Features
Confessions From Above the Celluloid Ceiling: The Truth About White Male Privilege
I don’t remember the first time I really thought about white male privilege, but in retrospect, one incident stands out. I was visiting a school where I was hoping to shoot a scene for a film....
Quote of the Day: Reese Witherspoon Says Women Should Play 50% of the Roles On Screen
Receiving the American Cinematheque Award last Friday night, Reese Witherspoon made no secret of how she feels about how women are represented in Hollywood. “Women make up 50% of the population,...
Catherine Hardwicke on the Universalness of ‘Miss You Already’ and Her Next Female-Centric Projects
It might seem puzzling that filmmaker Catherine Hardwicke isn’t more of a household name considering her achievements. Thanks to 2008’s “Twilight,” she held the record as the female director...
November 2015 Film Preview
Awards season is getting closer, and so several of the much-talked-about contenders — many of them grand romantic dramas — will open in theaters this November. The always glorious Cate...
Weekly Update for October 30: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Our Brand is Crisis After her Oscar-nominated performance in “Gravity,” Sandra Bullock returns to comedy in “Our Brand is Crisis,” in which she plays a...
What to Make of GLAAD’s New Report on the State of LGBT TV
Depending on how you look at the numbers, things are either better or still sorely lacking for LGBT characters on television. GLAAD released its annual “Where We Are On TV” report, and its...
Where’s TV’s Golden Age of Equal-Opportunity Sex?
The Love of Fangirls and the Hate of Online Harassers: October 2015’s Crowdfunding Picks
While teenage girls pour their hearts out to their chosen boy band in the documentary “I Used to Be Normal,” another (as-yet-untitled) documentary spotlights the hatred certain men express...
Alexandra Shiva on ‘How to Dance in Ohio,’ Her Coming-of-Age Doc About Teens with Autism
“How to Dance in Ohio” is a portrait of young adults on the autism spectrum in the months leading up to a formal dance. After premiering at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, it will...
What It’s Like to Be a Woman in Film School
The following cross-post was originally published on Victoria Rozler’s blog. It has been lightly edited. For the past two days, I have been more than prepared to flex my feminist muscles. Whether...
Where Does This Diverse Broadway Season Leave Women of Color?
Viola Davis said in her Emmy speech last month, “The onlything that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You can’twin an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.” The...
Producer Mehret Mandefro on How Her Bride-Abduction Drama ‘Difret’ Shows that Change Can Happen
In “Difret,” 14-year-old Hirut (Tizita Hagere) is kidnapped while walking home from school and forced into marriage by an older man she doesn’t know — and who’s willing to do whatever...
Reed Morano on ‘Meadowland,’ Working with Olivia Wilde and Motherhood Discrimination
When cinematographer Reed Morano was invited to join the prestigious American Society of Cinematography (ASC) in 2013, she became their youngest-ever member. The revered director of photography...
(A Celebratory) Weekly Update for October 23: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
It’s a great week for women at the movies. It’s not often that we can say that, but this lineup of new releases by and about women is well worth celebrating. The story behind women’s...
Seeking Our Story: The Making of an Oscar Winner: Kathryn Bigelow and “Near Dark”
Kathryn Bigelowand female filmmakers in general had much to celebrate after the “Hurt Locker” director’s history-makingOscar win in 2010. But misperceptions — that Bigelow only makes...
‘Supergirl’ Bares Feminist Conflicts, Not Abs
Proud and Out(spoken): LGBTQ History Month 2015’s VOD and Web Series Picks
It’s exhausting enough that women are all-too-often underrepresented and excluded on and off screen. But for queer women, this situation is exacerbated to the point where our community (writing as...
A Scholar’s Reflections on Women Directors: Discrimination and Mentorship, Then and Now
October is WomenDirectors Month on Turner Classic Movies, and my stint as a co-host has been awonderful excuse to revisit over 100 years of women directors and their films. Forthe first 20+ years of...
5 Reasons to Watch ‘Suffragette’ This Weekend
The fight for women’s right to the ballot comes alive this weekend with the opening of “Suffragette,” starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Romola Garai, Anne-Marie Duff and Meryl...
Take Part in the EEOC’s Investigation into Industry-Wide Discrimination Against Women Directors
Last May, The New York Times published a15-page letter from the ACLU to the EEOC and two California state agenciesurging them to investigate Hollywood for sex discrimination against...
Sisters Doing it for Themselves: October 2015 Crowdfunding Picks
Women are capable of anything, especially when it comes to fighting to tell their stories told. The following eclectic selection of projects is testament to the expansive talent and aptitude that...
Weekly Update for October 16: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Truth Cate Blanchett is at the peak of her talents as producer Mary Mapes, who, along with Robert Redford as Dan Rather, takes the fall for reporting on a false...
‘Room’ Author/Screenwriter Emma Donoghue on Her “Deeply Feminist” Film and Industry Sexism
The release of “Room” will likely spell the beginning of Brie Larson’s career as an A-list star. While Larson won great favor with critics for her heartbreaking portrayal of a group-home...
10 Women Directors Who Could Helm a ‘Star Wars’ Spin-Off
Producer Kathleen Kennedy, who’ll oversee the upcoming “Stars Wars” trilogy and standalone Han Solo film, is adamant that her version of a galaxy that originally only had just six women in it...
‘Room’ Author/Screenwriter Emma Donoghue on Her “Deeply Feminist” Film and Industry Sexism
The release of "Room" will likely spell the beginning of Brie Larson’s career as an A-list star. While Larson won great favor with critics for her heartbreaking portrayal of a...
