BY Women and Hollywood
90% of Summer 2014 Studio Movies Directed by White Guys
A comprehensive study of this summer’s major releases by The Wrap reveals that a dispiriting 90% of those films will be directed by white men. Jupiter Ascending helmer Lana Wachowski, along with...
Cate Blanchett, Susanne Bier Team Up for The Dig
Remember when Cate Blanchett argued for more movies about women? As Blanchett is probably aware, one of the most reliable routes to starring in a film about woman is working with female directors...
Lisa Cholodenko to be Guest Director of LA Film Festival
Lisa Cholodenko, the director of The Kids Are All Right, Laurel Canyon, and High Art, has been named the guest director of the Los Angeles Film Festival (June 11–19). In a statement, LAFF director...
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to Play Sisters in New Film
After killing it two years in a row hosting the Golden Globes, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, our favorite comedy duo, will reunite on the big screen in The Nest. The former SNL co-stars will star as...
Director Liza Johnson on Exploring Kristen Wiig’s Dramatic Side in Hateship Loveship
After receiving rave notices for her feature debut Return, director Liza Johnson has followed up with a second film about an outsider protagonist desperately wanting in. Return starred Linda...
TV: Trailer Watch: New Preview for Season 2
The Orphan Black team has released a second trailer for the upcoming season. This new cut of last month’s teaser is arguably more newbie-friendly. It explains Orphan Black’s premise: “We’re...
Cartoon: Who Will Take Letterman’s Chair?
Cross-posted from The Nib. Liza Donnelly is the author of the book Women on Men.
Watch: How Kamala Khan Is Changing Comics and Readers
Kamala Khan isn’t just the first Muslim superheroine — she’s a one-girl revolution. Created by Marvel editor Sana Amanat, writer G. Willow Wilson, and artist Adrian Alphona, Kamala is the...
Jhumpa Lahiri, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Donna Tartt Among Baileys Contenders
The Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction, the most prestigious award dedicated to recognizing literary works by female authors, has announced its shortlist. Three of the novels to make the cut are...
Ellen Burstyn Retrospective to Play at Brooklyn Academy of Music
Screen legend Ellen Burstyn will receive a nine-film career retrospective at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (April 30-May 6). She will make an in-person appearance on May 3 after a screening of...
Trailer Watch: Michelle Monaghan Returns Home After Afghanistan in Fort Bliss
Michelle Monaghan (True Detective, Source Code) takes on the leading writer-director Claudia Myers’ Fort Bliss, a career-versus-family drama about an Army medic who prefers the landmine-ridden...
Female Film Industry Heavyweights Support Fledgling Female Directors
Jane Campion, Helen Mirren, and Sienna Miller are among the participants of a wonderful new initiative to highlight the next generation of female filmmakers. The London-based fashion and culture...
Manohla Dargis on the Perks of Being a Male Director
Film critic Manohla Dargis continues her efforts to lay bare studio filmmaking’s institutional sexism. In her review of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, published last week, she wrote in The...
Scarlett Johansson is a Box-Office Superheroine
Scarlett Johansson kicked off the summer-movie season, which seems to begin earlier and earlier every year, on a high note this past weekend. Captain America: The Winter Soldier broke April records...
Women and Hollywood on the Road in London and Stockholm
Women and Hollywood (meaning me) is about to embark to Europe for several public appearances that I wanted to make sure any of our readers in those countries know about. If you are at any of these...
Trailer Watch: Gia Coppola Makes Her Directorial Debut with Palo Alto
Gia Coppola, granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola and niece of Sofia Coppola, makes her directorial debut with Palo Alto, a loose adaptation of James Franco’s short-story collection. Franco...
Dear Will Ferrell: Depicting Sexism Isn’t Enough
As the buffoonish Ron Burgundy, Will Ferrell made the world laugh at sexist pigs who have trouble accepting the fact that women are pretty good at lots of things, including the arduous task of...
