Features
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Hélène Zimmer — ‘Being 14’
Hélène Zimmer studied literature before directing “Being 14,” her first movie. In 2013, she co-wrote an adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s novel “The Diary Of A Chambermaid.” (Tribeca Film...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Hemal Trivedi — ‘Among the Believers’
Hemal Trivedi’s credits include “Outlawed in Pakistan,” “Saving Face,” “Shabeena’s Quest” and “Beyond Mumbai.” She has produced and edited over 50 award-winning shorts for...
‘Orphan Black’s’ Clone Club Admits Men — Sort Of
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Abigail Disney — ‘The Armor of Light’
Tribeca Film Festival alumna Abigail Disney is an Academy Award nominee, philanthropist and activist based in New York. Her passion for women’s issues has led her to producing films. Her film...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Laura Bispuri — ‘Sworn Virgin’
Laura Bispuri was an attendee of the Fandango Lab Workshop. She won the David Donatello Award (Italian Oscars) for Best Short Film in 2010 with “Passing Time.” “Sworn Virgin” is her first...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Malika Zouhali-Worrall — ‘Thank You For Playing’
Malika Zouhali-Worrall is an award-winning filmmaker of British/Moroccan origin. She is one of the directors and the producer of “Call Me Kuchu” (2012), a documentary that depicts the last year...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Ivy Meeropol — ‘Indian Point’
Ivy Meeropol is an acclaimed documentary filmmaker. Her work has been featured on the Sundance Channel and HBO. Meeropol’s films have been nominated for numerous awards, and her feature, “Heir...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Andrea Nevins — ‘Play It Forward’
Academy Award-nominated Andrea Nevins has produced, directed and written for documentary film, television news, public radio and newspapers for over 25 years. She has produced critically acclaimed...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg — ‘In My Father’s House’
Tribeca Film Festival alumni Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg are multi-award-winning producers and directors best known for “Knuckleball!,” “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” “The Devil Came...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Anna Sandilands — ‘Uncertain’
Anna Sandilands and her co-director Ewan McNicol are the directing and producing team behind and the co-owners and creative directors of the documentary studio Lucid Inc. Both are named in Filmmaker...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Diane Bell — ‘Bleeding Heart’
“Bleeding Heart” is writer/director Diane Bell’s second feature. Her first feature film, “Obselidia,” premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival,...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Melanie Shaw — ‘Shut Up and Drive’
Melanie Shaw was born and raised in Los Angeles. Her short films have been featured in the LA Film Festival, NYU’s New Visions and Voices (2010 Best Director), and more. In 2011, Shaw directed a...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Reed Morano — ‘Meadowland’
Reed Morano is the youngest active member in the American Society of Cinematographers and one of only 13 women out of approximately 345 active members in the organization. In 2011, she was the...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Erin Lee Carr — ‘Thought Crimes’
Erin Lee Carr is a documentary filmmaker. Before that, she covered the vast intersection between science and technology for Vice Media, specifically for their science vertical Motherboard. She also...
Tribeca 2015 Women Directors: Meet Pamela Romanowsky — ‘The Adderall Diaries’
Pamela Romanowsky studied behavioral psychology at Macalester College, verité documentary filmmaking with Barbara Kopple, and narrative filmmaking at New York University’s MFA program. “The...
Yogis, Sworn Virgins and Coders: 10 Most Anticipated Films By and About Women at Tribeca 2015
There’s much to look forward to at the 2015 edition of the Tribeca Film Festival, which begins this week. For starters, 33% of the feature filmmakers screening at this year’s festival are...
Guest Post: What I Learned From a Post-It Note to Make My First Film
Back in 2008, I heard about that Oprah tip — the one whereyou make a list of goals on a Post-It and put it on your bathroom mirror. Youare supposed to look at it every morning when you wake up...
Kate McKinnon’s Webseries, Hilarious Kiwi Roommates: April’s Noteworthy VOD Films and Webseries
This month’s female-centric VOD releases and noteworthy webseries may range in genre, topic and tone, but all four projects showcase women at their most talented. “Fantail,” our most dramatic...
‘Veep’ is in the (White) House
Guest Post: How I Ended Up With a “Faith” Movie by Believing in Myself
In three short days, I am releasing my second film, “Dial a Prayer.” I directed from my own script (my first as a solo writer), and the coming-of-age comedy stars Brittany Snow, William H. Macy,...
Book Excerpt: Lessons from Dedicating Three Decades to a Life in the Theater
The following is an excerpt from Carey Perloff’s memoir “Beautiful Chaos: A Life in the Theater.” Much has been written about the paucity of female voices in the contemporary theater, and...
Do We Need Another ‘The L Word’?
The song tells us we can’t always get what we want. As lesbian and bisexual female media consumers, we know this all too well. But it also promises that, if we try, sometimes we’ll get what we...
Weekly Update for April 3: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Woman in Gold “Woman in Gold” is the remarkable true story of one woman’s journey to reclaim her heritage and seek justice for what happened to her family....
Infographic: Female Actors, Directors, and Playwrights Lag Behind Male Counterparts in SF Theater
A study breaking down employment opportunities in the San Francisco Bay Area theatre world by gender has found that female actors, directors, and playwrights have yet to reach parity. A majority...
‘Outlander,’ Back and Better than the Books
Quote of the Day: Lupita Nyong’o on Her Sense of Responsibility to Speak Out
Lupita Nyong’o appears on next month’s cover of Harper’s Bazaar UK, and the Oscar-winning actress used to occasion to speak out about, well, why she speaks out. “I don’t feel like the...
