News
Trailer Watch: Virginia
Opens May 18.
Four Steps Back — NO Women Directors in Competition at Cannes
I’m sitting in my hotel room in Cologne, Germany having arrived yesterday at International Frauen Film Festival for the second year in a row. I came back this year because I had such a great time...
Interview with Mary Harron — Director of The Moth Diaries
Mary Harron’s The Moth Diaries hits theatres this week. It is also available on demand. Women and Hollywood: What drew you to this project? Mary Harron: It was the intense focus on young girls...
Guest Post: I Hate Romantic Comedies: Why I Made a Romantic Comedy
Yes, I am a woman and I hate romantic comedies. I have only seen a handful in my life that I didn’t feel like took place in some parallel universe, and fewer than that that didn’t seemed like...
Guest Post: The Woman Who Wasn’t There — A True Story
Almost everyone has a 9/11 story. They can describe where they were when the planes hit, when the towers collapsed, the days following. I have one. I was there. I watched the second tower collapse...
Blog Advisory
Hi folks. I’m traveling this week and trying to get a little R&R. Later this week I will be at the International Women’s Film Festival in Cologne Germany where there will be a conversation...
Guest Post: Tribeca Watch- A Happy Accident
For me, the filmmaking process is incredibly personal and I feel that there aren’t necessarily any rules to it. My latest film BILLY BATES will have a private screening at the 2012 Tribeca Film...
Ashley Judd Continues the Conversation on the Misogynistic Media
Here’s what she said: I think it’s the objectification of girls and women and the hypersexualization of our society that invites the criticism. We are anesthetized to it. She wants us all to...
Tribeca Trailer Watch: Billy Bates — Directed by Jennifer De Lia
Who Should Direct Catching Fire?
So now it is official and Gary Ross has walked away from directing the sequel of Catching Fire because the production schedule was too tight. Here’s what he said: As a writer and a director, I...
Guest Post: A Feminist Defense of 50 Shades of Grey
50 Shades of Grey is happening, it’s happening big, and it’s happening for women. I jumped on the band wagon after reading that the books were initially created as Twilight fan-fic (Twilight...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Ashley Judd
I can count on one hand — even one finger — an actress with a show up for renewal (btw you should watch Missing it’s great and Eddard Stark is alive on that show) who spoke back...
Daily Rant: I Hate Barbie
I have to say that I am not surprised but am throughly disappointed that the news has come out that Barbie has created a Hunger Games inspired Katniss Everdeen doll. It probably is a good business...
Interview with Vamps Director Amy Heckerling
Amy Heckerling has made some serious classic films in her career namely Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Clueless. She was in NY this past weekend screening Clueless and her new film Vamps at the...
Guest Post: Elza — A Different Kind of Movie with a French Caribbean Twist
When I was in the advertising business I enjoyed producing powerful commercials, but at the same time I felt there was something missing. I yearned to tell my stories — to capture life about...
Sports Diversion — Sexism Watch: The Masters
Here we are again. Nine years after Martha Burk tried to get the August National to allow a woman member we are still at a place where there is still not a female member since the club’s founding...
Disappearing Act IV — European Film Festival in NYC April 11–22
If you don’t go to the large film festivals around the world you really don’t get to see the wealth of films playing the circuit. Sure there are films that break out that get released, but there...
Lena Dunham in Conversation with Nora Ephron
I am very impressed with Lena Dunham. Have been since I saw Tiny Furniture. As the launch of her HBO show Girls approaches on the 15th of April (which I will write about next week), Lena is curating...
The Continuing Conversation About the Marginalization of Female Writers
I opened the NY Times book review this past weekend and lo and behold there was an essay by the divine Meg Wolitzer called The Second Shelf about how books written by men and women are treated...
Tribeca Trailer Watch: Wagner’s Dream Directed By Susan Froemke
The film will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday, April 25, followed by its worldwide theatrical release on May 7 — a one-day ticketed event as part of The Met: Live in...
Hollywood Sexist of the Day: Lee Aronsohn
At first when I read this I thought it was an April fools joke because I had never heard of Lee Aronsohn before and had no idea that he was a co-creator of Two and a Half Men. I’m guessing that...
Guest Post: A Wake Up Call
March may have been Women’s History Month, but we should be working actively all year to have more women’s work on film and on stage. We cannot accept the lowly statistics without activism....
Trailer Watch: Sparkle
Watching this made me sad about Whitney Houston all over again. Opens August 10. Yahoo! Video Player
Guest Post: Why I Started the San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival
The genesis of founding the San Francisco International Women’s Film Festival started when I took a Film History II class in 2004 while earning my film degree at San Francisco State University....
Trouble Between the Mary Pickford Foundation and the Mary Pickford Institute
I know a bit about Mary Pickford from reading Cari Beauchamp’s biography of Frances Marion Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and the Powerful Women of Early Hollywood. Suffice it to say she was a...
Mirror, Mirror
Mirror, Mirror is the first of the Snow White films to hit the big screen this year. I didn’t really have very high expectations, but this movie at times tried too hard — jokes about how...
Rocking Comment from Brave Director Brenda Chapman
I just wanted to thank all of you for the amazing the comments on the site this week. While I might not be the biggest responder to comments, I do read each and every one and try to comment on the...
