BY Women and Hollywood
Sharon Stone to Star as Vice President in TNT’s Political-Conspiracy Miniseries ‘Agent X’
The latest movie star to sign up for a limited small-screen engagement is Sharon Stone, who’ll play the Vice President of the United States in the political thriller Agent X on TNT. Stone will...
37% of Oscar-Submitted Documentaries Directed by Women
A total of 134 nonfiction films were submitted for Oscar consideration this fall, and 50 of them (or 37% of the total) boast female directors or co-directors. The award-hopefuls will be winnowed to...
Essence Holds Second Annual Shorts Competition for Black Women Filmmakers
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Betsy Beers’ Keynote: “I Hope Girls Can Count on Our Shows to Remind Them It’s Okay to Be Strong and Complicated”
Shonda Rhimes’ producing partner Betsy Beers delivered a moving and revealing keynote address at the Marie Claire New Guard luncheon last Thursday. Beers, along with actress Rashida Jones,...
DOC NYC to Honor ‘Citizenfour’ Director Laura Poitras with Inaugural Award
Filmmaker and “MacArthur Genius” grantee Laura Poitras (CitizenFour, The Oath, Flag Wars) will receive DOC NYC’s inaugural Robert and Anne Drew Award for Documentary Excellence in a ceremony...
November 2014 Film Preview
The month of November arrives under thesign of the Mockingjay, promising the keenly anticipated return of KatnissEverdeen to our screens in The HungerGames: Mockingjay — Part 1. The hype has...
Women Directors — Speak Out Now About Sexism in the Industry
This is a post for all women directors (whether you are a DGA member or not) of feature films, episodic TV shows, commercials, shorts, experimentals etc. Have you been refused directing jobs despite...
Weekly Update for October 31: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening Before I Go To Sleep A taut thriller based on the worldwide best-selling novel by S.J. Watson, Before I Go To Sleep is the story of a woman (Nicole Kidman) who wakes up...
Watch: Anita Sarkeesian Explains GamerGate on ‘Colbert,’ Brianna Wu Announces Legal Fund for Female Victims
The necessary fight against GamerGate continues, with critic Anita Sarkeesian making one of her most prominent media appearances yet and game developer Brianna Wu announcing her intentions to start...
Stacey Snider to Be Named Co-Chair of 20th Century Fox
Another female executive is about to join the uppermost echelons of the film industry. Sources have confirmed that Stacey Snider will be named the co-chair of 20th Century Fox. That will make her...
‘Olive Kitteridge,’ Where Have You Been All My Life?
Trailer Watch: Jennifer Lawrence is a Possible Murderer in Susanne Bier’s ‘Serena’
Timber heir George Pemberton (Bradley Cooper) wanted “a wife and a partner” when he married Serena Shaw (Jennifer Lawrence). But his elegant, ambitious, scheming bride isn’t just a modern...
Producer Gale Ann Hurd to Receive PGA’s David O. Selznick Award
Gale Ann Hurd will receive the Producers Guild of America’s 2015 David O. Selznick Achievement Award. Hurd will be feted in a ceremony on January 24. “I am humbled to be mentioned in the same...
Kyra Sedgwick to Headline HBO Comedy About Ex-Nun
After starring in seven seasons of The Closer, Kyra Sedgwick will trade her badge for a wimple — then her wimple for a shot at an ordinary life. The Emmy-winning actress will star as an...
Trailer Watch: Katniss Joins the Revolution in Final Spot for ‘Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1’
Elle Fanning to Play Transgender Character in Multigenerational Drama
One of the most moving and original aspects of Jill Soloway’s groundbreaking Amazon series Transparent is seeing a trans character’s life story play out in the context of her (troubled but...
Guest Post: Advice for Execs, Agency Owners, and Filmmakers Dealing with Agents Who “Don’t Do Women Directors”
So this happened this week: And I was not at all surprised. But I want to offer somesolutions. Because really, what’s the point of complaining about anything ifyou’re not going to try to solve...
