Features
TIFF 2016: Oscar-Worthy Performances, Nudity, and Other Highlights
“American Honey” The Toronto International Film Festival’s program is stacked. While our TIFF preview collected highlights from the slate, there were literally dozens of worthy...
Quote of the Day: Natalie Portman Calls for More of the “Female Gaze”
In a 25 year career and with 45 acting credits, Natalie Portman had never worked with a female director. Last year, Portman became one herself with her directorial debut “A Tale of Love and...
Weekly Update for September 9: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
“As I Open My Eyes” Films About Women Opening This Week As I Open My Eyes — Directed by Leyla Bouzid; Written by Leyla Bouzid and Marie-Sophie Chambon (Opens in NY; Opens in LA September...
No More Excuses, Just Hire More Women
According to the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative’s latest study, 29 female directors were involved in 800 of the top-grossing films between 2007 and 2015 (excluding 2011). 29 out...
TIFF 2016: Isabelle Huppert Seen Through the Male and Female Gaze
Here at TIFF there are three movies starring the amazing Isabelle Huppert, who seems to get better and better as she ages. I saw two of them — Mia Hansen-Love’s “Things to Come” and Paul...
The Ties That Bond: Crowdfunding Picks
Julia Ngeow, writer and director of “Eudaemonia” Connecting with another person, really bonding with them, can be very difficult as an adult. Whether you’re making a new friend, attempting to...
Rooney Mara Confronts Her Past in Tension-Filled “Una” Clip
Rooney Mara stars in “Una,” an adaptation of the play “Blackbird,” which follows a young woman seeking answers for long-ago events that have shaped her path in life, for better...
TIFF 2016 Preview: Women-Directed Films About Athletes, Geniuses, and Cannibals
“A United Kingdom” The Toronto International Film Festival kicks off today, and with nearly 30 percent of the program helmed by women (if you include shorts), there’s lots to look forward to....
New Research Shows Gender Equality in Hollywood is Stalled
Credit: MDSC Initiative We spend every day at Women and Hollywood educating, advocating, and agitating for gender equality in Hollywood and the global film industry. We know that while there has been...
The Revolutionary “Fun Home” Ends Its Broadway Run
The Original Broadway Cast of “Fun Home”: Joan Marcus Many will feel the loss when “Fun Home,” 2015’s Tony Award winner for Best Musical, closes on Saturday. I know I will. For roughly 17...
Fall 2016 Film Preview
By Rachel Montpelier and Kate Gardner Summer might be over, but the impressive array of fall movie releases guarantees you won’t succumb to the back-to-school and work blues quite yet. The fall...
The Bold Directorial Sisterhood of “Queen Sugar”
“Queen Sugar”: OWN In the television season that concluded last year, show episodes directed by non-white women made up a whopping three percent of the total. White women, meanwhile, were a...
Weekly Update for September 2: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
“White Girl” Films About Women Opening This Week White Girl — Written and Directed by Elizabeth Wood (Opens in NY; Opens in LA September 9 and nationwide September 16) Street-wise college...
“Better Things” Gives Pamela Adlon a Turn to Shine — and Snark
Pamela Adlon in “Better Things”: FX Pamela Adlon, a writer and actress who ought to be way more famous than she is, finally gets her own show, the dark comedy “Better Things,” debuting...
“La La Land” First Reviews and Twitter Reactions (Updated)
August 31 marked not only the end of an overly heated month (both on and off the web), but also the beginning of this year’s fall festival season. That’s right. It’s Venice (#Venezia73) time....
September 2016 Film Preview
“Queen of Katwe” by Kate Gardner and Rachel Montpelier From tense horror films to powerful documentaries, the diversity of films this September shows that films by and about women span all...
Sex Scenes At a Size 22
Guest Post by Jen Ponton As an actress taking on your first lead role in a movie, there are a lot of things you need to be prepared to do: show up every day, be a good leader, know what you’re...
