Features
‘The Mindy Project’ Returns!
Lately I’ve had this lingering sense of something missing in my life. Anticipating the end of summer, perhaps? Nope: It was the lack of Mindy Kaling, soon to be doubly remedied with the premiere...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Hermon Hailay — ‘Price of Love’
Hermon Hailay is an independent filmmaker. She was born in Mekele, Ethiopia, and is now based in Addis Ababa. Her credits include the features “Balaguru,” “Yaltasebew” and “Price of...
Saying Goodbye to ‘Mamma Mia!,’ a Musical That Was Far More than “Fluff”
Themusical “Mamma Mia!,” which closes on Broadway this Saturday after 14 years, is considered the equivalent of what the literary and film industries refer to as “chick lit” and a “chick...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Maris Curran — ‘Five Nights in Maine’
Maris Curran received a B.A. from Smith College and an M.F.A. from the Art Institute of Chicago. She directed the short “Margarita.” “Five Nights in Maine” is her first feature. (Press...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Alexandra-Therese Keining — ‘Girls Lost’
Alexandra-Therese Keining was born in Lomma, Sweden, and is based in Stockholm. A writer, director and novelist, her feature films are “Hot Dog” and “Kiss Me,” which was a Breakthrough...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Mai Masri — ‘3000 Nights’
Mai Masri is a Palestinian director who studied film at University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco State University. Her features include “Under the Rubble” and “Wild Flowers: Women...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Catherine Hardwicke — ‘Miss You Already’
Catherine Hardwicke was born in McAllen, Texas. She worked as a production designer on numerous films, including “Tank Girl,” “Three Kings” and “Laurel Canyon.” Her previous directing...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Leena Yadav — ‘Parched’
Leena Yadav was born in Mhow, India. She began her career as an editor on commercials and an assistant director for television. She made her directorial debut with “Shabd,” followed by “Teen...
TIFF 2015 Preview: Under the Radar Films By and About Women You Shouldn’t Miss
This year’s edition of the Toronto International Film Festival is filled with bona fide stars of the screen and filmmaking worlds. With performances by Julianne Moore (“Freeheld,”...
Quote of the Day: Nancy Meyers on Sexism in Hollywood
There is a long (not yet online) interview in NY Magazine with Nancy Meyers. A lot of it focuses on gender and Hollywood. The reality is Nancy was really one of two women (the other being Nora...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sanna Lenken — ‘My Skinny Sister’
Sanna Lenken was born in Gothenberg, Sweden, and studied directing at the Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm. She has directed two seasons of the series “Double Life” and the short film...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Patricia Rozema — ‘Into the Forest’
Canadian filmmaker Patricia Rozema’s first feature, “I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing,” won the Prix de la Jeunesse and was runner-up for the Camera d’Or at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival....
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Mina Shum — ‘Ninth Floor’
Born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada, Mina Shum is an independent filmmaker and artist. “Ninth Floor” is her first feature documentary. Her first feature, “Double Happiness” (1994),...
TIFF’s Cameron Bailey and Kerri Craddock Discuss Female Filmmakers and Best Bets at the Fest
As Women and Hollywood gets ready to hit the ground in Toronto to watch movies, attend parties and participate on panels, we asked TIFF Artistic Director Cameron Bailey, and Director of Festival...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Geeta Gandbhir and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy — ‘A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers’
Telluride: 4 Female-Centric Films About to Make a Splash This Awards Season
We need no reminders that the 2014–15 awards season didn’t fareparticularly well for women in front of or behind the camera. Among the eightBest Picture Oscar nominees, none were about a woman,...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Eva Husson — ‘Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)’
Eva Husson was born and raised in France, where she received her M.A. in English literature from the Sorbonne before pursuing a M.F.A. at the American Film Institute. She directed the short “Hope...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Caroline Monnet — ‘Mobilize’
Caroline Monnet is a multidisciplinary artist who has exhibited in Canada and internationally at venues such as the Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), the Museum of...