In Praise of ‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Star Rachel Bloom, the Anti-Felicity
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Chanya Button — ‘Burn Burn Burn’
Chanya Button made her start in the industry at an early age, working as an Assistant Director on the “Harry Potter” feature-film franchise. Button has since worked extensively across both the...
Quote of the Day: Mimi Leder: In Filmmaking, “It’s Mostly Males Hiring, and They Mostly Hire Males”
In 1998, “Deep Impact” left a serious impression at the box office, earning nearly $350 million dollars on an estimated $80 million budget. But we haven’t seen much of its director Mimi...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Micah Magee — ‘Petting Zoo’
In addition to making films, Micah Magee has worked as managing and programming director of Austin’s Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, pirate-radio programmer and print journalist. In...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Natalie Cristiani — ‘Nicola Costantino: The Artefacta’
Natalie Cristiani graduated from Centro Sperimentale Di Cinematografia in Rome as a Film Editor in 2002. From 2002 she has worked as a film editor with various talented young directors, including...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Laura Bispuri — ‘Sworn Virgin’
Laura Bispuri’s 2010 short film “Passing Time” won Italy’s David di Donatello Award. “Sworn Virgin” is her first feature film. (Variety) “Sworn Virgin” will premiere at the 2015 BFI...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Miranda Pennell — ‘The Host’
Miranda Pennell originally trained in contemporary dance and later studied visual anthropology. Pennell’s video work until 2007 explored different forms of collective performance and has been...
Why Queer Women (and Women in General) Should Be Excited for Netflix’s ‘Jessica Jones’
For those who have been waiting — and waiting and waiting and waiting — for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to give us a queer female character, the wait is finally over. Over the weekend,...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Mabel Cheung — ‘A Tale of Three Cities’
Mabel Cheung is an award-winning director and producer. Her debut feature, “The Illegal Immigrant” (1985), won her the Best Director Prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards and a Special Jury Award...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli — ‘Frame by Frame’
Alexandria Bombach is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who lives on the road. The founder of Red Reel, Bombach is known to sell all her belongings to tell a story she believes in. Mo Scarpelli is a...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Johanna Schwartz — ‘They Will Have to Kill Us First: Malian Music in Exile’
Johanna Schwartz is an award-winning, American-born, UK-based filmmaker. Working across the world — with a particular focus on Africa — she has produced and directed films for...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Turner — ‘Public House’
Sarah Turner is an artist, filmmaker, writer, curator and academic. Her feature films include “Ecology” (2007), “Perestroika” (2009) and “Perestroika: Reconstructed.” Turner’s short...
Weekly Update for October 9: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week A Ballerina’s Tale (Documentary) — Opens October 14 There are not enough words to describe the joy and sheer feeling of inspiration watching Misty...
Filmmaker Elizabeth Giamatti on Making a Film While Her Co-Director Battled Terminal Breast Cancer
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Hanna Polak — ‘Something Better to Come’
Hanna Polak is an Oscar-nominated director. She has worked on various movies as producer, director, cinematographer and still photographer. In 2002, she was awarded Best Producer of Documentary and...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Paz Fábrega — ‘Viaje’
Paz Fábrega is an award-winning director who has studied at the University of Costa Rica, the Colegio Universitario de Alajuela and the London Film School. Her filmography includes the short...
Effie Brown on Matt Damon’s Diversity Comments: “This is No Longer OK”
With staggeringly low statistics for women and racial minorities behind and in front of the camera in Hollywood, it’s easy to lose hope that the tables will ever turn. Yet there seems to be a...
‘Big Stone Gap’ Director Adriana Trigiani Discusses Her Novel’s 15-Year Road to the Big Screen
In “Big Stone Gap,” Ave Maria Mulligan (Ashley Judd), the town’s self-proclaimed spinster, has resigned herself to a quiet life of singlehood and being useful. She works in her family’s...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari — ‘The New Classmate’
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari spent 16 years in the advertising agency Leo Burnett telling stories for the biggest brands in India and South East Asia. “The New Classmate” is her first feature film....
Director Afia Nathaniel Talks ‘Dukhtar,’ Pakistan’s Oscar Submission About Fleeing Child Marriage
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Svetla Tsotsorkova — ‘Thirst’
Svetla Tsotsorkova graduated from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2004. Since then, she has been working mainly as a producer and actress. Her first short film...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Evangelia Kranioti — ‘Exotica, Erotica, Etc.’
Evangelia Kranioti is a Greek-born visual artist based in France. She is the 2015 recipient of the Special jury Prize and the Elie Saab Prize at the 30th Hyères Fashion and Photography festival,...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Olivia Wyatt — ‘Sailing A Sinking Sea’
Olivia Wyatt is a filmmaker and photographer based in Los Angeles. She is a member of the Sublime Frequencies film and music collective. Her first feature, “Staring Into the Sun,” is about...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Małgorzata Szumowska — ‘Body’
Małgorzata Szumowska is one of Poland’s most prominent Polish filmmakers and covers a broad spectrum of filmmaking duties, from screenwriting and producing to documentary and narrative-film...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Christina Comencini — ‘Latin Lover’
Cristina Comencini began her career as a screenwriter, with co-writing credits for “Il matrimonio di Caterina” (1982), “Quattro storie di donne” (1986) and “Buon Natale… Buon anno”...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Laura Citarella — ‘Dog Lady’
Laura Citarella is a member of the production company El Pampero Cine, along with Mariano Llinás, Alejo Moguillansky and Agustín Mendilaharzu. In 2006 she won the Historias breves 5 contest and in...