News
Nicole Perlman to Adapt Hugh Howey’s Sci-Fi Bestseller ‘Wool’
Nicole Perlman, co-writer of “Guardians of the Galaxy,” has lined up her next project. Perlman will adapt Hugh Howey’s self-published runaway bestseller “Wool,” in which a few rebellious...
LAFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Maggie Kiley — ‘Caught’
Filmmaker and actress Maggie Kiley was one of eight directors selected for the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women and one of twenty accomplished filmmakers chosen for the...
Amy Sherman-Palladino Discusses Casting Melissa McCarthy, How to Achieve Equality in Hollywood
Amy Sherman-Palladino, best known for creating the WB mother-daughter hit “Gilmore Girls,” shared great insights about women in TV during a panel at the ATX Television Festival in Austin....
New $25,000 Screenplay Prize to Promote “Strong and Complex Female Lead Characters”
Got a great screenplay with a compelling female protagonist and happen to be an Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) member? If so, good news: You’ve got a chance at a $25,000 unrestricted grant....
Gini Reticker Chronicles Muslim Women’s Fights for Social Justice in ‘The Trials of Spring’
The brave efforts of nine women activists striving for a better world in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Bahrain and Yemen are documented in Gini Reticker’s “The Trials of Spring.” Billed as a...
‘Fun Home’ Makes Feminist History at Tony Awards
The women responsible for bringing “Fun Home” to the stage made history at the 69th annual Tony Awards last night. Jeanine Tesori and Lisa Kron became the first all-female writing team to win a...
Melissa McCarthy’s ‘Spy’ Opens at #1 in US, Worldwide $86.5 Million
Melissa McCarthy, enthusiastic reviews, and a feminist twist/deconstruction of the secret-agent genre propelled “Spy” to the top of the box office this weekend. The R-rated comedy made $30...
Country Music and Cannes: Blaming Women for Sexism
At first glance,country music and the Cannes Film Festival couldn’t appear more culturallydifferent. And yet, recent events reveal that some high-profile individualsassociated with these...
June 2015’s New & Noteworthy Women-Created VOD & Webseries: Inclusive Gaming and Online Dating
This week’s female-centric VOD releases and noteworthy webseries are not to be missed. On the VOD front, we have two documentaries that have garnered some well-deserved buzz over the last few...
Helen Estabrook to Produce Film Adaptation of Eliza Kennedy’s Cold-Feet Comedy ‘I Take You’
Helen Estabrook (“Whiplash”) will team up with Tobey Maguire to adapt Eliza Kennedy’s debut novel, “I Take You,” for the big screen. Published on May 5, the book centers on an successful...
Watch: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Tells Girls and Women to “Forget About Likability”
Nigerian novelist and outspoken feminist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has an intensely devoted following, which famously includes Beyonce. The “Americanah” author’s critical acclaim and public...
Ali Smith’s ‘How to Be Both’ Wins Baileys Prize for Best English-Language Novel by a Woman
Ali Smith’s “How to Be Both,” an experimental novel about two characters living centuries apart, has been crowned the winner of the 2015 Baileys Prize. The twin tales of an Italian...
Trailer Watch: Viola Davis and Jennifer Lopez Take Back the Neighborhood in ‘Lila and Eve’
A grieving mother attempts to get revenge on the dealer who killed her son in a drive-by shooting in the female-led vigilante thriller “Lila and Eve.” Starring Viola Davis as a woman who sees...
‘The Babadook’ Director Jennifer Kent to Helm True-Life Lesbian Murder Drama ‘Alice + Freda Forever’
Jennifer Kent has announced her follow-up to “The Babadook”: the story of a broken engagement between two 19th-century teenage girls that leads to the murder of one by the other. Based on...
New Research from Women’s Media Center Concludes “Media On All Platforms Are Failing Women”
The Women’s Media Center has released their annual report tracking the status of women in both entertainment and the news. We’re feeling more optimistic about the future of women in Hollywood...
Gender and Identity in the Wachowskis’ “Sense8” on Netflix
Ever since “The Matrix,” I’ve been hoping the Wachowskis (formerly the Wachowski brothers) would do something else really worthwhile. I’m not sure if the directing duo’s “Sense8” (on...
