News
Sexism and Misogyny Plague “Ghostbusters” Trailer Proving Even Male Directors Aren’t Immune
Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, and Leslie Jones in “Ghostbusters’: Sony It wasn’t a surprise when the announcement of Paul Feig’s all-female remake of “Ghostbusters” was...
Kristen Stewart, Gabourey Sidibe to Make Directorial Debuts, America Ferrera to Produce with…
Kristen Stewart, Gabourey Sidibe to Make Directorial Debuts, America Ferrera to Produce with Refinery29 Kristen Stewart: Gage Skidmore/Wiki Commons Digital lifestyle company Refinery29 returned to...
Trailer Watch: Mila Kunis and Kristen Bell Are “Bad Moms”
“I’m so tired of trying to be this perfect mom,” reveals Mila Kunis in the newly released Red Band trailer for “Bad Moms.” The overworked, under-appreciated mom simply says she’s...
“Supergirl” Co-Creator and “Empire” Showrunner Call For Change at Alliance of Women Directors…
“Supergirl” Co-Creator and “Empire” Showrunner Call For Change at Alliance of Women Directors Awards The dismal status of female directors in television was a hot topic at the Alliance of...
Oprah to Star in HBO’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”
Oprah Winfrey is heading to HBO. The Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated actress and powerhouse media personality has signed on to star in HBO Film’s “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” Based...
May 2016 Film Preview
“Gayby Baby” There’s an array of choices to support female-centric and/or women-directed films in May. The month kicks off with “Gayby Baby,” a documentary that explores the increased...
Elisabeth Moss Will Star in Adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”
“Mad Men” and “Top of the Lake” star Elisabeth Moss has signed on to an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Streaming service...
Trailer Watch: “Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)” Sparks Sexual Awakening
Eva Husson titled her directorial debut “Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story),” but it’s evident from the trailer here that what she’s talking about is a teenage version of love. No less fraught...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Anjali Nayar — “Gun Runners”
Anjali Nayar’s award-winning filmmaking and journalism work has explored myriad topics, ranging from climate change to political activism to pop culture. In her fractionally fictional documentary,...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors — Meet Monika Grassl — “Girls Don’t Fly”
Monika Grassl was born in in Vienna, Austria. In 2006 she wrote an analysis about Austrian documentary filmmaking for the Vienna Film Fund. She also created monthly portraits about unusual people...
Trailer Watch: Maïwenn’s “Mon Roi” Hits the U.S.
Filmmaker Maïwenn may be best known stateside for playing Diva Plavalaguna in “The Fifth Element,” but her notable French filmmaking career may soon take off in the U.S. thanks to...
Penélope Cruz to Star in Toni Kalem’s “Layover”
Penélope Cruz is set to hit the road in Toni Kalem’s “Layover.” The Oscar-winner will play a traveling saleswoman who, according to the release, goes “on the lam from her life.” Claire...
Julie Dash’s Landmark Film “Daughters of the Dust” Restored for Re-release
Cohen Media Group has announced that their branch Cohen Film Collection has acquired rights to and will release a new restoration of Julie Dash’s landmark film “Daughters of the Dust.” They...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Tiffany Hsiung — “The Apology”
Tiffany Hsiung is an award-winning filmmaker based in Toronto. Since 2009, Hsiung has been documenting the lives of survivors of military sexual slavery during World War II; for the past six years,...
“Viktoria” Director Maya Viktova on the Difficult Journey To Make Her Directorial Debut
Maya Viktova is a writer-director and producer. In 2008, she executive produced Kamen Kalev’s debut feature “Eastern Plays,” which premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2009 and...
“Game of Thrones” Season 6 Has Less Misogyny… For Now?
Did “Game of Thrones” take all the criticism about misogyny to heart? The plot of its season premiere would suggest so. While Season 6 kicked off with about the same level of crushing gloom and...
“Women’s Films Have an Uphill Battle”: Women in Sundance Fellows Learn from the Vets
Women at Sundance Fellows: Kering Earlier this week, Women in Sundance fellows were gathered for a special workshop, put together by Kering and the Sundance Institute. The workshop was designed to...
