Films
Watch: “Underwritten Female Character: The Movie” Skewers Manic Pixie Dream Girls
We’re all familiar with the underwritten female character tropes that appear in a multitude of movies these days. And now YouTube sketch group Nuclear Family has gathered them all up in one...
Cinema Guild Acquires Powerful Child Trafficking Doc “The Wrong Light”
Cinema Guild has announced the acquisition of U.S. distribution rights to “The Wrong Light,” a powerful documentary directed by Josie Swantek Heitz’s and Dave Adams. According to the film’s...
Trailer Watch: Clea DuVall’s “The Intervention” is the New Millennium’s “The Big Chill”
First-time feature film director Clea DuVall has taken some of your favorite TV actors, put them in a blender, and created the amazing ensemble cast that makes up “The Intervention.” In the...
Julia Ducournau’s Cannes FIPRESCI Winner “Raw” Acquired by Focus World
Focus World, a distribution arm of Focus Features, has acquired Julia Ducournau’s psychological horror film “Raw” for most worldwide territories. The film premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film...
Quote of the Day: Janelle Monae Cried When Learning of NASA’s African-American Women
Janelle Monae, along with Octavia Spencer and Taraji P. Henson, will star in an upcoming film that tells the story of three African- American women who worked for NASA during the 1960s space race....
“Deadpool’s” Brianna Hildebrand and “X-Men’s” Alexandra Shipp Join Forces for “Tragedy Girls”
Two comic book heroines are set to team up for a new horror comedy with an enticing premise. “Deadpool’s” Brianna Hildebrand and “X-Men: Apocalypse’s” Alexandra Shipp will star in...
“Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie” Has Huge Opening Weekend in the UK
It was a huge weekend in the UK for the women of “Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie.” According to The Guardian, the film scored big at the box office, earning £4.4 million (about $5.7 million in...
Lori Singer Honored with Career Retrospective at Maine International Film Festival
Acclaimed actress Lori Singer will be honored at the Maine International Film Festival with a career retrospective. The retrospective will include screenings of her films “Footloose,” “Trouble...
#NominateNYC Launches to Help Academy Reach its Diversity Goals
The Academy took great steps to diversify its membership this week, and now the NYC Office of Media and Entertainment is launching a campaign to help even more. The New York City Mayor’s Office...
Weekly Update for July 1: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
“Our Kind of Traitor” Films About Women Opening This Week The Innocents — Directed by Anne Fontaine; Co-Written by Anne Fontaine, Sabrina B. Karine, and Alice Vial (Opens in NY...
Harvard Announces Walt Disney Company Anne M. Sweeney Scholarship
Harvard has announced the creation of the The Walt Disney Company Anne M. Sweeney Scholarship that will support students pursuing their master’s degrees at Harvard Graduate School of...
Trailer Watch: Barbara Kopple Captures “Miss Sharon Jones!”
Two-time Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple followed Grammy-nominated R&B powerhouse Sharon Jones around during what is described as “the most courageous year of her...
Event Invite: Join Us in Australia to Discuss Diversity in Action
Do you want more diversity on-screen and behind-the-scenes? If so, you may be interested in a panel taking place in Ultimo Sydney on July 25. Screen Vixens and Film Fatales are hosting the third...
Trailer Watch: Anna Gunn Juggles Money, Men, and Mayhem in “Equity”
Anna Gunn (“Breaking Bad”) is demanding equality in a male-dominated field. “Equity,” directed by Meera Menon (“Farrah Goes Bang”), dives into the investment banking’s...
Renee Zellweger and Why It’s Still Not Ok to Talk About Women’s Faces and Bodies
Here’s a thought: how about we, as members of the media, cease to write about, comment on, or judge how Hollywood actresses age, look, or present themselves? A marvel of an idea right? That idea...
Virginia Woolf’s Romance with Vita Sackville-West Comes to the Big-Screen
The love affair between two literary greats will serve as the inspiration for an upcoming film by “Burn Burn Burn” director Chanya Button. According to Deadline, Button will helm a script...
Applications Now Being Accepted for New York Times and POV Media Maker Project
Attention female filmmakers, documentarians, and content creators! American Documentary Inc., the producer of the PBS series “POV,” has teamed up with The New York Times for a new documentary...
