Women Directors
Carol Morley’s High-School Fainting Drama ‘The Falling’ Gets US Distribution Deal
One of Women and Hollywood’s most anticipated titles of 2015, Carol Morley’s “The Falling,” has received a North American distribution deal from Cinedigm. Set in 1969 at an all-girls...
Quotes of the Day: Elizabeth Banks and Amy Berg Talk Women Directing
Elizabeth Banks and Amy Berg have a lot to say about being women directors in Hollywood. 2015 is a big year for both female filmmakers, with Banks making her feature directorial debut with the...
Angelina Jolie’s ‘By the Sea’ to be Released During Awards Season 2015
The marriage drama “By the Sea” will mark Angelina Jolie’s third time behind the camera and her first time directing herself. The film will star Jolie and her real-life husband Brad Pitt as...
Women-Centric Panel at Cannes Announced: “Women Make Great Movies: Strategies for Success”
Great news for those attending the Cannes Film Festival. While our recent infographic illustrates how poorly women directors are represented in the festival’s prestigious competition category this...
Watch: Lifetime Launches “Major” Initiative to Promote Women Directors, Writers, Producers
As a network for women, Lifetime is also largely a network by women. Female directors helmed 20% of Lifetime’s movies last year, compared to a paltry 7% for theatrical features. In the same...
Shonda Rhimes and Dee Rees to Make Black Migration Miniseries ‘The Warmth of Other Suns’ for FX
Shonda Rhimes and Dee Rees will adapt Isabel Wilkerson’s bestselling historical book “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration” for FX. Rees will write the...
Juliette Binoche to Play Nobel Prize Winner Pearl S. Buck in Roxanne Messina Captor’s Biopic
A new biopic of writer and activist Pearl S. Buck will find Juliette Binoche playing the Nobel laureate. Roxanne Messina Captor will direct Binoche in “Pearl,” which will be filmed in Prague,...
Lucy Walker to Direct ‘Buena Vista Social Club’ Sequel
Oscar-nominated documentarian Lucy Walker (“The Crash Reel,” “Waste Land,” “Devil’s Playground”) will helm a follow-up film to “Buena Vista Social Club.” The original Academy...
Listen: Women and Hollywood Podcast #10: Helen Hunt Directs Herself in ‘Ride’
In “Ride,” Helen Hunt’s second time behind the camera, the actress plays a Type A editor from New York who’s too busy working to see that she has become disconnected from life. When her son...
Amy Berg’s Exposé of Hollywood Sexual Exploitation, ‘An Open Secret,’ Gets Distribution Deal
Oscar-nominated documentarian Amy Berg was afraid that the world premiere of her latest nonfiction film, “An Open Secret,” at DOC NYC last November would be its last. “We get one screening,”...
Warner Brothers to Release Patricia Riggen’s Chilean Mining Drama ‘The 33’
DGA Women’s Steering Committee Rejects Proposal to Expand Diversity Options for Women
Two weeks ago, the Women’s Steering Committee at the DGA rejected a proposal that could have increased the opportunities for women directors in TV. As we all know, the numbers of women directing...
Ava DuVernay Gets Her Own Barbie, ‘Selma’ DVDs Donated to Every High School in America
Ava DuVernay fans, rejoice: This week brings news that Mattel has immortalized the “Selma” director with a Barbie in her likeness and that Paramount Pictures will be donating copies of...
Gay Divorce and Rock-umentaries: April’s Noteworthy Women-Centric Crowdfunding Projects
We at Women and Hollywood are always in pursuit of women-centric projects to promote and encourage, which is why, starting this month, we are beginning a new feature. Once a month, we will highlight...
Female Filmmakers Initiative Research Confirms Hollywood Is Stuck in a Sexist Rut
The big Hollywood studios are all in Las Vegas this week, showing off their upcoming summer films to the theatre owners at CinemaCon. Clearly, gender is on their mind, since John Fithian, the head...
Trailer Watch: Elizabeth Banks Searches For a Missing Child in Amy Berg’s ‘Every Secret Thing’
A trailer has arrived for Amy Berg’s psychological thriller “Every Secret Thing,” starring Elizabeth Banks, Diane Lane, Dakota Fanning and Danielle Macdonald (“2 Broke Girls”). The film...
Things We Learned from the Change of Directors for Wonder Woman
Not 48 hours ago, we learned that Michelle MacLaren, the woman who was going to break through DC’s superhero glass ceiling with “Wonder Woman,” had departed the project. Speculations abounded...