Trailer Watch: Alicia Vikander Goes Dutch in “Tulip Fever”
Alicia Vikander’s star is continuing to rise. She just signed on to be the next Lara Croft in a “Tomb Raider” reboot, but before she hits the video game world, she’ll revisit a period drama...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Nettie Wild— “KONELĪNE: our land beautiful”
Nettie Wild is one of Canada’s leading documentary filmmakers. She is best known for her award-winning documentary features “FIX: The Story of an Addicted City” (2002), “A Place Called...
An Authorized Whitney Houston Doc Is in the Works
From the same team that brought us “Amy,” the Oscar-winning Amy Winehouse documentary, a Whitney Houston documentary is now in the works, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Houston, widely...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Nimisha Mukerji — “Tempest Storm”
An award-winning director of film and television, Nimisha Mukerji’s work has been featured on National Geographic and VICE. Her critically acclaimed debut feature “65_RedRoses” was selected by...
Nzingha Stewart To Write and Direct “The 10th Date” for Lifetime
According to Deadline, Lifetime is preparing a two-hour movie called “The 10th Date,” which could serve as a backdoor pilot for a series. The project will be written and directed by Nzingha...
Women In Film Los Angeles Now Accepting Grant Applications
Female filmmakers, are you ready for some cash? Women In Film Los Angeles has begun accepting applications for their 2016 Finishing Fund grants. The entry period opened yesterday and WIF will be...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Joanna Sokolowski and Kate Trumball-LaValle — “Ovarian Psycos”
Documentary filmmakers Joanna Sokolowski and Kate Trumbull-LaValle met while earning their M.A. in Social Documentation at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Directing their thesis films, the...
Daisy Ridley to Star in Holocaust Drama “The Lost Wife”
Daisy Ridley continues to ride the wave of her “Star Wars” success. According to Variety, the “Force Awakens” breakout is attached to star in “The Lost Wife,” a drama based on Alyson...
Trailer Watch: “The Fits” Turns Hysteria Into Dance
To film her directorial debut, “The Fits,” director Anna Rose Holmer scoured the West End of Cincinnati to cast real, non-actor teenagers for added authenticity. The resulting energy is clear...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Aslaug Holm— “Brothers”
Aslaug Holm is an award-winning director, cinematographer, and editor, as well as a partner and founder at Fenris Film since 1992. She has directed over 20 documentaries, including “The Rich...
LA Film Festival Unveils 2016 Lineup with 43% Women Directors
“Paint it Black”: LA Film Festival The LA Film Festival has revealed the lineup for its 2016 edition. Women directors are very well represented in the 22nd annual fest— take note, Cannes. The...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Molly Reynolds — “Another Country”
Molly Reynolds specializes in screen-based storytelling and digital media production. When she isn’t earning a living as a consultant in the digital sphere, she makes documentaries, including...
Lesli Linka Glatter Will Receive AFI’s Alumni Medal
Director Lesli Linka Glatter will be honored with the 2016 Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal, the American Film Institute has announced in a release. The award, AFI notes, “recognizes the...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Samira Goetschel — “City 40”
Samira Goetschel is an Iranian-born American award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles. An alumnus of NYU Film School, her graduating film, “Clown de la Vie,” won Best Short Film at the New...
Trailer Watch: “AbFab” Ladies Kill Kate Moss and Flee to France
Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) are coming to the big screen, and now a full-length trailer has been released giving us an idea of what to expect from the tremendously...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Viveka Melki— “After Circus”
Viveka Melki is a storyteller working primarily in film. Her projects shed light on social issues that are often overlooked and focus on the resilience and hope of individuals and communities...
Paramount TV Developing “All the Single Ladies” from Rebecca Traister
Paramount TV has picked up the rights to Rebecca Traister’s best-selling book “All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation,” Variety has reported. Traister,...
Disney’s Upcoming Slate Includes Few Female Directors
Like 20th Century Fox before them, Disney recently released a line-up of films with few female directors in sight. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney has staked out prime release dates for...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Susan Gluth — “Urmila: My Memory Is My Power”
Susan Gluth was born in Hamburg. After practical training as a forest ranger, cook, and veterinarian, she studied business and commerce, followed by film at the University of Television & Film...
