Festivals
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Meet Carol Brandt — “Pet Names”
Carol Brandt’s films have been shown at the New Orleans Film Festival, Milwaukee Short Film Festival, and the Beloit International Film Festival where her feature “Things Found on the Ground”...
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Laura Collado — “Constructing Albert”
Laura Collado has developed and produced several documentaries such as “La Casa” and “Yorgos.” “Constructing Albert” is her feature directorial debut. “Constructing Albert” will...
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Meet Alison Klayman — “Take Your Pills”
Alison Klayman’s debut documentary feature “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it was awarded a U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Defiance....
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Meet Lynn Shelton — “Outside In”
Lynn Shelton’s feature credits include “Humpday,” “Your Sister’s Sister,” and “Laggies.” Her work has screened at festivals such as TIFF, Sundance, Cannes Directors’ Fortnight,...
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Meet Jackie Van Beek and Madeleine Sami — “The Breaker Upperers”
Jackie Van Beek is a writer-director and actor who has made seven award-winning short films that have played at international festivals including Berlin, London, Palm Springs, and Melbourne. Her...
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Meet Suzi Yoonessi — “Unlovable”
Suzi Yoonessi is an award-winning Iranian American filmmaker. Her feature credits include “Dear Lemon Lima,” which premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival, and “Daphne and Velma,” based...
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Meet Kay Cannon— “Blockers”
Kay Cannon is an Emmy-nominated comedy writer, producer, and director. Her work has been awarded a Peabody and multiple Writers Guild Awards. Her first feature screenplay was the hit “Pitch...
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Meet Becca Gleason — “Summer ‘03”
Becca Gleason is the writer and director of three short films which made the rounds on the festival circuit; her directorial debut, “Molly,” won the LACMA Young Directors award, and her second...
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Meet Yuqi Kang — “A Little Wisdom”
Born in Inner Mongolia, China, Yuqi Kang was awarded the Paula Rhodes Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement in Social Documentary Film upon graduating the School of Visual Arts in New York. Her...
Tribeca 2018 Competition Lineup Is 44 Percent Women-Directed
The Tribeca Film Festival has unveiled its 2018 lineup and women directors are very well represented. As previously reported, Tribeca’s opening film will be Lisa D’Apolito’s Gilda Radner doc...
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Meet Jayne Loader — “The Atomic Cafe”
Jayne Loader is a film director and writer. Originally released in 1982, “Atomic Cafe” was nominated for a BAFTA Award and selected for preservation in the United States’ National Film...
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Meet Hannah Marks — “Shotgun”
Hannah Marks is an actress, writer, and director known for her roles in the BBC America/ Netflix series “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” and films such as “Anesthesia,”...
SXSW 2018 Women Directors: Meet Megan Griffiths — “Sadie”
M egan Griffiths recently directed two episodes of the HBO anthology series “Room 104” and an episode of the Epix comedy “Graves.” Her feature credits include “The Night Stalker,”...
45 Music Festivals Vow 50/50 Gender Parity in Lineups by 2022
Music festivals including Toronto’s North by North East (NXNE) and New York’s Winter Jazzfest and A2IM Indie Week have promised 50/50 gender parity in their lineups by 2022. Pitchfork reports...
Berlinale: Women-Directed Films Take Home Two Highest Honors
Women-directed films accounted for just 21 percent of the films eligible for the Berlinale’s highest honors this year. Despite overwhelming odds, the fest’s most prestigious prizes, the Golden...
2018 Athena List Announced
The 2018 Athena Film Festival (AFF) is in full swing. Last night’s opening film, Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton’s “Battle of the Sexes,” was followed by a Q&A with Billie Jean King...
Berlinale 2018 Women Directors: Meet Adina Pintilie — “Touch Me Not”
Adina Pintilie is a Romanian filmmaker and visual artist. Her previous credits include “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and screened at over 50 international...
