Features
The Big O: Natalie Portman Swings the Hammer When it Comes to Her Post-Oscar Career
NataliePortman is in the midst of a very important performance, one that could decideher future in the movie industry. And, no, it isn’t her return to the bigscreen after a two-year break as Jane...
My Latest Forbes Piece: The Evolving Conversation About Women Directors
Last week I attended the first conference ever held in Israel to discuss the status of women working in the film and television industries. They had brilliant academics, high level executives in TV,...
Diana — A Dystopian Love Story
People prefer gossip, conspiracy, or drama over truthbecause we’re cynical. The recent release Dianaabout the final years of Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, is a controversialattempt at...
The Big O: Oscar Could be Swayed by Leto’s Feminine Mystique
Ifsomeone said a year ago that Jared Leto is expected to be a likely Oscarnominee for his next film, most people who recognize his name would have saidone of three things: Youmean that cute guy...
October Horror Series Wrap Up
Throughout October, Women and Hollywood has been examining women in horror — coming of age, lady killers, demon girls, witches, haunted women — in television and film. We’ve also had...
Season of the Witch: Conjuring Strength Through Power
It’s the season of the witch, both in the sense that it’s Halloween, and that supernatural sisters are in the midst of a huge comeback. Meryl Streep’s playing the Witch in a movie adaptation...
Examining the “Woman Anxiety” Problem in The Exorcist
William Friedkin’s The Exorcist (1973) has been a horror classic for the past 40 years, often referred to as one of the scariest films of all time, and an Oscar winner to boot. The film comes at...
Ripley: Believe it or Not, It’s About All That
When Women and Hollywood asked me if I wanted to do a couple of guest posts on horror movies, I jumped at the chance. Like Kerensa Cadenas mentioned in her introduction to the series, I have an...
Turning Ash into Mia: Changing the Gender of One of Horror’s Most Iconic Characters
In the past few years, horror films have seen more than their fair share of sequels, remakes and reimaginings. As a genre, it’s been particularly hospitable to distinctive, memorable characters,...
Cross Post — 13 Myths Hollywood Uses to Hide Discrimination Against Women Directors
1. The number of women directors is so small because women are not really interested in directing and few women are exceptional enough to do a man’s job. Right, so 3,500 women DGA members pay...
The Horror of Little Girls and Social Anxiety About Women
Horror films frequently provide commentary on the social fears and anxieties of their time. A universally recognized truth of horror is that children can be terrifying — especially little...
Valentine Road: An Examination of Accountability, Awareness and Compassion
The documentary Valentine Road — depicting the aftermath surrounding the shooting of young Oxnard, California high school student Larry King — had been winning accolades and gaining...
Questions of Queer Identity, Coming of Age and Loss of Self in Blue is the Warmest Color
There’s no doubt when Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Color hits theaters today it will cause controversy. The movie has already experienced the both praise and backlash from critics,...
We are the Weirdos, Mister: Revisiting The Craft
I was eight years old when The Craft came out in 1996. I remember seeing the VHS on the shelves of the video store for years and then finally picking it out when I was in sixth grade. There’s...
The Big O: Will Audiences (and Oscar Voters) Surrender to 12 Years a Slave?
Can movie audiences handle the truth — especially when it’s unpleasant to sit through? That is one of the main questions surrounding the widely praised 12 Years a Slave. Consider there are...
There’s a New “Final Girl” in the House — and She’s a Beast: A Review of You’re Next
Crispian : Where’s Felix? Erin : I put a blender on his head and killed him. You’re Next is sick, and I mean sick like “disgusting” and sick like “badass” because somewhere in my...
The Disrespecting of Parks and Recreation
A furor went through the ranks of tasteful television-lovers earlier this week with the announcement that NBC was moving three episodes of Parks and Recreation, bringing the show back for two weeks,...
An Unexpected Gem: ABC’s Trophy Wife
The concept for the show sounded so awful, that earlier this summer, when the screeners for ABC’s new comedy Trophy Wife were made available to critics, I admit that I put off watching it. How...
Cross Post: Heroines of Cinema: ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’ and the Real Problem With Male Filmmakers and Female Sexuality
I am a man, and this is an article concerning female sexuality, at least in part. I feel that should be noted immediately, lest anyone take it as an unnoticed irony rather than a relevant starting...
The Haunting of Hill House and a Sense of Belonging
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against...
The Lady Killers: Considering the Female Killer in Horror
In contrast to many other genres, horror films have long been hospitable to the concept of the female hero. From Marion Crane to Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson to Clarice Starling, many of horror’s...
The Women of 12 Years a Slave
As a child my mother, an anthropologist, informed me that my great uncle’s mother disappeared from the shores of Lake Victoria or Nam Lolwe, as we call it, when he was a boy. My great great aunt...
The Big O: Oscar Didn’t Always Have a Horror Problem
There is a new Carrie intown. She has access to the Internet now and her high-school tormentors usetheir smart phones to broadcast her shower-scene to even greaterembarrassment. But the wallflower...
Sarah Paulson Talks 12 Years a Slave and Being a Woman in Hollywood
Sarah Paulson is excited about this year’s Oscar race. “There are probably 10 women who could be nominated for Best Actress. When do we ever have that?” says the actress. “Usually it’s...
Guest Post: A Trip Down the Rabbit Hole: Things I’ve Learned and Want to Fix
Back in 2011, I wrote a guest blog for Women and Hollywood entitled I Sold My House to Make My Feature.I had spent many years working in film art departments both in the U.S. and the U.K. ( Harry...
Woman Seeks Revenge: What’s the Purpose of the Rape/Revenge Horror Film?
If you want to start a spirited debate amongst horror fans, a sure fire topic to bring up is the infamous rape/revenge sub-genre probably best knownbecause of movies like Meir Zarchi’s 1978 film I...