Meet the Winner of Marvel’s Women in STEM Internship Challenge
Coinciding with the upcoming May 6 release of Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War,” Disney and Marvel Studios, Dolby Laboratories, Synchrony Bank, Broadcom MASTERS and Science &...
Karlovy Vary Film Festival to Feature Mexican Female Directors
“Amazing Cat Fish”: Karlovy Vary Film Festival The Karlovy Vary Film Festival, which runs from July 1–9 this summer, has announced this year’s fest will include a special segment focusing on...
Trailer Watch: Penélope Cruz Fights Breast Cancer in “Ma ma”
Few movies stars can bridge the divide between Europe and the U.S. as effortlessly as Penélope Cruz. Though she continues to appear in American studio flicks like “Zoolander 2” and“The...
Cannes Film Festival Jury Includes Kirsten Dunst, Valeria Golino, Vanessa Paradis, and Katayoon…
Cannes Film Festival Jury Includes Kirsten Dunst, Valeria Golino, Vanessa Paradis, and Katayoon Shahabi The Cannes Film Festival has announced the complete Jury for the 69th fest, which will run...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Rama Rau — “League of Exotique Dancers”
Rama Rau is an award-winning writer-director whose credits include cyber bullying doc “No Place to Hide: The Rehtaeh Parsons Story” (2015), which had its world premiere at Hot Docs and was among...
Theresa Rebeck to Write and Direct Family Drama Starring Anjelica Huston
Great news for fans of NBC’s “Smash.” The creator behind the musical drama is set to reunite with two of its stars. Theresa Rebeck will write and direct “Trouble,” an indie comedy drama...
Trailer Watch: “Weiner” Sex Scandal Rocks the Political World
A trailer has finally landed for Elyse Steinberg and Josh Kriegman’s political sex scandal doc “Weiner.” The feature took home the U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this...
Nancy Buirski To Make Jim Crow South Sexual Violence Drama
Award-winning filmmaker Nancy Buirski has her next project lined up. The director of “The Loving Story” and “By Sidney Lumet” will helm “The Rape of Recy Taylor,” described as an “epic...
Tribeca Winner Ingrid Jungermann Gets Showtime Deal
Hot off her Best Screenplay win at Tribeca for “Women Who Kill” comes the news that writer-director-actress Ingrid Jungermann is headed to the small screen. She’ll executive produce and write...
Women-Directed Tribeca Audience Award Winners: “The Return” and “Children of the Mountain”
The Audience Awards for the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival have been announced. Women helmed two of the four features to honored at the 15th edition of the fest. Taking home the top prize in the...
Emma Stone, Kate McKinnon, and Jillian Bell Will Star in “Women in Business”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Emma Stone, Kate McKinnon (“Saturday Night Live,” “Ghostbusters”), and Jillian Belle (“22 Jump Street”) have signed on for the comedy “Women in...
Trailer Watch: “Lady Dynamite” Loses Her Mind and Makes a TV Show
Sometimes you have to lose your mind to find yourself. Or so Maria Bamford (“Adventure Time”)has learned, and is so expressed in her upcoming Netflix comedy, “Lady Dynamite,” for which a new...
Read Women and Hollywood Now on Medium
After five great years on Indiewire and the end of the blog network, Women and Hollywood has moved to a new home on Medium. You can read us here: https://blog.womenandhollywood.com/ A couple of...
Cast Set For Sally Wainwright’s Brontë Sisters Drama ‘To Walk Invisible’
“Happy Valley” creator Sally Wainwright is making a one-off BBC drama based on the Brontë sisters and she has set her cast. Emily Brontë, who wrote “Wuthering Heights,” will be played by...
Trailer Watch: The King and the President Cross Paths in Liza Johnson’s ‘Elvis & Nixon’
It takes a lot of chutzpah to send the President of the United States a letter that reads, “I can and will do more good if I am made a Federal Agent at large” — especially when such a...