Scarlett Johansson’s Huge Box Office Record Puts Her in the Top-Grossing of All Time
Think women don’t bring in money at the box office? Think again. As TheWrap reports, Scarlett Johansson has vaulted onto the list of the 10 top-grossing actors of all time. The list was created by...
New Research Shows How “Underutilized and Undervalued” Women Are in the Film Industry
People in power don’t have faith in women. We’ve been saying this for a long time — and data backs us up. New research from Slated paints a strikingly similar picture to the one we’ve...
London’s National Film and Television School Launching Initiatives for Female Directors
Some great news for female directors in the UK: London’s National Film and Television School (NFTS) is launching three initiatives to increase the number of women film directors working in...
July 2016 Film Preview
“Our Little Sister” by Eboni Boykin and Diana Martinez Women filmmakers and protagonists are especially brave in poignant stories being released this month, shedding light on global issues that...
The Academy Remakes the World for Women Directors
We have to take our victories. Granted, there is still so much to do, but yesterday was a monumental step forward. In case you haven’t heard, The Academy, which has come under incredible scrutiny...
Annette Bening and Elle Fanning Family Comedy “20th Century Women” Sells to A24
It looks like four-time Academy Award nominee Annette Bening may be a name that pops up during awards chatter yet again. The U.S. rights to “20th Century Women,” a new comedy starring Bening,...
Trailer Watch: Ellen Page Makes Desperate Choices as “Tallulah”
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and that’s what faces Ellen Page in the new trailer for Netflix’s original feature “Tallulah.” The film, according to its official synopsis,...
Superagent Sue Mengers Biopic in the Works
The biography “Can I Go Now: The Life of Sue Mengers, Hollywood’s First Superagent” is getting a feature film adaptation, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The book follows the story of how...
Trailer Watch: Women Get Their Own Narratives in “Abortion: Stories Women Tell”
Much like the intense gun-safety debate going on around the country today, abortion remains a hot topic despite the fact that it was legalized decades ago. Women still have difficulty accessing...
Drew Barrymore May Host a Talk Show
Drew Barrymore may be the next purveyor of cute animal videos and water-cooler chatter. Deadline reports that sources have confirmed that Barrymore is “in discussion with Warner Bros. TV for a...
Leslie Jones Takes to Twitter to Find Designer Duds for “Ghostbusters” Premiere
Leslie Jones in “Ghostbusters”: Hopper Stone /Columbia Pictures In today’s head-scratching “WTF” news, “SNL” star Leslie Jones experienced problems trying to secure an outfit to the...
Cynthia Wade and Cheryl Miller Houser’s “Generation Startup” Gets Distribution
Long Shot Factory, Tugg, and Film Sprout have announced that they will partner to release Cynthia Wade (“Freeheld”) and Cheryl Miller Houser’s (“Trust Me”) documentary “Generation...
Trailer Watch: Renee Zellweger Returns in “Bridget Jones’s Baby”
We’re not gonna lie: we’ve missed Renée Zellweger, and we’ve missed her most beloved character, Bridget Jones. So we’re delighted to see a new trailer for “Bridget Jones’s Baby,” and...
Successful Female Cinematographers Share Insight About Working in the Field
Women accounted for only three percent of the cinematographers working on the top 100 grossing films of 2015. Vulture recently spoke with three prominent women in the business about their...
WestEnd Launches Brand Targeting Female Audiences with Film from Agnieszka Holland
Female audiences are under-served and underestimated, and WestEnd Films, an international film sales and finance house, is doing something to address these problems. Variety reports that WestEnd has...
Trailer Watch: Kate Mara Attempts to Control Anya Taylor-Joy’s “Morgan”
Anya Taylor-Joy burst onto the scene earlier this year in the creepy yet subtle horror movie “The Witch” and seemed destined for stardom. Moving on from that cursed Pilgrim, she’s now...
Erin Moriarty and Danika Yarosh Join Helen Hunt for Sports Movie “Live Like Line”
Erin Moriarty and Danika Yarosh have been cast in the upcoming volleyball film “Live Like Line,” Deadline reports, with Helen Hunt playing their coach. Moriarty played Woody Harrelson’s teen...
