BY Women and Hollywood
3 Women Directors Selected for Film Independent’s Directing Lab With Mentor Catherine Hardwicke
Remember these names: Philiane Phang, Christina Choe, and Sylvia Sether. According to Film Independent, these are some of the most promising talents in the world of independent filmmaking today....
At Sundance 2015, Filmmakers Break The Silence Of Sexual Trauma
“What are these films telling us?” According to Sundance Senior Programmer Caroline Libresco,that’s what festival programmers asked when they realized they’dchosen five films about...
The Force is with Felicity Jones: From Jane Hawking To Starring in Stand-Alone ‘Star Wars’ Movie
Felicity Jones is going from standing by the side of a theoretical physicist to starring in a big-budget blockbuster. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jones, who recently earned an Oscar nom for...
Harper Lee to Publish Sequel to ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’
Fifty-five years after To Kill a Mockingbird first appeared in bookstores, Harper Lee has announced that a sequel to her modern classic will be published this July. The reclusive author wrote Go...
Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny to Star in Adaptation of Jane Austen’s ‘Lady Susan’
Seventeen years after they co-starred in Whit Stillman’s The Last Days of Disco, Kate Beckinsale and Chloe Sevigny will reunite onscreen in another Stillman film. Beckinsale will play the lead...
Milla Jovovich in Talks to Star in Film Adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s Short Stories
A female-centric adaptation of Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin’s short stories is headed to the big screen.Milla Jovovich, one of the movies’ best-known female action stars, is in...
Jill Soloway Developing Feminist Comedy for MTV
Jill Soloway is developing a new series for MTV. The Transparent creator is collaborating with UCB alumna Ashley Skidmore and Lyle Friedman on creating an untitled “feminist comedy.” The...
Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey to Create TV Series for OWN
After announcing a Hurricane Katrina drama that would reunite her with Selma star David Oyelowo, Ava DuVernay has lined up another project: a TV series co-created by Oprah Winfrey to air on OWN....
Trailer Watch: J.K. Rowling’s Nightmarish English Village Miniseries ‘The Casual Vacancy’
The trailer for BBC One’s miniseries adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy begins on an idyllic note, presenting a quaint, seemingly picture-perfect British village filled with lovely...
More Sundance Deals: ‘Hot Girls Wanted,’ ‘10,000 Saints,’ ‘Songs My Brother Taught Me’
Three more Sundance titles from women directors have found distribution. Chloe Zhao’s well-received Native American drama Songs My Brothers Taught Me has found a home in Fortissimo Films. Zhao’s...
Super Bowl 2015 Trailers: Not Just For Dudes Anymore
Super Bowl Sunday has historically catered to dude-bros, but advertisers definitely acknowledged football’s female viewers last night. In between the Patriots’ victory over the Seahawks were...
Disney Introduces Its First Latina Princess — But Only on a Show for Preschoolers
As America’s largest minority group, Latinos make up 16% of the US population and 25% of domestic moviegoers. But last year, a study from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism...
Sundance 2015 Winners: Kim Longinotto, Jennifer Phang, Alante Kavaite, Chai Vasarhelyi
Sundance 2015 proved to be an action-packed — and awards-heavy — time for female filmmakers. A number of female filmmakers, especially documentarians, left Park City with prizes from the...
‘Agent Carter’ Showrunners Tara Butters & Michele Fazekas Sign Development Deal With ABC
Resurrection and Marvel’s Agent Carter showrunners Tara Butters and Michele Fazekas have signed a new development deal with ABC. Under the two-year arrangement, the long-time writing partners...
Weekly Update for January 23: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Girlhood — Written and Directed by Celine Sciamma French writer-director Céline Sciamma has a small but sturdy body of work that addresses how girls...
Tony Winner Laura Benanti on ‘Nashville,’ ‘Parade,’ and the Importance of Female Mentors
“Thank God we’re interviewing Laura Benanti,” was a phrase we were proclaiming a lot the past two weeks. It’s only the middle of January, but so far 2015 hasn’t exactly been a banner year...
MoMA Celebrates the Women’s Film Preservation Fund via Two Weeks of Special Screenings
The Women’s Film Preservation Fund and the New York branch of Women in Film and Television have worked tirelessly to rescue and restore films that feature women in key creative roles. Since 1995,...
