Women Directors
What Bigelow Effect? Number of Women Directors in Hollywood Falls to 5 Percent
The Oscar nominations this morning give us another year where there are no women directors included in the list. This year we won’t see Kathryn Bigelow up on the stage giving out the best director...
Cross-Post: Women Kicking It on Kickstarter!
Kickstarter, called “the people’s NEA” by The New York Times, recently sent out their 2011 round-up of success stories on their crowdsourced fundraising site, with women filmmakers taking...
Sundance Trailer Watch: West of Memphis — Directed by Amy Berg
I have now become obsessed with this case. I watched the HBO film this weekend and am going to catch up on the older HBO docs shortly. This is the Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh produced film. This...
Participate in Live Q and A with Angelina Jolie Tonight at 8pm EST
After visiting the President last night to talk about “preventing mass atrocities and combating sexual violence against women” Angelina Jolie is doing a live q and a to talk about In the Land of...
How Will the New Documentary Rules Affect Women Filmmakers?
When I read the NY Times story earlier this week about the proposed changes for films to qualify for a documentary Academy Award nomination, I wondered how these new rules would affect films by and...
Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award Winners
EDA ANNUAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS Best Film: The Artist Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius — The Artist Best Screenplay, Original: Midnight in Paris — Woody Allen Best Screenplay, Adapted:...
Sundance Trailer Watch: Middle of Nowhere — Written and Directed by Ava Duvernay
I am so impressed by this woman and how she is making movies about African American women on her terms. I really liked her first film, I Will Follow. We will try and cover this at Sundance, but here...
The Athena Film Festival Awardees and Lineup
Most of you dear loyal readers and friends know that I am the artistic director of the Athena Film Festival at Barnard College. It is something very near and dear to my heart and keeps me quite busy...
Trailer Watch: Girl in Progress Directed by Patricia Riggen
I really liked Ms. Riggen’s previous film, La Misma Luna. This could be a big breakthrough role for Eva Mendes taking her to a new place. Yahoo! Video Player Will open April 27.
Swedish Director Lisa Aschan Returns $730,000 Grant
When is the last time you heard of a filmmaker giving money back? Well it has happened. Swedish director Lisa Aschan has turned down a $730,000 grant she was awarded based on the success of her...
2012 Berlinale Rolls Out the Panorama Section With Five Films Directed by Women
The program for the 2012 Berlinale is rolling out. 20 international films have been announced for inclusion in the Panorama section. Five are directed by women. Keeping count that is just 20%. They...
Cross-Post: 20 Years of Black Lesbian Cinema Before Pariah
Dee Rees’ debut film, Pariah, has rightfully been celebrated for its tender coming-out and coming-of-age story of a shy yet sexually curious 17-year-old African-American girl, Alike (Adepero...
Pariah — written and directed by Dee Rees
Most of this review was written after screening the film at the Toronto Film Festival. It has been augmented. The movie is just so good. Well written, well acted, emotional, devastating and...
Interview with Dee Rees — Writer and Director of Pariah
Pariah opens in limited release tomorrow. I was able to catch it and the Toronto Film Festival. Here is my conversation with writer/director Dee Rees. Women and Hollywood: Why did you start the...
In My Humble Opinion- The Best Female Directed Films of 2011
It goes without saying that women made all kinds of films this year. But the reality is that most made indie films. Only a couple made studio films. And the numbers of women directing films is still...
Interview with Adepero Oduye star of Pariah
This is the week when Pariah starts to roll out and I can’t say emphatically enough that when this film comes to your town, you must see it. I was able to speak with the star of the film Adepero...
In the Land of Blood and Honey — Written and Directed by Angelina Jolie
A couple of months ago the description of Angelina Jolie’s writing and directing debut was that it was a love story set in the time of the Bosnian war. I walked out of the film realizing that no...
We Need to Talk About Kevin Gets Five Nominations from the London Critics Film Circle
This film is clearly being better recevied overseas as a full body of work than it is here in the US. Here, Tilda Swinton has gathered some nominations and could be on her way to an Academy Award...
Circumstance Producer Karin Chien Takes on the Producers Guild
There has been a bit of a controversy last week over the Producer’s Guild nominees. Karin Chien, the producer of Circumstance learned that her film was disqualified from the PGA Awards because the...
Natalie Portman Takes Her Oscar Win Out for a Test Run
While Natalie Portman might have been off our radar screen since last February when she won the best actress Oscar and disappeared to have her baby, yesterday we learned through the Hollywood...
Pariah Writer/Director Dee Rees Talks to Lincoln Center’s Richard Pena
Hollywood Reporter Acknowledges That The Industry is Sexist
The Hollywood Reporter in the wake of their complete dismissal of women in both its writer and director roundtables has done a 360 and put together a whole cover on the lack of women directors and...
Talking Oscars and Feminism with Scott Feinberg of the Hollywood Reporter
Check out this audio interview I did with Scott Feinberg — Oscar analyst at the Hollywood Reporter. We talked about the Oscar race with a feminist slant. I really enjoyed the...
We Really Need to Talk About Kevin and Lynne Ramsay
I saw We Need to Talk About Kevin co-written and directed by Lynne Ramsay at the Toronto Film Festival. It was one of the best movies I saw there and it is still one of the best movies that I have...
Watch the Q and A With Meryl Streep and Phyllida Lloyd
You make have to wait another couple of weeks to see the film but now you can watch the Q and A conducted by The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg on Tuesday night at the DGA theatre in...
