BY Women and Hollywood
Pussy Riot are Back with New Video
The ladies of Pussy Riot are back with a new video “Like a Red Prison.” The video is the first in over a year, since their anti-Putin protest which led to three of the members being...
The Women’s Guide to Comic-Con
Comic-Con has long been a boys club — I mean, it is called “fanboy” culture for a reason. However, in recent years there’s been more and more female-skewing programming,...
Guest Post: The Evolution of Women in Comedy: From Mary Tyler Moore to Amy and Mindy
Treva Silverman had spent most of her 30 years wanting to be funny and female — and allowed to do so in public, maybe even collect a buck or two for her trouble. Growing up in the 1950s in...
Jane Campion on Television, Women and Being ‘Untameable’
In a new interview with The Telegraph, Jane Campion talks at length about Top of the Lake–her excellent miniseries which just premiered in the UK starring Elisabeth Moss as a detective looking...
Trailer Watch: Billie Jean King
For the first time, PBS’ American Masters series is profiling a sports figure and we are glad that they chose Billie Jean King. The documentary focuses on King’s career as a tennis...
Claire Danes Almost Quit Acting Due to Lack of Good Female Roles
In the August issue of Vogue, Claire Danes talks at length about her family, playing Carrie Mathison on Homeland and her preparation for that role. The big news is that after receiving critical...
Nine for IX: Let Them Wear Towels Directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern Premieres Tonight on ESPN
The latest film (the third) in the series Nine for IX is a historical look at the women who broke the barriers for women to cover sports. It is directed by Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern and...
Cross Post: Why Women Should Get The Jobs
In a recent episode of the television series Mad Men, two advertising agencies merge. Each agency has a single woman on their creative team and one woman is told she’s...
Women Attain Their Highest Level of Leadership at the Academy
Each year the Academy votes in members of its Governors Board. The board members represents each of the Academy’s 16 branches which includes the newly created costume designers branch....
On the Importance of Talking About “Lady Quotas”
I saw this blog post on Jezebel from the editor in chief Jessica Coen who doesn’t have a lot of time to write as she spends most of her day keeping everything moving and flowing on the ladyblog...
J.K. Rowling Fooled Everyone With Latest Novel
In April, The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith, was published. The book focused on private investigator, Cormoran Strike, who lost a leg in Afghanistan, his girlfriend left him and he is...
Aubrey Plaza and the Importance of Having Girls Come of Age in Film
Aubrey Plaza has always been a dark comedic force in her role as April Ludgate on Parks and Recreation. She has continued to show her comedic range as a young intern in Safety Not Guaranteed and now...
Why Talking About Women Directors Matters
When I started doing this work six years ago, and when I spoke about the importance of talking about women directors, about the importance of their voices, I was basically talking to the mirror....
Guest Post: Interview with Paula Ortiz
Paula Ortiz’s terrific feature debut Chrysalis aka De tu ventana a la mía is a film of perseverance of spirit. With images that resemble a Braque painting one minute, a Dutch master the next,...
Malala Yousafzai To Be Subject of New Documentary
The extremely brave 16 year old Malala Yousafzai will be the subject of a new documentary by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth.) Last October, Yousafzai was shot in the head by...
Sundance Institute Awards Documentary Grants
The Sundance Institute awarded 29 documentaries grants from their Documentary Film Program and Fund. Combined all the films will receive over $550,000 in grants. Here are the women directed...
xoxosms directed by Nancy Schwartzman to Air on PBS July 15th
Nancy Schwartzman’s short documentary, xoxosms, will be airing on PBS on July 15th. Schwartzman’s doc follows the romance between Gus and Jiyun–seemingly opposites in every...
When Women and Hollywood Came to London
I work in script development in the UK, and am increasingly frustrated, infuriated and worried by the portrayal – or lack thereof – of women in film and TV. Readers of this site are...
Directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal Use Kickstarter to Replace PBS Funding
Documentarians Tia Lessin and Carl Deal made a big wave with their film, Trouble the Waters about Hurricane Katrina. They got funding through PBS to make their new film that examined the role...
Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken Makes Moves
Angelina Jolie’s second directorial feature Unbroken now has a release date and a star. Written by Joel and Ethan Coen, Jolie’s next feature is based on Laura Hillenbrand’s...
New TV Study Finds Young Female Characters are Sexual Targets
The Parents Television Counsel has released a new television study that looked at teen sexual exploitation on primetime television. They found that the primary target of the sexual exploitation were...
Trailer Watch: Lovelace
Amanda Seyfried stars as Linda Boreman in the story behind the woman who made Deep Throat. Opens in US theatres August 9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vJADecKL-4
Ava DuVernay To Take on Martin Luther King Jr. Biopic Selma
Ava DuVernay has signed on with Plan B (Brad Pitt’s company) and Pathe UK to helm Selma, a biopic on civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The film will focus on the voting rights...
Emma Thompson Returns to the Big Screen in Saving Mr. Banks
It feels like it has been a long time since we saw Emma Thompson on the big screen in a meaty role. In Saving Mr. Banks she plays Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers. The film is written by...
Kerry Washington Covers Vanity Fair
Recently, Kerry Washington has been on the cover of some major magazines. In May, she was on the cover of Elle and now she’s on this month’s cover of Vanity Fair. Washington is the first...
Trailer Watch: Austenland – Directed by Jerusha Hess
Jerusha Hess’s feature debut, Austenland, follows the very single Jane (Keri Russell) who has been obsessed with the works of Jane Austen since she was young. However, her status as...