Happy Friday: Celebrate the New ‘Ghostbusters’ Cast With Print-and-Cut Paper Dolls
If you’re looking for something to do this weekend — after streaming The Fall on Netflix and watching Appropriate Behavior on VOD, of course — look no further. Thanks to Mashable, you...
Watch: Amy Schumer Lives Out Our Fantasies of Forcing Anna Kendrick to Be Her BFF
Promo clips for awards shows usually aren’t especially entertaining — the notable exceptions being Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s Globe previews — but Anna Kendrick and this year’s MTV...
Watch: Nicole Kidman Plays a Real-Life Victorian Archaeologist in ‘Queen of the Desert’
If you’ve ever wondered what Homeland’s Sergeant Nicholas Brody and Moulin Rouge’s Satine look like kissing, today is your lucky day. A one-minute clip of Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert...
Guest Post: Writing the Change You Wish to See in Hollywood
My screenwriting debut, Pretty Rosebud, depicts the journey of Cissy, a professional,career-driven woman trapped in a childless marriage to a long-unemployedarchitect. Although she seems to have an...
February 2015 Film Preview
February is known as a month for lovers, but the films set to debut at the box office next month are much more varied than that particular stereotype would suggest. Fifty Shades of Grey is perhaps...
‘Girlhood’ Director Céline Sciamma on Feminism, Race, and Paris Post-Charlie Hebdo
French writer-director Céline Sciamma has a small but sturdy body of work that addresses how girls navigate a culture that can be incredibly hostile to them. She does it with nuance, intelligence,...
Sharing Our Story: Mary Harron’s Misunderstood Cult Classic ‘American Psycho’
As this year’sSundance Film Festival swings into gear, let’s take a look back at awoman with a definite place in Sundance history: Park City darling Mary Harron. Born to comedianDonald Harron...
More Deals at Sundance: ‘Mississippi Grind’, ‘City of Gold’, and ‘The Wolfpack’ Bought
Wednesday brought exciting news for two female directors at Sundance: Anna Boden and Laura Gabbert sold their respective pictures, Mississippi Grind and City of Gold, in Park City. Deadline is...
Quote of the Day: Producer Nina Jacobson on How to Fix Broken Hollywood
High-profile producer Nina Jacobson (The Hunger Games franchise, Ryan Murphy’s upcoming American Crime Story) wrote a guest column for Variety’s Broken Hollywood feature, which focuses on...
Isabel Coixet Signs on to Romance With Diane Kruger and Penelope Cruz
A week ahead of the world premiere of her upcoming Juliette Binoche drama Nobody Wants the Night, prolific Spanish director Isabel Coixet has announced her next project: a love-triangle romance...
Joss Whedon: Blame Hollywood’s “Genuine, Intractable Sexism” for Lack of Female Superheroes
As the director of The Avengers and its upcoming sequel The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Joss Whedon has worked within the Marvel machine for the last five years. But the Buffy the Vampire Slayer...
‘The Babadook’ Director Jennifer Kent Wins Best Film, Best Director at Australian Oscars
The Australian Academy Awards demonstrated a refreshing willingness to think outside genre boxes when it named the horror indie The Babadook this year’s Best Film and honored first-time...
Farewell to the Stealthily Feminist ‘Parenthood’
Guest Post: Not Afraid to Fail: A New Distribution Model Empowers Filmmakers and Audiences
Guest Post: Spending A Year With Women Filmmakers
In 2013, I saw two films thatdeeply affected me: Judy Chaikin’s The Girls In The Band andSini Anderson’s The Punk Singer. In both films, the women interviewed talk aboutlooking for artists,...
NBC Orders Monica Potter Pilot About Juggling Three Ex-Husbands and a Family
Parenthood is coming to an end this Thursday — get your tissues ready — which means we’ll have to say goodbye to Kristina Braverman. But we may be seeing lots more of Monica Potter,...
Trailer Watch: ‘Game of Thrones’ Star Maisie Williams Grows Up in the Eerie ‘The Falling’
A wonderfully atmospheric trailer has arrived for The Falling, one of Women and Hollywood’s most anticipated films of the year. Starring Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams (who plays badass Arya),...
