Women Directors
Guest Post: Spending A Year With Women Filmmakers
In 2013, I saw two films thatdeeply affected me: Judy Chaikin’s The Girls In The Band andSini Anderson’s The Punk Singer. In both films, the women interviewed talk aboutlooking for artists,...
Guest Post: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome through the Power of Inclusion
Last fall, I was fortunate enough to be nominated by Women in Hollywood for the inaugural year of the Fox Global Directors Initiative. I reacted with disbelief when I received notice that I was...
IFP Announces ‘Screen Forward’ Lineup Highlighting Female Filmmakers
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) has announced the February — May lineup for its year-round “Screen Forward” series: Four films from female filmmakers will be highlighted, focusing...
Slamdance Women Directors: Meet Gabrielle Demeestere — ‘Yosemite’
Born and raised in Paris, Gabrielle Demeestere is a New York-based filmmaker. Most recently, she wrote and directed a segment of the feature film The Color of Time, based on the poetry of C.K....
Ava DuVernay’s Next Picture to be Hurricane Katrina Drama with Star David Oyelowo
Ava DuVernay has lined up her follow-up to Selma. The ascendant filmmaker will collaborate with Selma star David Oyelowo for the third time in an untitled love story and murder mystery set against...
Sundance Women Directors: Meet Chloé Zhao — ‘Songs My Brothers Taught Me’
Chloé Zhao was raised in Beijing and England, and is currently a MFA thesis student at New York University’s graduate film program. She was selected as a fellow at the 2012 Sundance Directors and...
Women In Film Awards $33,000 to Filmmakers in Sundance
More good news for female filmmakers at Sundance: Women In Film, Los Angeles awarded over $33,000 in cash and in kind-grants at “Unstoppable — The Road to Yes,” its 9th Annual Women in...
Sundance Women Directors: Meet Marielle Heller — ‘The Diary of a Teenage Girl’
Marielle Heller is a writer, director, and actor. She was selected as a2012 Sundance Screenwriting Fellow and a 2012 Sundance Directing Fellow, and washonored with the Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting...
Sundance Women Directors: Meet Rania Attieh — ‘H.’
Rania Attieh & her H. co-director Daniel Garcia were named the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards’ “Someone to Watch.” Included among the “25 Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmakers...
SF Film Society Introduces New Fellowship for Female Filmmakers
If you’re a regular reader of Women and Hollywood’s interviews, there’s a good chance you’ve noticed that a significant number of female filmmakers have shared that securing funding for...
16% of Berlinale 2015’s Films in Competition Directed by Women
Of the 19 films that will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears at the Berlin International Film Festival this year, only 3 will be directed by women, comprising a scanty 16% of the Berlinale’s...
Chart: The Higher You Go in Hollywood, the Harder Women Directors Are to Find
We all know the woeful statistics about women directors, but a new graphic from FiveThirtyEight illustrates just how the deck is stacked against female filmmakers, especially at the studio and...
Sundance Women Directors: Meet Nikole Beckwith — ‘Stockholm, Pennsylvania’
Nikole Beckwith’s plays have been read and performed in Ensemble Studio Theater, LAByrinth Theater Company, The Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Barrow Street Theater, 3LD, The Flea, Lesser...
Sundance Women Directors: Meet Alanté Kavaïté — ‘The Summer of Sangaile’
Born in Lithuania, Alanté Kavaïté studied Beaux Arts in Avignon and in Paris, where she specialized in photography and video. Her first feature film, Ecoute le Temps (Fissures), was released in...
Angelina Jolie’s ‘Unbroken’ is the Sleeper Hit No One’s Talking About
Angelina Jolie may not have wowed critics with Unbroken, but she’s certainly proven herself a director to watch with her true-life survival tale. After collecting another $4.2 million at the box...
Academy Awards President Cheryl Boone Isaacs Responds to ‘Selma’ Snub; Ava DuVernay Sends MLK Day Message
Last week, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) once again disabused the notion that the Oscars have anything to do with merit by nominating Selma in just two categories, Best...
Thoughts on the Oscar Noms from Female Film Writers and Experts
Here are some thoughts from some people I reached out to earlier today about the Oscar nominations, in alphabetical order. Thelma Adams, Film Editor at ZEALnyc: First of all, I welcome more voices...
