Festivals
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sara Fishko — ‘The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith’
Sara Fishko makes her directorial debut with “The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith.” Fishko is an Emmy Award-winning film editor and public radio broadcaster/podcaster whose explorations...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet June Cross — ‘Wilhemina’s War’
June Cross is a writer and documentary producer who covers the intersection of poverty, race and politics in the United States. She has been a Professor of Journalism at Columbia University’s...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Janelle Gueits — ’13 Million Voices’
Janelle Gueits is an artist, filmmaker and change-maker. Her career has spanned across artistic and social pursuits across the U.S. and worldwide as a feature film director, network television...
DOC NYC 2015 Women Directors: Meet Alex Hammond — ‘Lucha Mexico’
Alex Hammond has worked in film and TV in New York City for over ten years. Her feature debut, “Strange Things,” premiered at MoMA’s Documentary Fortnight Film Festival and was featured on...
Women Helmers Win 3 of 4 Awards at London Film Fest; Athina Rachel Tsangari Takes Best Film
“The programming team has declared this the year of the strong woman,” said festival director Clare Stewart back in September at the the launch of this year’s BFI London Film Festival. The...
2015 DOC NYC Lineup is 38% Female-Helmed; Hillary Rodham Clinton to Appear at Fest
DOC NYC’s 2015 lineup has been announced, and of 104 features screening, 39 are directed or co-directed by women — a figure that amounts to 38% of the programming. Last year, women helmed 43...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Chanya Button — ‘Burn Burn Burn’
Chanya Button made her start in the industry at an early age, working as an Assistant Director on the “Harry Potter” feature-film franchise. Button has since worked extensively across both the...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Micah Magee — ‘Petting Zoo’
In addition to making films, Micah Magee has worked as managing and programming director of Austin’s Cinematexas International Short Film Festival, pirate-radio programmer and print journalist. In...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Natalie Cristiani — ‘Nicola Costantino: The Artefacta’
Natalie Cristiani graduated from Centro Sperimentale Di Cinematografia in Rome as a Film Editor in 2002. From 2002 she has worked as a film editor with various talented young directors, including...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Laura Bispuri — ‘Sworn Virgin’
Laura Bispuri’s 2010 short film “Passing Time” won Italy’s David di Donatello Award. “Sworn Virgin” is her first feature film. (Variety) “Sworn Virgin” will premiere at the 2015 BFI...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Miranda Pennell — ‘The Host’
Miranda Pennell originally trained in contemporary dance and later studied visual anthropology. Pennell’s video work until 2007 explored different forms of collective performance and has been...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Mabel Cheung — ‘A Tale of Three Cities’
Mabel Cheung is an award-winning director and producer. Her debut feature, “The Illegal Immigrant” (1985), won her the Best Director Prize at the Hong Kong Film Awards and a Special Jury Award...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli — ‘Frame by Frame’
Alexandria Bombach is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who lives on the road. The founder of Red Reel, Bombach is known to sell all her belongings to tell a story she believes in. Mo Scarpelli is a...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Johanna Schwartz — ‘They Will Have to Kill Us First: Malian Music in Exile’
Johanna Schwartz is an award-winning, American-born, UK-based filmmaker. Working across the world — with a particular focus on Africa — she has produced and directed films for...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Turner — ‘Public House’
Sarah Turner is an artist, filmmaker, writer, curator and academic. Her feature films include “Ecology” (2007), “Perestroika” (2009) and “Perestroika: Reconstructed.” Turner’s short...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Hanna Polak — ‘Something Better to Come’
Hanna Polak is an Oscar-nominated director. She has worked on various movies as producer, director, cinematographer and still photographer. In 2002, she was awarded Best Producer of Documentary and...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Paz Fábrega — ‘Viaje’
Paz Fábrega is an award-winning director who has studied at the University of Costa Rica, the Colegio Universitario de Alajuela and the London Film School. Her filmography includes the short...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari — ‘The New Classmate’
Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari spent 16 years in the advertising agency Leo Burnett telling stories for the biggest brands in India and South East Asia. “The New Classmate” is her first feature film....