Amy Schumer Calls Bullsh*t on Things That Give Women Low Self-Esteem in Awards Speech
Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette Comedy ‘Miss You Already’ Sells to Lionsgate, Roadside
Catherine Hardwicke’s “Miss You Already,” starring Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette, is set to be acquired by Lionsgate and Roadside. Described as a rom com, Morwenna Banks’ script finds...
Trailer Watch: Greta Gerwig is the Queen of Uncomfortable Comedy in ‘Mistress America’
Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s eagerly anticipated follow-up to 2013’s “Frances Ha” finally has a trailer. “There’s no cheating when you’re 18. You should all be touching each other...
‘Sister Act’ Remake On the Way
It’s been over two decades since the last “Sister Act” movie, “Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit,” was released, but Disney is apparently confident that singing and dancing nuns never go out...
How The Lilly Awards Help Make Women’s Stories Matter
The recipients of this year’s Lilly Awards gathered onthe stage of Off-Broadway’s Playwrights Horizons Monday afternoon and remained thereas all the awards were presented, chatting, laughing,...
Zoe Kravitz to Star as Gunslinging Vigilante in Shana Betz’s Western ‘Black Belle’
Zoe Kravitz has booked a new gig, and it sounds awesome. The actress will star as a hitwoman in “Black Belle,” a Western set shortly after the Civil War. Deadline reports that the film will...
Watch: Caitlyn Jenner’s Sexist Treatment Exposed on “Daily Show,” Promo for Her New Reality Series
“You start learning the kind of the pressure women are under all the time about their appearance,” Caitlyn Jenner says in the first trailer for her reality series “I Am Cait.” (Watch the...
Quote of the Day: Simon Pegg Complains “Men Tend to Write Women as Their Fantasy”
Simon Pegg recently confessed something he said is likely to get him into trouble. “I think women write men better than men write women,” the actor contended. “Men tend to write women as...
Shonda Rhimes’ First Book, ‘Year of Yes,’ to Arrive in November
Thank Shonda Rhimes for taking care of this year’s Christmas list. TV’s most powerful writer has penned her first book, titled “Year of Yes,” about the 12 months when she accepted...
You Know Things Are Bad for Women When We’re Cheering a Studio for Making a Writing Group Only 78% Male
Two women have been added to the brain trust for the planned expansion of the “Transformers” franchise. Christina Hodson and Lindsey Beer are the first female writers to join the group....
New Study Charts the “Post-Festival Chasm” for Women Directors
After becoming the first black woman filmmaker to win the Best Director prize at the Sundance Film Festival (for her second narrative feature “Middle of Nowhere”), Ava DuVernay waited for people...
Study: Books About Women Are Shut Out of Major Awards
Of the eight films nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Oscars, none were about women. Lest you think that was some freak coincidence, novelist Nicola Griffith has come out with an informal...
First Trailer for Suffragette: “We Will Win”
The first trailer for ‘Suffragette’ has rolled out along with the announcement that it will open the London Film Festival on Wednesday October 7th. This incredibly powerful trailer shows the...
28% of 50th Karlovy Vary Film Fest’s Competition Films Helmed by Women Directors
Female filmmakers will make up 28% of the competition lineup at the 2015 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The Czech-based event, one of Europe’s premier film festivals, holds four...
‘Hannibal’ Showrunner Bryan Fuller Explains Why He Banned Rape on His Show
NBC’s “Hannibal” often makes perverse art out of mutilated bodies, stretching the limits of what can be shown on television. But “Hannibal” showrunner Bryan Fuller has, until now, barred...
Help Improve ‘Women and Hollywood’: Take Our Survey
Women and Hollywood has been in existence for almost 8 years now. I cannot tell you how much the site and the work has grown since that day in 2007 when I pushed the “publish” button on Blogger...
Congresswoman Tells Federal Government to Investigate Social-Media Abuse
Back in March of this year, feminist blogger and critic Anita Sarkeesian stated, “I’m angry that I’m expected to accept online harassment as the price of being a woman with an opinion.” The...
Catherine Hardwicke in Talks to Adapt Ava Dellaira’s YA Novel ‘Love Letters to the Dead’
Director Catherine Hardwicke (“Thirteen,” “Twilight,” the upcoming “Miss You Already”) is in talks to channel teen angst once more with an adaptation of the YA novel “Love Letters to...