The Big O: In Directing, a Sin of Omission — But At Least ‘Selma’ Makes the Final 8
We had a dream last fall: that two female directors, Ava DuVernay for Selma and Angelina Jolie for Unbroken, would compete in the Best Director category at the 87th Academy Awards. Considering that...
2015 Oscar Nominations: A Dark Day for Women in Hollywood
I couldn’t sleep at all last night because I knew in the pit of my stomach exactly what was going to happen this morning. Based onthe wind and on the hatchet job against Selma, I knew that Ava...
Jodie Foster, Lisa Cholodenko, Jill Soloway, Laura Poitras Nominated by DGA
Yesterday’s Directors Guild of America Awards coverage was dominated by one major (and painful) snub: that of Ava DuVernay for the entirely deserving Selma. But we should also talk about some of...
Suffragettes, Action Heroines, and BDSM: Most Anticipated Films By and About Women in 2015
Our 2014 end-of-year coverage highlighted the good and the bad for women and Hollywood in 2014. As we usher in a new year, let’s focus on some of the exciting female-centric films that await us in...
Trailer Watch: Juliette Binoche and Rinko Kikuchi Explore the Arctic in ‘Nobody Wants the Night’
Trailer Watch: Female Friendship is the Heart of Celine Sciamma’s Black Parisian Coming-of-Age Drama ‘Girlhood’
DGA Study: “Women and Minority Directors Face Significant Hiring Disadvantage at Entry Level”
The Directors Guild of America has revealed the results of a five-year study examining the gender and ethnic diversity of first-time directors on scripted series. In the five-year span from the...
‘Selma’ Director Ava DuVernay is a Woman Daring to Tell History
From my latest Forbes post on how Ava DuVernay is making history by interpreting our shared past and defending Selma from its short-sighted critics: Whether we like it or not, there are different...
Guest Post: How I Met My Mother By Making My Family History Doc ‘Farewell Herr Schwarz’
After two hours of interviews, thecinematographer signals that the battery is running out and that we need tostop. Thank God. I have been interviewing my mother for what feels like aneternity now,...
Isabel Coixet’s ‘Nobody Wants the Night’ to Open the 2015 Berlinale
Prolific Spanish director Isabel Coixet (My Life Without Me, Learning to Drive) will open the 65th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb. 5–15) with her latest film, Nobody Wants the Night. The...
Guest Post: Inside the Fox Global Director’s Initiative
When I found out that I was invited to take part in the Fox Global Director’s Initiative, I was in Beirut, on my way to the Bekaa Valley. The lab would commence in just seven days — by which...
Women Directed 17 of the Top 250 Grossing Films of 2014
Female directors accounted for only 17 of the top 250 grossing films of 2014 — a mere 6.8%. As paltry as this number is, it represents a minor improvement from 2013, when women comprised 6% of...
Quote of the Day: Rose McGowan
Rose McGowan said what we’re all thinking at the New York Film Critics Circle awards ceremony earlier this week when she urged for more films from women directors while accepting the group’s...
Megan Ellison to Produce ‘A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’ Director Ana Lily Amirpour’s Next Film
The critically lauded A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night didn’t just garner writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour a Breakthrough Director Award at the Gotham Independent Film Awards, but a powerful...
The Big O: The State of the Race — and Where the Women Are
I had a sinking feeling when the Producers Guild announced their ten nominees for Best Picture on Monday. Take a gander at what was selected: American Sniper, Birdman, Boyhood, Foxcatcher, Gone...
Trailer Watch: ‘Above and Beyond’ Uncovers the Little-Known American Origins of the Israeli Air Force
If Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken whet your appetite for more tales of WWII heroics, Roberta Grossman’s Above and Beyond will likely satisfy that craving. The Nancy Spielberg-produced documentary...
Special Look at Ava DuVernay in Action Directing Selma
Here’s what Oprah has to say about Ava: “I’ve never seen anyone with such intense passion and willful direction and yet be such a calming force as well.” And she’s worked with Steven...