Berlinale 2018 Women Directors: Meet Emily Atef — “3 Days in Quiberon”
Emily Atef is an award-winning writer-director. Her credits include “Molly’s Way,” “The Stranger in Me,” and “Kill Me.” She’s one of the six German directors participating in this...
Berlinale 2018: Isabelle Huppert to Lead Anne Fontaine’s New Film, Fest Hosts Gender Equality…
Berlinale 2018: Isabelle Huppert to Lead Anne Fontaine’s New Film, Fest Hosts Gender Equality Events The 68th Berlinale hasn’t reached its midway point yet but it’s already seen the...
Berlinale 2018 Women Directors: Meet Tinatin Kajrishvili — “Horizon”
Tinatin Kajrishvil made several short films before her feature debut, “Brides.” The drama premiered at the Berlinale in 2014, where it won the Audience Award, and went on to screen at many...
Berlinale 2018 Women Directors: Meet Janet van den Brand — “Ceres”
Janet van den Brand is a Dutch director currently living in Brussels. Her films have been selected for numerous film festivals including the Generation Kplus competition at the Berlinale in 2013 and...
Berlinale 2018 Women Directors: Meet Katharina Mueckstein — “L’animale”
Katharina Mueckstein made her feature debut with 2013’s “Talea.” She is the co-founder of production company La Banda Film. “L’animale” will premiere at the 2018 Berlinale on...
Athena Film Fest Adds To Its Lineup: “Mankiller,” “Battle of the Sexes,” and STEM Panel
The Athena Film Festival (AFF) has announced more of its 2018 lineup. Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton’s “Battle of the Sexes,” a biopic about the famous 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean...
Tribeca Film Festival to Open with Lisa D’Apolito’s Gilda Radner Doc “Love, Gilda”
The 17th edition of the Tribeca Film Festival will kick off with a portrait of Gilda Radner. The comedian is the subject of “Love, Gilda,” the fest’s opening film. Directed and produced by...
Berlinale Competition Program Is 17 Percent Women-Directed
The Berlin International Film Festival has announced its complete Competition lineup. Of 24 films screening in the program, four are directed by women, amounting to about 17 percent of the total....
Today in #MeToo: Time’s Up Legal Fund Raises $20M, Berlinale Joins Movement
It’s only been five weeks since the Time’s Up initiative formally launched, but it has made incredible strides. In addition to dominating the Golden Globes and shifting the cultural...
Gabriela Pichler’s “Amateurs” Wins Top Prize at Goteborg Film Festival
Gabriela Pichler’s second feature took home Goteborg Film Festival’s highest honor. “Amateurs” was named as the winner of the Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film, The Hollywood Reporter...
Women Directors Dominate SXSW Competition
The lineup for the 2018 edition of South by Southwest Conference and Festival has been announced, and it’s cause for celebration. Of 10 films screening in the Narrative Feature Competition, eight...
Berlinale Event to Address Status of Women in Film
If you’re heading to the Berlin International Film Festival and consider the film world depressingly white and male-dominated, listen up: an event at the upcoming fest is demanding more diversity...
Athena Film Fest Announces IRIS Screenwriting Lab Participants
Women accounted for just 10 percent of the writers behind 2017’s 100 highest-grossing films. The Athena IRIS Screenwriting Lab is designed to help improve this figure and get more female leaders...
Sundance: Women Sweep Directing Awards
About 40 percent of the films to screen in Competition at Sundance 2018 were women-directed or co-directed. One hundred percent of its directing prizes went to women. A press release has announced...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Fox — “The Tale”
Jennifer Fox is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning producer, director, writer, and camerawoman. Her film credits include “Beirut: The Last Home Movie,” “An American Love Story,”...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Crystal Moselle — “Skate Kitchen”
Crystal Moselle is best known for her Sundance Grand Jury Prize award-winning documentary “The Wolfpack.” She served as producer on “Excavating Taylor Mead,” and in the last decade she has...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Susan Lacy — “Jane Fonda in Five Acts”
Susan Lacy has received multiple Emmy and PGA Awards. She created PBS’ “American Masters.” Her directing credits include “Spielberg,” “Judy Garland: By Myself,” and “Joni Mitchell: A...
