace sitcom stars a trio of veteran comediennes at the top of...
Amy Pascal Discusses Getting “Fired,” Explains Unequal Pay for Women Under Her Tenure
Amy Pascal has quite a busy producing schedule ahead of her, but her future projects didn’t stop her from being surprisingly candid at the Women in the World conference in San Francisco yesterday....
The Big O: Oscar-Nominated ‘Dragon 2’ Producer Arnold Aims to Make DreamWorks Soar Again
Bonnie Arnold has plenty of reasons to be animated of late. Not only was she named co-president of DreamWorks feature animation last month with fellow producer Mireille Soria, but the industry...
Gail Berman Signs First-Look Deal With Fox 2000
Gail Berman has become one of a handful of producers to sign first-look deals with Fox, joining the likes of James Cameron, Paul Feig, Ridley Scott, and Ben Stiller. Berman’s Jackal Group will...
Amy Pascal’s Next Female Films: ‘Ghostbusters,’ ‘Cleopatra,’ Another ‘Little Women,’ ‘Barbie’
Amy Pascal’s days as Sony Chair are numbered (the outgoing exec will officially step down in May), but her producing schedule for the next few years is already quite full. Pascal will stay on as...
Trailer Watch: Amy Schumer’s Love Life is a Hilarious ‘Trainwreck’
We’re great admirers of Comedy Central’s “Inside Amy Schumer,” so we’ve been dying to see “Trainwreck” since the project was first announced. Fortunately for us, and you, the movie is...
Trailer Watch: Romance Blooms and Cate Blanchett Is Super Evil in Stunning ‘Cinderella’
A new trailer for the live-action version of “Cinderella” has arrived, and we’re totally enchanted by the visuals, which manage to bring fairy-tale imagery to life. We’re also keen to see...
Ava DuVernay to Direct Civil Rights Drama for CBS; Sanaa Hamri to Direct Fox Dramedy
In the 2013–14 broadcast network television season, women comprised only 13% of directors — a fact that makes the news that Ava DuVernay and “Empire” EP Sanaa Hamri directors of pilots...
Berlinale Women Directors: Meet Willemiek Kluijfhout — ‘Sergio Herman: F*cking Perfect’
Willemiek Kluijfhout studied Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and attended the DutchFilm and Television Academy as a director. She has directed several highly acclaimed documentaries...
Festival Deals: Swanberg’s ‘Unexpected,’ Fontaine’s ‘Innocent,’ Muylaert’s ‘Second Mother’
A trio of wildly disparate women-directed films have recently found distribution at Sundance and Berlin. Kris Swanberg’s “Unexpected” has been picked up for US distribution by Film Arcade....
Idina Menzel and Michaela Watkins Book New Shows
Two of our favorite actresses are coming to the small screen. Broadway legend-turned-movie star Idina Menzel has signed on for the lead in “Happy Time,” a half-hour comedy project for the...
19% of SXSW Film Lineup Directed by Women
As we reported last week, a quarter of the films that will be in competition at SXSW 2015 (March 13–21) are directed by women. The percentage of women-helmed features being screened outside of...
Trailer Watch: New ‘Pitch Perfect 2’ Spot Deals With Fat Amy’s Wardrobe Malfunction
Gigs don’t get much more high-profile than performing for the President of the United States on his birthday. It’s possibly the single worst occasion to deal with a “commando situation”...
Feminism at the Rotterdam Film Fest: Sex Tourists, Mad Scientists, Psychopath Kidnappers
The last week of January saw one of thebiggest international festivals, the Rotterdam Film Festival, dedicate theentirety of one of its program sections to feminism. An array of directorsfrom all...
UK’s Directors Guild Elects Beryl Richards as New Chair
TV and short-film director Beryl Richards has been elected the new chair of Directors UK, the British analogue of the Directors Guild of America. Richards will take over from the outgoing Charles...
Study: Female Protagonists Continue to Disappear From Film
2014’s most popular release was the female-led “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1,” a film that boasts not only a teen-girl protagonist, but also counts among its prominent...
Inaugural WriteHer List Celebrates Women-Penned TV Scripts With Strong Female Characters
Women screenwriters only wrote 11% of the top 250 films last year and are outnumbered nearly 3 to 1 as writers and creators on television. To spotlight deserving scripts by women featuring strong...
Crosspost: What the F*ck is “F*ckable”?
The following post originally appeared on Heather Matarazzo’s blog and is cross-posted with permission of the author. Seriously, what the fuck is “fuckable”? I don’t know if I can answer...