Trailer for Kim Cattrall in Sweet Bird of Youth
I’m kicking myself for not getting a ticket to see Sweet Bird of Youth when I was in London last week especially since Kim Cattrall has been so outspoken on the issue of aging and women and...
Cross Post: Dear Hollywood: Hiring Women Directors Could Rescue the Superhero Movie. Love, Half the Human Race
The superhero picture is suffering from female trouble, and not just because a franchise based on Wonder Woman keeps going in and out of development limbo. Any creature on screen minus a...
Girls Are More Than Just Princesses
As we’ve reported about before, images aimed at young girls in the media don’t have much variety. As The Geena Davis Institute in Media has researched only 28.3% of speaking roles in...
Trailer Watch – The Lifeguard – Directed by Liz W. Garcia
We wrote last week about Liz W. Garcia’s amazing and perfect quote about women working as directors in a recent interview. Garcia’s latest film, The Lifeguard, premiered at Sundance and...
Guest Post: Who Says There Are No Women Onscreen This Summer? Susan Seidelman’s The Hot Flashes Hits Theatres This Weekend
The best surprise of this summer is Susan Seidelman’s new film The Hot Flashes, opening in selected theaters on July 12 and starring Brooke Shields, Daryl Hannah, Virginia Madsen, Wanda...
Joan Didion, Elaine May Amongst Women Awarded the National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medal
Tomorrow, President Obama will award the 2012 National Medal of Arts and National Humanities Medals. Both honor individuals or groups that have made significant achievements in the arts and...
Trailer Watch – Wadjda – Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour
We’ve written about Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda before and finally the first trailer for the film has been released. Al-Mansour is the first woman to direct and write a film in Saudi...
More Plays About Women Were Written in the 1900s than Today
At an event that celebrated theater during the Suffragette movement, Professor Maggie Gale from the University of Manchester, revealed that her research had found that there were more plays written...
Sofia Coppola’s Career in a Nutshell
Sofia Coppola dissected her career with the website totalfilm.com down to a four minute...
Ellen Page and Toni Collette Talk Feminism
More and more as of late, we’ve been seeing actresses talking about the lack of great female roles, the sexism within the industry and outrightly discussing feminism. In recent interviews,...
Trailer Watch: Black Nativity – Directed by Kasi Lemmons
Kasi Lemmon’s Black Nativity is an adaptation of Langston Hughes’ famed retelling of the Nativity story with an all black cast. Lemmon’s take focuses on a teen (Jacob Latimore) who...
Quote of the Day: Dustin Hoffman on Everyday Misogyny
Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie is truly one of the great performances of all time. Here in an AFI interview Hoffman talks about the experience of playing the now iconic role of Dorothy Michaels and how...
Queen Latifah Hosting Your New Favorite Talk Show
Good news for your daytime talk show viewing habits–our beloved Queen Latifah is hosting a new talk show beginning in the fall. Entitled The Queen Latifah Show, the show will consist of...
Showtime To Make Tig Notaro Documentary
Showtime has greenlit a documentary about comedian, Tig Notaro. The doc, Knock Knock, It’s Tig Notaro, will follow Notaro as she tours the country. The twist is that her performances will be...
Trailer Watch: Passion – Starring Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace
Passion starring Rachel McAdams and Noomi Rapace follows two women working at an advertising agency and the rivalry that fuels their relationship. As things escalate, things between the pair turn...
Interview with Lindy DeKoven – Author of Primetime Princess
You know when you start a book and you immediately get sucked in and you can’t stop reading? That awesome feeling that’s like no other? That’s what happened with me and...
Melissa McCarthy is Outperforming Comedy Dudes
Melissa McCarthy is crushing it right now–with a $40 million dollar opening weekend with The Heat, a rumored ESPYS hosting gig and recently wrapped up principal production on Tammy a film she...
UN Women and Geena Davis to Partner on Global Study on Representation of Females in Family Films
UN Women is partnering with The Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to analyze the representations of female characters in family films globally. This is the first time a study of this nature...
Trailer Watch: Afternoon Delight – Directed by Jill Soloway
Jill Soloway’s directorial debut, Afternoon Delight, was a big hit out of Sundance with great reviews and winning the Dramatic Directing Award. The film follows Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) a...
The Academy Sends Out 276 Invites
Last week, the Academy sent out 276 new invitations to join its ranks, the highest amount in recent years. (178 were invited in 2011; 135 in 2010; 134 in 2009; and 105 in 2008.) What you...
LAFF Interview with Molly Green, Stephanie Dziczek and Meg Charlton of Forev
I’m not ashamed to admit that I can never pass up a romantic comedy–no matter how bad they can get. It’s a genre that can be extremely accessible–looking at stories about...
Hollywood Women Stand With the Women of Texas
Since Wendy Davis’ epic 13 hour filibuster last week, female celebrities like Lena Dunham and others tweeted their support for the Texas Senator. Yesterday, a rally was held that coincided with...
Trailer Watch: Therese – Starring Audrey Tautou
The wonderful Audrey Tautou, plays Therese, a 1920s housewife who decides to leave her unhappy marriage with tragic conclusions. Therese is an adaptation of Francois Mauriac’s novel Therese...
Elizabeth Banks’ Brownstone Productions to Adapt Two New Projects
Lionsgate has just bought two book adaptation projects that will be produced by Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman’s Brownstone Productions. The first is based on Babe Walker’s (an alias...
Hollywood’s Glass Ceiling: Why Doesn’t the Film Industry Trust Women?
Here’s a piece I wrote for CNN’s Leading Women section: It would be wonderful to say that in 2013 things were looking up for women in Hollywood — both onscreen and behind the...