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Svetla Tsotsorkova — ‘Thirst’
Svetla Tsotsorkova graduated from the National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria, in 2004. Since then, she has been working mainly as a producer and actress. Her first short film...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Evangelia Kranioti — ‘Exotica, Erotica, Etc.’
Evangelia Kranioti is a Greek-born visual artist based in France. She is the 2015 recipient of the Special jury Prize and the Elie Saab Prize at the 30th Hyères Fashion and Photography festival,...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Olivia Wyatt — ‘Sailing A Sinking Sea’
Olivia Wyatt is a filmmaker and photographer based in Los Angeles. She is a member of the Sublime Frequencies film and music collective. Her first feature, “Staring Into the Sun,” is about...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Małgorzata Szumowska — ‘Body’
Małgorzata Szumowska is one of Poland’s most prominent Polish filmmakers and covers a broad spectrum of filmmaking duties, from screenwriting and producing to documentary and narrative-film...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Christina Comencini — ‘Latin Lover’
Cristina Comencini began her career as a screenwriter, with co-writing credits for “Il matrimonio di Caterina” (1982), “Quattro storie di donne” (1986) and “Buon Natale… Buon anno”...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Laura Citarella — ‘Dog Lady’
Laura Citarella is a member of the production company El Pampero Cine, along with Mariano Llinás, Alejo Moguillansky and Agustín Mendilaharzu. In 2006 she won the Historias breves 5 contest and in...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Maya Newell — ‘Gayby Baby’
Maya Newell is an Australian filmmaker with a focus on directing documentaries. Her award-winning short “Two” screened at festivals internationally and she was awarded Best New Documentary...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Gavron — ‘Suffragette’
Sarah Gavron’s feature film debut was “Brick Lane,” which earned her a BAFTA nomination, a BIFA nomination and The Alfred Dunhill Talent Award at the BFI London Film Festival. Prior to this,...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Lyric R. Cabral — ‘(T)ERROR’
Lyric R. Cabral is a photojournalist and documentary filmmaker committed to reporting stories seldom seen in mainstream media. Her documentary work has been supported by artist grants from the BBC,...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Sara Blecher — ‘Ayanda’
Sara Blecher is a co-founder of CINGA, a South African-based production company that has made a number of award-winning features, documentaries and drama series. An honors graduate of NYU, Blecher...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Karyn Kusama — ‘The Invitation’
Karyn Kusama wrote and directed her first feature film, “Girlfight,” in 1999. The film won the Director’s Prize and shared the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. It went on...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Mor Loushy — ‘Censored Voices’
Mor Loushy graduated from the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School in 2007 and has been working as a freelancer ever since. Her debut film, “Israel Ltd.,” world-premiered at International...
LFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Ondi Timoner — ‘BRAND: A Second Coming’
Director and producer Ondi Timoner won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance twice — for “Dig!” (2004), about the collision of art and commerce through the story of two bands, and “We Live in...
Apply for a Black List Mini-Lab at the 2016 Athena Film Festival
The Athena Film Festival is now accepting applications for its Black List mini-lab. The Manhattan-based festival has partnered with The Black List for the inaugural mini-lab. Four women...
‘The Second Mother’ Director Anna Muylaert Speaks Out About Film-Festival Sexism
“Men think it’s lovely if a woman makes a lovely film that nobody sees.” That’s the scathing highlight of the interview writer-director Anna Muylaert gave to Women and Hollywood when her...
New Site Tracks Women Directors at Festivals, Publishes Stats for Venice and TIFF
When festivals announce their lineups, Women and Hollywood crunches the numbers to determine the percentage of female directors behind the films being screened. While the numbers vary according to...
38th Mill Valley Film Fest to Close With ‘Suffragette,’ Feature Female-Focused Events
The gender gap and those attempting to bridge it will enjoy the spotlight this year at the Mill Valley Film Festival in Marin County, California. The 38th iteration of the festival, which will run...
Woodstock Film Fest 2015 to Feature Record Number of Women Directors
Nearly 50% of the features being screened at the 2015 Woodstock Film Festival will be directed by women. This is an impressive figure, and one worth celebrating. Twenty-five of the 53 feature-length...
