Women Directors
“Toni Erdmann” and “Suffragette” Recommended for EFA Nominations
The nominations for the 29th European Film Awards won’t be revealed until November, but the 50 films recommended for nomination have been announced. Eleven of the titles, or 22 percent, are...
First Project from Alicia Vikander’s Vikarious Productions Begins Filming
Production has begun on the first film to come out of Oscar winner Alicia Vikander’s new company Vikarious Productions. “Euphoria,” the English-language directorial debut of Swedish writer and...
Trailer Watch: Kate Winslet Designs Fabulous Revenge in “The Dressmaker”
Revenge is best served while wearing a fabulous dress. Kate Winslet stars as Myrtle “Tilly” Dunnage in the Australian dark comedy “The Dressmaker,” from director Jocelyn Moorhouse. Tilly is...
Emmanuelle Bercot’s “150 Milligrams” to Open San Sebastian Film Fest
French writer-director-actress Emmanuelle Bercot’s “150 Milligrams” will open the 2016 San Sebastian Film Festival, Variety reports. The drama will kick off the 64th edition of the fest...
Trailer Watch: Julie Dash’s “Daughters of the Dust” 25th Anniversary Remaster
“Daughters of the Dust” Julie Dash’s landmark film “Daughters of the Dust” has been remastered and a new trailer has just been released in anticipation of the film’s 25th anniversary...
New BBC Film Poll Sorely Lacking Both Women Directors and Critics
BBC Culture has released a list titled “The 21st Century’s 100 Greatest Films,” for which it polled 177 film critics from around the world. The resulting list of films is unsurprisingly,...
Trailer Watch: Kirsten Johnson Records Life Around the World in “Cameraperson”
A trailer has landed for “Cameraperson,” Kirsten Johnson’s award-winning new documentary. The film made its World Premiere at Sundance in January, and in June snagged top honors at the...
Cannes Hit “Toni Erdmann” Wins 2016 Fipresci Grand Prix
German writer-director Maren Ade just made history. Her newest film, Cannes hit “Toni Erdmann,” has been awarded the 2016 International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci) Grand Prix for best...
How Alpha Violet Supports Female Talent
Virginie Devesa, the co-head of the Paris-based sales agency Alpha Violet, is at the Locarno Film Festival this week in search of new filmmaking voices and has her eye out for films made by women....
Spain’s Oscar Short-List: Two of Three Films are Directed by Women
Spain won’t announce its Academy Award candidate until September 7, but the country has revealed their short-list of contenders, and two of the three films are directed by women: Iciar Bollain’s...
Zooey Deschanel Directing “New Girl” Season Six Premiere
Zooey Deschanel, star of Fox’s “New Girl,” will be making her directorial debut by helming the season premiere of the comedy, now heading into its sixth season. As Entertainment Weekly...
Mira Nair, Freida Pinto, and Cheryl Boone Isaacs to Speak at TIFF Conference
The Toronto International Film Festival Industry Conference has announced further details about its 2016 lineup. While TIFF is best known for its high-profile film screenings, the festival also...
Weekly Update for August 19: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
“A Tale of Love and Darkness” Films About Women Opening This Week A Tale of Love and Darkness — Written and Directed by Natalie Portman “A Tale of Love and Darkness” is based on the...
Trailer Watch: “Quit Staring At My Plate” Takes a Woman to Her Breaking Point
Croatian director Hana Jusic’s debut feature, “Quit Staring At My Plate,” will play in competition the Venice Days section of the Venice Film Festival. The new trailer for the film highlights...
Trailer Watch: “Girl Asleep” Captures Teenage Angst and Imagination
Being a teenager is seriously rough, and the filmmaking debut of theater director Rosemary Myers captures the angst perfectly in the new trailer for “Girl Asleep.” The Australian comedy stars...
San Francisco Film Society Announces Doc Film Fund Finalists
The San Francisco Film Society has announced the ten finalists for the 2016 SFFS Documentary Film Fund awards, which support feature-length documentaries in post-production. Six of the ten projects...
Kathryn Bigelow to Be Honored by LACMA
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will honor Kathryn Bigelow for her illustrious career at its sixth annual Art + Film Gala this fall. Bigelow made history in 2010 when she became the first...
