Films
Trailer Watch: Elle Fanning Is a Transgender Teen Fighting to Transition in “3 Generations”
“The hardest part of my day is knowing everybody still sees me as a girl,” says Ray (Elle Fanning) in a new trailer for Gaby Dellal’s “3 Generations.” While Ray is part of a progressive...
Cannes 2017: Women-Directed Films We’re Tracking for This Year’s Festival
“The Beguiled” While many other high-profile festivals have made strides towards closing the gender gap in their programming, Cannes is infamous for lagging behind the times. Last year, just...
Trailer Watch: Vanessa Gould’s “Obit” Spotlights Those Who Make the Dead Live Again
“It’s counter-intuitive — ironic, even — but obits have next to nothing to do with death, and in fact absolutely everything to do with the life,” an obituary writer observes in a...
Weekly Update for April 7: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week “Their Finest” Their Finest — Directed by Lone Scherfig; Written by Gaby Chiappe “Their Finest” sees Gemma Arterton as Catrin, a young woman hired...
Weinstein Co. to Protest MPAA “R” Rating for Transgender Drama “3 Generations”
Gaby Dellal’s “3 Generations” continues to make headlines. This time around, the upcoming transgender drama is in the news because it has been assigned an “R” rating by the MPAA for...
Female Directors Rejected from BAFTA Elevate Program Launch #BAFTAsLucky225
Credit: The BAFTA Twitter account Talk about making lemons into lemonade. More than two hundred women directors have turned their rejection from a prestigious program into an unofficial organization...
Victoria Woodhull Series Is First Project from Suzanne Blech’s New Production Co.
A television series about suffragette and first female U.S. presidential candidate Victoria Woodhull will be the first project from Suzanne Blech’s just-launched Go Nellie Productions, Deadline...
Hallie Meyers-Shyer’s Reese Witherspoon -Starrer “Home Again” Gets Release Date
“Big Little Lies” concluded Sunday on HBO, and while we’ll miss much about the murder mystery, one of the highlights of the limited series was definitely watching Reese Witherspoon knock it...
Doc About Workers’ Rights Activist Dolores Huerta Acquired by PBS
Dolores Huerta will hopefully soon be a household name. A documentary about the workers’ rights activist, “Dolores,” was acquired by PBS and is set to screen theatrically this fall. According...
“Their Finest” Director Lone Scherfig on Making Meaningful Films
Most audiences were introduced to Lone Scherfig’s work with the 2009 Oscar-nominated Carey Mulligan-starrer “An Education,” but the Danish writer and director has been working since the...
Melissa Stack to Make Directorial Debut with Vacation Comedy
“The Other Woman” grossed more than $196 million worldwide on a budget of $40 million, and now the screenwriter behind the 2014 Cameron Diaz infidelity comedy seems to have another hit on her...
Pussy Riot Documentary “Act & Punishment” Gets U.S. Release
“If your vagina lands in prison, then the world is gonna listen,” sings Pussy Riot in “Straight Outta Vagina,” a song released in 2016. The Russian punk rock group is the subject of “Act...
Finding the Balance: Crowdfunding Picks
If you’re an avid reader of Women and Hollywood (and if you’re not, welcome!) the disparities between men and women in the film industry are of no surprise. These seemingly never-ending...
Gemma Arterton Talks Sexism and Likability in “Their Finest”
“Their Finest” sees Gemma Arterton playing Catrin, a young woman hired to write lines for women in British war propaganda movies. It’s a movie within a movie dealing with gender roles in the...
Catherine Hardwicke Set to Direct “Miss Bala” Remake for Sony
Catherine Hardwicke has found her next gig. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the “Twilight” director will helm Sony’s remake of “Miss Bala,” a 2011 Mexican drama from...
Bette Midler to Be Honored by Drama League, Keeps Breaking Broadway Records
Bette Midler is killing it. Per Variety, her “Hello, Dolly!” Broadway revival earned the Shubert Theatre its biggest week ever in just seven performances. And the four-time Grammy winner will be...
WTF of the Day: Marvel Exec Thinks Female & Diverse Characters Are Ruining Sales
Wow. After the Aaron Sorkin debacle last week, you’d assume that powerful executives with a platform — especially if they are white dudes — would carefully consider their words before...
Tallgrass Film Festival to Launch Female-Helmed Doc Competition
The largest film festival in Kansas is getting more female-friendly. The Tallgrass Film Association (TFA) has announced the creation of DoXX Spotlight competition for women-directed feature-length...