Ashleigh Murray and Rachel Crow Set for Netflix’s “Deidra & Laney Rob a Train”
Relative newcomers Ashleigh Murray (“Younger”) and Rachel Crow (“Fred: The Show”) will star in the Netflix caper comedy flick “Deidra & Laney Rob a Train,” Shadow and...
Weekly Update for June 24: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
“The Shallows” Films About Women Opening This Week The Shallows When Nancy (Blake Lively) is surfing on a secluded beach, she finds herself in the feeding ground of a great white shark. Millions...
Elite Zexler’s Sundance-Winning Debut “Sand Storm” Acquired by Kino Lorber
Kino Lorber has acquired North American distribution rights to Elite Zexer’s “Sand Storm,” Deadline has reported. The Israeli drama won the World Cinema Grand Jury Dramatic Prize at the...
The Women of “Ghostbusters” Speak Out
It seems like people have been talking for so long about the all-female “Ghostbusters” reboot that it’ll never arrive. But come next month, July 15 to be exact, the new cast of Melissa...
Proof the Dudeocracy of Film Writers Exists Thanks to Latest Study of Top Critics
When we here at Women and Hollywood published The Dudeocracy of Film Writers, we were basing our theory on observations of the film writing industry, and what we saw going on around us. But now,...
Trailer Watch: Romance Fiction’s Sisterhood Shines in “Love Between the Covers”
Romance fiction grosses over a billion dollars a year. Its intensely devoted readership spans six continents, and the genre is sold in 34 languages. So why aren’t people talking about this hugely...
Motherhood and Martyrdom: June 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
Women content creators touch on some heavy topics in this month’s crowdfunding picks. From a web series about the underbelly of motherhood, to the reconsideration of the martyrdom of a patron...
How Can We Help the Working Mothers of Hollywood? Raising Films Has a Plan
Diane Keaton in “Baby Boom” Guest Post by Sophie Mayer Raising Films is a campaign for parent-filmmakers — and it’s urgently needed. While writing “Political Animals: The New Feminist...
Two Movies About Agatha Christie in the Works with Potential Big Stars Attached
Agatha Christie’s mysteries have riveted readers and viewers for nearly a century, so it comes as no surprise that there’s interest in uncovering some clues about the legendary wordsmith...
Elizabeth Banks Was “Too Old” To Play Tobey Maguire’s Girlfriend at 28
Add Elizabeth Banks to the list of actresses who have been arbitrarily found to be too old to be the love interest of a male co-star practically the same age. Banks told Glamour Magazine, she was...
Kathryn Bigelow’s Next Film To Tackle 1967 Detroit Riots
Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s next film will begin production this summer. The drama will focus on the 1967 Detroit riots. As the BBC reports, “The Detroit riots began after...
Trailer Watch: “The Girl With All The Gifts” Could Save the World and the Zombie Genre
When you think of the zombie movie genre, the films that pop into your head don’t necessarily include great female characters. That may be starting to change, with films like “Pride &...
Catherine Deneuve Named the 2016 Recipient of the Lumière Award
Catherine Deneuve will be honored with the 2016 Lumière Award at the Lumière Grand Lyon Film Festival in France, Variety reports. The event focuses almost exclusively on film classics as opposed...
Andrea Berloff to Adapt “The Kitchen” Comic Series for New Line Cinema
Great news for fans of comics and female-fronted stories: “The Kitchen” is coming to the big-screen. The Vertigo comic series, which The Tracking Board notes “has been celebrated for its...
Why We Should Care About the 2016 National Film Registry
“A League of Their Own” Guest Post by Haley Beasley and Zeyn Faddoul of Women in Film & Video DC Human identity remains paramount in its potential as an agent for societal change. Works in...
Another Male Director With Little Experience Given a Big-Budget Project
In today’s dose of “Are you fucking kidding me?” another male director with very little directing experience has been given the job of directing what’s most likely a big-budget film. As...
Clio Barnard Starts Shooting “Dark River,” Starring Ruth Wilson
Principal photography for Clio Barnard’s “Dark River,” a family drama starring Ruth Wilson (“The Affair”), has kicked off. Filming will take place in Yorkshire, a county in Northern...