Sundance Deals: Betsy West and Julie Cohen’s “RBG” Gets Distribution
“Colette” and Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace” are in good company. Betsy West and Julie Cohen’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg documentary “RBG” is one of the latest flicks to get a deal at...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Narcissister — “Narcissister Organ Player”
Narcissister is a Brooklyn-based artist and performer who works at the intersection of dance, art, and activism in a range of media including video art and experimental music. She won Best Use of a...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Stephanie Soechtig — “The Devil We Know”
Stephanie Soechtig is an award-winning writer, producer, and documentary film director. Her films “Fed up” and “Under the Gun” were previously nominated for Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize....
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Amy Adrion — “Half the Picture”
Amy Adrion is a graduate of the MFA film directing program at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her prior credits include “Shoegazer,” “The Home of Split Pea Soup,” and “Sucks...
Sundance Deals: Keira Knightley-Starrer “Colette” and Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace” Score Deals
Sundance kicked off a few days ago and the business side of the Park City fest is just heating up. The largest indie fest in the U.S. is hosting the world premieres of 100 films, many of which are...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Anouk Whissell — “Summer of ’84”
Anouk Whissell is a Montreal-based filmmaker and animator. Made with her filmmaker collaborators François Simard and Yoann-Karl Whissel, Anouk Whissell’s debut feature, “Turbo Kid,” premiered...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Amy Scott — “Hal”
Amy Scott is a director and editor. A former media producer for the University of Chicago, she has been editing social-issue documentaries for over 15 years. “Hal” is her feature directorial...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Bernadett Tuza-Ritter— “A Woman Captured”
Bernadett Tuza-Ritter is a Hungarian independent film director and editor. Her 2013 film “Cinetrain — Russian Winter” won the audience award at Vision du Reel documentary festival. “A...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Ísold Uggadóttir — “And Breathe Normally”
Ísold Uggadóttir is an award-winning director from Iceland whose short films have screened at over 100 festivals including Telluride, Sundance, and New Directors / New Films at MoMA, and the Film...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Josephine Decker — “Madeline’s Madeline”
Josephine Decker is part of Time Warner’s 150 incubator, Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Lab, and one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film.” Her previous works have...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Augustine Frizzell — “Never Goin’ Back”
Augustine Frizzell is the director of “I Was A Teenage Girl” and “Minor Setback,” both of which premiered at SXSW and screened at many other festivals worldwide. “Never Goin’ Back” is...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth Chomko — “What They Had”
Elizabeth Chomko is an American film director, screenwriter, playwright and actress. She is an alum of the Sundance Institute’s Screenwriters and Composers Labs, and in 2015 won an Academy Nicholl...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Valeria Bertuccelli— “The Queen of Fear”
Valeria Bertuccelli is an Argentine actress who has spent the last 20 years acting for television and film. Her past credits include films that have screened at film festivals all over the world,...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Heather Lenz — “Kusama — Infinity”
Writer, director, and producer Heather Lenz has worked on film and television projects in various roles including as a researcher on programs for The History Channel and Food Network. She was also...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Sandi Tan — “Shirkers”
Sandi Tan is a Singaporean-born, California-based novelist and filmmaker. Her short films have played at over 100 film festivals including the New York Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand International...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Cristina Costantini — “Science Fair”
Christina Costantini has reported and produced for the New Haven Independent, The Huffington Post, ABC News, Univision, and Fusion. Her first TV documentary, which looked at sex trafficking in...
Sundance 2018 Women Directors: Meet Reed Morano — “I Think We’re Alone Now”
Reed Morano won the 2017 Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for “The Handmaid’s Tale.” She earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for cinematography in her...