News
Out in the Night Traces an Attempt to Seek Justice for Queer Women of Color
In Newark, New Jersey, in May 2003, 19-year-old butch lesbian Sakia Gunn was stabbed to death after she politely turned down a sexual advance by an unknown man by telling him that she was a...
Sarah Jessica Parker Eyes Return to TV in Cop Drama
Now that film romantic comedies have gone the way of the dinosaur, and while TV continues to provide rich, substantial roles to women, Sarah Jessica Parker is eyeing a return to the small screen....
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...
Review: The Lost Women of The Leftovers
I’ll say this for The Leftovers: it is equal-opportunity sad. Men, women, children: there is enough existential despair in HBO’s new drama to go around, and then some. Damon Lindelof’s...
Trailer Watch: Maggie Gyllenhaal is a British Arms Dealer in The Honorable Woman
Maggie Gyllenhaal has joined the mass migration of prestige film actresses to television. The Dark Knight and Crazy Heart co-star has finally found a role worthy of her considerable talents in...
Why Maleficent is the Rape Revenge Film That We Need
Warning: Lots of Maleficent spoilers ahead.Not since I Spit on Your Grave have I seen such an intrepid and compelling rape-revenge film. I am talking, of course, about Disney’s Maleficent, the...
Trailer Watch: Abigail Breslin is the Final Girl
The Final Girl — the purehearted stock character who turns the tables on the killer by the end of the horror movie — has become so famous she’s gotten her own movie. A blonde Abigail...
Ava DuVernay’s Selma to Be Released Christmas Day
After directing two independent features and one documentary, Ava DuVernay is poised for her Hollywood — and possibly Oscar — breakthrough with Selma, the MLK biopic that’s her biggest...
Feminist Western The Homesman Gets Release Date
One of the films most anticipated by Women and Hollywood is the 2014 Palme d’Or competitor The Homesman. As a dusty, female-centric Western about doing the right thing despite enormous and...
Trailer Watch: Reese Witherspoon Continues Her Comeback Tour with The Good Lie
Fans of Reese Witherspoon will have plenty of chances to see her this Oscar season. She’ll be in the big-screen adaptation of Cheryl Strayed’s Wild (out December 5) and the much-anticipated...
Julie Taymor Wraps Up Shooting of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Film and theater director Julie Taymor has just wrapped up shooting on her fifth film: a big-screen version of her visually lavish reimagining of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The...
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...
Orange is the New Black and Fargo Tie for Most Critics’ Choice Wins
With three wins each, Orange is the New Black (Netflix) and Fargo (FX) took home the most trophies at the 2014 Critics’ Choice Awards. OITNB won Best Comedy Series, a tie for Best Supporting...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Zeina Daccache (Scheherazade’s Diary)
Zeina Daccache is a Lebanese actress, director, and drama therapist. She has directed the award-winning film and stage versions of 12 Angry Lebanese (2009, First Prize — Muhr Arab Documentary...
Human Rights Watch Women Directors: Meet Anne de Mare & Kirsten Kelly (The Homestretch)
Filmmakers and theater artists Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly have been making documentaries together for over a decade. Their work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Sundance...
Federation of European Film Directors Demands “Urgent Action” to Tackle the Underrepresentation of Women Filmmakers
In the wake of Cannes jury president Jane Campion’s condemnationof the “inherent sexism” in the film industry last month, the Federation of European Film Directors(FERA) has called for...
Do Colorism Issues Threaten to Stain the Aaliyah Biopic?
After years of rumors, it’s official: Aaliyah is getting a biopic. Lifetime Original Movies announced on Monday that it will adapt Aaliyah: More Than a Woman by former Time music editor...
Iranian Director Mahnaz Mohammadi Jailed, Inspires Petition Demanding Her Release
The imprisonment of Iranian filmmaker, actress, and women’s rights activist Mahnaz Mohammadi since June 7 has sparked international concern and outrage. Mohammadi has been sentenced to a...