Weekly Update for April 4: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening Frankie and Alice — Co-Written by Cheryl Edwards, Mary King, Anna Waterhouse Frankie and Alice is inspired by the remarkable true story of “Frankie” (Halle...
Dorothy Arzner to Receive Career Retrospective
Here’s the good news: Pioneering director Dorothy Arzner (1897–1979) — was one of the first woman directors to have a career in Hollywood making films. She was the first female member of...
Trailer Watch: Scarlett Johnasson Has Superpowers in Lucy
Lucy is the film we’ve been waiting for. At the very least, it certainly looks like the film we’ve been waiting for, an action flick about a badass with superpowers with an original premise,...
Opera America Announces Eight Winners of Women Composers Competition
Any Women and Hollywood readers who wade into the gender politics of the classical music world will find the same types of issues as the movie business. Women are underrepresented in the prestigious...
Special Report: Women Directors at the Box Office in March 2014
A much-needed profileof Anita Hill is one of the top-grossing films directed by women in March, withthe highest monthly gross of a female-directed documentary so far this year. Anita has made...
Trailer Watch: Toni Collette Searches for a Lost Love in Lucky Them
After seeing her in a string of mom roles for the past few years, it’s nice to see Toni Collette out and about again. In director Megan Griffiths’ Lucky Them, Collette plays a veteran rock...
Thea Sharrock to Make Her Feature Directorial Debut
Acclaimed theater and TV director Thea Sharrock has signed on to adapt Jojo Moyes’ best-selling novel Me Before You for the big screen. The production will mark Sharrock’s feature directing...
MMA Fighter and Action Star Gina Carano on In the Blood and What Makes a Good Heroine
In the Blood is a love story — a bullet-riddled, blood-soaked love story. When Ava’s (Gina Carano) husband (Cam Gigandet, Twilight) goes missing on theirhoneymoon in the Caribbean, she...
Orange is the New Black, Scandal, Borgen Among Peabody Winners
The Peabody Awards have named a record 46 winners this year in their ongoing efforts to recognizing “stories that matter.” Twenty of the awardees (43%) — which range from journalism to...
Claire Danes, Iman, Idina Menzel Among Variety’s Power of Women
Variety will honor Claire Danes, Nancy Dubuc, Iman, Idina Menzel, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Susan Sarandon for their humanitarian efforts at the inaugural Power of Women luncheon in New York. Each...
The Continuing Case for Having More Women in Film
Yesterday, the numbers crunchers at fivethirtyeight.com, the guys and gals who have predicted elections, took a crack at the conundrum of women, movies and money. Not surprisingly, they found what...
JK Rowling to Pen Harry Potter Spinoff Trilogy
J.K. Rowling may have two post-Potter novels under her belt, but she isn’t yet done with her most famous creation. Rowling will make her screenwriting debut by adapting Fantastic Beasts and Where...
Cate Blanchett, Kerry Washington, Rose Byrne Honored by Women in Film
Cate Blanchett, Kerry Washington, Rose Byrne, Eva Longoria, and Frozen director Jennifer Lee are the five honorees of this year’s Crystal + Lucy Awards. Organized by Women in Film — Los...
April 2014 Film Preview
The Big Dipper isn’t the only constellation of stars you’ll see this April — there’s a handful of actress-led vehicles on offer this coming month. By far the biggest is The Other Woman,...
Guest Post: The Celluloid Ceiling is Much Lower Than You Think
After many years working in the film industry, I am struggling in to find work. It’s hard for me to admit when I need help, and even harder to ask for it. I got into film so I could tell stories...
Frozen Now the Highest-Grossing Animated Film in History
With over a $1 billion in ticket sales internationally, Frozen is no longer just the highest-grossing animated film in Disney history, but the highest-grossing animated film ever. Jennifer Lee and...
AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women Turns Forty; Kimberly Peirce to Deliver Keynote
When the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women (DWW) was launched forty years ago, women made up less than 10% of Hollywood’s directing ranks. Sadly, the numbers have not...