Trailer Watch: “Wynonna Earp” Is on the Fury Road Express in Season 2
“Wynonna’s not a flowers-and-chocolate kind of a girl,” Sheriff Nedley (Greg Lawson) says of the titular character in the second season trailer for “Wynonna Earp.” That’s for damn sure....
Character First: April VOD and Web Series Picks
“Reckless Juliets” These days at the box office, it seems that size matters. Whether it’s the latest Marvel film, or even the female-centric “Beauty and the Beast,” movies often mean big...
Teaser Watch: Aubrey Plaza Is an Instagram Stalker in “Ingrid Goes West”
If you find yourself rolling your eyes at social media stars, Instagram platitudes, and hashtags being affixed to every other word online, “Ingrid Goes West” may just be the dark comedy for you....
Gurinder Chadha Moves to TV with FremantleMedia-Backed Bend It TV
Gurinder Chadha is branching out into television. The “Bend It Like Beckham” director’s TV production company, Bend It TV, will receive 25 percent backing from FremantleMedia, Variety writes....
Guest Post: What Inspired Me to Make a Film About Retirees
Guest Post by Rosemary Rodriguez There’s an abundance of turmoil, fear, anger, and hatred expressed through images that come at us 24/7 through social media, TV, and movies. As a society, we are...
Weekly Update for March 31: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week “The Zookeeper’s Wife” The Zookeeper’s Wife — Directed by Niki Caro; Written by Angela Workman The real-life story of one working wife and mother...
Guest Post: How One Non-Profit Changed The Game For Parents At SXSW
Guest Post By Christy Lamb and Mathilde Dratwa INT. BEDROOM — VERY EARLY MORNING Actress and director Foster Wilson has just found out that a film she worked on, “The Archer,” will be...
Sony Buys Rights to Emil Ferris’ Graphic Novel “My Favorite Thing Is Monsters”
If you’re a fan of Nancy Drew, “Veronica Mars,” and/or pulp fiction, listen up: Another amateur girl sleuth is headed for the screen, and this one faces off against monsters. Sony has won the...
Women Execs Appointed at British Film Institute, Creative BC, and Annapurna
Three major job appointments for women executives have been announced at Creative BC, Annapurna, and the British Film Institute (BFI), ScreenDaily reports. Gaylene Gould is now the BFI’s Southbank...
Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs Accepts CinemaCon Pioneer of the Year Award
Cheryl Boone Isaacs accepted the Pioneer of the Year honor at CinemaCon’s Will Rogers Motion Picture Foundation Dinner, held Wednesday. The President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and...
Guest Post: Supporting Women’s Voices in Independent Film
Guest Post by Jere Rae-Mansfield As a distributor of independent feature films for over 30 years, I have enjoyed watching women unite and rise to prominence in the film industry. Not only the titans...
Susan Johnson Talks “Carrie Pilby” and Finding Funding for the Female-Led Film
Susan Johnson is an Independent Spirit Award winning filmmaker. “Carrie Pilby” marks her feature directorial debut. After a successful career as a music video director, Johnson has produced 10...
Joss Whedon May Direct Batgirl Standalone Film
Joss Whedon is bringing another heroine to the screen. The “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” creator is “nearing a deal” to write, direct, and produce an untitled Batgirl film for Warner Bros. as...
April 2017 Film Preview
“Their Finest” If there’s one thing that April showers bring, it’s a plethora of films that feature women holding both the camera and the pen. Female screenwriters, in particular, drive this...
Lois Smith-Starrer “Marjorie Prime” Acquired by FilmRise
FilmRise has acquired U.S. distributions rights to Lois Smith and Jon Hamm’s holographic love story “Marjorie Prime,” Deadline reports. Directed by Michael Almereyda (“Hamlet”), the sci-fi...
A Conversation with “The Zookeeper’s Wife” Author Diane Ackerman
Diane Ackerman is best known for her more recent books “A Natural History of the Senses” and “The Human Age: The World Shaped By Us.” However, “The Zookeeper’s Wife,” a story about a...
Drew Barrymore, Samantha Bee, America Ferrara, & More to Be Honored at the Gracie Awards
The recipients of the 42nd annual Gracie Awards have been announced via the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation (AWMF). Taking place June 6 in Beverly Hills, the Gracies “honor exemplary...