USC Annenberg to Issue Report Cards Grading the Entertainment Industry on Diversity
In the aftermath of #OscarsSoWhite, the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is launching an initiative aimed at improving diversity across the entertainment industry. The...
Sundance Women Producers: Meet Sophia Lin — ‘Z for Zachariah’
Sophia Lin is a producer and production manager. Her previous credits include Camp X-Ray, Take Shelter, and Friends with Kids. Z for Zachariah premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival on January...
Guest Post: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome through the Power of Inclusion
Last fall, I was fortunate enough to be nominated by Women in Hollywood for the inaugural year of the Fox Global Directors Initiative. I reacted with disbelief when I received notice that I was...
Octavia Spencer Attached to Star in Biopic of Famed 19th-Century Nurse Mary Seacole
Three years after winning the 2012 Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Help, Octavia Spencer may finally have found the kind of cinematic starring role worthy of her talents. Last summer, Spencer...
IFP Announces ‘Screen Forward’ Lineup Highlighting Female Filmmakers
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) has announced the February — May lineup for its year-round “Screen Forward” series: Four films from female filmmakers will be highlighted, focusing...
The Cast of ‘Ghostbusters’ Reboot Chosen — McCarthy, Wiig, Jones, and McKinnon to Suit Up
The casting of an all-female Ghostbusters reboot has been the source of much speculation since the project was first announced. Now we finally have word on which women will be headlining the Paul...
ABC Orders New Pilots From Shondaland and Stephanie Savage
ABC picked up two women-centric pilots on Monday — new dramas from Shondaland and Fake Empire. The Catch is the latest offering from the prolific executive producers of Grey’s Anatomy,...
Sundance Women Producers: Meet Naomi Scott — ‘The Overnight’
Naomi Scott is a London-born writer and producer. Her previous credits include The Greatest Event in Television History, The Andy Milonakis Show, and Jimmy Kimmel Live! Scott produced The Overnight,...
Jane Fonda: “We Have to Shame the Studios for Being So Gender-Biased”
Only 7% of the top 250 films last year were directed by women, according to the latest Celluloid Ceiling Report from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State....
Sundance Deals Update: Debut Films Starring Nicole Kidman and Kristen Wiig from Women Directors Sold
A trio of films by emerging female filmmakers have been sold at Sundance. Perhaps generating the most buzz among the three is Marielle Heller’s directorial debut, The Diary of a Teenage Girl,...
Slamdance Women Directors: Meet Jiyoung Lee — ‘Female Pervert’
Jiyoung Lee is a writer, director, musician, and actress. In 2007 she received an MA in Television, Radio, and Film from Syracuse University. In 2011 she played a fictionalized version of herself in...
Slamdance Women Directors: Meet Gabrielle Demeestere — ‘Yosemite’
Born and raised in Paris, Gabrielle Demeestere is a New York-based filmmaker. Most recently, she wrote and directed a segment of the feature film The Color of Time, based on the poetry of C.K....
The Big O: How Nora Grossman of ‘The Imitation Game’ Broke the Code of Becoming a Woman Producer
Of the top 250 movies that were released last year, women made up only 23% of the producers involved with those titles — down 1% from 1998 — according to the Center for the Study of...
Ava DuVernay’s Next Picture to be Hurricane Katrina Drama with Star David Oyelowo
Ava DuVernay has lined up her follow-up to Selma. The ascendant filmmaker will collaborate with Selma star David Oyelowo for the third time in an untitled love story and murder mystery set against...
Watch: See How Important Female-Driven Films Are in Inspiring ‘What Athena Means to Me’ Video
The Athena Film Festival, which will host the world premiere of HBO Documentary Film’s Rosie O’Donnell: A Heartfelt Standup and honor Jodie Foster with the Laura Ziskin Lifetime Achievement...
Sundance Women Directors: Meet Chloé Zhao — ‘Songs My Brothers Taught Me’
Chloé Zhao was raised in Beijing and England, and is currently a MFA thesis student at New York University’s graduate film program. She was selected as a fellow at the 2012 Sundance Directors and...
Emma Watson Takes Gender Equity Global & Will Star as Belle in New ‘Beauty and the Beast’
Emma Watson is making headlines for her work on and off the screen. The actress and UN Women Goodwill Ambassador has had quite a week: she announced a yearlong initiative, HeforShe’s IMPACT...