Interviews
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Lauren DeFilippo – “Free Money”
Lauren DeFilippo is a documentary filmmaker based in New York City. She most recently produced “Ailey” (Sundance 2021), an acclaimed feature documentary that was released in theaters...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Vera Drew – “The People’s Joker”
Vera Drew (she/her) is an accomplished LGBTQ+ director and editor who has worked in TV and film for nearly a decade. She recently directed Season 12 of Tim Heidecker’s “On Cinema at...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Selcen Ergun – “Snow and the Bear” (“Kar ve Ayı”)
Selcen Ergun is a director and screenwriter from Turkey. She began her career as an assistant director, working on many national and international productions. Her short films...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Malou Reymann – “Unruly”
Malou Reymann is a director and screenwriter who graduated from the National Film and Television School in England. Her debut feature, “A Perfectly Normal Family,” which premiered at...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: V.T. Nayani – “This Place”
V.T. Nayani is a director, producer, and writer. She is a recipient of the UN Women Yvonne M. Hebert Award for filmmakers and photographers. Most recently, she completed her residency in the...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Sinéad O’Shea – “Pray for Our Sinners”
Sinéad O’Shea is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Her first feature documentary, “A Mother Brings her Son to be Shot,” premiered at CPH:DOX 2018 where it was nominated for a...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Laura Baumeister – “Daughter of Rage”
Laura Baumeister was born and raised in Nicaragua and trained at Mexico’s Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica. A sociologist as well as a filmmaker, Baumeister has directed the...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Alice Winocour – “Paris Memories”
Alice Winocour directed her first feature film in 2011, “Augustine.” It was selected for Cannes’ Critics Week and nominated for a César Award for the Best First Film. Her second...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Nisha Pahuja – “To Kill a Tiger”
Nisha Pahuja is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in Toronto and Bombay. Her credits include the critically-acclaimed “Diamond Road,” “Bollywood Bound,” and “The World...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Carolina Markowicz – “Charcoal”
Carolina Markowicz is a screenwriter and director based in São Paulo, Brazil. Her short films have won many international awards and have played in more than 200 festivals worldwide including TIFF,...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Gail Maurice – “Rosie”
Gail Maurice is a fluent Cree/Michif-speaking actor and an award-winning independent filmmaker and Arts Laureate. She is a recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Indigenous Award for Excellence in the...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Sophie Jarvis – “Until Branches Bend”
Sophie Jarvis studied at Simon Fraser University, where she made her short film “The Worst Day Ever,” which premiered at TIFF in 2012. Since then, she has gone on to direct primarily...
Eva Vitija on Paying Tribute to “The Price of Salt” Author Patricia Highsmith in “Loving Highsmith”
Eva Vitija has written many feature film scripts for cinema and television, including “Meier,” “Marilyn,” “Madly in Love,” and “Sommervögel.”...
Venice 2022 Women Directors: Meet Georgia Oakley – “Blue Jean”
Georgia Oakley is a screenwriter and director with a particular fondness for convention-defying, female-led narratives. Her shorts have screened at dozens of international festivals, including SXSW,...
Venice 2022 Women Directors: Meet Soudade Kaadan – “Nezouh”
Soudade Kaadan is a Syrian director based in London. Her first feature fiction film, “The Day I Lost My Shadow,” was awarded the Lion of The Future for best debut at the 2018 Venice Film...
“Jane” Director Sabrina Jaglom Talks Depicting Teen Mental Health On-Screen
Sabrina Jaglom is an LA-native writer and director. This year, she released two scripted podcasts — QCode’s Rachel Brosnahan-starring “Listening In” and iHeartRadio’s...
Katie Aselton on Directing Diane Keaton & Telling a Grounded Body-Switch Story in “Mack & Rita”
Katie Aselton is perhaps best known for her starring role as Jenny in the FX comedy “The League.” She made her directorial debut with “The Freebie,” which she also wrote and starred...
Clio Barnard Considers Her New Film “Ali & Ava” a Joyful Act of Resistance
Clio Barnard’s first feature-length documentary film, “The Arbor,” received The Douglas Hickox Award at the BIFAs, Best British Newcomer and the Sutherland Award at the BFI London...
Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum Discusses Making “Purple Hearts” as a Response to Political Divisions
Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum is a DGA Award-nominated film and television director. She has helmed many television pilots — all of which have been picked up to series. Most recently, she directed...
Renée Webster Discusses the Relatable, Human Story of “How to Please a Woman”
Renée Webster is an Australian writer-director. Her two short films, “Scoff” and “Edgar and Elizabeth” garnered multiple awards and screened at numerous international film...