Quote of the Day: Ava DuVernay Explains, “The Onus is Not on the Marginalized to Educate”
Ava DuVernay is about to have a killer fall. Her first television series, “Queen Sugar,” will premiere on Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network, and she’s the first woman to open the New York Film...
Never Too Old to Dream Big: Going From Mom to Movie Maker with No Fear
Guest Post by Caytha Jentis As I’m about to complete “The Other F Word,” my fourth production since deciding to become a filmmaker in my early forties, I’ve decided to reflect on...
“Women Who Score” Made History for Female Composers
Composer Nan Schwartz: Gino Mifsud/AWFC Guest Post by Penka Kouneva On August 19, 2016, I had the honor of conducting my music in a concert titled “Women Who Score: Soundtracks Live.” This event...
Weekly Update for August 26: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
“Equal Means Equal” Films About Women Opening This Week Equal Means Equal (Documentary) — Directed by Kamala Lopez; Written by Kamala Lopez and Gini Sikes “Equal Means Equal” offers...
Listen: Podcast with Clea DuVall, Writer, Director, and Star of “The Intervention”
Women and Hollywood spoke with Clea DuVall, writer, director, and star of “The Intervention.” DuVall has been acting on screen for 20 years, with credits including “Veep,” “American Horror...
The Importance of Gender Parity in Critics Polls
On Monday, BBC Culture published “The 21st Century’s 100 greatest films,” a list that polled 177 critics worldwide for their top ten films of this century (2000 onwards). Out of those 177...
Exclusive: “My King” Clip Shows Emmanuelle Bercot Falling in Love
What better time to interact with a potential love interest than when you look “like death warmed over”? What begins as good-natured ribbing among friends transforms into something much more in...
Helping Hands: August 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
“Love is Uganda” We all need a helping hand sometimes, and that is the running theme in the second round of crowdfunding picks for August. From women helping each other to the real life...
New BBC Film Poll Sorely Lacking Both Women Directors and Critics
BBC Culture has released a list titled “The 21st Century’s 100 Greatest Films,” for which it polled 177 film critics from around the world. The resulting list of films is unsurprisingly,...
Weekly Update for August 19: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
“A Tale of Love and Darkness” Films About Women Opening This Week A Tale of Love and Darkness — Written and Directed by Natalie Portman “A Tale of Love and Darkness” is based on the...
Great Expectations: August Web Series and VOD Picks
“Aroha Bridge” It’s funny-in-a-sad-way to think about how your plans change as you grow up. Remember your goals when you were a high school student? An undergrad? A fresh-out-of-college young...
The Taint on “The Birth of a Nation”
This past Friday, the public learned (at least the public that was paying attention on a steamy August Friday) that Nate Parker, the most recent Sundance Institute Vanguard winner, and writer and...
What I Learned Starting a Female Film Fest in the Middle of the Country
Guest Post by Justina Walford “But we already have a women’s organization for film.” I was building a three-day film festival of female-created films in Dallas, and to a few, that seemed...
Quote of the Day: Felicity Jones on the Respect “Rogue One” Has for Women
Felicity Jones is about to have an amazing fall/winter of 2016. In addition to leading “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” the first spinoff film of the franchise, she’ll appear alongside Tom...
Weekly Update for August 12: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
“Florence Foster Jenkins” Films About Women Opening This Week Florence Foster Jenkins Meryl Streep disappears into yet another role, this time as art patron and heiress Florence Foster...
Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Crowdfunding Picks
Untitled “Curious George” documentary This round of August’s crowdfunding picks challenge us to acknowledge and empathize with some who are invisible in most narratives: authors of famous...
Quote of the Day: Ellen Burstyn on Educating Martin Scorsese About Women
Ellen Burstyn won an Oscar in 1975 for her role in “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” but her award-winning performance may never have come into fruition if she hadn’t educated the film’s...
The Queer and Not-So-Queer History of Early Hollywood Revealed in New Book “Girls Will Be Boys”
Laura Horak tells of a time when cross-dressed women and lesbians roamed the screen in “Girls Will Be Boys: Cross-Dressed Women, Lesbians, and American Cinema, 1908–1934.” Here, Horak...
