Women Directors
Quote of the Day: Julie Taymor on Why Awards Matter for Women
Julie Taymor, the first woman to win a Tony for directing a musical, recently spoke out about the invaluable effect that women winning awards can have. When The Stage asked Taymor if female...
Women Win Majority of Awards at Provincetown Film Fest: Coixet, Green, Bianco and More
Women directors won big at this year’s Provincetown International Film Festival, taking home five of the eight prizes awarded. Isabel Coixet’s “Learning to Drive” landed the HBO Audience...
2015 LA Film Fest: Women Directors Win World Fiction Award, Audience Awards and More
Female filmmakers left a major impression on juries and audiences at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival. We were already impressed by the number of women-directed projects selected to screen at the...
‘Power Rangers’ Actress Amy Jo Johnson to Make Directorial Debut With Fatherhood Comedy
Amy Jo Johnson, who’ll always be affectionately remembered as the Pink Power Ranger by a certain generation of fans, will make her feature directorial debut with the indie comedy “The Space...
1700 People Have Signed the ACLU Petition. Have You?
Less than a month ago, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) launched a petition with the hopes of gaining more support and momentum in the struggle to end the industry’s gender-biased hiring...
New and Noteworthy VOD Films and Webseries: May 2015: Soul Singers and Sex Workers
The turbulent stories of two iconic black musicians rise to the top of this month’s VOD picks, albeit in different forms. “Bessie,” the HBO biopic starring Queen Latifah, earned rave reviews...
Crosspost: In Hollywood’s King’s Guard, Women Directors Are All Brienne of Tarth
The following is cross-posted from Lexi Alexander’s blog with permission of the author. It has been slightly edited from the original. “All my life, men like you’ve sneered at me, and all my...
LAFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Kaitlin McLaughlin — ‘Pocha (Manifest Destiny)’
Kaitlin McLaughlin is an award-winning writer/director. Her debut feature, “Pocha (Manifest Destiny),” will premiere at the 2015 Los Angeles Film Festival. She wrote and co-directed the indie...
LAFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Åse Svenheim Drivenes — ‘Maiko: Dancing Child’
Åse Svenheim Drivenes is a Norwegian-born filmmaker who made herdirectorial debut with the documentary “Our Man in Kirkenes” (2010), which screened on NRK (Norway’s BBC) and YLE (Finland’s...
Stowe Story Labs, Tangerine Entertainment Launch New Fellowship for Women Writers, Directors, Producers
Stowe Story Labs, a nonprofit that brings together emerging screenwriters, filmmakers and creative producers from around the world with industry mentors, is currently accepting applications for its...
LAFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Anna Axster — ‘A Country Called Home’
As a writer, director and producer, Anna Axster has been making films and music videos for more than 10 years, many of which have screened in festivals around the world and been viewed more than...
LAFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Negin Farsad — ‘3rd Street Blackout’
Negin Farsad is an Iranian-American comedienne andfilmmaker. In addition to being selected as a TEDFellow, Farsad was namedone of the 50 Funniest Women by the Huffington Post and one of Good...
Guest Post: Viewing Hollywood’s Woman Problem as a Pressing Creative Opportunity
I’m excited these days. I’m excited because people in our business are finally talking about women in film in the most open and honest way I’ve seen in a longtime and that’s a very good...
LAFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Emily Ting — ‘It’s Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong’
Emily Tingis a graduate of the film/TV program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Ting has directedseveral shorts that have screened at film festivals across the nation andbroadcast on cable...
Trailer Watch: A Gay Firebrand Goes to War in Jean Carlomusto’s “Larry Kramer in Love & Anger”
LAFF 2015 Women Directors: Meet Delila Vallot — ‘Can You Dig This’
Delila Vallot isan actress, dancer and director, born and raised in Hollywood, California. Inher career, she has worked with some of the most well-known choreographersto date, including Vince...
Country Music and Cannes: Blaming Women for Sexism
At first glance,country music and the Cannes Film Festival couldn’t appear more culturallydifferent. And yet, recent events reveal that some high-profile individualsassociated with these...
‘The Babadook’ Director Jennifer Kent to Helm True-Life Lesbian Murder Drama ‘Alice + Freda Forever’
Jennifer Kent has announced her follow-up to “The Babadook”: the story of a broken engagement between two 19th-century teenage girls that leads to the murder of one by the other. Based on...
Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette Comedy ‘Miss You Already’ Sells to Lionsgate, Roadside
Catherine Hardwicke’s “Miss You Already,” starring Drew Barrymore and Toni Collette, is set to be acquired by Lionsgate and Roadside. Described as a rom com, Morwenna Banks’ script finds...
Zoe Kravitz to Star as Gunslinging Vigilante in Shana Betz’s Western ‘Black Belle’
Zoe Kravitz has booked a new gig, and it sounds awesome. The actress will star as a hitwoman in “Black Belle,” a Western set shortly after the Civil War. Deadline reports that the film will...
New Study Charts the “Post-Festival Chasm” for Women Directors
After becoming the first black woman filmmaker to win the Best Director prize at the Sundance Film Festival (for her second narrative feature “Middle of Nowhere”), Ava DuVernay waited for people...
28% of 50th Karlovy Vary Film Fest’s Competition Films Helmed by Women Directors
Female filmmakers will make up 28% of the competition lineup at the 2015 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The Czech-based event, one of Europe’s premier film festivals, holds four...
Update!: 115 Films By and About Women of Color, and What We Can Learn From Them
The response was overwhelming after we posted the original list of 84Films By and About Women of Color, which came from a recent Twitterconversation led by director Ava DuVernay. Not only was the...
Catherine Hardwicke in Talks to Adapt Ava Dellaira’s YA Novel ‘Love Letters to the Dead’
Director Catherine Hardwicke (“Thirteen,” “Twilight,” the upcoming “Miss You Already”) is in talks to channel teen angst once more with an adaptation of the YA novel “Love Letters to...
Swedish Film Institute Achieves 50–50 Funding Distribution for Male and Female Directors
Meet Anna Serner, CEO of the Swedish Film Institute and our latest film-industry heroine. Since she took up her current position in October 2011, Serner has reached her stated intent of...
Quote of the Day: George Clooney on Hollywood’s Pay Gap, the Under-Employment of Female Directors
George Clooney is weighing in on what have become two very hot topics in Hollywood: the pay disparity between male and female actors and the lack of opportunities for female directors. “One good...
A Gender Quake in the Film World
From my latest Forbes post on the sudden but momentous political progress women in film have made this month: “These last two weeks have been the most important moments in the fight for gender...
Read: The ACLU’s Letter to the EEOC Citing Employment Discrimination Against Women Directors
Two weeks ago, the ACLU sent letters to three government agencies requesting an investigation into the gender-based discrimination against women directors in the film and TV industries. The...
7 Queer Female Filmmakers to Watch for in 2015
In what is already shaping up to be an exciting year for lesbian features, with both “Carol” and “Freeheld” sporting high-profile casts and higher expectations, queer female filmmakers are...
First Kill, First Wave, First Love and First Unemployment Line: New Women-Centric VOD and Webseries
In both real life and fictional narratives, there is always a turning point in the story, a catalytic moment when everything begins to change. Whatever happens going forward can be traced back to...
Catherine Deneuve’s Cannes Opener ‘Standing Tall’ Acquired by Cohen Media Group
For the first time in 28 years, a female-directed film kicked off the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Now comes word, just as the Croisette is winding down, that the US rights of Emmanuelle Bercot’s...
Stand for #FilmEquality and Sign the ACLU’s Petition on Behalf of Women Directors
The American Civil Liberties Union has launched a petition with the hopes of gaining more support and momentum in the struggle to put an end to the industry’s gender-biased hiring practices. Last...
84 Films By and About Women of Color, Courtesy of Ava DuVernay and the Good People of Twitter
If you were on Twitter recently, you might have seendirector Ava DuVernay’s clever call to social media to name films with “black,brown, native or Asian women leads” which were also directed...
Quote of the Day: Gina Prince-Bythewood Supports ACLU Action, Declares “Talent Has No Gender”
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood (“Beyond the Lights,” “The Secret Life of Bees”) has released a statement voicing her support of the ACLU’s request for the government to investigate sexist...
“Happy Valley” Creator Sally Wainwright to Write and Direct BBC Film About Brontë Sisters
Veteran British TV writer Sally Wainwright will make her feature directorial debut with a two-hour BBC1 drama about the Brontë sisters. “To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters” will center on a...