Quote of the Day: Michelle Rodriguez: “I Can’t Be the Slut, I Cannot Be Just the girlfriend”
Michelle Rodriguez recently made some fans unhappy when she spoke out against race-blind casting in superhero movies. “It’s so stupid,” she said. “Stop stealing all the white people’s...
April 2015 Film Preview
Summer blockbuster season is just around the corner, but there’s no need to wait until then to see a great movie. April brings us a wide variety of women-centric projects, as well as quite a few...
Why Disney’s Live-Action ‘Mulan’ is So Promising
Guest Post: ‘Younger’: From Novel to TV Show in 527 Easy Steps
The following post was originally published in April 2014. “Younger” debuts today at 10 PM on TV Land. Exactly two years ago today, I got an email from my agent Melissa Flashman at Trident...
Keira Knightley: “Where Are the Female Stories? Where Are the [Women] Directors and Writers?”
Keira Knightley has spoken out once again about the adverse consequences of the film industry’s gender-lopsidedness. “Where are the female stories?” she asked rhetorically in a new interview...
Weekly Update for March 27: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Women and Hollywood Pick of the Week: 52 Tuesdays — Directed and Co-Written by Sophie Hyde (Opening in New York) Sophie Hyde’s ambitious directorial debut...
What I Learned in India, Part 2: Pune and Mumbai
From my latest Forbes post on the second leg of my State Department trip to India as an American Film Showcase envoy: “The young women (and men) we met — as I said, we were meeting lots of...
Sutton and the City in ‘Younger’
‘Pretty Woman’ at 25: 10 Reasons Why This R-rated Cinderella Still Works Its Magic
The two biggest box-office openings so far in 2015 are a pair of fantasies aimed squarely at the female movie-going population: “Cinderella” and “Fifty Shades of Grey.” That their main...
Weekly Update for March 20: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week The Divergent Series: Insurgent “Insurgent” raises the stakes for Tris as she searches for allies and answers in the ruins of a futuristic Chicago. Tris...
Noteworthy Women-Centric VOD Films and Webseries
The internet has revolutionized the way that stories can be told and who can tell them. Easy access to audiences and the capability to make a product available with just a single upload have opened...
Guest Post: Meet Sally Pacholok, the Next Erin Brockovich
In 2012, I bought the life-story rights of a nurse who took on the medicalestablishment when she uncovered an epidemic of misdiagnoses. I had alwayswanted to produce a feature film, and I finally...
Quote of the Day: Sally Field: “They Don’t Write Roles for Women of Age and Women of Color”
Sally Field spoke candidly about the lack of roles for women — particularly older women and women of color — in Hollywood during a recent interview with Variety. The Oscar-winning...
Talking Women’s Issues and the Intersection of Feminism and Film in Kolkata, India
It is a very exciting time to be in India. The country is having a national conversation about gendered violence. There are not only the very heated debates about “India’s Daughter,” but new...
Quote of the Day: Paul Feig on Women Directors and Sexist Reactions to All-Female ‘Ghostbusters’
Paul Feig isn’t mincing words when it comes to sexism in Hollywood and beyond. While doing press at SXSW for “Spy,” his third collaboration with Melissa McCarthy, which premiered at the...
Quote of the Day: Shonda Rhimes: “I Make TV Look Like the World Looks”
“I really hate the word ‘diversity,’” announced Shonda Rhimes at the Human Rights Campaign Gala this past Saturday. The “Scandal” creator and “How to Get Away With Murder” producer...
Guest Post: Why I Started a Festival Dedicated to Socially Relevant Films
March 16 is a bittersweet day for me. This year, the day marks the 11th anniversary of the violent death of mydear cousin, actress/producer Vanya Exerjian. But it’s also the launch date of the...
India’s Daughter: Can a Movie Change a Country’s Attitude Towards Women?
As I sit on this flight to India to participate in the American Film Showcase program, I can’tstop thinking about the documentary “India’s Daughter.” The filmmade headlines across the world...
Weekly Update for March 13: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekCinderella — Co-Written by Aline Brosh McKenna After her father unexpectedly dies, young Ella (Lily James) finds herself at the mercy of her cruel stepmother...
Guest Post: Making a Magical Realist Film About a Boy Who Smells Like Rotting Fish
There are countless films with unique ideas and storylines, but I believe my firstfeature film, “Treading Water,” is the only one about a boy who smells like fish. This idea caught my attention...
Listen: Women and Hollywood Podcast #9: ‘The Hunting Ground’ Producer Amy Ziering
https://medium.com/media/9d3c542a418a8a5083eb03ce22a58600/href
Weekly Update for March 6: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week October Gale — Written and Directed by Ruba Nadda Toronto doctor Helen Matthews (Patricia Clarkson,) mourning the death of her husband, retreats to the...
Quote of the Day: Salma Hayek Explains Why She’s a Feminist
Salma Hayek has been making headlines for identifying as a feminist in a recent interview with The Guardian. Hayek is the co-founder of Chime for Change, a charity dedicated to advancing women and...
Crosspost: Why Amy Pascal’s Advice to Women to “Know Their Worth” and “Walk Away” is an Insult
The following is crossposted from Julie Bush’s blog with permission of the author. It has been edited and condensed. In Hollywood, it’s rare to be told directly that you can’t get a job...
New & Noteworthy Women-Centric VOD Releases: Salma Hayek, America Ferrera, Teresa Palmer
VOD titles are in the midst of a breakthrough moment, with many films being released to theaters and available to stream simultaneously. The blockbuster format is still tried and true, but the...