Thoughts on Michelle MacLaren Departing as Director of the Wonder Woman Film
I’ve seen a lot of firsts in my life. The first African-American woman to run for President. The first woman to be nominated for Vice President by the Democratic Party. The first woman in space....
Andrea Arnold’s First US Film, ‘American Honey,’ to Star Shia LeBeouf
British filmmaker Andrea Arnold (“Wuthering Heights,” “Fish Tank,” “Red Road”) has cast Shia LeBeouf in her first US film, “American Honey.” The project has been percolating for some...
Karyn Kusama’s ‘The Invitation’ Bought by Drafthouse Films
The tastemakers over at Drafthouse Films have acquired Karyn Kusama’s “The Invitation.” The horror film stars Logan Marshall-Green who attends a dinner party at his old house, now occupied by...
Nicole Kidman, Ava DuVernay, Jill Soloway Among Women in Film’s 2015 Crystal + Lucy Awardees
Actresses Nicole Kidman and Kate Mara, writer-directors Ava DuVernay and Jill Soloway, Warner Bros. marketing chief Sue Kroll, and ICM partner Toni Howard have been named the honorees of this...
Trailer Watch: Chilean Miners Fight for Survival in Patricia Riggen’s ‘The 33’
An international trailer has been released for Patricia Riggen’s English-language Chilean mining drama “The 33.” The film is, of course, based on a true event — the 69-day struggle to...
Ava DuVernay’s SXSW Keynote: “I Have Had the F*cking Most Awesome Year”
“I’ve had the fucking most awesome year,” Ava DuVernay admitted in her keynote speech at this year’s SXSW festival. “I can’t even describe it.” The “Selma” director displayed...
Trailer Watch: Queen Latifah Sings Through Her Suffering in Dee Rees’ ‘Bessie’ Smith HBO Biopic
HBO has released a teaser trailer for “Bessie,” the upcoming biopic of Bessie Smith from writer-director Dee Rees (“Pariah”). “It’s a long road, but I’m gonna find the end,” sings...
Crosspost: Why Amy Pascal’s Advice to Women to “Know Their Worth” and “Walk Away” is an Insult
The following is crossposted from Julie Bush’s blog with permission of the author. It has been edited and condensed. In Hollywood, it’s rare to be told directly that you can’t get a job...
Anika Noni Rose Cast in CBS’ Ava DuVernay-Directed Civil-Rights Pilot ‘For Justice’
Tony winner Anika Noni Rose (“Caroline, or Change”) will headline “For Justice,” a CBS drama about a FBI agent’s investigations into hate crimes across the country. Rose will play Special...
Melanie Laurent’s ‘Breathe’ Sold to Film Movement
Variety reports that the U.S. rights to Melanie Laurent’s sophomore feature, “Breathe,” have been sold to Film Movement, an arthouse distributor based in NY. The feature, based on a book with...
‘Selma’ Crosses $50 Million at Domestic Box Office
A week after it won an Oscar for Best Original Song, “Selma” crossed the $50 million mark at the domestic box office. Ava DuVernay’s film currently is the fourth highest-grossing Best Picture...
Phylicia Rashad Cast in CBS’s ‘For Justice’ Pilot; DuVernay Will Direct
The matriarch of the Huxtable family is coming back to weekly TV. Variety reports that Phylicia Rashad, best known for her role as Clair Hanks Huxtable in “The Cosby Show,” has been cast as a...
SFFS Announces 2015 Documentary Film Fund Finalists; 7 Women Directors Make the List
The San Francisco Film Society has announced the finalists for its 2015 Documentary Film Fund, with awards totaling more than $75,000 going towards feature-length documentaries in post-production....
Seeking Our Story: Marguerite Duras Stages a Lurid Funeral for Colonialism in ‘India Song’
MargueriteDuras (1914–1996), the prolific author, playwright, political troublemaker, andfilmmaker, was born in Vietnam to French emigrant parents. Her family’s descent into poverty, themadness...
Guest Post: How to Hire a Woman Director
At the Oscars on Sunday night,Best Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette used her moment in the spotlight to speak out on the issue ofgender inequity. “It’s our time to have wage equality once...
LA Times Study: Among Major Studios, Sony Has Most Female Directors, Warner Bros. Has Least
According to a new study conducted by the Los Angeles Times, Sony hired the most women directors and Warner Bros. the least among major studios in the last six years. But before we toast to...