Trailer Watch: Pioneering DJ Can’t Stay in ‘Eden’ Forever in Mia Hansen-Løve’s Latest
“I’ll be a DJ. I’ll be rich.” The trailer for Mia Hansen-Løve’s followup to 2011’s “Goodbye First Love” begins with this bold pronouncement from Paul, an ambitious and talented DJ...
Cannes Deals: Catherine Hardwicke, Marjane Satrapi, Elle Fanning’s Transgender Movie and More
The Cannes Film Festival is about more than the prestige associated with winning the Palme d’Or or the glitz, glamour and couture of the red carpet — the festival is also a hub of wheeling...
Jill Soloway Encourages Women Directors to “Storm the Gates”
“Transparent” creator Jill Soloway delivered a powerful keynote address to outgoing and incoming students of the AFI Conservatory Directing Workshop for Women, calling for nothing short of a...
Remembering Lois Weber, Early Hollywood’s Most Successful Woman Director
Last month, Vanity Fair ran a piece on women directors that claimed that “the feisty Ida Lupino was one of thefirst.” They were only off by fifty years. They forgot — or never...
Director Amy Berg on ‘Every Secret Thing,’ Her New Nicole Holofcener-Penned Thriller
Amy Berg is a critically acclaimed, Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker. She was nominated for an Academy Award for her documentary “Deliver Us From Evil” (2006). The film...
Spellbinding Teen Classic ‘The Craft’ to Be Remade, Leigh Janiak to Direct and Co-Write
Now would be a wise time to invest stock in Hot Topic. The news that Sony is remaking “The Craft,” the 1996 supernatural thriller about badass teen witches with angst and attitude to spare...
Trailer Watch: Anne Hathaway’s the Boss in Nancy Meyers’ ‘The Intern’
Anne Hathaway got on Hollywood’s A-list after starring as a recent college grad scrambling to make sense of the world of couture — and the Anna Wintour-like woman who makes its gears...
A Critical Moment for the DGA: Will They Stand Up for Women?
What I am about to say is not going to make me any friends at the DGA, but it has to be said: The Guild is part of the problem, not the solution. Women directors’ underemployment is not all their...
Quote of the Day: Kathryn Bigelow on the “Horrific Situation for Women Directors”
The first and only woman to win a Best Director Oscar in the 87-year history of the Academy Awards has spoken out against the rampant sexism that plagues Hollywood. Kathryn Bigelow released a...
Ava DuVernay in the Running to Direct a Marvel Movie
One month after DC hired Patty Jenkins to helm the Wonder Woman movie, rival comics emporium Marvel has revealed that it’s pursuing Ava DuVernay to direct one of their “diversity” pictures,...
23 Years in the Making, HBO’s ‘Bessie’ is the Culmination of Queen Latifah’s Success
It seems as though Queen Latifah was destined to play Bessie Smith. The singer-turned-actress was first approached with the role at just 22 years old, then still in the midst of her rap career. Back...
Infographic: Celebrating Women Directors at Cannes 2015
Today is the kick off of the Cannes Film Festival. While we are still unbelievably unsatisfied at the amount of female directors in the main competition and other areas, there is still so much to...
Kirsten Dunst to Star in Rodarte Designers Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s Directorial Debut
Kirsten Dunst is set to star in the directorial debut of Kate and Laura Mulleavy, better known as the founders and designers of the LA-based fashion label Rodarte. Thus far, the Mulleavy...
About F-cking Time: ACLU Requests Feds Investigate Systematic Bias Against Women Directors
Today is a great day for gender justice in Hollywood. There are not many great days in this fight, but this is one of them. News broke today that the ACLU has asked the Equal Employment Opportunity...
Why It Matters Who’s Sitting in the Director’s Chair
Gender diversity behind the camera remains an important and under-appreciated ideal. Over at the Washington Post, I discuss why the underemployment of female filmmakers is an issue everyone should...
Trailer Watch: Amy Berg Uncovers Molestation of Child Actors in Hollywood as ‘An Open Secret’
“I think every little kid dreams about being famous and being in movies.” The trailer for Amy Berg’s “An Open Secret” begins with those words — then reveals how high the cost of...