Reese Witherspoon and Bruna Papandrea Discuss “Making Movies with Women at the Center of the Story”
Reese Witherspoon and her Pacific Standard co-founder Bruna Papandrea aren’t like most producing teams. One half of the shingle is an Oscar-winning actress, of course, but more importantly, the...
Happy Friday: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Get ‘Weekend Update’ Action Figures
Comedy BFFs Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are having their achievement as the first female co-hosts of “SNL’s” Weekend Update segment commemorated with action figures from Entertainment Earth. The...
Swedish Film Institute Achieves 50–50 Funding Distribution for Male and Female Directors
Meet Anna Serner, CEO of the Swedish Film Institute and our latest film-industry heroine. Since she took up her current position in October 2011, Serner has reached her stated intent of...
Listen: Women and Hollywood Podcast #13: ‘I Believe in Unicorns’ Writer-Director Leah Meyerhoff
https://medium.com/media/eebb1ca85e47ae9eb271ec5fc7913d3c/href
Jessica Chastain to Star in April Prosser Comedy; Amy Schumer in Talks to Co-Star
In her first live-action comic turn since her breakthrough role in “The Help,” Jessica Chastain has signed on to play the lead in the April Prosser-penned comedy “Plus One.” Chastain’s...
Review: Lifetime’s ‘Unreal’ is Real Good
Highlights from The Hollywood Reporter’s Amazingly Candid TV Comediennes Roundtable
The Hollywood Reporter hosted an especially candid and entertaining roundtable interview with some of TV’s best and brightest comic actresses, and the results speak for themselves. The...
Patricia Highsmith’s ‘Ripley’ Books in Development to Become TV Series
Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara’s “Carol” didn’t take home the top prize at Cannes, but the lesbian romance was undoubtedly one of the highest-profile films of the festival. Perhaps it’s...
Quote of the Day: George Clooney on Hollywood’s Pay Gap, the Under-Employment of Female Directors
George Clooney is weighing in on what have become two very hot topics in Hollywood: the pay disparity between male and female actors and the lack of opportunities for female directors. “One good...
Female Students Studying Animation in Increasing Numbers, but Future Uncertain for Grads
Animation has traditionally been the realm of nerdy white men, but that may soon be changing. A recent Los Angeles Times article has found anecdotal evidence suggesting that female students are...
Inside Out 2015 Women Directors: Meet Na Torres — ‘Liz in September’
Na Torres is currently adirector/writer/producer who brings experience from all areas of filmmaking to her work. In 1985, Torres won the CannesFestival Camera d’Or, among twelve other...
Trailer Watch: Artist and Survivor Amy Everson Creates Concealing/Empowering Costumes in “Felt”
People have all sorts of coping strategies to deal with trauma, but crafting and donning gender-bending superhero costumes is one we haven’t heard before. Blurring fact and fiction, “Felt” is...
‘Game of Thrones’ Star Lena Headey Pens a Letter to Her Unborn Daughter and Girls All Over the World
Actress Lena Headey, best known for her role as the conniving Queen Cersei on HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” has written a letter to her unborn daughter and girls worldwide about the relative...
Read: The ACLU’s Letter to the EEOC Citing Employment Discrimination Against Women Directors
Two weeks ago, the ACLU sent letters to three government agencies requesting an investigation into the gender-based discrimination against women directors in the film and TV industries. The...
Trailer Watch: Marielle Heller’s Hormone-Charged Sundance Hit ‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl’
Minnie’s life has, by her own admission, “gone really crazy as of late.” She has sex for the first time, and her partner in action isn’t a gangly, pimple-plagued adolescent peer struggling...
Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda’s ‘Grace and Frankie’ Renewed for Season 2
Netflix has renewed its septuagenarian sitcom, “Grace and Frankie,” for a second season. Starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as two very different women who turn to each other for comfort when...
Trailer Watch: Artist and Survivor Amy Everson Creates Concealing/Empowering Costumes in “Felt”
People have all sorts of coping strategies to deal with trauma, but crafting and donning gender-bending superhero costumes is one we haven’t heard before. Blurring fact and fiction,...