BY Women and Hollywood
The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award Winners Announced
The Rona Jaffe Foundation announced their 19th annual Writers’ Award winners. Six emerging women writers will be awarded $30,000 each. The award is the only national literary award of its kind...
The Big O: Are Grande Dames the New Babes?
Beautybefore age. Thistwist on an old adage has held sway for the most part when it comes toselecting which actresses are granted an Oscar each year, at least for the pastseveral decades. But2013...
Elle Magazine Announced Honorees of 20th Annual Women in Hollywood Event
Elle magazine announced the honorees of their 20th annual Women in Hollywood event. The fashion magazine will honor Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Reese Witherspoon, Naomie Harris, Melissa...
Emily Goldwyn and Sasha Spielberg’s Girls Without Boys Picked Up by ABC and WBTV
ABC and WBTV have teamed up to develop Girls Without Boys, a half-hour sitcom from writers Emily Goldwyn and Sasha Spielberg. The daughters of Hollywood royalty — Steven Spielberg and John...
Laura Poitras and Geralyn Dreyfous to be Honored at IDA Documentary Awards
Laura Poitras and Geralyn Dreyfous will be receiving awards for their contributions to documentary film at this year’s IDA Documentary Awards. Dreyfous will receive the Amicus Award which is given...
Guest Post: Let’s Change the Conversation About Women Directors
A few weeks ago, as Jane Campion’s TV series Top Of The Lake drew to a close, Marie Claire UK wrote an article entitled ’11 facts about the director that will blow your mind’ where the...
Talking Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis, Agnieszka Holland, and agnès b on the Eve of the NYFF
On the eve of the NYFF, Director of Programming and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones and I spoke about three extraordinary filmmakers — Catherine Breillat, Claire Denis, Agnieszka Holland...
Women Playwrights Make Up Half of the Most Popular Plays for the 2013–14 Season
American Theater magazine recently announced that David Ives’ Venus in Fur has been chosen to be performed in the most theatres around the country during the upcoming 2013–14 season. They also...
Trailer Watch: New Trailer for How I Live Now — Co-Written by Penelope Skinner
How I Live Now, co-written by Penelope Skinner and starring Saoirse Ronan, premiered at TIFF earlier this month. The film, which is adapted from Meg Rosoff’s novel, follows Daisy (Ronan) an...
Why Characters Like Masters Of Sex’s Virginia Johnson Matter
On September 29 at 10PM, when Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) walks briskly through the halls of a St. Louis hospital as she goes about her duties as the assistant to Dr. William Masters (Michael...
Watch This: Actress Jennifer Lewis Gives a Powerful Speech
Actress Jennifer Lewis gave a powerful speech at the premiere of her new film, Baggage Claim. Lewis was asked what advice she would give to aspiring actors and she gave a heartfelt, hilarious and...
Callie Khouri Talks Season Two of Nashville
Season Two of Nashville starts tonight at 10pm on ABC, and if you care about shows with strong women creators and shows created and run by women, you need to support this show. The women are...
Hamptons International Film Festival Announces Competition Lineup
The 21st Annual Hamptons International Film Festival has announced its competition lineup as well as awards and conversations with renowned actors. The festival places an importance on films with...
Women Win at Urbanworld Film Festival
The 17th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival, sponsored by BET, was held in New York from September 18–22. They screened 60 films this year — including 4 world premieres and 2 U.S. premieres....
Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova Goes on a Hunger Strike
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, one of the jailed members of the band Pussy Riot, has gone on a hunger strike to protest inhumane conditions in the work camp where she is serving her sentence. She was...
Wadjda Rises Hackles in Saudia Arabia Just By Being Considered for an Oscar Nomination
Wadjda written and directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour is making its way around the world in limited release. The reviews have been spectacular, it has won festival prizes, and is also making an emotional...
Lisa Edelstein and Shiri Appleby to Star in Marti Noxon’s New Pilots
Marti Noxon has had quite the busy year — she’s been working on writing the Tomb Raider reboot as well as working on developing two separate pilots for Lifetime and Bravo. Both pilots are...
TV Trailer Watch: American Horror Story: Coven — Starring Jessica Lange
Last season’s American Horror Story: Asylum was a crazy mish-mash of serial killers, alien abductions and Nazi sympathizers all set in a mental institution. It also featured some of the best...
Catherine Deneuve to Receive Lifetime Achievement Award at 2013 European Film Awards
The legendary Catherine Deneuve will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s European Film Awards. Deneuve has been in some of the most iconic films of our time like The Umbrellas of...
Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said Dominates the Specialty Box Office
Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini, opened in limited release this past weekend to critical praise. That praise paid off because...
2013 Emmy Wrap-up
When did watching the Emmy’s become so painful? It wasn’t that I was offended like I was at the last Oscar telecast, but I found the whole thing a bit of a bore. I hate that...
TIFF: Cinedigm Acquires Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves
Out of Toronto, Cinedigm has acquired the rights to Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves starring Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard. This is the third women directed film to...
AFI Announces Guest Artistic Director Agnes Varda’s Films
Iconic “Mother of the French New Wave” director Agnes Varda is the Guest Artistic Director for this year’s upcoming 2013 AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles. The festival will screen...
Weekly Update for September 20: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Enough Said – Written and Directed by Nicole Holofcener You don’t go to a Nicole Holofcener movie to see superheroes save the...
Trailer Watch: Blue is the Warmest Color
There’s been no lack of discussion about Blue is the Warmest Color despite the fact that it hasn’t even hit theaters yet. From reviews praising the sex scenes in the film to those that...
Cate Blanchett to Make Directorial Debut with The Dinner
Cate Blanchett is set to make her directorial debut with an adaptation of Herman Koch’s The Dinner. Oren Moverman will be writing the script which is a psychological thriller about two...