Cross Post: London Film Festival — Shorts Short on Women Directors
Yesterday we went to a good discussion on feminism, curated by performance artist Bryony Kimmings at Soho Theatre in relation to her show there at the moment, Credible Likeable Superstar Role Model....
Woman Seeks Revenge: What’s the Purpose of the Rape/Revenge Horror Film?
If you want to start a spirited debate amongst horror fans, a sure fire topic to bring up is the infamous rape/revenge sub-genre probably best known because of movies like Meir Zarchi’s...
Overcoming Trauma of the Home: Women Gaining Strength in Light of Abuse
Much has been made by media critics of the propensity of horror movies to fetishize the murder of women — to make them victims, suffering at the hands of brutal forces for their sexual sins....
The Big O: Reality Bites Oscar — Hard
It’s time to get real about the Oscar race. Most of the films in play for a coveted spot on the best-picture roster have some element of truth to them. Today marks the arrival of Captain...
The Bad Girls of American Horror Story: TV’s Most “Unlikeable” Women
At the American Horror Story: Coven premiere last weekend, Women and Hollywood asked creator Ryan Murphy how he goes about creating such complex and interesting female characters for the show. I...
A Problematic TV Trend This Fall: Pregnant and Engaged Teenagers
By any measure, this hasn’t been an encouraging fall network television season. The dramas are soggy, the jokes in many of the comedies aren’t landing — or worse, they’re racism trying...
The Horror of Coming-of-Age: Subverting the Teen Girl Experience in Film
Growing up can be a bit of a bloodbath for everyone, regardless of gender. And when it comes to how the actual gory details of the process are portrayed on film, young female characters don’t...
Introducing October’s Women and Horror Series
I grew up being deathly afraid of horror movies. I’d flip quickly through channels that had anything horror related on to prevent nightmares. As I grew up my taste for horror began to...
Guest Post: Afghan Doc Subject from The Network Flees to the Netherlands
In 2011, I spent 3 months in Afghanistan making The Network, a film set behind the scenes at Afghanistan’s largest media company, Tolo. The film is about the power of media to effect social change...
How Will We Remember ‘Breaking Bad’s Skyler White?
In the lead-up to the final half-season of Breaking Bad, AMC’s much-admired show about an Albuquerque chemistry teacher who began cooking and selling methamphetamine when he received a cancer...
The Big O: How Sandra Bullock Found Her Own Sense of Gravity
AsSandra Bullock embarks on her spellbinding one-woman space odyssey in AlfonsoCuaron’s stunning 3-D thriller Gravity at theaters this weekend, let usconsider her extraordinary trajectory right...
Wonder Woman Fan Film Shows Up Hollywood
With superheroes dominating the box office and pop culture landscape, it’s simply astonishing that there hasn’t been a female-lead film added the mix yet. While Marvel has a dearth of male...
Cross Post: The State of the Race: Will There be a Hillary Effect on the Oscar Race?
Imagine as we enter Oscar race 2013 three strong films written and directed by women, with leading women at the forefront, one of which is crowned the early frontrunner to win. Imagine an Oscar race...
The Big O: Are Grande Dames the New Babes?
Beautybefore age. Thistwist on an old adage has held sway for the most part when it comes toselecting which actresses are granted an Oscar each year, at least for the pastseveral decades. But2013...
Guest Post: Let’s Change the Conversation About Women Directors
A few weeks ago, as Jane Campion’s TV series Top Of The Lake drew to a close, Marie Claire UK wrote an article entitled ’11 facts about the director that will blow your mind’ where the...
Why Characters Like Masters Of Sex’s Virginia Johnson Matter
On September 29 at 10PM, when Virginia Johnson (Lizzy Caplan) walks briskly through the halls of a St. Louis hospital as she goes about her duties as the assistant to Dr. William Masters (Michael...
The Big O: When Race is an Issue in the Oscars
What does a black leading lady have to do to win an Academy Award again? Considering there seems to be a renaissance in black cinema, you would think the timing would be perfect. But you would be...
Jess and Mindy — A Look at the Progression of Female Comedy Characters
Much of the conversation about Fox’s Tuesday night comedy lineup focused on two shows by and starring men, the execrable sitcom Dads, which appears to have imported its jokes from Archie...
Guest Post: Director Kandeyce Jorden’s Journey Through the World of Female DJs
When director Kandeyce Jorden found herself at a personal crossroads, she went looking for a creative project that would open her eyes to a new way of life–and she found it in the...
Guest Post: My Adventures of Filming in China
This film was the hardest thing I have done in my career but ultimately the most rewarding. I was asked to develop My Lucky Star as an adventure-comedy for the biggest female star in China,...
Tribeca Rerun: Wadjda – Written and Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour
Originally published on April 26. Wadjda is in theaters today. What Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) wants to do is simple – ride a bike. That shouldn’t be so difficult, but when you...
Guest Post: The Pregnant Director
During the filming of my second feature film And While We Were Here, which hits theaters on September 13th, I was eight months pregnant with my second child. Despite my girth, my collapsed...
The Big O: Assessing the Actress Races Coming Out of Venice, Telluride and Toronto
Telluride and Venice are fini. Toronto wraps this weekend. Time for some serious girl talk about how the lead and supporting actress categories have somewhat shifted now that the festival Oscar...
Pondering Roseanne On Its 25th Anniversary
As we stare down the beginning of another grim new crop of fall television shows, the prospects this year seem even worse in part because of a looming anniversary: twenty-five years ago this...
Guest Post: Filming the Unimaginable
I remember feeling scared of entering the room Neil was in, of approaching him. Maybe part of this was fear of seeing his suffering, but it was also disquiet about the ethics of filming...