News
Roadside Attractions Picks up Stories We Tell and Imogene
Roadside Attractions has been on a buying binge here in Toronto and has picked up two women directed and written films from TIFF. The first is Sarah Polley’s documentary, Stories We Tell, which...
TIFF: Interview with Judi Levine — Producer of The Sessions
The Sessions is a very lovely movie about Mark O’Brien, a writer with polio who has to spend most of his life in an iron lung and his quest to lose his virginity and find a new level of intimacy in...
Trailer Watch: Wuthering Heights — Directed by Andrea Arnold
The brilliant director of Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold has adapted Emily Bronte’s classic novel, Wuthering Heights starring Kaya Scodelario and James Howson. Co-written by Arnold and Olivia Hetreed,...
Black Power Takes Center Stage at TIFF With Angela Davis Documentary
Sunday, a bit of history was explored here in Toronto. The festival premiered Shola Lynch’s documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners in one of its gala slots. For a festival that...
Interview with Ruba Nadda — Writer/Director of Inescapable
To be considered for TIFF Gala status, your movie has to have two things: major stars and major audience interest. Only two Canadian films are getting the Gala treatment this year, and both of them...
Women Directors News: Amy Berg’s Every Secret Thing and Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves
As we had previously reported, director Amy Berg, whose documentary West of Memphis screened at TIFF, is directing her first narrative feature Every Secret Thing starring Diane Lane with a script...
Women and Hollywood Events in Toronto
Hey folks here in Toronto- I’m going to be speaking with director Deepa Mehta today at 4pm in the Filmmakers Lounge on the mezannine level of the Hyatt Regency on King Street. Deepa is an amazing...
Trailer Watch: HBO’s The Girl
HBO has released a chilling full trailer for The Girl starring Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedren and Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock. Written by Gwyneth Hughes, The Girl looks at Hedren and Hitchcock’s...
Interview with Ruba Nadda – Writer/Director of Inescapable
To be considered for TIFF Gala status, your movie has to have two things: major stars and major audience interest. Only two Canadian films are getting the Gala treatment this year, and both of them...
Today’s Lesson — You Can’t Please the Twihards
Today I learned an important lesson which I probably already should have known. The people who care about all things Twilight — the fans of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are intense....
TIFF Trailer Watch: Ginger and Rosa -Written and Directed by Sally Potter
In 1960’s London, Ginger (Elle Fanning) and Rosa (newcomer Alice Englert) are inseperable best friends who discuss everything from politics to hairstyles. But when the Cold War meets the Sexual...
The Toronto Experience — Part One
Greetings from the Toronto Film Festival. I touched down on Thursday afternoon and since that moment this has been a serious whirlwind. Since it is my second year I understand is the key is pace and...
Interview with Bachelorette Writer/Director-Leslye Headland
I got the chance to talk with the writer and director of Bachelorette Leslye Headland earlier this week. Here are some thoughts on the film. Women and Hollywood: Your film is a subversive look at...
TIFF Trailer: The Sapphires
The Sapphires follows a late 1960’s Australian Aboriginal girl group as they are discovered by a talent scout and go to Vietnam to perform for the U.S. troops. It will be premiering as a Special...
Bachelorette — Written and Directed by Leslye Headland
While it might be tempting to compare Bachelorette to Bridesmaids because they are both about women and weddings — you would be doing so at your peril. Whereas Bridesmaids was about the utter...
Interview with Sarah Koskoff — Writer of Hello I Must Be Going
Hello I Must Be Going is the coming of age story of a 35 year old woman who had been sleepwalking through her life until her whole world is shaken when her husband leaves her. With no skills, no...
A Chat with Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing: Directors of Detropia
Detropia is a very prescient film. It’s about what is going on in our country right now. It’s about how the middle class is disappearing. This is a painful movie to watch because it documents...
Trailer Watch: Rust and Bone Starring Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard stars in Rust and Bone as Stephanie, a whale trainer, who becomes close with a single father and boxer, Ali, after a devastating accident where she loses her legs. The film had its...
The Academy Names All Male Recipient List for the Governors Awards
Yesterday, the Academy named their 2012 recipients of the Governors Awards. As Deadline reports, the Academy will be presenting Honorary awards to stunt performer, Hal Needham, documentary...
TIFF Preview: The Female Directing Masters Playing at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival
The Toronto Film Festival opens tonight. Over the next 10 days there will be a couple of hundred movies to be seen. This is one festival where you can make a decision to see films by women and see...
Guest Post: How Can We Get More Women In Power As Directors?
This is an expansion of the piece written for the NY Times forum: How Can Women Gain More Influence in Hollywood. Most directors work intermittently as free-lance employees and are far from rich or...
TIFF Trailer Watch: Free Angela and All Political Prisoners — Directed by Shola Lynch
Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, directed by Shola Lynch, is a documentary about Angela Davis, her 1970’s imprisonment and how she became an international icon. Free Angela and All...
TIFF Preview: Women Directors to Watch
The Toronto Film Festival launches tomorrow and there are women directors all over the lineup. We reached out to a couple of directors whose careers are on the way up (we will have some of our...
Women Directors Are Way More Successful in the Indie World
As we embark on the fall festival season, Dr. Martha M. Lauzen has published another one of her vitally important studies tracking the progress of women working behind the scenes on movies. In...
Interview with So Yong Kim — Writer/Director of For Ellen
So Yong Kim’s For Ellen stars Paul Dano in a beautiful performance as a young father forced to make a life altering decision about his relationship with his daughter Ellen. Dano plays Joby a...