Quote of the Day: Lina Wertmuller Explains Why Female Filmmakers are Ignored During Awards Season
In 1977, Lina Wertmuller became the first woman to ever be nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards. It’s been nearly two decades since the “Seven Beauties” helmer was recognized with...
TIFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Deniz Gamze Ergüven — ‘Mustang’
Deniz Gamze Ergüven was born in Ankara, Turkey, and studied literature and African history in Johannesburg and directing at La Fémis in Paris. She has directed the shorts “Mon trajet...
Venice Film Fest 2015 Women Directors: Meet Esther May Campbell — ‘Light Years’
Self-taught photographer and filmmaker Esther May Campbell has directed low-fi music vids, sex-education films, corporates for and about randy sailors, as well as Channel 4 dramas and the BBC’s...
Weekly Update for September 4: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekNumber One Fan — Written and Directed by Jeanne Herry Muriel Bayen (Sandrine Kiberlain), a divorced beautician and mother of two, loves to tell stories. She...
Venice Film Fest 2015 Women Directors: Meet Pietra Brettkelly — ‘A Flickering Truth’
Pietra Brettkelly is a multi-award-winning director and producer. Her 2008 film “The Art Star and the Sudanese Twins” won the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award at the Sundance Film Festival...
Quote of the Day: Emma Thompson Has Been a “Card-Carrying, Radical Feminist” Since She Was 19
Gem of a human Emma Thompson has weighed in on feminism and ageism in Hollywood once more with her typical blend of wit and wisdom, telling Vulture, “I’ve been a card-carrying, radical feminist...
Rebels With a (Very Good) Cause: Crowdfunding Campaigns
It’s crowdfunding time again, and this week there are some ingenious projects created by and about women that deserve support. Included in our picks this week is “Free to Laugh,” a short...
Fall 2015 Theater Preview: A Step Backward for Women
The2015–2016 Broadway season is underway, and an uproar has already begun overthe question, Where are the women? Their absence comes after a particularlystrong spring when three female...
The 10 Most Gut-Punching Moments From BuzzFeed’s Exposé on Sexism in Animation
It’s not news that the animation industry has always been a boys club, but that doesn’t make BuzzFeed’s recent longform exposé on the historical, institutional and ongoing sexism within the...
Quote of the Day: Helen Mirren: “We Have to Start Stealing the Men’s Roles”
http://www.cnn.com/video/api/embed.html#/video/tv/2015/08/29/exp-gps-mirren-sot-women.cnn
September 2015 Film Preview
September sees the premieres of a number of women-centric indie gems we’ve been waiting impatiently for while they’ve been touring the festival circuit. “Misunderstood” by Italian punk-rebel...
The 10 Most Significant (For Better or Worse) Portrayals of Trans Women in Film
It’s no secret that transgender women are having a long overdue moment in pop culture. When even the venerable Time magazine acknowledges we’ve reached a “Transgender Tipping Point,” society...
Weekly Update for August 28: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week The Second Mother — Written and Directed by Anna Muylaert August’s only film with a woman-of-color lead looks to be one of this month’s strongest...
Profitable Personal Films: Nicole Holofcener’s ‘Walking and Talking”
In high school, I caught by chance Nicole Holofcener’s “Walking andTalking” (1996) on cable. I would turn on IFC and get glimpses of these amazingindie movies from the ’90s. I was a quiet...
‘The Second Mother’ Director Anna Muylaert on Why It Took 20 Years to Make Her Award-Winning Drama
Anna Muylaert is a Brazilian film and television director and screenwriter. Her first feature film, “Durval Discos” (2002), won seven awards at Festival de Gramado, including Best Film and Best...
Guest Post: From Day Job to Dream Job: How This Cupcake Girl Got a Feature Film in 6 Easy Steps
A lot ofpeople in Hollywood have a day job and work as writers, actors, directors, etc., by night. Well, I was justthe same, working at Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills, when it occurredto me...