Lisa Hepner On Investigating a Radical Treatment for Diabetes in “The Human Trial”
Lisa Hepner and her partner Guy Mossman run LA-based Vox Pop Films, a production company specializing in non-fiction content and commercials. For the last 25 years, Hepner has produced a variety of...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Erika Alexander – “The Big Payback”
Erika Alexander is known for her acting roles in “Living Single” — garnering two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Actress and Comedy Series — “Get Out,”...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Kyra Sedgwick – “Space Oddity”
Kyra Sedgwick is an award-winning actress, producer, and director. She is best known for her Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT crime drama “The...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Katie Holmes – “Alone Together”
Katie Holmes has appeared in several notable films, ranging from the action blockbuster “Batman Begins,” to critically acclaimed art house pictures such as “The Ice Storm” and...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Elizabeth Mintz – “Good Girl Jane”
Sarah Elizabeth Mintz is a writer-director working in New York and Los Angeles. She received her BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she completed her thesis film...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Irene Taylor – “Leave No Trace”
Irene Taylor is a Peabody and Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated director and producer whose documentaries have shown theatrically, at film festivals, and on television worldwide. Her most recent film,...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Alex Heller – “The Year Between”
In addition to being selected for the TFI Network, Alex Heller’s “The Year Between” was one of five projects selected for AT&T Presents: Untold Stories, the million-dollar pitch at the...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Kristy Guevara-Flanagan – “Body Parts”
Kristy Guevara-Flanagan has made award-winning documentary films focusing on gender and representation for two decades, including feature docs “Going on 13,” “Wonder Women! The...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Maya Forbes – “The Good House”
Maya Forbes made her directorial debut with “Infinitely Polar Bear” (2014) which she also wrote. She was a writer on HBO’s “The Larry Sanders Show” and has since...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Becky Hutner – “Fashion Reimagined”
Becky Hutner is a Toronto-born filmmaker living in coastal England. Her filmmaking journey includes five years in London creating short-form work in the fashion and culture space for DUCK...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Johanna Hamilton and Yoruba Richen – “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks”
Johanna Hamilton is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her previous work includes “1971″, which chronicled the break-in at an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania that revealed the...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Cynthia Lowen – “Battleground”
Cynthia Lowen is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and award-winning writer whose work uses the power of story to catalyze meaningful change, confronting timely social issues from bullying to online...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Nadia Hellgren – “Civil”
Nadia Hallgren is an award-winning filmmaker from The Bronx, New York. She directed “Becoming,” the 2020 Netflix feature documentary about former First Lady Michelle Obama....
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady – “Endangered”
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady are the directors of the Academy Award-nominated “Jesus Camp,” Peabody Award winners “The Boys of Baraka” and “12th & Delaware,”...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Natalia Sinelnikova – “We Might As Well Be Dead”
Natalia Sinelnikova is a writer and director based in Berlin. Her short film “Weeping Willows” was screened at various international festivals. In 2016, she was a member of the Debut Film...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Geeta Gandbhir – “Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power”
Geeta Gandbhir is an award-winning director, producer, and editor with over 25 years of experience in the film industry across narrative and documentary. Her documentary short, “Call Center...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Ivete Lucas – “Naked Gardens”
Using precise and illustrative cinematic images, Ivete Lucas collaborates with Patrick Bresnan to make verité stories that counter the mythic concepts of America. Their short films have premiered at...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Signe Baumane – “My Love Affair with Marriage”
Signe Baumane is a Latvian-born, Brooklyn-based independent filmmaker, artist, writer, and animator. She has made 17 award-winning animated shorts but is best known for her first animated feature,...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Lizzie Gottlieb – “Turn Every Page”
Lizzie Gottlieb has been directing theater and film in New York for 20 years. She founded an Off-Broadway theater company that developed and produced new plays. Her films include “Today’s...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Shirin Neshat – “Land of Dreams”
Shirin Neshat is an Iranian artist and filmmaker living in New York. She works in photography, video installation, and film. Neshat has held numerous exhibitions internationally, most recently at the...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Tessa Louise-Salomé – “The Wild One”
Tessa Louise-Salomé is a Paris-based director, writer, and producer whose work foregrounds visually poetic approaches to storytelling. Her films as a director include the Sundance Jury Prize nominee...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Pratibha Parmar – “My Name Is Andrea”
Pratibha Parmar is an award-winning British writer, director, and producer. Pratibha has worked across multiple genres – feature documentaries, short dramas, music videos, a narrative feature, and...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Nausheen Dadabhoy – “An Act of Worship”
Nausheen Dadabhoy is a Pakistani-American director and cinematographer whose work spans fiction and documentary. She lensed an Oscar-nominated live action short film, an Emmy-winning feature...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall – “Subject”
Jennifer Tiexiera is an award-winning documentary director, producer, and editor. She directed “P.S. Burn This Letter Please,” was a writer on “17 Blocks,” and produced and...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Hannah Marks – “Don’t Make Me Go”
Hannah Marks is an actress, writer, and director. She was previously named one of Rolling Stone’s 25 Artists Changing the World, and was also featured as one of Forbes magazine’s 30 Trailblazers...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Anna Jadowska – “Woman on the Roof”
Anna Jadowska’s feature “Touch Me” screened at the Berlinale and won Poland’s Grand Independent Cinema Prize. Her short “Corridor” was selected as part of...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Mali Elfman – “Next Exit”
Mali Elfman is a writer, director, and BAFTA-nominated producer who began her career with her micro-budget feature film “Do Not Disturb.” Since then she’s produced numerous films...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Annette K. Olesen – “A Matter of Trust”
Annette K. Olesen is a screenwriter and director whose feature film debut came in 2002 with family drama “Minor Mishaps.” The film was selected to compete at the Berlin International Film...
Tribeca 2022 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Adina Smith – “The Drop”
Sarah Adina Smith’s first feature, “The Midnight Swim,” won six top prizes on the festival circuit. Her other features include “Buster’s Mal Heart” and...
Gilda Sheppard on Investigating a Culture of Punishment and Racism in “Since I Been Down”
Gilda Sheppard is an award-winning filmmaker who has screened her documentaries throughout the U.S. and internationally. Sheppard is a 2017 Hedgebrook Fellow for documentary film and a 2019 recipient...
Cannes 2022 Women Directors: Meet Romane Gueret & Lise Akoka – “The Worst Ones” (“Les Pires”)
Romane Gueret studied cinema at the Sorbonne and took her first steps toward directing as an assistant director, casting assistant, and camerawoman. A trained actress, Lise Akoka discovered, in the...