Festivals
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Grazia Tricarico — ‘Persefone’
Grazia Tricarico attended the University of Milan and the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. She has directed the short films Brightbox (2009), L’arte marziale (2010), Michele nella...
Seattle Fest Announces Women in Cinema Lineup: Lynn Shelton, Hannah Espia, Jessica Yu, More
The Seattle International Film Festival has released the lineup for its Women in Cinema showcase. The showcase will be a four-day event at SIFF 2015, and will include 12 features and documentaries,...
TIFF Women DIrectors: Meet Shonali Bose — ‘Margarita, With a Straw’
Shonali Bose was raised in Calcutta, Mumbai, and Delhi. She received her BA from Delhi University and her MA from Columbia before earning her MFA at UCLA film school. She made her feature debut as...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Lindsay MacKay — ‘Wet Bum’
Lindsay MacKay is the writer-director of WetBum, her debut feature film, which was named a Top 10 Finalist in theprestigious Zoetrope Screenwriting Competition. She is a graduate of theDirecting...
TIFF 14 First Thoughts — The Appetizer Before the Meal
I’ve been on the ground here in Toronto for three days. This is my fourth year, and it’s the first time that the first couple of days didn’t feel like I was going out of my mind. There are a...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Suha Arraf — ‘Villa Touma’
Suha Arraf was born in the Palestinian village of Melyia, near Lebanon. She began her filmmaking career as a documentary producer. Her latest work, Women of Hamas (2010), received 13 awards at...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Marte Vold — ‘Out of Nature’
Marte Vold (b. 1978 in Tromsø, Norway) studied film at Nordland Art andFilm School, attended the National Art Academy in Oslo, and then graduated fromthe Norwegian Film School in 2005. Between 2002...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Lone Scherfig — ‘The Riot Club’
Lone Scherfig was born inCopenhagen and graduated fromthe National Film School of Denmark.Her features Italian for Beginners(2000), Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002),Just Like Home (2007), and An...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Isidora Marras- ‘I Am Not Lorena’
Isidora Marras was born in Santiago, Chile, and studied audiovisual direction at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Her short films include “Mirada a Vapor” (2008) and “En la Azotea”...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Laura Nix — ‘The Yes Men Are Revolting’
Laura Nix is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles.She has over seventy productioncredits and has directed the featurefilm The Politics of Fur (2002) and twofeature documentaries, The Light inHer Eyes...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Tala Hadid — ‘The Narrow Frame of Midnight’
Tala Hadid was born in London, graduated from Columbia University in NewYork City, and participated in the Sundance Institute Directors Lab. Her filmsinclude the documentary feature Sacred Poet, the...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Martine Époque — ‘Coda: The Finale for The Rite of Spring’
Choreographer Martine Époque is the founder of Montreal’s renowned contemporary dance company Groupe Nouvelle Aire and was its Artistic Director from 1968 to 1981. She was also the driving force...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Kristina Grozeva (‘The Lesson’)
Kristina Grozeva was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in1976. She graduated from the National Academy for Theater and Film Art with a degree in Film Directing. She and her co-director Petar Valchanov make...
Watch: Melissa Silverstein Talks About Hollywood’s Woman Problem
The best-performing movie of 2013 was The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, starring Jennifer Lawrence as the ass-kicking, fast-thinking Katniss Everdeen. And yet we’re still in the position of having...
London Film Festival to Feature New Works from Susanne Bier, Céline Sciamma, Debra Granik
With nearly 250 film slated to play, the 58th London Film Festival (October 8–18) will offer audiences an abundance of opportunities to see new work from female filmmakers. Among them are the...
TIFF Announces Julie Taymor and Marjane Satrapi Premieres
As with any huge festival, Toronto FF (September 4–14) has announced its programming in waves. We were initially unimpressed by the paltry number of female filmmakers featured in the main...
Venice Film Fest to Honor Frances McDormand
The Venice International Film Festival (August 27-September 6) will celebrate Frances McDormand’s career by bestowing the 2014 Personal Tribute to Visionary Talent Award to the Fargo actress....