Women Remain Afterthoughts as DC and Marvel Plan 18 Movies About Superdudes, 2 About Superheroines
It seems like we’ve been waiting forever (and ever and ever) for Marvel and DC, the two comic-book conglomerates, to make a super-heroine movie. DC announced two weeks ago that Wonder Woman would...
Trailer Watch: Israeli Military Comedy ‘Zero Motivation’ Finds Humor in the Trenches
The Big O: Stand By Your Man — And Grab That Oscar Nomination
There are a number of films vying for awards attention this year that feature a certain female trope that’s grown increasingly popular since the dawn of the 21st century — one that often...
LA Agent to Producer: “I Don’t Do Women Directors”
Yesterday, my Twitter timeline exploded with the following tweet from French producer Charles Gillibert: While infuriating, sexist, and unjust, this sentiment really does not surprise me. Here’s...
April Prosser’s Female-Friendship Comedy ‘Plus One’ to Be Released by Weinstein Co.
One of the first projects coming out of Gloria Sanchez Productions — Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, and Adam McKay’s new shingle for female-centric comedies — will be screenwriter April...
‘Hysteria’ Filmmaker Tanya Wexler to Direct Keanu Reeves in Sci-Fi Thriller
Here’s a new female filmmaker about to make it big: Tanya Wexler, who directed Maggie Gyllenhaal in the 2011 vibrator-themed period rom com Hysteria. Wexler will have the opportunity to tackle a...
Trailer Watch: Ana Lily Amirpour’s Iranian Vampire Western ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’
We’ve been hearing raves about A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night since its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival back in January. And now first-time filmmaker Ana Lily Amirpour, who was nominated...
‘See No Evil 2’ Directors Jen and Sylvia Soska on Reinventing Horror and the Benefits of a Creative Partnership (VIDEO)
Canadian Recommendations For Achieving Gender Equity
Dear American readers: Your neighbors to the north are producing lots of original television and film content besides Degrassi and Atom Egoyan movies. Also, we — — much like you — are...
Playwright Katori Hall to Direct Film Version of ‘Hurt Village’
Katori Hall, the Olivier Award-winning playwright of The Mountaintop, will direct a screen adaptation of another one of her works. Hall will helm Hurt Village, her 2011 play about the dissolution...
Watch: Jill Soloway Delivers Keynote About Nearly Quitting Hollywood and Her 5-Year Plan for ‘Transparent’
‘An Education’ Director Lone Scherfig Books Next FIlm
Lone Scherfig, the director of Italian for Beginners, An Education, One Day, and most recently The Riot Club, has begun casting her next project. The Danish filmmaker will adapt Lissa Evans’...
Crosspost: Tony-Winning Theater Director Susan Stroman on What’s Changed for Women in the Last Ten Years
Originally published on and cross-posted with permission from The Interval. Let’s just start with some facts. Susan Stroman has won five Tony Awards and has received an additional nine...
‘Invisible War’ Filmmakers Making Doc About Campus Sexual Assault
After exposing the endemic rates of and barriers to justice regarding rape in the military in the Oscar-nominated The Invisible War, documentary director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering will...
Weekly Update for October 24: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening Laggies — Directed by Lynn Shelton; Written by Andrea Seigel “Suck it up, go with your gut.” That’s the advice Seattle late-twentysomething Megan (Keira...
Elizabeth Banks to Produce and Direct Comedic Take on ‘The X-Files’ for ABC
After helming Pitch Perfect 2 as her directorial debut, Elizabeth Banks will go behind the camera once more, this time for the small screen. Banks will executive produce and direct the ABC comedy...
Greta Gerwig and Julie Delpy to Star in Todd Solondz’s ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse’ Sequel(-ish) Project
Some exciting news for those among us who are fans of very, very dark comedy: Todd Solondz is kinda-sorta making a sequel to his painfully funny and disturbing 1995 cult classic Welcome to the...