New DGA Study on First-Time TV Directors Reveals Only 19% Were Women
Credit: DGA The Directors Guild of America (DGA) has released the results of an annual study on the gender and ethnic diversity of directors who received their first assignments in episodic TV and...
Sofia Vergara Joins the Cast of Whitney Cummings’ Directorial Debut
Sofia Vergara will star in “The Female Brain,” comedian Whitney Cummings’ directorial debut. Comingsoon.net has reported that the ensemble cast for the film will include the Emmy-nominated...
Trailer Watch: “Generation Startup” Shows the Harsh Realities of Entrepreneurship
90 percent of startups fail, but the subjects of Cynthia Wade and Cheryl Miller Houser’s documentary “Generation Startup” are trying to be some of the few that succeed. The new doc follows six...
Great Expectations: August Web Series and VOD Picks
“Aroha Bridge” It’s funny-in-a-sad-way to think about how your plans change as you grow up. Remember your goals when you were a high school student? An undergrad? A fresh-out-of-college young...
Trailer Watch: A Female Musician Goes Against the Grain in “As I Open My Eyes”
A trailer has arrived for “As I Open My Eyes,” Leyla Bouzid’s award-winning feature debut. The coming-of-age film is set against the backdrop of the burgeoning Jasmine Revolution in Tunis and...
Ava DuVernay Talks Making History
Ava DuVernay: THR “Selma” director Ava DuVernay cannot be stopped. No one is going to tell her what to do. And thank goodness. Not only does the director have an abundance of projects coming up,...
Nia Long Joins Idina Menzel for Lifetime’s “Beaches” Remake
Nia Long is set to join Idina Menzel in Lifetime’s remake of “Beaches,” Deadline reports. Long will play Hillary to Menzel’s CC. The 1988 original starred Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey...
Lizzy Caplan to Topline Dark Comedy “Friend of Bill”
“Masters of Sex” star Lizzy Caplan has signed on to topline “Friend of Bill,” a dark comedy directed by Amy Rice (“By the People: The Election of Barack Obama”). The script, penned by...
Trailer Watch: “American Honey” Wants You to “Dream Baby Dream”
A new trailer for Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey” has been released, and it features Bruce Springsteen’s “Dream Baby Dream” and new voiceover narration describing the...
TIFF Announces More Galas and Special Presentations
The Toronto International Film Festival will host the World Premiere of Emmanuelle Bercot’s “150 Milligrams.” The fest continues to gradually roll out its complete slate, and the French...
Eva Longoria Signs Deal with Universal
Eva Longoria has signed a two-year, first-look deal with Universal Pictures for her company UnbelEVAble Entertainment, Deadline reports. The first project on the slate is “My Daughter’s...
Lauren Palmigiano to Direct Elizabeth Banks-Produced “White Girl Problems”
“Funny or Die” writer Lauren Palmigiano has signed on to make her feature directorial debut with Lionsgate’s “White Girl Problems,” Variety reports. The project is produced by Elizabeth...
Patricia Arquette Headlining Colette Burson’s “Permanent”
Patricia Arquette, who won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her 12-year long role in “Boyhood,” will star in the coming-of-age comedy “Permanent.” The film was written and will be...
Julie Taymor to Direct Revival of “M. Butterfly”
Julie Taymor will direct a revival of “M. Butterfly,” David Henry Hwang’s Tony-award winning play, BroadwayWorld reports. The drama originally opened on Broadway in 1988 and starred John...
“Walking Dead” Director Jennifer Chambers Lynch to Helm Horror Film
Jennifer Chambers Lynch has helmed episodes of “The Walking Dead” and is pretty much guaranteed to have creepy in her DNA — David Lynch is her father. So it’s fitting that she’ll...
San Sebastian Film Festival’s Official Lineup Includes Zero Women Directors
Sixteen films have been announced in San Sebastian Film Festival’s Official Selection as of today, and exactly zero of them are directed by women. As its name suggests, the Official Selection is...