Only Three Women-Directed Films Scheduled for NYFF’s Main Slate
Toronto Film Fest Announces More Women-Directed Films
When the 39th Toronto International Film Festival (September 4–14) released its first two rounds of programming at this year’s events, we were initially unimpressed by the paltry representation...
Outreach Coordinator Position Available
Position Summary The Athena Film Festival is seeking an outgoing and creative individual to serve as the Outreach Coordinator for the 2015 Festival (Feb. 5–8, 2015). The Outreach Coordinator works...
Sundance Award-Winning Rich Hill Director Tracy Droz Tragos on the Injustice of Rural Poverty and How Motherhood Can Open Doors to Documentarians
“People expect me to have a better future than Ido. I don’t know what to do anymore.” So declares a twelve-year-old boy lessthan five minutes into this film, and at once we are ruthlessly...
Toronto Film Fest Announces More Films; Only 12% of Lineup So Far Directed by Women
Though the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival (September 4–14) may prove an effective launching pad for award-hungry actresses, the new lineups announced today affirm our earlier assessment...
17% of Venice Film Fest’s Main Lineup Directed by Women
The Venice Film Festival released the full lineup for its 71st iteration (August 27-September 6) today. Though the Lido beats out Toronto’s paltry 10% female lineup, its 17% female statistic...
Half of Sarajevo Film Fest Doc Contenders Directed by Women
Sometimes it’s necessary to travel far afield to find good news, as was the case this week when the Toronto Film Festival’s first-round lineup was revealed to be only 10% directed by women....
Only 10% of Toronto Lineup So Far Directed by Women
The Toronto International Film Festival (September 4–14) announced an initial lineup of 59 films today, and only a measly six of them are from women directors, including an anthology film. Danish...
First-Time Female Filmmakers Take Home Best Film and Best Screenplay Awards at Outfest
Director Sydney Freeland’s Drunktown’s Finest was named Outfest’s Best US Dramatic Feature Film at the festival’s awards ceremony this past Sunday. The reservation-set drama also won the...
Jessica Chastain to Be Honored at Deauville Film Fest
Two months before the arrival of her next film, the marriage drama The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, news arrives that Jessica Chastain will be honored at the Deauville American Film Festival...
Asian American Festival to Feature Asian Women Filmmakers Panel
The 37th Asian American International Film Festival (July 24-August 2) in New York City will host a panel of five Asian women directors, writers, and producers to discuss their thoughts and...
Only 16% of Locarno Film Fest Lineup Directed by Women
Less than one out of every six features screened in the major programs at the 67th Locarno International Film Festival (August 6–16) will be directed by a woman. Of the 56 films playing at the...
Catherine Deneuve to Lead Dinard Film Festival Jury
Catherine Deneuve, who remains as busy as ever at age 70 with over 120 credits to her name, will preside over the 25th Dinard British Film Festival’s (October 8–12) competition jury. Deneuve...
Munich Film Festival to Honor Isabelle Huppert with Lifetime Achievement Award
Legendary actress Isabelle Huppert will receive a lifetime-achievement award — one of many already received, and many, many more to come, no doubt — from the 2014 Munich International...
Women Directors Win Majority of LAFF Awards for Features
A majority of the feature prizes at the 2014 Los Angeles Film Festival Awards went to women-directed projects. Winter’s Bone director Debra Granik took home the best-documentary trophy for her...
Ann Hui’s The Golden Era to Close Venice Film Festival
The world premiere of Hong Kong director Ann Hui’s The Golden Era will close the 71st Venice Film Festival (August 27-September 6). It will be screened out of competition. The Golden Era centers...
Celine Sciamma’s Black Parisian Drama Girlhood Finds Distribution
Just a few weeks after its screening at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight, Celine Sciamma’s third film, Girlhood, has been picked up for American distribution (it has also sold throughout...
Guest Post: Creating My Film Footprint: The Importance of Women on Both Sides of the Camera
As far back as I can remember, I have always hada deep passion for movies, which probably derives from my fascination with thehuman character. The ability that film offers to travelwith a character...
