Features
Apocalypse and Patriarchy in USA Network’s Archaeological Thriller ‘Dig’
Her body you may recognize, because it’s the poster art for the show. “Dig” is literally written on this young woman’s naked back, along with a bleeding hieroglyph that’s been carved...
The Big O: 12 Must-See Feminist Films Saluted by the Oscars
If any year proved how entrenched Hollywood’s female troubles are, it was 2014, and not just because the bench of best-actress candidates in the Oscar race was far from deep. Also problematic was...
Guest Post: Fearing the Teen-Movie Makeover
Last December, I sat down in a dark movie theater in NYC.Teenagers streamed in behind me, chattering excitedly, eager for the movie tobegin. Meanwhile, I was a nervous wreck. My hands were shaking...
Keeping Score: A Record Number of Female Composers on Broadway
How many female composers on Broadway can you name? Probablynot more than you have fingers on a hand, but while gender equality in thetheater has not yet been reached, there is reason to rejoice....
Crosspost: Study Shows Female-Led Films Bring Greater Return on Investment
The following is cross-posted from The Black List with permission. Some edits have been made for clarification purposes. It seems both in practice and belief that producers and executives are...
Weekly Update for February 27: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week The Hunting Ground (doc) (Women and Hollywood’s Pick of the Week) “The Hunting Ground” is an extraordinarily powerful and searing look at the epidemic of...
A List of All of Women and Hollywood’s 2015 Oscars Coverage
The road to the 2015 Oscars was rocky indeed. While we were disappointed by the fact that white males accounted for the overwhelming majority of nominees — so much so that we commissioned a...
Women and Hollywood Pick of the Week: ‘The Hunting Ground’
“The Hunting Ground” is an extraordinarily powerful and searing look at the epidemic of sexual assault on campuses across this country. College is supposed to be the first step towards adulthood...
‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ and Inimitable Tina Fey
Guest Post: My Valentine’s Day ‘Bitch’ Slap from Facebook
This pastValentine’s weekend, I got bitch-slapped by Facebook — a digital smack acrossmy female indie filmmaker face — and all because of one word: “bitch.” A few weeksago, I...
Guest Post: Enough with the “Black Movies,” Bring on the Black Mermaids
I love seeing movies with black people in them, but I’m not interested in making “black movies.” There’s a difference. I want to see representations of women like me in movies where it’s...
Seeking Our Story: Marguerite Duras Stages a Lurid Funeral for Colonialism in ‘India Song’
MargueriteDuras (1914–1996), the prolific author, playwright, political troublemaker, andfilmmaker, was born in Vietnam to French emigrant parents. Her family’s descent into poverty, themadness...
Guest Post: How to Hire a Woman Director
At the Oscars on Sunday night,Best Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette used her moment in the spotlight to speak out on the issue ofgender inequity. “It’s our time to have wage equality once...
The Big O: The Cry for Equal Pay, the Need for Equal Screen Time, & the Death of the Mani-Cam
To quote Meryl Streep as she shouted from her primo Dolby Theatre seat in support of “Boyhood’s” newly minted Oscar winner Patricia Arquette after she turned her supporting-actress acceptance...
Weekly Update for February 20: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week The DUFF (Women and Hollywood’s Pick of the Week) A definite case of “don’t judge a movie by its title,” “The DUFF” — which wincingly stands for...
Quote of the Day: Anna Kendrick on Aging and Still Having to Play Pretty
Anna Kendrick is speaking up about the pressure to project a certain image as a young actress in Hollywood — namely, being seen as “hot.” Kendrick previously poked fun at her appearance in...
Crosspost: Holding Out For a Heroine: On Being a Woman and Loving Star Wars
The following is cross-posted from with permission from Sound on Sight.It is a truth universally acknowledged that a little girl in possession of a good imagination must be in want of a heroine. At...
A Season of Oscar Discontent
From my latest Forbes post on this weekend’s dispiriting Oscars: “For the first time in my adult life, I really don’t care about the Oscars. I’ve been watching the Oscars for as long as I...
Quote of the Day: Goldie Hawn: “The Fear of Women’s Movies is Embedded in the Culture”
On the eve of an Oscar ceremony in which no film about a woman has a chance at taking home the most prized trophy in the film industry, Goldie Hawn says what we’re all thinking in a new interview:...
Nobody is All Right: Lisa Cholodenko’s ‘The Slap’
The Big O: When Actresses Are Given Their Just Rewards — And It Feels So Good
Ten screenwriting contenders, all men. Eight best-picture nominees, each revolving around male characters. Five directing slots, and no women allowed. Oscar, you have done the ladies wrong. It’s...
Oscar 2015 Spotlight: 6 Nominees You Should Know About
When this year’s Oscar nominees were announced, we noted that Academy voters had given us the whitest, malest, most deflating awards season in recent history. As an infographic from the Women’s...
Weekly Update for February 13: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekFifty Shades of Grey — Directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson; Written by Kelly Marcel Forget the haters: the highest-profile woman-directed film of 2015 is a...
Quote of the Day: A.O. Scott on the Diminishment of Films About Women
Movies about women make 20% more money than movies about men, but female protagonists continue to disappear from the big screen. Gender in the larger Oscar conversation has largely focused on the...