An Oscar-Nominated Director Gets Real About How Women Are Treated in Hollywood
Women and Hollywood is taking a break this week. Please enjoy one of our most popular posts of the year below. We will return with new features, editorials, and news stories on Monday, January 5....
The Women of Hollywood’s Men’s Men’s Men’s World
In today’s NY Times, critic Manohla Dargis gives us her second feature on women directors working in Hollywood entitled In Hollywood, It’s A Men’s, Men’s Men’s World. She focuses this time...
Spotlight on Women of Color in 2014
Women and Hollywood’s end-of-year coverage includes our “Best Women-Directed Documentaries of 2014 (That We Managed to See),” “Best Women-Directed Films of 2014,” “Best Films About Women...
Women and Hollywood Podcast #7: Ava DuVernay — Director of Selma
To end the year on a high note I give you my latest podcast with Ava DuVernay, the director of Selma. Just a couple of things to note: the audio on this is not great. But Ava is so important a...
The Most Important Feminist Film Moments of 2014
Women and Hollywood’s end-of-year coverage includes our “Best Women-Directed Documentaries of 2014 (That We Managed to See),” “Best Women-Directed Films of 2014,” “Best Films About Women...
The Best Women-Directed Films of 2014
Women and Hollywood’s end-of-year coverage includes our “Best Women-Directed Documentaries of 2014 (That We Managed to See)” list, with much more to come in the next few days. The abysmal...
Liv Ullmann Awarded Coolest-Sounding Honor Ever for ‘Miss Julie’
Liv Ullmann will receive the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award from the Goteborg Film Festival (Jan. 23 — Feb. 2, 2015) in Sweden. The Norwegian actress and director will attend the festival,...
The A to Z of Women in Film in 2014: Part 1
In some ways, it’s been a year like any other. Some extraordinary female talent has broken through. Some miraculous, female-led stories have been told. And yet the industry as a whole has done its...
Agnes Varda Criticizes Lack of Recognition for Women Directors at European Film Awards
One of the world’s most respected female directors has spoken out against the lack of recognition given to women in the film industry. Upon receiving a lifetime-achievement honor from the...
Quote of the Day: Ava DuVernay
Earlier this week, Shonda Rhimes thanked her foremothers while receiving the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award for creating cracks in the glass ceiling so she could get through when the ABC VIP began...
Penny Marshall to Direct Biopic Of Effa Manley, the First Woman to Make Baseball Hall Of Fame
A League of Their Own director Penny Marshall is returning to the diamond field with Effa, a biopic about Effa Manley, the first woman inducted into the baseball hall of fame. Manley was the...
Ava DuVernay Becomes First African American Woman Nominated for Best Director Golden Globe
From my latest Forbes post on the importance of Ava DuVernay’s historic nomination: One of the most important parts of seeing Ava DuVernay’s nomination is the visibility that she will get on a...
‘Zero Motivation’ Director Talya Lavie on Finding Humor in the “Gray” Lives of Female Israeli Soldiers
Since winning the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival’s top prize (and the Nora Ephron award), Talya Lavie’s debut film, Zero Motivation, has become a critical darling. Currently boasting a 88% score on...
Leslye Headland, Amy Berg, Jennifer Siebel Newsom to Debut Films at Sundance 2015
Nine women-directed narrative and documentary features (out of a total of 29 premieres) will make their debuts at next year’s Sundance Film Festival. Among the much-anticipated first-time...
African-American Film Critics Assn. Names ‘Selma,’ ‘Belle,’ ‘Unbroken’ Among 2014’s Top Films
Selma has been named the African-American Film Critics Association’s top movie of the year. The first studio picture with Martin Luther King, Jr., as the protagonist won accolates from the AAFCA...
Manohla Dargis Thrusts Ava DuVernay into the Best Director Race
In this Sunday’s NY Times Arts & Leisure section, one of the Grey Lady’s chief film critics, Manohla Dargis, forcefully made the case for Selma director Ava DuVernay to get recognized in the...
4 Tips for Female Filmmakers from Ms. In the Biz
Here’s the hard truth. Thenumbers for women in the entertainment industry aren’t great. This is somethingthat we are all well aware of. When both of us started out in the business, wecame onto...