Weekly Update for August 12: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
“Florence Foster Jenkins” Films About Women Opening This Week Florence Foster Jenkins Meryl Streep disappears into yet another role, this time as art patron and heiress Florence Foster...
Frankie Shaw Gets Showtime Pilot
Showtime has ordered a pilot for Frankie Shaw’s “SMILF,” Deadline reports. The series is based on her short of the same name that won the Short Film Jury Award at Sundance last year. The...
Michelle MacLaren to Direct Film Adaptation of “The Nightingale”
Michelle MacLaren is making her big-screen directorial debut after building an impressive resume working in TV, helming episodes of series such as “Better Call Saul,” “Game of Thrones,”...
Sundance Announces 2016 Fellows
Sundance has announced the 12 independent artists who will be awarded the 2016 Sundance Institute/Time Warner Foundation Fellowships and seven of them (58 percent) are women. As a release details,...
Alice Winocour on PTSD and Peeling Back the Layers of a Trophy Wife in “Disorder”
“Disorder,” the latest from French writer-director Alice Winocour, spans many genres. What begins as a character portrait of Vincent (Matthias Schoenaerts, “A Bigger Splash,” “The Danish...
Emily Carmichael to Direct “Lumberjanes” for 20th Century Fox
Indie filmmaker Emily Carmichael will direct “Lumberjanes” for 20th Century Fox, TheWrap has reported. According to the site, “Lumberjanes” is considered “a female version of ‘The...
Emmy Winner Tracy Droz Tragos on Her New Doc “Abortion: Stories Women Tell”
Tracy Droz Tragos is an award-winning independent filmmaker. Tragos’ “Rich Hill” explored rural poverty and won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival....
So Yong Kim’s “Lovesong” Acquired by Strand
Strand Releasing has purchased select U.S. rights to So Yong Kim’s “Lovesong,” Variety reports. Jena Malone (“The Neon Demon,” “The Hunger Games” franchise) and Riley Keough (“The...
NYFF Announces Main Slate: 20 Percent Women-Directed
The New York Film Festival has announced the Main Slate for its 54th edition. Only five of 25 films screening, or 20 percent, are helmed by women. Still, these numbers demonstrate that the fest is...
Stacie Passon to Direct Shirley Jackson’s “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”
Stacie Passon has co-written and will direct a film adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s 1962 story “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” The Hollywood Reporter writes. The creepy story “centers...
Molly Bernstein on Her New Doc About Photographer Rosamond Purcell
Interview by Freja Dam Molly Bernstein directed, produced, and edited “Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay.” She has written and directed documentary profiles of other...
FX is Taking Major Steps Towards Hiring People of Color and Women
FX isn’t proud of their track record when it comes to hiring women and people of color behind the scenes. DGA research shows that in the 2014–15 TV season, only 12 percent of FX’s directors...
TIFF Announces More Lineups: Cinema Projectors, Showgirls, and Cannibals
TIFF is less than one month away, and the fest continues to announce programs for its 41st edition. As is the case with the TIFF’s Galas and Special Presentations, the fest’s most prestigious...
Serbian Actress Mirjana Karanović on Her Directorial Debut “A Good Wife”
“A Good Wife”: Karlovy Vary Interview By Tina Poglajen Mirjana Karanović has been one of the most instantly recognizable faces of the cinema of the countries of ex-Yugoslavia at least since...
Brie Larson to Make Feature Directorial Debut with “Unicorn Store”
Brie Larson is having a banner 2016. After winning the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in “Room” earlier this year, Larson was recently announced as taking on the role of...
Brazilian Women Directors to be Showcased at Museum of the Moving Image
As the Summer Olympic Games gets underway in Rio, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York is launching a season of women-directed films celebrating contemporary Brazilian cinema. According to a...
Weekly Update for August 5: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
“The Little Prince” Films About Women Opening This Week The Little Prince — Co-Written by Irena Brignull (Also Available on Netflix) Inspired by the beloved children’s novel, a young...
Maris Curran Talks Grief and Compassion in “Five Nights in Maine”
Maris Curran spoke with Women and Hollywood about the “joys and trauma of everyday life” that her debut feature, “Five Nights in Maine,” explores. The drama made its World Premiere at TIFF...