Guest Post: Doc Director Edet Belzberg: “If You Find a Good Enough Story, It’s Impossible to Quit”
Young women often ask me what my greatest challengeis when making a film. It is hard to choose just one. I’m very instinctual in my work. I followstories and characters that hit me on a gut...
Review: Keira Knightley Charms in Lynn Shelton’s Sweet Seattle Comedy ‘Laggies’
“Suck it up, go with your gut.” That’s the advice Seattle late-twentysomething Megan (Keira Knightley) gives to adolescent Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz) at the end of Lynn Shelton’s most...
Here’s the Next Generation of Female Screenwriters
Every year, Tracking Board publishes the “Young and Hungry” list — 100 screenwriters on the verge of making it big, voted on by “Hollywood’s most influential powers.” This year, 29...
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Developing New Shows
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s takeover of TV — or at least my TV — continues. Fey and Poehler each announced new projects for the small screen yesterday. Fey will collaborate with...
Gotham Awards Nominate Women Directors Ana Lily Amirpour, Eliza Hittman, Laura Poitras
Aaaaaand, we’re off! Award season officially began today with the announcement of the nominations for the Gotham Independent Film Awards, “a bellwether for indie titles and talent,” according...
‘The Affair’ Rewrites the Femme Fatale Script
Mild spoilers below for the first two episodes of The Affair. Is Showtime’s The Affair more about her side than his? Co-creator Sarah Treem (with In Treatment colleague Hagai Levi; like the show,...
‘Sleeping with the Fishes’ Director Nicole Gomez Fisher on the Need for Diversity and the Unexpected Rewards of Low Budgets
Family — love them, hate them, or the complicated in-between, they are rarely easy. In the semi-autobiographical Latino-Jewish comedy Sleeping with the Fishes, Lexie Fish (Gina Rodriguez, now...
Meryl Streep Books New Role in Opera Biopic ‘Florence’
Meryl Streep has signed on to her first biopic project since her Oscar-nominated turn as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Variety reports that Streep is set to star in Florence as a “New York...
Disney’s Giving Us Another Female Protagonist, But ‘Moana’ Will Be Written and Directed by Dudes
Walt Disney Animation Studios has finally released some information about Moana, an animated adventure set in the South Pacific expected to arrive in late-2016. The film will focus on its titular...
For Your Consideration: Juliette Binoche in ‘1,000 Times Good Night’ (VIDEO)
The Renee Zellweger Hullabaloo: Faces, Bodies, Feminism, and Hollywood
From my latest Forbes post about the the media’s reaction to Renee Zellweger’s new look at Elle Magazine‘s annual event honoring women in Hollywood and what it says about feminism and aging in...
The Big O: Will Keira Knightley’s Image Switch Convince Oscar She’s Worthy?
Take a look at Keira Knightley in her most recent perfume ad for Chanel from earlier this year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZAZD3ylG6Y So gorgeous. So come hither-y. So female James Bond in...
Book Excerpt: The Psychology of Fear in Ida Lupino’s ‘The Hitch-Hiker’
Ida Lupino was the first mainstream American female filmmaker to make movies within the Hollywood system since thebeginning of film censorship in the 1930s. She is often cited by feministfilm...
Lucy Walker, Aneta Kopacz, Ellen Goosenberg Kent Among Oscar Semi-Finalists for Best Short Doc
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1: Trailer
Gena Rowlands to Be Feted by LA Film Critics Group
Gena Rowlands will receive the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s career achievement prize during its annual awards ceremony next year on January 10. Rowlands’ career encompasses six decades...
Trailer Watch: Valerie Cherish Attempts Another ‘Comeback’ in Season 2
Television has changed a great deal since The Comeback was last on the air a decade ago, but it’s a fair guess that showbiz narcissism hasn’t. Perhaps that’s why Lisa Kudrow’s mockumentary...
Crosspost: Romola Garai on Sexism in Film and Theater and Feeling Like a “Commodity”
Cross-posted with permission from The Interval. When we saw the announcement of Romola Garai’s casting in Indian Ink, we e-mailed The Roundabout right away — seriously, like within ten...