What Angelina Jolie and Meryl Streep Have in Common
I know I am lucky. I get to watch and think about movies and write about them and talk about them. But being a blogger, I don’t very often get to see the people in the movies or those who make the...
Patty Jenkins Exits Thor 2
According to the Hollywood Reporter, director Patty Jenkins (Monster) has left Thor 2. They wrote that she was working as of Monday afternoon and had recently been a part of a photo shoot on women...
Angelina Jolie Talks to Christiane Amanpour
Here is a very comfortable Jolie talking with Christiane Amanpour about her upcoming film — In the Land of Blood and Honey. Film opens December 23rd.
Sleeping Beauty — written and directed by Julia Leigh
Sleeping Beauty is a film that is very divisive. After I saw it in Toronto I spoke with several different people, and some absolutely hated it and others thought it was brilliant. Personally, I...
The Sundance 2012 Competition Lineup: The Women
Sundance unveiled the competition lineups. Here is the first look at the US Dramatic and Documentary competition. There are 16 films in each category. In the dramatic category, 3 are directed by...
Gotham Award Winners: The Women
The awards season began in earnest last evening with the IFP sponsored Gotham Awards. Here are the female winners: Breakthrough Director — Dee Rees — Pariah — hopefully this is...
Trailer Watch: Declaration of War directed by Valerie Donzelli
This film is France’s entry to the Academy Awards and it is based on Valerie Donzelli’s real life experience. She also co-stars in the film. Will open in the US in late January.
Angelina Jolie on 60 Minutes
In case you missed it, Angelina was on 60 Minutes last night gearing up for the premiere of her directorial debut, In the Land of Blood and Honey. Some interesting points: she feels more comfortable...
Lisa Aschan Wins $800,000 From Stockholm Film Fund
Director Lisa Aschan whose first film She Monkeys won the best narrative feature at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival is the inaugural recipient of the Stockholm Film Fund. She receives $800,000...
Trailer Watch: W.E. directed and co-written by Madonna
I totally want to see this. https://medium.com/media/272ed8c627c1744d3fe13ba84afb7792/href h/t The PLaylist
Women Directed Movies in 2011
Yesterday, the Hollywood Reporter roundtable on directors made me crazy, but it also made me think. While I will give them no leeway on the ridiculous comment asking the directors to name a major...
Guest Post: Breaking Dawn: Part 1 High Heels, White Weddings, Broken Headboards, and Bella as Pregnant Martyr by Natalie Wilson
While the first Twilight film was directed by a woman, all subsequent adaptations have had males at the helm. The first adaptation, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, featured a Bella that was...
Trailer Watch: The Iron Lady (UK Version)
The trailer is clear evidence that Streep will deliver another Oscar caliber performance (as if we had any doubt.) Whether the movie stands up, still remains to be seen. But this is clearly going to...
Julie Taymor Sues Spiderman Producers
Last week the news came down that Julie Taymor would be the only director eligible for a Tony nomination for the Spiderman musical which is playing to robust audiences on Broadway. When asked at the...
Share Your Pariah Moment
Have you ever felt like you didn’t fit in? Ever felt like a Pariah? The folks from the film Pariah want to hear your story. Here’s the story from writer/director, Dee Rees
Interview with Angelina Maccarone Director of Charlotte Rampling: The Look
Charlotte Rampling: The Look rolls into NY today for a screening at DOC NYC at 7pm. Details on tickets here. It opens in NY tomorrow and then will roll out in theatre throughout the fall...
Adrienne Shelly Foundation Launches Woman of Vision Award
Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of the death of director/writer/actress Adrienne Shelly and in remembrance of this day, the Foundation named for her which supports women directors and run by her...
DOC NYC 2011: The Women
The second edition of DOC NYC will launch tomorrow and there are a bunch of women directed and women centric films to be seen over the next week. Check out the full list of events and films. I have...
New Poster for We Need to Talk About Kevin Directed by Lynne Ramsay
Film opens for an Oscar qualifying run on December 9 and then wider on January 27.
Making the Case for Lynne Ramsay in the Best Director Discussion
When I came back from the Toronto Film Festival and I was asked what the best movie I saw there at the top of my list was We Need to Talk About Kevin. I just thought it was a really intense film...
Diablo Cody Talks About the Buzz on Young Adult and Becoming a Director
This is via the LA Times at the Hollywood Awards Diablo Cody: ‘Young Adult’ hype ‘freaks me out’ [Video] (LA Times)
Guest Post: What do Afghan Women Want? By Gini Reticker
Throughout the last year, as the director of a documentary film that follows three Afghan women, I’ve been peppered by friends and family with a recurring question: What do Afghan women want? Or...
What Up With Hating on Madonna?
I’ve been watching the roll out of Madonna’s film W.E. with a lot of interest. Aside from the fact that it is a film about women directed by a woman, Madonna is a huge celebrity and I can’t...
Trailer Watch: In the Land of Blood and Honey Written and Directed by Angelina Jolie
An impressive trailer from first time writer and director Angelina Jolie.
Guest Post: Bayaka Women in OKA! by Lavinia Currier
Shooting the feature OKA! in the Central African Republic with the Bayaka pygmies of the forest was about as far from Hollywood as one can imagine, our ‘sets’ were forest camps of huts built by...
Interview with Anne Buford — Director of Elevate
After premiering this past spring at SWSX, Elevate reaches theatres this weekend. Here’s a comment from Anne on what the experience has been like since the film premiered last spring: Without...