30% of Films at Karlovy Vary Festival Directed by Women
The 49th Karlovy Vary Film Festival, which will take place on July 4–12 in Carlsbad, the Czech Republic, will showcase ten women-directed films (from a total of 34). Female representation at the...
Submit Your Film to the Athena Film Festival
The Athena Film Festival is currently accepting submissions until September 15, 2014, for its sixth annual event. Located at Barnard College in Manhattan, the Athena Film Festival is an engaging...
Director Alice Rohrwacher on Her Cannes Grand Prix-Winning Film The Wonders
Italian director Alice Rohrwacher took home the Cannes Grand Prix, the festival’s silver medal, this weekend. Her sophomore debut, Le Meraviglie (The Wonders), centers on a German-Italian family,...
Cannes Film Festival Wrap Up — Why Gender Matters
Here’s my latest piece on Forbes: This past weekend while we were all barbecuing and relaxing here in the states, the 67th Cannes Film Festival concluded. Not surprisingly, the festival continued...
Female Filmmakers Win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Prize at Cannes Student Competition
Female directors swept the Cinefondation, the student competition at Cannes. Annie Silverstein’s Kickstarter-funded “Skunk” won top honors. The University of Texas at Austin student will...
Crosspost: GendRE & IMDb: An Open-Data Analysis of the Film Industry Gender Gap
This post was originally published on No Country for Young Women. Last week, during the annual OECD Forum, I had the pleasure of discovering a new, groundbreaking initiative by entrepreneur Elian...
Crosspost: Stories About Women Dominate at Cannes, Even If Female Filmmakers Are Rare
This post was originally published at Awards Daily. In case you’ve been wondering why it’s so difficult to get movies about women made, you don’t have to look any further than 2014’s 67th...
Patricia Clarkson and Debra Winger to Be Honored by Provincetown Film Festival
The Provincetown International Film Festival will honor actresses Patricia Clarkson and Debra Winger on its 16th anniversary. Clarkson will receive the Excellence in Acting Award, and her most...
Cannes Sales Roundup: Films Starring Brie Larson, Anne Hathaway Get Distribution Deals
Several more films by/about women have found distribution deals at the “seller’s market” in Cannes. Among them are: — Anne Hathaway’s romantic drama Song One. Kate Barker-Froyland’s...
Cannes Dispatch: Women Directors Panel Reveal It’s a Man’s World, Suggest Gender Quota
Not manytopics make people squirm more than gender-based quota systems, but afterhearing significant statistics about women in the film and televisionindustries, a somewhat ambivalent panel at...
A List of the Women-Directed and Women-Centric Films Looking for Deals in Cannes
It’s a “seller’s market” at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, according to Deadline. Some US sales include The Amy Adams-starring sci-fi pic Story of Your Life which sold for $20 million to...
Quote of the Day: Jane Campion Acknowledges the “Inherent Sexism” of the Film Industry At Cannes
Jane Campion is Cannes Jury President this year, and she’s using her platform to speak out against sexism in the film industry. While Campion is known for being outspoken about gender inequity in...
A Call to Action on Behalf of Female Filmmakers
Here’s my latest post on Forbes: The Cannes Film Festival kicks off today and the film world as the world’s press have descended to seek out the next “it girl”, the next “master” and...
Jane Campion Close to Deal to Direct The Flamethrowers for Producer Scott Rudin
One of the things that I will enjoy watching over the next two weeks at the Cannes Film Festival is the high profile of one of the most talented female directors, Jane Campion. She is the 10th woman...
Cannes Trailer Watch: Alice Rohrwacher’s Le Meraviglie
The trailer for Alice Rohrwacher’s Le Meraviglie has been released. The film will premiere at Cannes and is in competition for the Palme d’Or. Only one other film directed by a woman will be...
No Cannes Do — The Status of Women Directors at Cannes Over the Last Decade
As the press and the film industry descend on Cannes this week, this gives us an opportunity to remind people one of the biggest problems that plague this festival as well as the industry in...