Watch: Ava DuVernay’s ’60 Minutes’ Interview on Opening Doors and White Savior Films
We were upset (though unsurprised) when the Academy failed to recognize Ava DuVernay with a Best Director nomination for “Selma” last month. But the Oscar snub hasn’t resulted in the...
Marvel Comics Announces All-Female Avengers Team
Following news of Marvel’s first Muslim superheroine and the reimagining of Thor as a woman comes the announcement of an all-female Avengers team. “She-Hulk, Dazzler, Medusa, Nico Minoru, and...
Berlinale Women Directors: Meet Stina Werenfels — ‘Dora or the Sexual Neuroses of Our Parents’
Born in Basel in 1964, Stina Werenfels spent her early childhood in the USA, Greece, and Spain. After her degree in pharmacology, she went on to study film at New York University’s Tisch School of...
Female Franchises Expand: More ’50 Shades’ and Possibly ‘Hunger Games’ on the Way
Get ready to see more women at the multiplex. If you’re a “Hunger Games” fan who won’t be ready to say goodbye to Katniss and the gang when “Mockingjay — Part 2” opens on November...
Berlinale Women Directors: Meet Silvina Landsmann — ‘Hotline’
Born in Argentina in 1965, Silvina Landsmann emigrated to Israel with her family at the age of eleven. After studying psychology in Paris and math in Tel Aviv, she graduated from Tel Aviv...
Lionsgate to Release Julianne Moore-Ellen Page LGBT Rights Drama ‘Freeheld’
Lionsgate has won a bidding war between several studios for the distribution rights to “Freeheld,” a drama chronicling the legal battle by lesbian couple Laurel Hester and Stacie Andree against...
Women Directors Sweep TV Categories at the 2015 DGA Awards
Television once again proved that it’s a female-friendlier medium than film via the 2015 DGA Awards, where women directors took home the three major small-screen categories. Lesli Linka Glatter...
Weekly Update for February 6: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Jupiter Ascending — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Lana Wachowski Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) was born under signs that predicted future greatness, but her...
Sundance 2015 Deals: Mora Stephens’s ‘Zipper’ and Louise Osmond’s ‘Dark Horse’
Two more Sundance favorites have found distribution deals. Mora Stephens’ thriller “Zipper” has found a home at Alchemy, which will release the film later this year. Starring Patrick Wilson...
Berlinale Women Directors: Meet Sonja Heiss — ‘Hedi Schneider Is Stuck’
Sonja Heiss studied at the HFF Film School of Munich before acquiring experience in advertising. Her first feature, Hotel Very Welcome, won the “Dialogue en perspective” prize at the Berlinale....
‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Pre-Sales Strong in Southern States
Bad press has dogged Fifty Shades of Grey since the book’s publication right on through the movie’s press tour. We can conjecture for days about all the sexist (and feminist) why, but the fact...
Berlinale Women Directors: Meet Sanna Lenken — ‘My Skinny Sister’
Sanna Lenken studied film directing at the National Film School, Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm. She has also studied film at the European Film College in Ebeltoft, Denmark, and the Dramatiska...
‘Frozen’ Fever Boosts Disney’s Corporate Numbers, Yields New Short
Quote of the Day: Director Isabel Coixet on the Importance of Financing Women-Helmed Films
Female filmmakers face countless barriers to success in the film industry, but chief among them is the bizarre reluctance of many financiers to invest in projects helmed by women. Spanish director...
HBO Gives Greenlight to Issa Rae Comedy ‘Insecure’
Amy Pascal Steps Down as Sony Chairman
One of the most powerful women in the entertainment industry has resigned. Amy Pascal has stepped down as Sony Chairman — a move that was widely expected, albeit somewhat unfairly, since her...
Guest Post: Should There Be a Best Female Director Category at the Oscars?
If wewant greater gender equality in Hollywood, should the Academy Awards still besplitting its acting awards along gender lines? This wasa question posed to me by a friend a few weeks ago as we...
Tiger Moms and Fly Girls: How Do Women Fare on ‘Fresh Off the Boat’?
SXSW Lineup Announced: 5 of 20 Films in Competition Directed By Women; DuVernay To Give Keynote
Few of South by Southwest 2015’s highest-profile films will be directed by women. The Austin festival, which will take place on March 13–21, will showcase only two narrative features in...
Berlinale Women Directors: Meet Ella Manzheeva — ‘The Gulls’
Director Ella Manzheeva graduated from the St. Petersburg State University of Film and Television in 2005, specializing in TV and film sound engineering. In 2007, she enrolled at the Higher Courses...
The Big O: Look to the Past for Solutions to Hollywood’s Current Female Troubles
When did featuring a woman as the driving force in a movie become a liability instead of a strength? This question came to mind when the films in the running for the best-picture Oscar were revealed...