23-Year-Old Author Tomi Adeyemi’s Debut Novel Acquired by Fox 2000
Get ready to feel really unproductive. Twenty-three-year-old author Tomi Adeyemi received a seven-figure book deal from Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group for her debut novel, “Children of...
Trailer Watch: Diane Lane Takes the Trip of a Lifetime in Eleanor Coppola’s “Paris Can Wait”
“Driving is the only way to see a country,” Anne (Diane Lane) is told in a new trailer for “Paris Can Wait.” She and her husband (Alec Baldwin) are visiting Cannes from the U.S., but...
Women-Directed Features “Polina” and “The Drowning” Acquired
Two new women-directed films have found homes. Deadline reports that Oscilloscope Laboratories snagged the North American rights to Valérie Müller and Angelin Preljocaj’s “Polina,” a ballet...
“Lipstick Under My Burkha” to Open Indian Film Fests in LA and NY
“Lipstick Under My Burkha” has been subject to censorship in India, but the feminist film is being received warmly at festivals in the U.S. In fact, the Alankrita Shrivastava-directed movie will...
Janeane Garofalo to Make Broadway Debut in “Marvin’s Room”
Janeane Garofalo is set to make her Broadway debut. The two-time Emmy-nominated actress and stand-up comedian will star in Roundabout Theater Company’s “Marvin’s Room,” The New York Times...
Male Privilege Watch: Chris Addison to Make Feature Debut with “Nasty Women”
Here we go again. Yet another newbie male director has been given the reins to a much anticipated women-centric project. This time it’s Chris Addison making his feature directorial debut with the...
Trailer Watch: Explorer Gertrude Bell Takes Center Stage in “Letters from Baghdad”
“In the desert, every newcomer is an enemy till you know him to be a friend,” says Gertrude Bell, voiced by Tilda Swinton, in a new trailer for Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum’s “Letters...
BAMcinématek to Present Anne-Marie Miéville Retrospective
Swiss filmmaker Anne-Marie Miéville will be celebrated with a full career retrospective presented by BAMcinématek in Brooklyn. After launching her career in the ’70s, the writer, director, and...
Natalie Portman to Play a Bull Rider in Anna Rose Holmer’s “Bronco Belle”
Natalie Portman is going from redesigning the White House to becoming a rodeo superstar. The “Jackie” actress is attached to star as a bull rider in “Bronco Belle,” Deadline reports. “The...
Bentonville Film Fest to Open with Gaby Dellal’s “3 Generations”
“3 Generations” The 2017 Bentonville Film Festival will open with Gaby Dellal’s controversial “3 Generations,” Indiewire reports. Written by Dellal and Nikole Beckwith, the drama, once...
Amber Heard to Star in Agnieszka Holland’s “The Kind Worth Killing”
Amber Heard is teaming up with Polish auteur Agnieszka Holland. Heard will topline Holland’s upcoming crime thriller “The Kind Worth Killing,” Deadline reports. The feature hails from...
Trailer Watch: Noomi Rapace Is Abducted & Subjected to Experiments in “Rupture”
An idyllic day quickly transforms into the stuff of nightmares in a newly released trailer for “Rupture.” Renee (Noomi Rapace), a single mom, lovingly says goodbye to her son and drives to meet...
A Conversation with “The Zookeeper’s Wife” Director Niki Caro
We have been anxiously awaiting “The Zookeeper’s Wife” ever since Jessica Chastain’s 2015 guest feature for The Hollywood Reporter. Long before its release, Niki Caro’s film was labeled a...
“Queen of the Desert” Gets a U.S. Release Date and New Trailer
U.S. audiences are finally going to have the opportunity to see Nicole Kidman’s portrayal of Gertrude Bell in “Queen of the Desert.” The biopic of the renowned British archaeologist, explorer,...
Jessica Chastain and Niki Caro on “The Zookeeper’s Wife” and the Importance of Recognizing Women in…
Jessica Chastain and Niki Caro on “The Zookeeper’s Wife” and the Importance of Recognizing Women in History “The Zookeeper’s Wife” “The Zookeeper’s Wife” tells the powerful story...
Amy Pascal & Bruna Papandrea to Produce Film Adaptions of Upcoming Books
Amy Pascal and Bruna Papandrea are bringing your next literary obsessions to the big screen. Pascal is finalizing a deal for Laura Dave’s “Hello, Sunshine” and Papandrea has optioned Elizabeth...