News
Maggie Smith on 60 Minutes
If you are like me you are devastated that the third season of Downton Abbey is over. I don't know how I will wait at least a year until the fourth season, which they are filming now, and...
Women Directed Film Winners in Berlin
This weekend, the 2013 Berlinale drew to a close and the major awards went to male directed films about strong women. The talk throughout the week was about the Romanian film Child's Play...
Weekly Update February 15: Women-Centric, Directed, Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Beautiful Creatures Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) longs to escape his small Southern town. He meets a mysterious new girl, Lena (Alice Englert). Together, they...
WGA Awards to Hold Tribute to Nora Ephron
On Sunday, February 17, the Writer’s Guild of America, East will hold their annual awards ceremony. They’ve just announced that included in the ceremony will be a tribute to Nora Ephron,...
Viola Davis Speaks About Beautiful Creatures and Black Characters in 2013
Viola Davis’s latest film, Beautiful Creatures comes out today. Based on a YA novel, the film follows a teen girl, Lena (Alice Englert) who moves to a small Southern town. At her new high...
SXSW Adds More Women Directed Films to Schedule
SXSW has announced another round of films to their lineup, adding more films directed by women. They have also added many films written by women, such as Sundance favorite The East, co-written and...
FX Picks Up The Bridge from Meredith Stiehm
FX has picked up creator Meredith Stiehm’s The Bridge for a thirteen episodes. Production is set to begin in April. The detective drama stars Diane Kruger and Demian Bichir. Marco Ruiz...
Poster Release: If I Were You Written and Directed by Joan Carr-Wiggin
Here’s a look at the newly released poster for the new film from Joan Carr-Wiggin, If I Were You, starring Marcia Gay Harden. The film follows Madelyn (Gay Harden) who saves a young woman...
On the Ground in Berlin
I arrived in Berlin two days ago from NY after the huge success of The Athena Film Festival. Did you hear we had a blizzard and people still came. I missed the opening weekend craziness...
Rachel Feldman to Direct Lilly Ledbetter Biopic
Lilly Ledbetter has chosen Rachel Feldman to direct a biopic based on her life and her fight for equal pay for women. Ledbetter worked for over two decades in an Alabama Goodyear Factory. After...
Ava DuVernay Directs Short Film ‘The Door’ for Miu Miu
Ava DuVernay has directed a new short film for fashion label, Miu Miu. The film is the fifth in their ‘The Women's Tales’ series. Starring Gabrielle Union, as a woman whose marriage...
Jessica Chastain Shoots Down Fabricated Feud with Jennifer Lawrence
Unsurprisingly, media outlets have created a “feud” between Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence. The Oscar-nominated actresses were apparently fighting because of Jennifer...
Emmanuelle Riva, Lynne Ramsay and Juno Temple Win at 2013 BAFTAS
On Sunday, the BAFTAS held their annual awards ceremony. As awards season comes to a close, there weren’t many upsets but a couple interesting things of note. Emmanuelle Riva won lead actress...
Melissa McCarthy Dominates Weekend Box Office
Sorry Rex Reed—looks like there are many, many people who want to see a Melissa McCarthy starring in a movie. Despite the blizzard on the east coast, McCarthy’s Identity Thief opened...
Hollywood Sexist of the Day: Rex Reed
Rex Reed’s review of Identity Thief in The New York Observer is a scathing takedown of the film, which is fine. He's entitled to his opinion. He's a critic. What’s not...
Trailer Watch: The Brass Teapot – Directed by Ramaa Mosley
The Brass Teapot, directed by Ramaa Mosley, centers around a down on their luck couple (Juno Temple and Michael Angarano) who are struggling to make it until they find a magical teapot at a local...
Let’s Talk About Gender and Women Directors at the Berlin International Film Festival
This year’s Berlin Film Festival kicked off yesterday—screening over 400 films—19 of which are in competition. Festival director Dieter Kosslick says that gender is a central...
Weekly Update: Women-Centric, Directed, Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Side Effects Emily (Rooney Mara) and Martin (Channing Tatum) are a successful New York couple whose world unravels when a new drug prescribed by Emily's...