Quote of the Day: Locarno Artistic Director Explains How Women Enrich Cinema
Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival 2016 gets underway today. Its Artistic Director had some thoughts to share on the dearth of women filmmakers — and lack of diversity in general — in...
“Ghostbusters” and the Specter of Double Standards
“Ghostbusters” It seems as though the positive critical consensus is not enough to bust the ghosts haunting Paul Feig’s “Ghostbusters.” The latest haunting is the specter of double...
Ava Duvernay Will Be First African American Woman to Helm $100 Million Film
Yesterday a list of CA tax credits was announced. On that list was Disney’s Ava Duvernay-helmed film “A Wrinkle in Time.” Why that is of note is that this marks the first time CA tax...
Women and Hollywood Goes Down Under
Melissa Silverstein and Rachel Ward Even before Women and Hollywood was a glimmer in my eye, I had an affinity for Australian women directors. I find it very interesting that most of the seminal...
“Equity” Takes on Wall Street and Is Rewarded at the Box Office, While “AbFab” Still Goes Strong
It’s been another absolutely fabulous week for women at the box office. Not only because “AbFab: The Movie” is still putting bums on seats worldwide, but also thanks to the strength of two new...
August 2016 Film Preview
“A Tale of Love and Darkness” by Rachel Montpelier and Kate Gardner Whether they are opening up about something personal, sharing a beloved fairy tale, or constructing an elaborate charade, the...
Quote of the Day: “Bad Moms’” Mila Kunis on How Female-Led Films Are Judged Differently
Mila Kunis stars in “Bad Moms,” in which she plays a worn out mom who is tired of the pressures on mothers to be “perfect.” In some sense, Kunis is also sick of those same pressures put on...
Women Vs. the World: Crowdfunding Picks
In this month’s crowdfunding picks, it’s all about the challenges women face, be they the daily challenges of finding a job, or the struggle of coming to terms with one’s own past. These...
Women Are EVERYWHERE at the Movies This Weekend: Ladies of Wall Street, Wild Moms, and More
Unless you’re a die-hard fan of blockbusters, summer probably isn’t your favorite season to head to the cinema (besides for the air-conditioning, of course). But this weekend is almost an...
Listen: Podcast with “Equity” Director Meera Menon
Women and Hollywood recently had the chance to talk with director Meera Menon about her trailblazing new film. “Equity” tells the story of the women of Wall Street — the powerful female...
Why Disney’s “Mulan” Still Matters
There’s a lot to discuss now that the Republican National Convention is in the rear view. We could talk neo-fascism, plagiarism, party mutiny, or the terrifying new levels of racism. Personally,...
Why Female Screenwriters Shouldn’t Get Depressed by WGA Stats
Guest Post by Rebecca Norris Are you a female screenwriter who is depressed by the latest Hollywood statistics that seem to suggest women are becoming more marginalized in Tinseltown, rather than...
“AbFab: The Movie” is a Vacation from the Suck
“Welcome to the Republican National Convention!” yelled legendary drag queen Lady Bunny, introducing Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley at the New York premiere of “Absolutely Fabulous: The...
Identity Politics: July Web Series and VOD Picks
“Oh Lucy!” One of the most popular themes in art is the exploration of the self, identity, and the way society impacts the way we view ourselves. In this month’s picks for web series, women try...
Catherine Corsini on Pioneering Lesbian Feminists and “Summertime”
In “Summertime,” Catherine Corsini gives us a love story about two women in Paris and the French countryside at the dawn of the feminist movement in the early 1970s. These women are forging a...
Quote of the Day: Evan Rachel Wood Says Hollywood Wage Gap is “Staggering”
Evan Rachel Wood is starring alongside Ellen Page in “Into the Forest,” a tale of two sisters facing an apocalyptic event. She’ll also appear in HBO’s upcoming series “Westworld.” In...