Features
Book Excerpt: The Future of Feminist Film
The following is excerpted from Sophie Mayer’s “Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema,” published in December 2015. Just over a year ago, the 2014 European Film Awards might have thought...
Agents Scully and Carter Return
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Elite Zexer — ‘Sand Storm’
Elite Zexer received her BFA and MFA from Tel Aviv University, the latter in film directing. Her previous short films are “Take Note,” which won the Best Fiction Film Award at the Tel Aviv...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Dawn Porter — ‘Trapped’
Dawn Porter is an award-winning filmmaker whose 2013 documentary, “Gideon’s Army,” won the Sundance Film Festival Editing Award, the Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Award and was nominated...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth Wood – ‘White Girl’
Elizabeth Wood, an Oklahoma City native, moved New York City to study writing at The New School. After a few years of making experimental and documentary films, Wood received a screenwriting...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Frankie Shaw – ‘Too Legit’
Frankie Shaw is an actress/writer/director from Brookline, Massachusetts. She graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University with a degree in English literature. She wrote, directed and...
Guest Post: The Aerial Cinematography and Fearless Living of ‘Sunshine Superman’
As I write this, my documentary "Sunshine Superman" has been out in the world for a little over a year. We have played at over 40 festivals worldwide and had a limited theatrical run...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Liz Garbus – ‘Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper’
Oscar-nominated director Liz Garbus is one of the most celebrated American documentary filmmakers working today. Her films have been acclaimed worldwide and have garnered multiple Academy...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Milica Zec – ‘Giant’
Milica Zec is a New York City-based film and virtual reality director. Raised in war-torn Serbia, Zec’s work is deeply rooted in issues of conflict, identity and the human struggle. Highlights of...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Maggie Greenwald – ‘Sophie and the Rising Sun’
Writer, director and producer Maggie Greenwald is an award-winning filmmaker who began her career as a picture and sound editor. Her 1987 film "The Kill-Off," a noir thriller based on a...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Penny Lane – ‘NUTS!’
Penny Lane was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2012. Her debut feature-length documentary, "Our Nixon," world-premiered at International...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Siân Heder – ‘Tallulah’
Siân Heder writes and produces on the acclaimed Netflix series "Orange is the New Black," for which she has received multiple WGA nominations. Her first short film,...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Nanfu Wang – ‘Hooligan Sparrow’
Nanfu Wang is an independent filmmaker based in New York City. Wang was born in a remote farming village in Jiangxi Province, China. Realizing that she wanted to help tell the stories of people who...
Sundance 2016 Preview: Eagle Huntresses, Toddler Kidnappers, Other Festival Gems By and About Women
January hasn’t been a great — or even remotely good — month for films by and about women in theaters, as our January Film Preview proves. But tomorrow marks the beginning of the...
Quote of the Day: Marielle Heller on How Male and Female Directors Are Perceived Differently
Marielle Heller recently received some well-deserved love from the DGA for her critically acclaimed directorial debut, "The Diary of a Teenage Girl." Heller, who also penned the script for...
Weekly Update for January 15: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week The Lady in the Van (Opens in Los Angeles and New York) The film tells the true story of Alan Bennett’s (Alex Jennings) strained friendship with Miss Mary...
Why “Carol” Failed to Become the Lesbian ‘Brokeback’
Well, that’s that. Lesbians will not have their “Brokeback Mountain” this year after all. That’s because “Carol,” perhaps the most critically acclaimed mainstream film of all time...
Anxiety and Alzheimer’s on Film: January 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
This month’s crowdfunding post focuses on filmmakers tackling topics rarely discussed in mainstream film. “From Away” highlights racism in an idyllic town, “MNSTR” dramatizes the feeling of...
Rashida Jones Brings Back Slapstick With TBS’s ‘Angie Tribeca’
"Surely you can’t be serious?" "I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley." Whether you’ll take to the new TBS comedy "Angie Tribeca" depends, I expect,...
Guest Post: Submitting Like a Man: My Year Resubmitting Scripts As A Dude
This is the first installment of the blog Submitting Like A Man (SLAM), created by writer Mya Kagan. The project examines what happens when Mya resubmits scripts to previously rejected...
Weekly Update for January 8: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekThe Forest – Co-Written by Sarah Cornwell When her twin sister disappears in Japan, a young American named Sara (Natalie Dormer) becomes determined to find...
Jennifer Lopez Is Better Than ‘Shades of Blue’
J.Lo’s new character is a tough, complicated detective who slaps down bar pickup lines ("I don’t do witty banter"), can hold her own in a fight — and is as good at taking...
Quote of the Day: ‘American Crime’ Writer Julie Hébert on Why Diversity in the Writers Room Matters
"American Crime Story," the limited series that explores issues of race, class and justice through the lens of one story per season, received 10 Emmy nominations for its debut...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Ryan Coogler
Although the issue of Hollywood’s egregious lack of women directors has gone mainstream, we still don’t have very many prominent male filmmakers willing to speak out on behalf of their...
Quote of the Day: Dakota Johnson on Hollywood’s “Brutal and Absurd” Ageism
Dakota Johnson is only 26, but she’s seen enough of the film industry’s ageism — through her mother Melanie Griffith and her grandmother Tippi Hedren — to speak out against...