HBO’s ‘Togetherness’: Marriage — and Middle Age — From Both Sides
Crosspost: What the F*ck is “F*ckable”?
The following post originally appeared on Heather Matarazzo’s blog and is cross-posted with permission of the author. Seriously, what the fuck is “fuckable”? I don’t know if I can answer...
Weekly Update for February 6: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Jupiter Ascending — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Lana Wachowski Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) was born under signs that predicted future greatness, but her...
Quote of the Day: Director Isabel Coixet on the Importance of Financing Women-Helmed Films
Female filmmakers face countless barriers to success in the film industry, but chief among them is the bizarre reluctance of many financiers to invest in projects helmed by women. Spanish director...
Guest Post: Should There Be a Best Female Director Category at the Oscars?
If wewant greater gender equality in Hollywood, should the Academy Awards still besplitting its acting awards along gender lines? This wasa question posed to me by a friend a few weeks ago as we...
Tiger Moms and Fly Girls: How Do Women Fare on ‘Fresh Off the Boat’?
The Big O: Look to the Past for Solutions to Hollywood’s Current Female Troubles
When did featuring a woman as the driving force in a movie become a liability instead of a strength? This question came to mind when the films in the running for the best-picture Oscar were revealed...
Weekly Update for January 23: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Girlhood — Written and Directed by Celine Sciamma French writer-director Céline Sciamma has a small but sturdy body of work that addresses how girls...
Happy Friday: Celebrate the New ‘Ghostbusters’ Cast With Print-and-Cut Paper Dolls
If you’re looking for something to do this weekend — after streaming The Fall on Netflix and watching Appropriate Behavior on VOD, of course — look no further. Thanks to Mashable, you...
Guest Post: Writing the Change You Wish to See in Hollywood
My screenwriting debut, Pretty Rosebud, depicts the journey of Cissy, a professional,career-driven woman trapped in a childless marriage to a long-unemployedarchitect. Although she seems to have an...
Sharing Our Story: Mary Harron’s Misunderstood Cult Classic ‘American Psycho’
As this year’sSundance Film Festival swings into gear, let’s take a look back at awoman with a definite place in Sundance history: Park City darling Mary Harron. Born to comedianDonald Harron...
Farewell to the Stealthily Feminist ‘Parenthood’
Guest Post: Not Afraid to Fail: A New Distribution Model Empowers Filmmakers and Audiences
Guest Post: Spending A Year With Women Filmmakers
In 2013, I saw two films thatdeeply affected me: Judy Chaikin’s The Girls In The Band andSini Anderson’s The Punk Singer. In both films, the women interviewed talk aboutlooking for artists,...
Guest Post: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome through the Power of Inclusion
Last fall, I was fortunate enough to be nominated by Women in Hollywood for the inaugural year of the Fox Global Directors Initiative. I reacted with disbelief when I received notice that I was...
The Big O: How Nora Grossman of ‘The Imitation Game’ Broke the Code of Becoming a Woman Producer
Of the top 250 movies that were released last year, women made up only 23% of the producers involved with those titles — down 1% from 1998 — according to the Center for the Study of...
Weekly Update for January 23: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Song One — Written and Directed by Kate Barker-Froyland Song One begins with anthropology grad student Franny (Anne Hathaway) immersed in Moroccan...
Guest Post: How the Female-Heavy Crew Making ‘Little Accidents’ Probably Saved the Production
Although it was never an intentional goal, one of the best aspectsof making Little Accidents was making a film with so many strong women up anddown the ladder of production and finance. I became...
‘A Path Appears’: Finding Hope and Horror While Uncovering Stories of Global Gender Oppression
Guest Post: Earning My Invitation into the Highly Secretive, Male-Dominated Fraternity of Magicians
Ricky Jay, the subject of my American Mastersdocumentary DeceptivePractice (premieres Friday, January23 at 9 PM on PBS), told me that the field of sleight of hand is one of theworld’s few true...
The Big O: Ava DuVernay’s Sisterhood of Un-Nominated Women Directors — and How They’ve Fared Since
As the country celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day this week, it was difficult not to think about what could have been when the nominations for the 87th Academy Awards were announced last...
Sundance 2015: The Films We Can’t Wait to See
As we reported back in December, ninewomen-directed narrative and documentary features (out of a total of 29premieres) will make their debuts at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. 36%, or more...
Guest Post: ‘It Happened Here’: Documenting Rape Culture on College Campuses
I’ve been adocumentary filmmaker for over 40 years, and in that span I have crafted film on topicsas diverse as the Barbie doll, the New York Mets, restorative justice, breastcancer, and people...
Spring 2015 Theatre Preview: Women on Broadway
Broadway can be a disheartening place forwomen. Too few are represented as writers and directors, and women’s stories don’toften make it to the stage. The previous 2013–2014 season did not...
Quote of the Day: George Lucas on Hollywood’s Lack of Movies for Girls
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Weekly Update for January 16: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Appropriate Behavior — Written and Directed by Desiree Akhavan For Shirin (Desiree Akhavan), being part of a perfect Persian family isn’t easy....
Women Made Up 15% of the Protagonists in the Top 250 Grossing Films in 2014
A warning: if you’re still reeling from the profoundly disappointing news that 100% of this year’s eight Oscar-nominated feature films are about men, this post is likely to make you even more...