Barbra Streisand, Ellen Page Directing New Films
After yesterday’s news that Melissa McCarthy would be directing her first feature, more news about upcoming women directed films has been announced. The legendary Barbra Streisand will be...
Melissa McCarthy Developing Three New Films and Directing Tammy
The very funny Melissa McCarthy announced three movies that she and her writing partner/husband, Ben Falcone will be developing with their production company, On the Day. They have also signed on to...
Bonnie Hammer and Lauren Zalaznick Take on New Roles at NBC
Bonnie Hammer will be taking on running the full NBCU’s cable portfolio. Hammer, who previously oversaw USA Network, Syfy, E!, G4, Cloo, Chiller, Universal HD, Universal Cable Productions and...
Interview with Cate Shortland – Director and Co-Writer of Lore
Cate Shortland’s Lore opens on this Friday (2/8) in New York and Los Angeles. Originally published on September 25, 2012. Lore is Cate Shortland's second film after the exciting...
Jane Campion Named President of 2013 Cannes Short Film Jury
In exciting news from Cannes, Jane Campion has been named president of the Short Film Jury and the Cinefondation at this year’s festival. Campion (who we just interviewed at Sundance) has...
Sundance Interview with Sarah Barnett, General Manager of the Sundance Channel
We got to spend a couple of minutes at Sundance with the woman behind the Sundance Channel, Sarah Barnett. We don't get to talk to executives too often so it was really nice to get her...
Julia Stiles Playing Frances Marion in Jennifer DeLia’s Mary Pickford Biopic ‘The First’
Julia Stiles has just signed on to play screenwriter Frances Marion in Jennifer DeLia’s The First, which is based on Eileen Whitfield’s biography Pickford: The Woman Who Made...
Our Favorite Super Bowl Ad Starring Amy Poehler
One of Women and Hollywood's favorite ladies, Amy Poehler, starred in a Best Buy ad during the Super Bowl as an extremely difficult customer, automatically winning our favorite Super Bowl ad of...
Sundance Interview with Lynn Shelton – Director of Touchy Feely
I had never met Lynn Shelton before last month but I already felt like I knew her. She has a way of telling us stories about other people that are really about all of us. Her new film...
A Sisterhood With a Glass Ceiling
The NY Times devoted the top story in the Arts and Leisure section this past weekend to an exciting thing happening off-Broadway, the fact that women are being regularly hired to direct shows. The...
Kerry Washington Wins Big at NAACP Image Awards
Over the weekend at the NAACP Image Awards, Kerry Washington swept the show. She won three awards. She won for outstanding actress in a drama series for her role as Olivia Pope on Scandal, and also...
Lena Dunham’s Big Week: DGA Win, New Show and Entertainment Weekly Cover Story
Things for Lena Dunham are showing absolutely no signs of slowing down—within the past week, she’s won a DGA, is developing a new show for HBO, is Entertainment Weekly’s cover girl...
Julia Ormond’s First US TV Starring Role in Witches of East End for Lifetime
Julia Ormond has had a varied and interesting career from roles in Legends of the Fall to David Lynch’s Inland Empire. Ormond has also had roles in many TV movies and miniseries and guest...
SXSW Line Up: Not Great for Women Directors
Fresh on the heels of Sundance is SXSW’s film line up. While there are some awesome women-directed films featured such as Sini Anderson's documentary, The Punk Singer, about Kathleen Hanna,...
Surprise! Go Daddy’s Sexist Super Bowl Ad is the Worst Ever
While the Super Bowl is bringing us Beyonce at halftime, another thing it annually brings are the worst of the worst in terms of sexist ads. And GoDaddy.com without fail brings the cream of the crop...
Sundance Interview: Concussion – Directed by Stacie Passon, Produced by Rose Troche, Starring Robin Weigert
Concussion was one of my favorite movies at Sundance this year. It was truly a revelation. Robin Weigert who we have seen for so many years as a supporting character in shows like...