Guest Post: Trouble in Hollywood — Hunger Games Fans Resort to Racist Tweets
The first installment of the highly anticipated The Hunger Games trilogy finally made its way to the silver screen, earning an historic $155 million its opening weekend. While fans cheered on...
Sneak Preview: Shonda Rhimes’ Scandal
Thanks to Shonda Rhimes next week will be a milestone week. It will be the first time in 30 years that a single African American woman will be the lead on a network TV show. (Jada Pinkett Smith was...
Turn Me On, Dammit! — written and directed by Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
This is a repost of a review written after seeing the film at the 2011 Tribeca Film Festival. The film opens in NY today. While watching the delightful Norwegian film Turn me on, Dammit! I...
Hunger Games Backlash: Jennifer Lawrence Doesn’t Look Hungry Enough
As of two days ago The Hunger Games’ domestic gross was up above $173 million dollars. It will clearly be above $200 million before the weekend. It’s a success so the nitpicking has started....
Cate Blanchett is Busy Working Just Not on the Big Screen
If you’ve been wondering where Cate Blanchett has been over the last couple of years you are not alone. She’s been working — hard — running the very prestigious Sydney Theatre...
Guest Post: Bitch? Please.
I couldn’t sleep the other night so I decided to get into the new ABC series Don’t Trust the B — — in Apartment 23 (It had been pre-released online in advance on its April 11th network...
Do You Think There is a Glass Ceiling for Women Directors?
Apparently Columbia University’s film school doesn’t think so. They are holding a panel at their 25th anniversary film festival on May 9 entitled: What Glass Ceiling? The Remarkable Success of...
Is 50 Shades of Grey The Next Big Thing?
As The Hunger Games was getting ready to take the box office by storm, a 40-something former TV executive from England with two kids E.L. James (not her real name) and her literary agent Valerie...
Marc Cherry Developing TV Show about Four Latina Maids
I’m not so sure about this one. Marc Cherry whose Desperate Housewives is thankfully going off the air this May is now filming a pilot a new ABC show called Devious Maids. One Housewife, Eva...
Two African American Female Directors Book New Films
I was excited to report that one African American female director got a new gig, but two puts me close to over the moon. The Hollywood Reporter writes that Gina Price-Bythewood who directed Love...
Is Princess Culture Redeemable?
I am extremely ambivalent about the whole princess thing. If I never saw another princess anywhere it would be too soon. But I live in the real world and write about Hollywood and Hollywood is...
Trailer Watch: Nurse Jackie — Season Four
Nurse Jackie returns for its fourth season on April 8 at 9pm on Showtime. Edie Falco’s got a new haircut and she’s drug free. The show is created by Liz Bixius and Linda Wallem This is gonna...
The Hunger Games Scores the Third Best Opening Weekend EVER
The Hunger Games broke a bunch of records with its stellar $155 million box office haul over the weekend. It also opened in about 67 foreign markets making another $59.3 million. I think this film...
Smash Gets Renewed But Creator and Showrunner Theresa Rebeck Departs
With a one-two punch on Thursday afternoon, NBC renewed Smash — the show about creating a musical based on Marilyn Monroe, but also revealed that the creator, main writer, executive producer...
Trailer Watch: Breaking Dawn Part 2 Teaser
The saga will conclude next Thanksgiving. Looks like Bella’s going to have some fun in this one.
Guest Post: Growing into Your Voice: The Resonance of “Rockaway”
I was a shy girl growing up. I was studious, reserved, and well-mannered. I’d very selectively raise my hand in school, secretly afraid of delivering the wrong answer and facing judgment by my...
The Hunger Games
I spent most of the beginning of The Hunger Games kind of holding my breath in hopes that the movie would live up to all the hype I put on it. I loved the books A LOT. I also put a whole heap of...
Interview with Susan Seidelman — Director of Musical Chairs
Susan Seidelman returns to the big screen with the Musical Chairs a love story set in the world of wheelchair ballroom dancing. It’s got something for everyone. It’s got class issues, gender...
MPAA Data Shows Women and Men Each Buy Half the Movie Tickets Sold
For the second year in a row the MPAA has released data showing that men and women each buy half the tickets to movies. (Here’s the post of the 2010 stats.) Two years ago women bought more than...
Teaser Trailer: The Host
This is from Stephenie Meyer the writer of the Twilight saga. It stars Saoirse Ronan and will open March 29, 2013. Here’s the description on Deadline: Saoirse Ronan stars as Melanie Stryder, one of...
Interview with Nina Jacobson: Producer of the Hunger Games
Nina Jacobson is poised to have a really great weekend. She’s about to open The Hunger Games which if tracking and advance sales hold will be one of the best opening weekends ever. She answered...
What Do the New Changes at Sony Mean for Amy Pascal?
Yesterday, the news broke that Michael Lynton who is now co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment along with Amy Pascal will be promoted to running all of Sony’s entertainment operations in the...
Will The Hunger Games Be The First Real Female Franchise?
In a little less than two days the film based on the first book of The Hunger Games trilogy will hit the big screen. Already over 2,000 screenings on Thursday night are sold out and theatres are...
Season Two of The Killing Returns April 1
Mad Men, Game of Thrones and now The Killing all returning within the next two weeks. Awesome. As the tag line says, The Killing is just the beginning. Can’t wait to see what Veena Sud and company...