Chelsea Handler to Take Over Netflix with Talk Show, Stand-Up Special, and Four Docu-Comedies
Late night’s only female host has just signed a new deal with Netflix. Having just departed E!, Chelsea Handler will first appear on the streaming site-turned-mini-network in a stand-up special...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Joanna Lipper (The Supreme Price)
JoannaLipper is an award-winning filmmaker and a lecturer at Harvard University, where sheteaches a course called “Using Film for SocialChange.” Her work as a documentary filmmaker has been...
Lupita Nyong’o Becomes 2nd African Woman to Land Vogue Cover
Scroll down for the full Vogue cover. A couple of weeks after the announcement that she’d optioned Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah, Lupita Nyong’o has graced the cover...
AFI Docs Women Directors: Meet Laura Naylor (The Fix)
Writer-producer Laura Naylor first discovered her interest in documentary-style representation while studying visual arts and art history at Columbia University in New York City. In 2011, she...
Will the Female-Driven Drama Chasing Life Dare to Get Real About Leukemia?
Cancer is having a definite pop-cultural moment, given The Fault in Our Stars’ recent trouncing of Tom Cruise at the box office. Lucky timing for Chasing Life, the new ABC Family drama that...
LAFF Women Directors: Meet Gren Wells (The Road Within)
Gren Wells was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in Greenwich, Connecticut. After attending Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY, Wells moved to New York City, where she starred in six...
Human Rights Watch FF Director: Meet Blair Dorosh-Walther (Out in the Night)
Director and producer Blair Dorosh-Walther (who identifies as gender non-conforming and uses both male and female pronouns) is a social-issue documentary director, an experienced production...
The Four Things I Learned on My Recent Trip to Hollywood
From my latest Forbes post on the four things I learned on my recent trip to Hollywood: People are talking and looking for ways to make in roads all across the business. From what I’ve noticed,...
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...
LAFF Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Prediger and Jess Weixler (Trouble Dolls)
Trouble Dolls marks Jennifer Prediger and Jess Weixler’s writing and directing debuts. Prediger has starred in Joe Swanberg’s Uncle Kent, Madeleine Olnek’s Foxy Merkins, and Hanna Fidell’s A...
Alice Rohrwacher to Head Venice Film Fest’s Best First Film Jury
Italian director Alice Rohrwacher, who won the 2014 Cannes Grand Prix with her sophomore film The Wonders, will head the Venice Film Festival’s jury for best first film. Also called the Luigi de...
New Annual List Launched to Spotlight Women’s Plays
The latest effort to combat gender inequality in theater comes courtesy of The Kilroys, a group of LA-based women playwrights and producers founded last year. The Kilroys have launched The List,...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Iva Radivojevic (Evaporating Borders)
Iva Radivojevic is an award-winning filmmaker who spent her early years in Yugoslavia and Cyprus before settling in NYC over a decade ago. Her work explores the themes of identity, migration and...
Kathryn Bigelow Eyeing Movie Project About Bowe Berghdal
Just last month, Kathryn Bigelow announced that she would adapt Anand Giridharadas’ The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, a dual portrait of domestic terrorist Mark Stroman and the...
DC Comics President Challenged on “Embarrassing” Record of Excluding Women
Last Friday, a male shareholder asked DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson about her studio’s “embarrassing” lack of superheroine movies. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the unnamed...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Rachel Beth Anderson (First to Fall)
Rachel Beth Anderson, a Sundance Award-winning cinematographer, has filmed around the world in several conflict zones, including Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt, Turkey, and South Sudan, for...
Provinceton Film Fest to Present Its Inaugural Juice Award for Women Directors
The Provincetown International Film Festival and the Juice Fund will bestow P-town’s inaugural Juice Award to one of six eligible women-directed films. According to a press statement, the Juice...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Jasmila Zbanic (For Those Who Can Tell No Tales)
Jasmila Zbanic is one of Europe’s most promising young directors. Her 2006 film Land of My Dreams won the Golden Bear at the Berlin international Film Festival, and her 2010 follow-up, On the...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Cynthia Hill
Cynthia Hill crafts documentaries that take a complex approach to critical contemporary issues, creating story-driven and visually rich films. Private Violence is Hill’s fourth feature...
