Features
Book Excerpt: How Nicole Holofcener Got Her Debut Feature, ‘Walking and Talking,’ Made
The following is an excerpt from independent film producer Ted Hope’s new book Hope for Film, which was published August 5, 2014. Nicole Holofcener alwaysmade it clear to me that she would not...
The Big O: Post-Toronto, the Oscar Picture Clears — and It Isn’t a Pretty One for Actresses
We were so spoiled. Last year, there was a rich variety of performances to celebrate in the lead-actress Oscar category. The choices were so abundant, in fact, that admirable efforts like Emma...
Guest Post: Honeymoon, Bloody Unicorns and Spumoni
If you’ve been in an intimate relationship, you’ve had that moment — that awful moment — where the person you’ve been sharing your bed with suddenly seems like a stranger. It was...
Weekly Update for September 12: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening No Good Deed — Written by Aimee Lagos Don’t let the bad press about the last-minute canceled critics’ screenings discourage you from No Good Deed, an effective...
Viola Davis is Still Waiting to Be Seen
Despite doing work that’s won her two Tony Awards, two Academy Award nominations, two Screen Actor Guild Awards, a Golden Globe nod, and a spot on Time’s 100 Most Influential People list,...
The Renaissance Of Reese Witherspoon
From my latest Forbes post on the imminent “Reese-surgence” via Oscar hopefuls like Gone Girl, The Good Lie, and Wild: Witherspoon could be looking at multiple Oscar nominations, both as an...
Guest Post: Living With and Making Films About Dementia
Let’s be completely honest. Professional women are still expected to be faultless and competitive, make it look effortless, and downplay the demands of family and life outside of work. But every...
Fall TV Preview Part 2: Shonda, Selfies, and Sick Kids
Last week’s look at some of the fall shows created by women was far from comprehensive. As a commenter pointed out, I did not include the much-anticipated How to Get Away with Murder, from Scandal...
Weekly Update for September 5: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening Rocks in My Pockets — Written and Directed by Signe Baumane (Opened September 3) Rocks in My Pockets is Signe Baumane’s autobiographical “funny film about...
The Unspoken Biases in Film School
Film school hasbecome an inextricable step in becoming a successful filmmaker. I went to NYU’sTisch School of the Arts and have not regretted it. I know I would not be whereI am today without my...
September 2014 Film Preview
Froman exclusive Manhattan girls’ prep school where the teachers may or may not bedrinking the blood of their students, to a woman abandoning city life to trek1,700 miles across the Australian...
Infographic: Women Directors in the Studio System
Women and Hollywood is on vacation this week. While our lights are out, we’ll be reposting our most popular posts of the summer. The director’s chair is one of the most influential thrones in...
Guest Post: Going Back to School with Martha Coolidge’s ‘Valley Girl’
Earlier this month, the hashtag #WomenCallAction flew around the Twittersphere. This live chat hosted by The Women’s International Perspective includedparticipation by director and activist Rachel...
Meet Outlander, the Anti-Game of Thrones
Women and Hollywood is on vacation this week. While our lights are out, we’ll be reposting our most popular posts of the summer.Ever since I heard Starz was adapting Diana Gabaldon’s racy,...
8 Queer Women Films to Watch in 2014
Weekly Update for August 22 & 29: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Women and Hollywood is going on vacation next week, so this weekly update encompasses the next two weeks.Films About Women Opening Opening August 22 If I Stay Mia Hall (Chloë Grace Moretz) thought...
Emmys Rundown: The Good, the Bad, the Gender Disparity
Weekly Update for August 15: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening Abuse of Weakness — Written and Directed by Catherine Breillat Isabelle Huppert stars as Maud, a film director who one morning wakes up and cannot feel one side of...
Guest Post: Film Fatales Give Back: The Importance of Community Outreach
Film Fatales is a collective of female writers/directors who meet regularly to support each other’s work and promote the creation of more films by and about women. Several of us recently...
The Impossible Girl: ‘Doctor Who’ and the Glass Ceiling
Crosspost: Where’s Gamora?
The following is crossposted from the author’s site with her permission. After seeing Guardians of the Galaxy, my four-year-old daughter wanted a Gamora action figurine and my son wanted...
Weekly Update for August 8: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening The Maid’s Room In this examination of morality, racism, and privilege, Drina (Paula Garces), a young Colombian immigrant, accepts a position as maid to the wealthy...
Happy Friday: Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks Attempts to Make It in the Modern Office
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Guest Post: One for the Girls: Women Directors Group Spreads to London
This year the news has been bad for UK female film directors. Statistics have revealed, in article after article, the depressingly low numbers of women directing feature films. I look at the slates...
Jenji Kohan Talks Equal Pay and Being Told Men Are Funnier
There is an awesome profile in the current issue of The Hollywood Reporter on Jenji Kohan, the creator and showrunner of Orange is the New Black. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say...
The Honourable Woman: Upending the Sexy Spy Drama
Quote of the Day: Christina Hendricks: “There’s Sexual Harassment at Work Every Single Day” in Hollywood
A new interview with Christina Hendricks in The Guardian is making the rounds because of the (schadenfreude-tastic) revelation that the actress was dropped by her agency when she signed up to play...
Quote of the Day: Octavia Spencer on How Her Oscar Changed Nothing
What’s the point of winning your industry’s highest honor if it doesn’t open up any more opportunities to succeed? That’s the sad but inevitable response to a new interview with Octavia...