Patricia Rozema, Sophie Deraspe and Other Female Canadian Talent To Be Feted at TIFF
Nine Canadian female directors and actors will be honored at the Toronto Film Festival this year. Telefilm Canada, a federal cultural agency that helps fund and promote Canadian film, and Birks...
The Year of the “Strong Women” at the 2015 London Film Fest Lineup
When we learned Sarah Gavron’s “Suffragette” would open this year’s BFI London Film Festival, we were optimistic about the rest of the lineup. The full program for the 59th edition of the...
Angelina Jolie’s ‘By the Sea’ the First Woman-Directed Film to Open AFI Fest in At Least a Decade
“By the Sea,” Angelina Jolie’s third narrative feature as a director, will open this year’s AFI Fest (November 5–12). The drama about a husband and wife (played by Jolie Pit and her...
Cate Blanchett to Receive BFI’s Highest Honor
Cate Blanchett will be presented with a British Film Institute Fellowship, the BFI’s highest honor, at the London Film Festival’s annual awards ceremony on October 17. One of the actress’s two...
TIFF Announces In-Depth Convos with Moore, Hayek, Silverman; Adds Women-Centric Series of Talks
TIFF 2015 is just over two weeks away, and the festival is still releasing a steady stream of announcements. Earlier today, the fest revealed the lineup for the In Conversations With… program,...
NYFF ’15: World Premieres from Laura Poitras, Docs About Nora Ephron, Ingrid Bergman, Kitty Genovese
The 2015 edition of the New York Film Festival (September 25 to October 11) will host the world premiere of Laura Poitras’ follow-up to her Oscar-winning documentary “CITIZENFOUR,” as well as...
TIFF Announces More Films, Incl. Works by Catherine Hardwicke, Natalie Portman, Chantal Akerman
TIFF continues to roll out additions to its lineup on a near daily basis, and thankfully many of the newly announced crop of films are helmed by women. Three female directors have been added to the...
Mill Valley Film Fest’s 2015 Lineup Boasts Cannes Alums ‘Carol,’ ‘Mustang,’ ‘My Mother,’ ‘Girl King’
The 38th Mill Valley Film Festival in Marin County, California, will include Cannes picks and local works in its 2015 lineup. Among the Cannes alum to screen at MVFF 2015 (October 8–18) are Todd...
Trailer Watch: Rooney Mara is Enthralled by Captivating Older Woman Cate Blanchett in ‘Carol’
The first teaser trailer for Todd Haynes’ much-anticipated adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s lesbian romance “The Price of Salt” has been released just as word comes that the film has been...
TIFF’s Inaugural ‘Platform’ Program Includes Films by Sue Brooks, Eva Husson, Fabienne Berthaud
The 2015 Toronto International Film Festival (September 10–20) will introduce a new program. Platform will showcase “artistically ambitious” works at the festival, and the winner of the...
NYFF 2015’s Main Slate Revealed; 3 of 26 Features Directed by Women
The New York Film Festival, now in its 53rd year, has released the final lineup for its main program. Twenty-six films will be screened, only three (or 12%) directed by women. The disappointment...
TIFF Announces More Films, Including World Premiere of Barbara Kopple’s ‘Miss Sharon Jones!’
The Toronto International Film Festival has announced more entries in a number of lineups for the 40th installment of the high-profile fest. Of the first batch of films TIFF made public, a mere 14%...
Venice Film Fest Lineup Released: Only 10% of Films in Competition Helmed by Women Directors
Yesterday we reported that the main jury of this year’s Venice Film Festival will be comprised of six men and three women (Elizabeth Banks, Diane Kruger and Lynne Ramsay). The official lineup for...
Athena List 2016 Seeking Submissions of Scripts with Women in Leadership Roles
The Athena Film Festival team is seeking scripts for the 2016 edition of the Athena List. An integral part of the festival’s celebration of women and leadership, the Athena List is an annual...
TIFF 2015 Announces Just 7 Women-Directed Films in Its First Round of Lineup Selections
The Toronto International Film Festival made public its first batch of films for its 2015 lineup this morning. Forty-nine films made the cut, but only a disappointing seven (about 14%) were directed...