Cross Post: La Femme Telluride
William Blake once wrote that exuberance is beauty. Despite the success of Ben Affleck’s Argo here, this fest seems to be driven by women filmmakers. This is most surprising, since we just came...
Trailer Watch: The To Do List — Written and Directed by Maggie Carey
The To Do List, written and directed by Maggie Carey, is a coming of age comedy about Brandy (Aubrey Plaza) who creates a check list to become more sexually experienced before she goes to college....
Women Directors Abound at the Venice Film Festival
The news on the prevalence of women directors coming out out of the Venice Film Festival is in stark contrast to the different conversation that came out of Cannes just several months ago. Festival...
Interview with So Yong Kim – Writer/Director of For Ellen
So Yong Kim's For Ellen stars Paul Dano in a beautiful performance as a young father forced to make a life altering decision about his relationship with his daughter Ellen. Dano plays Joby...
Guest Post: A Fan Speaks — Kristen Stewart and Our Miserable Failure
The media stoning of Kristen Stewart, of Twilight fame, has been going on for about four weeks now. About a month ago, she was pictured having a fling, which she called a “momentary...
Nicole Kidman To Be Honored During New York Film Festival
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the New York Film Festival. The festival which runs from September 28 — October 14th will feature seven films directed by women and also will be...
TIFF Trailer Watch: The Stories We Tell Written and Directed by Sarah Polley
This first documentary by the incredibly talented Sarah Polley is getting great reviews out of Venice and Telluride.
Some Links From When We Were Away
We’re back and getting ready to head to Toronto this week. Here are some links to stories that ran while we were away. Natalie Portman’s ‘Jane Got a Gun’ Lands Financing, Lynne Ramsay...
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Vacation Break
We’ll be back next week with a big Toronto preview of the women directors. Enjoy the last week of summer.
Cross-Post The Winning Weirdness of ‘Bunheads’: The Case for Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Charming Dramedy
When the news came down the transom a few days ago that “Bunheads,” the new show from “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, had received a back-order pickup for more episodes on ABC...
Trailer Watch: Butter
Film opens October 5. Description from IMDb: In small-town Iowa, an adopted girl discovers her talent for butter carving and finds herself pitted against an ambitious local woman in their town’s...
Interview with Linda Goldstein Knowlton — Director of Somewhere Between
Producer Linda Goldstein Knowlton who produced one of my favorite films ever — Whale Rider — steps behind the camera to direct a film for her daughter Ruby whom she adopted from China....
Mary McDonnell Takes the Lead in Major Crimes
While we were all obsessively watching the Olympics, one thing happened in TV land that didn’t get much note. A 60 year old woman took over as the lead on a TV show. Now techincally Major Crimes...
Guest Post: Nurture vs. Nuke
Four years ago, when Sarah Palin was nominated to the Republican ticket, columnist Sally Quinn famously asked, “When the phone rings at three in the morning and one of her children is really sick,...
TIFF Adds Masters and Mavericks to Lineup
Got the rundown yesterday on the TIFF Masters and Mavericks screenings. It seems that no women qualify to be Masters. Here’s what Piers Handling the Director and CEO of TIFF said about the...
Mary Pickford Foundation and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Honor Mary Pickford
The Mary Pickford Foundation and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have teamed up to launch a multi-year partnership to honor the legacy of Mary Pickford. Pickford, who was one of the...
Phyllis Diller: A Comedy Legend
Groundbreaking comic, Phyllis Diller died yesterday at the age of 95. Diller was truly one of a kind and paved the way for the female comedians we know now. She was unafraid to be brazen and...
TIFF Trailer: Inescapable — Written and Directed by Ruba Nadda
Ruba Nadda’s Inescapable focuses on a father (Alexander Siddig) whose daughter goes missing in Syria. He must go back to Syria, where he hasn’t been in decades, to find his daughter and deal...
Further Breaking Down the Sight and Sound Numbers by Gender
One reader Miran Terzic did some serious work breaking down gender votes in the Sight and Sound Top 50 film poll. If the 197 (I had 196) voted three women would make the top 50, not just one. The...
Cross-Post: Heroines of Cinema: Muriel Heslop
As widely reported earlier this month, the new Sight and Sound poll of the 50 Greatest Films of All Time featured only one film by a female director. It was hardly a surprise to those versed in the...
TIFF Trailer: English Vinglish Directed by Gauri Shinde
The film captures a modern day struggle experienced all too often by the un-American elite trying to make it in America: the language barrier. Sridevi’s character, Shashi, is made to feel insecure...
Cross Post: Brenda Chapman on Writing BRAVE
Brave rocked the box office. Its themes of identity, responsibility, and family were equally appealing to boys and girls, adults and children. Its unique characters were memorable and brimming with...
Sight and Sound Magazine Expands List of Top Films of All Time to 250 and Just Seven Women Directors Make It
It’s not enough that we had to deal with the first reveal from Sight and Sound Magazine a couple of weeks ago when only one woman made their top 50 Greatest Films of All Time, now they have...
New York Film Festival Includes Seven Women Directed Films in Its Lineup
With one fell swoop the team of men and women who program the New York Film Festival stuck a pin in the eye of the dudes at Cannes by programming seven, yes seven films directed by women at the...
Interview with Ann Dowd, Star of ‘Compliance’
If you’ve ever watched any of the Law and Order series you have seen Ann Dowd. She’s been on them all. She’s a journeywoman actress, one you have seen in many places, whose work you constantly...