Interview with Nicole Holofcener – Writer and Director of Enough Said
Women and Hollywood: How long does it take you to write a script like this? Nicole Holofcener: 6 months, maybe. WaH: One of the best definitions of your characters, for me, is...
The Big O: When Race is an Issue in the Oscars
What does a black leading lady have to do to win an Academy Award again? Considering there seems to be a renaissance in black cinema, you would think the timing would be perfect. But you would be...
Sundance Rerun: Interview with Lana Wilson and Martha Shane – Directors of After Tiller
Originally published on January 29. After Tiller is in theaters today. One of the highlights of Sundance was seeing the documentary After Tiller directed by Martha Shana and Lana Wilson....
Carine Roitfeld in Conversation on Mademoiselle C
After a decade as editor-in-chief of Vogue Paris ended with her resignation in December 2010, Fabien Constant’s Mademoiselle C elegantly shows Carine Roitfeld embarking on a new project,...
Jess and Mindy — A Look at the Progression of Female Comedy Characters
Much of the conversation about Fox’s Tuesday night comedy lineup focused on two shows by and starring men, the execrable sitcom Dads, which appears to have imported its jokes from Archie...
Must Watch: Geena Davis Takes a Shot for Gender Equality
The awesome Geena Davis has done a video with Funny or Die to bring awareness about the lack of gender equality in film and television. Watch Davis being totally bad-ass at archery (by the way...
Guest Post: Director Kandeyce Jorden’s Journey Through the World of Female DJs
When director Kandeyce Jorden found herself at a personal crossroads, she went looking for a creative project that would open her eyes to a new way of life–and she found it in the...
Susan Lacy Leaves WNET for HBO Documentary Films
Susan Lacy is leaving her long-time spot at WNET to work with Sheila Nevins at HBO Documentary Films. Lacy, who is the creator and executive producer, of WNET’s classic American Masters...
Trailer Watch: Downton Abbey – Season 4
A clip for the upcoming season of Downton Abbey has been released. Season 4 will follow the happenings of the crowd at the Crawley estate six months after the events of season 3. Downton Abbey...
Nancy Gibbs to be First Female Managing Editor at Time Magazine
Nancy Gibbs has been named the Managing Editor at Time Magazine, the first woman to hold that position in the 90 year history of the publication. She succeeds Richard Stengel, who held the...
Women Director News: Andrea Arnold Filmmaker in Residence and Catherine Hardwicke to Direct MTV Pilot
Two great women directors have recently been in the news. Andrea Arnold has been named the Filmmaker in Residence for the 51st New York Film Festival and Catherine Hardwicke will be directing a...
TIFF: IFC Films Acquires Liza Johnson’s Hateship Loveship
Out of Toronto, IFC Films is acquiring the U.S. rights for Liza Johnson’s Hateship Loveship starring Kristen Wiig. Based on a short story by Alice Munro and adapted by Mark Poirier,...
Forbes Announces Top Female Earners on Television
Forbes announced their 14th annual Celebrity 100 list which looks at the earnings of American celebrities from June 2012 – June 2013. The list is compiled by analyzing projects and...
Trailer Watch: Concussion – Directed by Stacie Passon
Concussion, hands down one of the sexiest movies of the year, premiered at Sundance and later screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival and Outfest to critical praise. Written and directed by...
Guest Post: My Adventures of Filming in China
This film was the hardest thing I have done in my career but ultimately the most rewarding. I was asked to develop My Lucky Star as an adventure-comedy for the biggest female star in China,...
Trailer Watch: The Selfish Giant – Directed by Clio Barnard
Clio Barnard’s latest, The Selfish Giant, has just released a UK trailer. The film, based on Oscar Wilde’s story of the same name, premiered at Cannes earlier this year and recently...
Trailer Watch: Grace of Monaco – Starring Nicole Kidman
The first trailer for Grace of Monaco starring Nicole Kidman has been released. Kidman plays the former actress Grace Kelly, who married to Prince Rainier III of Monaco and left Hollywood and...
Tribeca Film Acquired Marion Vernoux’s Bright Days Ahead
Tribeca Film has acquired the rights for Marion Vernoux’s Bright Days Ahead which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last week. As far as we can tell, this is the first female...
Cynthia Lopez to Receive 2013 Good Egg Award
Chicken & Egg Pictures will be honoring Cynthia Lopez during this year’s Independent Film Week. Lopez will receive the 2013 Good Egg Award which is annually given to a leader in the...
Wadjda to be Saudi Arabia’s Oscar Entry
Wadjda, directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, the first film directed by a woman from Saudi Arabia opened in limited release this past weekend. The film made $40,419 after screening in just three theaters...
Women Win Top Doc Awards at TIFF
Women directors took home the top audience awards in the documentary area at TIFF this year. Jehane Noujaim’s The Square took home the top audience prize. The film looks at the Egyptian...
Weekly Update for September 13: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Wadjda – Haifaa Al-Mansour What Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) wants to do is simple – ride a bike. That shouldn’t be so...
TV News Roundup for September 13th: Lauren Iungerich’s New Comedy, Katherine Heigl as CIA Officer and Tina Gordon Chism to HBO
Here’s some of the most notable TV news from the past week including Katherine Heigl’s return to television, Tina Gordon Chism developing a comedy series at HBO, Awkward’s Lauren...
Fall TV Preview – The Best and Worst So Far
It’s September, which means it’s time for a new television season. But the plethora of new shows arriving this year can be equal parts gift and curse. Before you start setting your DVRs...
Tribeca Rerun: Wadjda – Written and Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour
Originally published on April 26. Wadjda is in theaters today. What Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) wants to do is simple – ride a bike. That shouldn’t be so difficult, but when you...