Women Writers
WGA Lobbying for NY Tax Breaks for Diverse Writers’ Rooms
The Writers Guild of America-East is currently lobbying the New York State legislature to receive tax breaks for diverse writers’ rooms. Of the $420 million in tax credits currently allocated to...
Women Comprise Majority of WGA’s 2014 Writer Access Project Honorees
Since 2009, the Writers Guild of America has held the Writer Access Project (WAP) — a competition that discovers and awards mid-level players from one of five diversity categories: minority...
Reinventing A Life: Lies I Told My Little Sister
I’ve been a nonfiction writerall my life. I write books and humor essays. I never envisioned becoming ascreenwriter. But at age 60, I seem to have rewritten my obituary. I am ascreenwriter now,...
TV: Mary-Louise Parker to Star in NBC Sitcom Feed Me
Before winning over potheads everywhere as drug-dealing suburbanite Nancy Botwin on Jenji Kohan’s Weeds, Mary-Louise Parker first gained notice playing feminist lobbyist Amy Gardner on NBC’s The...
Viola Davis to Star in Shonda Rhimes’ Next Show
The return of Scandal tomorrow night after a three-month hiatus isn’t the only good news to come out of Shondaland. Oscar-nominated actress Viola Davis (The Help, Prisoners) has signed on to star...
NAACP Awards: Black Women Creators Thrive in TV
When the NAACP Image Award nominations unwittingly exposed the film industry’s continued hostility to black women earlier this year, no one could claim surprise. At this weekend’s NAACP awards...
Meryl Streep to Join Carey Mulligan in Suffragette
Meryl Streep, who recently outed herself and her friend Emma Thompson as “rabid, man-hating feminist[s],” has signed on to play British feminist icon Emmeline Pankhurst in the Sarah...
Athena FF: Amma Asante’s Belle Revisits Jane Austen Through Black POV
“This is the story of a woman who is loved.” Those are the words black British director Amma Asante used to describe her marvelous sophomore feature Belle at the Athena Film Festival this past...
DC Theaters to Launch Festival Showcasing Women Playwrights
The New York Times reports that 44 theater companies in Washington, DC, have joined forces to launch the Women’s Voices Theater Festival. The inaugural event will take place over eight weeks...
Hollywood Feminists Fire Back at Mike Huckabee’s “Gender Victim” Comments
Who the hell knows what Mike Huckabee meant when he claimed that Republicans want to “empower [women] to be something other than victims of their gender” at a Republican National Committee...
Women Comprise Majority of National Book Critics Circle Nominees
In the filmmaking world, fiction is dominated by men and nonfiction shared by both genders. Not so in literature. If the National Book Critics Circle is any indicator, the reverse is true. Women...
Amma Asante, Rebecca Miller Announce New Projects
Great news: two female filmmakers have announced new projects. Buoyed by positive reviews of her upcoming film Belle, British director Amma Asante has signed on to direct the studio thriller...
BAFTA Nods Recognize Women Directors and Female Protagonists
After an award season apparently blind to non-acting female talent, we finally got some good news today. Among the BAFTA nominees are films by several women directors: Clio Barnard’s The Selfish...
TV: The Women-Created Network Shows in Contention for Fall 2014
The Hollywood Reporter has published a running list of all the network pilots in contention for the 2014–2015 season. About 40% of them (11 of 26) feature women creators, showrunners, and/or...
10 Films from Women Directors, Screenwriters, or Stars Added to National Film Registry
The National Film Registry has announced its 2013 list of “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” films to be preserved by the Library of Congress, and 10 of its 25 selections...
Less Than 20% of Black List Scripts Are By Women Screenwriters
The 2013 Black List — Hollywood’s annual compilation of the industry’s “most liked” but as-yet-unmade scripts — was released yesterday. Of the 72 screenplays that made it on the...
Shonda Rhimes, Betsy Beers to Receive DGA Diversity Award
Sometimes it feels like Women and Hollywood is really just a Shonda Rhimes fan club in disguise, but we can’t help getting excited everytime the Scandal creator is recognized for being the force...
Women and Hollywood December 2013 Film Preview
With the exception of big showcases for Oscar favorites like Meryl Streep and Julia Roberts (August: Osage County) and Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks), December looks to be an anemic...
Despite the Lack of Opportunities UK Female Screenwriters and Directors Are Successful
In late July the BFI published their statistics yearbook for 2013, it sent an unwelcome call to women screenwriters and directors that their numbers were depleting. The bleak news was that only...
TV: Oprah Winfrey and Diablo Cody to Partner for HBO Comedy
In her last major role, Oprah Winfrey played against type as an alcoholic, adulterous housewife in The Butler. Winfrey will continue to show an edgier side with her most recently announced project,...
Shonda Rhimes to Publish Memoir About TV Writing and Single Motherhood
If it wasn’t yet clear that Shonda Rhimes is totally a celebrity in her own right, here’s one more sign: the Scandal creator has signed a book deal, a la Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling, that will...
TV Roundup: Kristen Schaal, Kate Walsh Get New Shows, ‘Homeland,’ ‘Rizzoli & Isles’ New Showrunners
The Daily Show’s Kristen Schaal and Private Practice’s Kate Walsh were among several women to sell network shows this week, while Showtime’s Homeland and TNT’s Rizzoli & Isles gained new...
Ava DuVernay on Directing Tonight’s Scandal Episode
Middle of Nowhere director and Women and Hollywood hero Ava DuVernay helmed tonight’s episode of ABC’s Scandal. DuVernay spoke to us (by email) about her own Scandal fandom, Shonda Rhimes’...