Kathleen Kennedy to Receive Will Rogers Motion Pictures Pioneer of Year Award
Kathleen Kennedy will be receiving the Pioneer of the Year award at this year’s Will Rogers Motion Pictures Pioneers dinner. Last year, Kennedy was picked by George Lucas to lead Lucasfilm....
Jessica Chastain to star in Miss Julie – Directed by Liv Ullmann
Liv Ullmann, director and muse of Ingmar Bergman, is set to direct an adaptation of August Strindberg’s Miss Julie. Set in 1874, the play explores the title character’s...
Watch This: New TV Spot for Admission starring Tina Fey
As we here at Women and Hollywood learn how to cope in a post-30 Rock world, we will be glad to see Tina Fey in everything we can. Next up for Fey, is Admission, where she plays Portia, a Princeton...
Kasi Lemmons Directing Black Nativity Starring Jennifer Hudson
Kasi Lemmons, director of Eve’s Bayou, has begun principal photography on Black Nativity. Shooting began this week in New York City, on the film which is based on Langston Hughes’ 1961...
Rise of the Underdog: Kimberly Peirce and the Connection Between Carrie and Boys Don’t Cry
This month’s issue of The Advocate features an incredible interview, with Kimberly Peirce, talking at length about her upcoming remake of Carrie and its surprising linkage to Peirce’s...
2013 Women-Created TV Pilots
It’s prime pilot season for the networks. After all the news that’s been coming out in the last six months or so about women-created shows, we wanted to see how that’s holding up...
Countdown to 2014: Amy Poehler is Writing a Book
Get your phone alerts ready, Amy Poehler is writing a book that will drop in 2014. This should also be known as your new favorite book of all time. Poehler signed with It Books, an imprint of Harper...
Sundance Interview: Lana Wilson and Martha Shane – Directors of After Tiller
One of the highlights of Sundance was seeing the documentary After Tiller directed by Martha Shana and Lana Wilson. Here's our conversation right after they won a $5,000 grant from Women in...
For the First Time Women are the Majority on Berlin Film Festival Competition Jury
The 2013 Berlin International Film Festival announced this year’s competition jury. In a first for the festival, women are the majority of the voting body—comprising 4 of the 7 jury...
Michael Moore: Zero Dark Thirty is a Movie About ‘How We Don’t Listen to Women.’
Always controversial and rarely quiet political filmmaker and author, Michael Moore, has spoken out in defense of Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. Moore took to Facebook (and Time.com),...
Jill Soloway and Lake Bell Take Home Major Awards at 2013 Sundance Feature Film Awards
Sundance wrapped up over the weekend and announced their 2013 Film Awards. Women filmmakers took away some of the bigger prizes of the festival including Jill Soloway winning the directing award for...
Noemie Lvosky Receives 13 Nominations for France’s Cesar Awards
The nominations for France’s César Awards were announced and women, specifically one in general, are dominant. Noémie Lvovsky received 13 nominations for her film, Camille...
Jimmy Olsen is now Jenny Olsen in Zach Snyder’s Man of Steel?
While it’s still unconfirmed, earlier this week, io9 reported that Zach Snyder made a huge change in his upcoming stab at the Superman franchise, Man of Steel. Reportedly (and according to...
Sundance News: Women In Film Awards Grants to Jordana Spiro, Martha Shane and Lana Wilson
During its 7th annual Sundance Filmmakers panel, Women In Film – Los Angeles awarded $30,000 in grants to women filmmakers. Jordana Spiro, director of Skin, received the Women In Film/CalmDown...
Amy Hobby and Anne Hubbell Launch Women-Focused Tangerine Entertainment
Industry veterans, Amy Hobby and Anne Hubbell are launching Tangerine Entertainment, a production company and community meant to support women directors and interesting and strong roles for...
Sundance Watch: Austenland – Directed by Jerusha Hess
Austenland, directed by Jerusha Hess, centers around Jane (Keri Russell) who goes to a Jane Austen themed resort to find her own Austen-esque leading man. The film was acquired by Sony Pictures...
Sexist Movie Poster of the Day: Movie 43
Another day, another objectification of women's bodies, this time in the form of Movie 43's poster, showing a barely clad woman for some ridiculous reason. Marketing? It's a pretty...