Guest Post: Gender Parity in Documentary Filmmaking Is A Fiction
Over the holiday break, I read many of the Oscar predictions that litter not just the trades but the various general interest "papers of record" this time of year. But I hardly saw a single...
Directors Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos on Challenges and Misconceptions About ‘Making a Murderer’
Since its debut on Netflix last month, the ten-part documentary miniseries "Making a Murderer" has dominated the water-cooler conversation. Below, we rerun an interview with directors Laura...
Crosspost: The Difficulties of Juggling Diversity Activism and a Directing Career in Hollywood
The following has been reposted from Lexi Alexander’s blog with permission of the author. Our version below includes minor edits. 2015 was an interesting year for me. After finally getting back...
January 2016 Film Preview
Dark and cold January creeps in on us with a number of equally dark tales of young women finding themselves in dangerous situations. In "The Forest," Natalie Dormer of "Game of...
Weekly Update for December 23 and January 1: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekJoy – Story by Annie Mumolo “Joy” is the story of a family across four generations and the woman (Jennifer Lawrence) who rises to become founder and...
18 Most Anticipated Films By and About Women in 2016
2016 is rushing swiftly upon us, so to kickstart celebrations, here’s a heads-up on 18 of the most exciting female-centric/women-directed films to watch out for in the coming months. Do...
The 11 Most Important Women of Color Moments of 2015
"Harry Potter" Gets More Inclusive: Hermione Will Be Played by a Black Actress The "Harry Potter" franchise — seven best-selling books, eight movies that struck...
Guest Post: From the Oscars Stage to Directors Jail: This Is What Sex Discrimination Looks Like
The following was originally posted on composer Michael Levine‘s Facebook page. It has been slightly edited below. Recently, I went to a screening of a 30-minute film called...
The 10 Best Female Performances of 2015
2015 has been an especially strong year for women on screen. Just consider how many actresses turned in performances that were deemed Oscar-worthy. We don’t think Hollywood’s leading...
Guest Post: Secrets to Success in Hollywood (For Women)
When I first came to Hollywood and started taking meetings, I was sure it was my high-pitched voice and curvy figure that were placing obstacles in my path to success as a film director. I had a lot...
Hipster Hijabis and the Dark Side of Yoga: December 2015’s VOD and Web Series Picks
This month’s picks are about geographical transitions and cultural clashes. In “Namaste, Bitches,” a yoga teacher moves from New York to L.A. and finds the sunny town’s yogis awfully cold and...
Guest Post: How I Made 6 Indie Films in 10 Years
I just finished producing my sixth feature film, "Mr. Rudolpho’s Jubilee." We shot in Berlin, Milan and Tuscany with an artist collective of 300 people from 30 different countries....
The Top 10 Film/TV Moments for Queer Women in 2015
In a year when marriage equality became the law of the land, Hollywood — particularly film — was playing some catch-up when it came to LGBT representation. TV came into the year already...
Weekly Update for December 18: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekSisters — Written by Paula Pell We can’t ever get enough of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, so we’re excited that the sweet and salty “Sisters” is a...
The 10 Best Feminist TV Shows of 2015
Guest Post: “Waking The Feminists” Starts A Revolution In Ireland
Next year will mark the centenary of the 1916 Rising, when Ireland fought for and won its independence. 2016 will thus be a momentous year to celebrate and reflect on our past and our future. Front...
Seeking Our Story: An Animated Life: Director Vicky Jenson
Vicky Jenson was bornin Los Angeles to a highly talented family that was led by her mother Ana, animmigrant from Costa Rica who encouraged her children to explore the arts. Vicky’s sister became a...
The Most Epic Feminist Moments of 2015
2015 marked a gender quake in the film and TV worlds. The conversation surrounding women in Hollywood — both those working onscreen and behind the scenes — is in a very different place...
Guest Post: Closing the Confidence Gap One Female Hero at a Time
Last year, while working on the edit of my film “Bleeding Heart,” I heard the phrase “the confidence gap” for the first time. The confidence gap seemingly explains why women haven’t broken...
The 12 Best Films About Girls and Women of 2015
2015 has been a remarkable year for female-led films. The Women and Hollywood team struggled to compile this list because there were just so many worthy candidates this year — a problem we’re...
Weekly Update for December 11: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Bleeding Heart — Written and Directed by Diane Bell “Bleeding Heart” follows the story of May (Jessica Biel), a yoga instructor who finds herself...
Quote of the Day: Time Warner CEO on Wonder Woman’s Power to Boost the Box Office
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes has high hopes for the “Wonder Woman” movie. At a press conference this week, Bewkes identified why he’s so confident about the superheroine’s success at the box...
Feminist Comedy, Deaf Ears in War Zones & the Tangerine Juice Fund: This Week’s Crowdfunding Picks
This week’s crowdfunding picks include two projects by women determined to make a difference. “Tangerine Juice Fund” is the financing section of “Tangerine Entertainment,” a female-driven,...
Weekly Update for December 4: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekChi-Raq “Chi-Raq” is a modern-day adaptation of the ancient Greek play “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes. After the murder of a child by a stray bullet, a group...
‘Transparent’ Returns, in All Its Complicated Glory
Moving the Needle on Hollywood’s Gender Disparity: 4 Solutions
Under media pressure and the threat of possible government intervention, Hollywood seems to finally be taking its female-protagonist and woman-director problems more seriously. Forty-four industry...