Quote of the Day: Shonda Rhimes
Today in “duh tinged with schadenfreude,” Shonda Rhimes reveals that gray-haired male ABC execs have no idea what women are like or what they want to watch. In an interview to NPR,...
Weekly Update for November 8: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women OpeningThis Weekend Ass Backwards — Written byCasey Wilson and June Diane Raphael Two best friends (Kate andChloe) embark on a cross country trip back to their hometown to...
Essence Magazine Launches Short Film Competition
In the November issue of Essence, the magazine published a study on how black female audiences viewed their counterparts on the big and small screens. Unsurprisingly, the results were dispiriting....
Welcome Inkoo Kang to the Women and Hollywood Family
After 18 months, Kerensa Cadenas has moved on to a new position, and I am happy to welcome Inkoo Kang as the news editor for Women and Hollywood. Inkoo comes to Women and Hollywood with lots of...
Weekly Update for November 1: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Running from Crazy — Directed by Barbara Kopple (doc) Running from Crazy is a documentary examining the personal journey of model and actress Mariel...
Ellie Kemper to Headline Tina Fey Written Comedy
We’ve been following all news about the multiple television projects that Tina Fey has in the works. And one of those projects just got a straight to series order at NBC along with a star for...
November Film Preview
After an Oscar buzzy October with Sandra Bullock’s turn in Gravity and the tremendous performances of the controversial Blue is the Warmest Color, we move into a more mainstream November. November...
Trailer Watch: Belle — Directed by Amma Asante
Amma Asante’s Belle premiered last month at TIFF. The film tells the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) the bi-racial, illegitimate daughter of a Royal Navy admiral in the 18th...
Weekly Update for October 25: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Blue is the Warmest Color There’s no doubt when Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Color hits theaters today it will cause controversy. The movie...
Pathe Picks Up Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette
We recently reported about Sarah Gavron’s latest, Suffragette, previously titled The Fury, when Carey Mulligan was in early talks to star. The film has since been retitled, Mulligan is signed,...
Women and Hollywood is Hiring a News Editor
After almost a year and a half, Kerensa Cadenas will be moving on from the day to day work of helping me edit and write Women and Hollywood. In the time Kerensa has worked on the site it has grown...
Big Vision Empty Wallet Chooses All-Female Screenwriting Fellowship Roster
At the kick-offmeeting for Big Vision Empty Wallet’s 2013 Screenwriting Fellowship we laughed,shared our industry horror stories, toasted our successes, and examined ourcreative goals. My business...
Quote of the Day: Diablo Cody on Writing Strong Female Characters
Film School Rejects does a really great interview with Diablo Cody on the release of her directorial debut Paradise. (Side note- Many of the interviews she has done for the release of this film have...
The Haunting of Hill House and a Sense of Belonging
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against...
Weekly Update for October 18: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Carrie — Directed by Kimberly Peirce Peirce’s modernized version of the classic stars Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie, an ostracized teen, who learns...
Interview with Diablo Cody — Director of Paradise
Diablo Cody’s directorial debut, Paradise, is out on October 18th, 2013 in Los Angeles and New York theaters. The story about a young Mormon girl named Lamb who survives a horrific plane crash and...
Eleanor Catton Wins Man Booker Prize
Besides winning this year’s prestigious Man Booker Prize, Eleanor Catton made history multiple times. At 28, Catton is the youngest winner in the history of the prize and her novel, The...
Weekly Update for October 11: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend A River Changes Course — Directed by Kalyanee Mann (doc) A River Changes Course is the moving and insightful 2013 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning...
Happy 200th Episode Grey’s Anatomy
Tonight, Shonda Rhimes’ Grey’s Anatomy will air it’s 200th episode. It’s truly a groundbreaking achievement. Not many shows make it to 100 episodes, let alone 200. In an interview with The...
Guest Interview: Meg Wolitzer — Author of The Interestings
Novelist Meg Wolitzer talks with Holly Rosen Fink about the success of her latest novel, The Interestings (Riverhead Books, 2013), inspiration, sexism in the literary world, working with Nora...
TIFF Interview: Jasmila Zbanic and Kym Vercoe — Director and Co-Writers of For Those Who Can Tell No Tales
For Those Who Can Tell No Tales written by Jasmila Zbanic and Kym Vercoe and directed by Zbanic is one of those rare films that just stays with you. The film tells the story of Kym...
Weekly Update for October 4: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Concussion — Written and Directed by Stacie Passon Concussion was one of my favorite movies at Sundance this year. It was truly a revelation. Robin...
October Film Preview
We’ve come off an impactful September for women in film with Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda breaking boundaries for women directors in Saudi Arabia and being the country’s first Oscar entry;...
Weekly Update for September 27: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Therese Set in the lower echelons of 1860s Paris, Therese Raquin, a sexually repressed beautiful young woman, is trapped into a loveless marriage to her...
The Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award Winners Announced
The Rona Jaffe Foundation announced their 19th annual Writers’ Award winners. Six emerging women writers will be awarded $30,000 each. The award is the only national literary award of its kind...
Women Playwrights Make Up Half of the Most Popular Plays for the 2013–14 Season
American Theater magazine recently announced that David Ives’ Venus in Fur has been chosen to be performed in the most theatres around the country during the upcoming 2013–14 season. They also...
Callie Khouri Talks Season Two of Nashville
Season Two of Nashville starts tonight at 10pm on ABC, and if you care about shows with strong women creators and shows created and run by women, you need to support this show. The women are...
Guest Post: Time For A Major Women’s Film Award Initiative?
As the awards season gets under way each year I look for the women who are nominated and most years I’m disappointed — the only award category where it is certain that a woman will be...