Watch: ‘Hey Academy, I’m a Woman’ Mocks Male-Dominated Oscars
A new video directed by Leslie Korein and written by Kim Kalish offers a comic takedown of this year’s Oscars. As the video’s description notes, of 26 individual Academy Award nominees for...
Producer Gale Anne Hurd: Sexism Against Women Directors Hasn’t Changed Since the 80s
Superstar producer Gale Anne Hurd reflected on her three decades in the film and TV business in a Hollywood Masters interview yesterday. Most famous for her behind-the-scenes contributions to...
‘Fifty Shades’ Becomes Biggest Box-Office Opening in History for a Female Director
“Fifty Shades of Grey” likely won’t overtake Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck’s “Frozen” as the highest-grossing female-directed film of all time (the Disney fairy tale probably has that...
Ava DuVernay to Direct Civil Rights Drama for CBS; Sanaa Hamri to Direct Fox Dramedy
In the 2013–14 broadcast network television season, women comprised only 13% of directors — a fact that makes the news that Ava DuVernay and “Empire” EP Sanaa Hamri directors of pilots...
Berlinale Women Directors: Meet Willemiek Kluijfhout — ‘Sergio Herman: F*cking Perfect’
Willemiek Kluijfhout studied Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and attended the DutchFilm and Television Academy as a director. She has directed several highly acclaimed documentaries...
19% of SXSW Film Lineup Directed by Women
As we reported last week, a quarter of the films that will be in competition at SXSW 2015 (March 13–21) are directed by women. The percentage of women-helmed features being screened outside of...
UK’s Directors Guild Elects Beryl Richards as New Chair
TV and short-film director Beryl Richards has been elected the new chair of Directors UK, the British analogue of the Directors Guild of America. Richards will take over from the outgoing Charles...
Watch: Ava DuVernay’s ’60 Minutes’ Interview on Opening Doors and White Savior Films
We were upset (though unsurprised) when the Academy failed to recognize Ava DuVernay with a Best Director nomination for “Selma” last month. But the Oscar snub hasn’t resulted in the...
Berlinale Women Directors: Meet Sonja Heiss — ‘Hedi Schneider Is Stuck’
Sonja Heiss studied at the HFF Film School of Munich before acquiring experience in advertising. Her first feature, Hotel Very Welcome, won the “Dialogue en perspective” prize at the Berlinale....
Berlinale Women Directors: Meet Sanna Lenken — ‘My Skinny Sister’
Sanna Lenken studied film directing at the National Film School, Dramatiska Institutet in Stockholm. She has also studied film at the European Film College in Ebeltoft, Denmark, and the Dramatiska...
Quote of the Day: Director Isabel Coixet on the Importance of Financing Women-Helmed Films
Female filmmakers face countless barriers to success in the film industry, but chief among them is the bizarre reluctance of many financiers to invest in projects helmed by women. Spanish director...
Guest Post: Should There Be a Best Female Director Category at the Oscars?
If wewant greater gender equality in Hollywood, should the Academy Awards still besplitting its acting awards along gender lines? This wasa question posed to me by a friend a few weeks ago as we...
SXSW Lineup Announced: 5 of 20 Films in Competition Directed By Women; DuVernay To Give Keynote
Few of South by Southwest 2015’s highest-profile films will be directed by women. The Austin festival, which will take place on March 13–21, will showcase only two narrative features in...
Berlinale Women Directors: Meet Ella Manzheeva — ‘The Gulls’
Director Ella Manzheeva graduated from the St. Petersburg State University of Film and Television in 2005, specializing in TV and film sound engineering. In 2007, she enrolled at the Higher Courses...
3 Women Directors Selected for Film Independent’s Directing Lab With Mentor Catherine Hardwicke
Remember these names: Philiane Phang, Christina Choe, and Sylvia Sether. According to Film Independent, these are some of the most promising talents in the world of independent filmmaking today....
At Sundance 2015, Filmmakers Break The Silence Of Sexual Trauma
“What are these films telling us?” According to Sundance Senior Programmer Caroline Libresco,that’s what festival programmers asked when they realized they’dchosen five films about...
Ava DuVernay and Oprah Winfrey to Create TV Series for OWN
After announcing a Hurricane Katrina drama that would reunite her with Selma star David Oyelowo, Ava DuVernay has lined up another project: a TV series co-created by Oprah Winfrey to air on OWN....
MoMA Celebrates the Women’s Film Preservation Fund via Two Weeks of Special Screenings
The Women’s Film Preservation Fund and the New York branch of Women in Film and Television have worked tirelessly to rescue and restore films that feature women in key creative roles. Since 1995,...