Weekly Update for March 28: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening Refuge — Written and Directed by Jessica Goldberg When Amy’s (Krysten Ritter) parents head to Florida for a “vacation” without a return ticket, she is left to...
Quote of the Day: Penelope Spheeris
Penelope Spheeris has over 30 directing credits to her name, including the films Wayne’s World, The Little Rascals, and Black Sheep, but she doesn’t have the career she wants. “When people...
Study: French Film Industry Suffers Gender Gap in Employment, Budgets
A new study has revealed that French female directors are much better represented in their industry than their counterparts in many other countries, but even they still have a ways to go. The first...
TV: Latina Women Demand SNL Hire Latina Comedienne After Offensive Caricature
Taking inspiration from the sustained campaign that led to Saturday Night Live’s hiring of Sasheer Zamata, the first black comedienne to join the cast in nearly seven years, Twitter activists have...
Can Women Drive Studio Movie Decision Making?
Yesterday, Amanda Hess at Slate’s XX Factor blog published a piece titled “Women Buy Half of All Movie Tickets. That Won’t Mean More Female Characters.” She responds to a couple of Women and...
Andrea Arnold to Head Cannes Critics Week Jury
British director Andrea Arnold has been named the head of the five-person jury at Cannes Critics Week. A showcase of 20 films (with 7 in competition), Critics Weeks is devoted to discovering new...
Krysten Ritter on the Life She Could’ve Led in Her New Film “Refuge”
When Amy’s (Krysten Ritter) parents head toFlorida for a “vacation” without a return ticket, she is left to take care ofher two younger siblings: Nat (Logan Huffman, V), her temperamental...
Janine Nabers Wins Yale Playwriting Prize
The Yale Drama Series competition, which recognizes full-length, unpublished plays in English, has announced Janine Nabers the winner of its 2014 prize. Nabers was chosen by judge Marsha Norman,...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Ricky Gervais
When I think of male writers who write great female characters, The Office (UK) and Extras creator Ricky Gervais — who mostly pens TV and film vehicles for himself — isn’t someone who...
TV: Addiction Unmoors Nurse Jackie in Season 6 Sneak Peek
Showtime has released a video previewing the upcoming season of Nurse Jackie, which finds Edie Falco’s damaged-caretaker character back in the grips of her pill addiction. Season six looks like a...
Women and Hollywood Summer 2014 Preview
Mark Wahlberg gave us all something to laugh about when he declared the Transformers movies to be “the most iconic franchise in movie history” at this year’s Cinema Con, the annual convention...
UK’s Channel 4 Exec Tessa Ross Becomes Head of National Theatre
Tessa Ross, the Channel 4 film and drama controller who’s been called “the mother of British filmmaking,” will leave her current position to head the National Theatre. Ross will take over NT...
Madonna to Adapt Novel by Alice Walker’s Daughter
Madonna has announced her third feature-directing project: an adaptation of Rebecca Walker’s debut novel Ade: A Love Story. Published last fall, Ade: A Love Story follows a 19-year-old American...
Meryl Streep to Star in Jonathan Demme Film Written by Diablo Cody
Without a word to anyone, Meryl Streep has begun a one-woman revolution in Hollywood. The 18-time Oscar nominee (and three-time winner) has steadily and tenaciously pursued projects by female...
MPAA Data Shows That Women Are Still The Majority of Moviegoers
In their annual release of box office statistics during the movie upfronts known as CinemaCon, the MPAA data showed that women are still the majority of filmgoers, and we buy half of all the...
Brunei Looking to Distribute Its Own Wadjda
Last year, director Haifaa Al-Mansour made history with Wadjda, the first female-directed film to be shot in Saudi Arabia. The tiny nation of Brunei, which borders Malaysia, is poised to release...
Jennifer Lopez to Receive GLAAD Award
Jennifer Lopez will receive GLAAD’s Vanguard Award later this spring. The award honors entertainers who have made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for LGBT people. Lopez will...