16% is Not a Win: Parsing the DGA’s Latest Stats on Women and Minority Directors in TV
“Female TV directors make gains,” proclaimed mainstream headlines following the DGA’s release yesterday of a report on female and minority directors in TV. If this is progress for women, color...
Lesbian Mobsters and Google’s Next Big Thing: August 2015’s VOD and Web Series Picks
Girls just want to have fun, but how much fun is it the next day, waking up with a massive hangover and no recollection on how one ended up on a lawn, in a bathtub or on a boat in the middle of the...
An Open Letter to Colin Trevorrow
Dear Colin, Congratulations on the huge box-office success of “Jurassic World” this summer. It must feel good to be the king of the world. Interestingly, while you said several months ago that...
Flying Headscarves, Trans Dating, and Plus-Size Models: Crowdfunding Projects of August 2015
The dating lives of transgender women. An Arab-American girl searching forfreedom on her motorcycle. Plus-size models rebelling against size-zero tyranny.If you want to see films about women defying...
Weekly Update for August 21: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekGrandma — Women and Hollywood’s Pick of the Week It’s Lily Tomlin’s year: She received an Emmy nomination for the first season of her Netflix series...
Quote of the Day: Maisie Williams Is Fed Up With Female Characters Being Just the “Hot Piece”
Last month, “Game of Thrones” star Maisie Williams declared, “It’s time for society to stop telling girls what they should and shouldn’t do.” In a new interview with the Evening...
Less Than Zen: ‘Om City’ on Life as a Female Yoga Teacher
‘Learning to Drive’ Helmer Isabel Coixet on Middle-Age Life Lessons, the Hazards of Shooting in a Car
“Learningto Drive” is a lovely meditation on aging, expectations and learning to livelife on your own terms. Patricia Clarkson stars as Wendy, a writer whose husbandleaves her literally stranded...
Happy Humpday: Most Badass Female Marvel Characters (INFOGRAPHIC)
Just because Marvel hasn’t made any female-led movies (and is increasingly running out of reasons why) doesn’t mean the comic-book company hasn’t created any superheroines worth telling...
Sham Marriage and ‘Fast Fashion’ Workers: August 2015’s Women-Centric VOD & Web Series Picks
This month’s VOD and web series picks are projects driven by the evocative experiences and masterful talents of women. Available on VOD are works that dive head-first into the depths of women’s...
Weekly Update for August 14: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Mistress America — Co-Written by Greta Gerwig — Women and Hollywood’s Pick of the Week As the titular character in 2012’s “Frances Ha,” Greta...
Guest Post: Making Period Films on a Budget and the Importance of Authentic Casting
As a feature-film writer-director, I’ve created a wide range of projects: a Western about awoman who passes as a man, a neo-noir thriller about a bedridden gossip, a musical-dramaabout an...
Kristen Stewart and the Evolving Politics of Coming Out
To be out or not be out, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler to come out definitively and suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous publicity or to take arms against the sea of labels and...
The 5 Women We’re Excited to See This August
It’s been a much-better-than-usual summer for women on screen. We’ve had females leading smart comedies (“Spy,” “Trainwreck”), inspiring blockbusters (“Inside Out,” “Mad Max: Fury...
Self-Harm, Female DJs and Emily Dickinson: August 2015’s Crowdfunding Picks
There are some important women-centric projects to check out this August, but before these works can come into full fruition, they could do with a little help from some friends — and that’s...
Guest Post: On the ‘Diary of a Teenage Girl’, Self-Acceptance, and the Power of Cinema
It’s very rare that a project comes along and saves your life. But that’s what happened to me with “The Diary of a Teenage Girl.” “The Diary of a Teenage Girl” is not just about female...
Weekly Update for August 7: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Ricki and the Flash — Written by Diablo Cody Meryl Streep takes on another musical role as aging rocker Ricki Randazzo, who left her family years ago to...