Watch: Laverne Cox Talks About the “Transgender Tipping Point”
Laverne Cox isn’t as much on the new season of Orange is the New Black as some (including myself) would like, but fortunately she’s everywhere else these days. Two weeks ago, Cox became the...
CSI Producer Carol Mendelsohn Leaves Show, Joins Sony TV
After 13 years at CBS Television Studios, Carol Mendelsohn will join Sony Pictures TV. The jump from CBS to Sony means Mendelsohn will be giving up her co-showrunning duties at the long-running...
LAFF Women Directors: Debra Granik on Stray Dog, Her Follow-Up to Winter’s Bone
Debra Granik is the director of Winter’s Bone, the 2010 drug drama set in the Ozarks that received four Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (by Granik and Anne Rosellini),...
Cate Blanchett and Kerry Washington Discuss the Difficulty of Risk-Taking As Women in Hollywood
Cate Blanchett and Kerry Washington received the two highest honors at Women in Film’s Crystal + Lucy Awards ceremony this past Wednesday, and both actresses used their time at the podium to say...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Alessandra Zeka and Holen Sabrina Kahn (A Quiet Inquisition)
Alessandra Zeka and Holen Sabrina Kahn have been producing documentary stories collaboratively since 1998. Their films have focused on Albania, Rwanda, India, Taiwan, Central America, and the U.S....
LAFF Women Directors: Meet Amanda Marsalis (Echo Park)
California-born Amanda Marsalis’ photography career began during her teenage years, when she would document punk shows held in her mother’s basement and skip class to spend time in her high...
Guest Post: Notes from the Field: The Importance of Female Collaboration
This past Saturday, the Film Fatales, a collective of women feature-film writers and directors, joined other New York City-based filmmaker collaboratives for a discussion hosted by the Brooklyn Film...
Guest Post: “Nan Goldin: I Remember Your Face” is About Turning the Camera on a Photographer
Afterworking for many years as a movie makeup artist for Tom Tykwer, Dani Levy andWim Wenders, I became used to getting very close to people, no matter howfamous, young or old. After my second child...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Jennifer M. Kroot (To Be Takei)
Jennifer M. Kroot directed the documentary feature It Came From Kuchar, about the legendary underground filmmaking twins George and Mike Kuchar, which premiered at the 2009 South by Southwest Film...
Kristen Wiig to Direct, Star, and Co-Write a Bridesmaids Follow-Up with Annie Mumolo
The writing team behind Bridesmaids is finally reuniting to make another female-friendship comedy. Wiig will sit in the director’s chair for the first time in the unnamed project. The former SNL...
Cate Blanchett: “People Want to See Stories With Women at the Center”
After using her Best Actress win at the Oscars as a platform to call for more movies about women (“the world is round, people”), Cate Blanchett recently spoke out again on behalf of her fellow...
Video-Game Developer Argues He Excluded Female Characters Because It Would “Double the Work”
Here’s something cool about Assassin’s Creed: Unity, the newest installment of one of gaming’s largest franchises: for the first time in the series’ history, up to four players will be able...
Human Rights Watch FF Women Directors: Meet Katy Chevigny (E-Team)
Katy Chevigny is an award-winning filmmaker and partner at Big Mouth Productions. She has produced a dozen feature-length documentaries as well as short-form films, videos and webisodes. Her credits...
LAFF Women Directors: Meet Rania Attieh (Recommended by Enrique)
Rania Attieh, among Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 Faces of Independent Film” in 2011, is a Guggenheim and U.S. Rockefeller Fellow in film/ video. Attieh is from Tripoli, Lebanon. Together with...