Weekly Update for August 1: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening Around the Block — Written and Directed by Sarah Spillane Writer-director Sarah Spillane explores Australian racism today in Around the Block, a drama about an...
August 2014 Film Preview
The summer blockbuster movie season may be winding to an end, but the multiplexes offer a refreshingly diverse selection of films by and about women for August. The month blasts off (literally) with...
Quote of the Day: Sandra Adair on Hollywood’s Slippery Career Ladder for Women
Variety published a long-ish article yesterday on the difficulties many female crewmembers face in the film industry, from blatant chauvinism and dismissive assumptions to the long hours and lower...
The 4 Best Reasons to Make a Web Series
Let’s start with the number-one reason NOT to make a webseries: To get famous. In spite of the fact that it seems like everyone you meet has one, creating a web series as a way to get a TV deal is...
Guest Post: How I Quit the LA Actor Race and Became the Filmmaker I Always Wanted to Be
Ever since I saw Jaws, I knew I wanted to be a director. I wanted to take people on the same thrill ride I’d experienced watching that movie. I came to Los Angeles and got on set as quickly as I...
Guest Post: What I Learned as a First-Time Comic-Con Attendee
San Diego Comic-Con hosts a plethora of fans portraying theirfavorite superheroes, villains, TV and film characters, over 200,000 people were projected to attend on Saturday alone. Booths selling...
Women in Film and Video Seeks DC-Area Screenwriters
When you think of Washington, D.C.,congressional battles and presidential photo-ops are probably what come tomind. Lesser known is the community of diverse screenwriters in the...
Weekly Update for July 25: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening Very Good Girls — Written and Directed by Naomi Foner Very Good Girls, the first directing effort from veteran screenwriter Naomi Foner, is a nostalgic look at girls...
Guest Post: Bechdel Ain’t Just for the Ladies: Westerns, and Protagonists Who Are Not Like Me
A director friend of mine was making a Western when we met, but I hadto admit that Westerns had never much appealed to me. When I was a kid, theywere on TV every Saturday, and my genuine assumption...
You’re the Worst: Misanthropes In Love
FX premiered two new sitcoms last week, Married and You’re the Worst. As I sort of expected, the latter is the interesting one. Perhaps Married will get better (as I have heard it does), but the...
Amma Asante Inspires Women Filmmakers at BAFTA Event: “I Want to Do a Studio Film to Show that as a Woman I Can”:
Belle director Amma Asanteoffered encouragement and advice to young women filmmakers at aBAFTA Film Question Time event in London on Monday. Asante was one of four panellists — threeof them...
Quote of the Day: Joe Swanberg on the Movies: “Men Are Out of Ideas”
With Drinking Buddies and Happy Christmas, director Joe Swanberg has made two critical darlings featuring well-rounded female protagonists in arrested development. Asked about the “female...
The Big O: Watch Out, Toronto — The Great Kate, Dame Maggie, and Some Stellar Female Directors Are Coming Your Way
Lastyear’s Toronto International Film Festival provided invaluable lift-off to atleast three female-driven movies that landed in the 2013 Oscar race: Gravity, Philomena,and August:...
Weekly Update for July 18: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening A Five Star Life — Directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi; Co-Written by Francesca Marciano and Maria Sole Tognazzi It’s a debate as old as time: does a woman need a...
Guest Post: Celebrating Woman Directors with a Look Back at Jane Campion’s The Piano
At last weekend’s Etheria Film Night,director Lexi Alexander received an award for inspiring women directors. In her acceptance speech,Alexander bemoaned the current statistics, but she also...
An Open Letter to TV Showrunners: There Are Over 1200 Experienced, Accomplished Women Directors Waiting to Be Hired
Dear TV Showrunners, I haveknown many of you over the years as colleagues, bosses and friends. I know youto be a group of professionals with the highest work ethic and a mindfulapproach to your...
The Resurrection of Don’t Trust the B — — : Score One (More) For Difficult Women
I never really got how beloved Don’t Trust the B — — in Apartment 23 was until Logo announced it will broadcast its eight final, unseen episodes, starting this Saturday at 10 PM. They were...
Quote of the Day: Viola Davis on Her Move to the Small Screen
At this year’s TCA, two-time Oscar nominee Viola Davis confirmed that taking on the lead role in Shonda Rhimes’ How to Get Away With Murder was a response to not being able to find enough...
The Big O: 2015 Oscar Preview: Expect Reese to Rise Again and a Woman to Crash the Directing Category
Wow, that was fast. The movie year is already half over, and if you are a fan of Legos, sequels to bombastic blockbusters, and just-OK comedies, you probably think everything has been awesome in...
Jane Clark Talks ‘Crazy Bitches,’ Horror Films and Slasher Satire
Seven crazy bitches and one fabulous gay guy take a weekend getaway to a remote ranch for some R&R, gossip, and grub, to celebrate their friend Alice’s birthday. What the group finds out is...
Weekly Update for July 11: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening Audrey — Co-Written by Sybil Darrow “Too old, too ugly, too stupid, too fat — 34-year-old single gal Audrey (Sybil Darrow) is none of these, not that...
Halle Berry and Alien Babies: Will Extant Revive the Mystical Pregnancy?
In pop culture, one of the best ways for a female character to get some distance from gender clichés is to literally leave Earth. To wit: Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley in the Alien movies; the...
Weekly Update for June 27 and July 4: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening OpeningJune 27 BoundBy Flesh (doc) — Directed by Leslie Zemeckis Atthe height of their fame, conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton were thetoast of vaudeville....