Women Writers
This Woman Is Too Fat for Hollywood?
I love Romola Garai. First, she’s a good actress. She’s just so excellent in The Hour which is written by Abi Morgan. Second, she knows that she needs to be in magazines and make appearances in...
No Women Nominated for European Film Awards in Major Categories
Last week The European Film Awards announced their nominees for their annual awards. Michael Haneke’s Amour and Steve McQueen’s Shame picked up a majority of the nominations. But how did women...
Women Created and Centric TV News Roundup — November 1
With every roundup we do, we get more excited and hopeful for the upcoming crop of future TV shows by and about women. With projects from Jennifer Garner, Shonda Rhimes and Oprah — there is...
Canada Establishing Rosalind Prize for Women Fiction Writers
During the Vancouver Writers Fest, frustration turned into creation. A panel of five women, including the founder of the U.K.’s Orange Prize for fiction, discussed the current state of women’s...
Australia Launches Literary Award for Women — The Stella Prize
Australia has launched its first major literary award for women writers inspired by the UK Women’s Prize for fiction. The Stella Prize, named after author Stella Maria Miles Franklin who wrote...
Women Created and Centric TV Roundup
In women and television news, some more promising deals have been cropping up from NBC, The Hallmark Channel and MTV. NBC has picked up a drama from 9 To 5 writer, Patricia Resnick. Loosely...
14 Women are in The Hollywood Reporter’s Top 50 Showrunners of 2012
The Hollywood Reporter recently named their Top 50 Showrunners of 2012 for both comedy and drama. 14 of the 50 showrunners named were women. And women made up 4 of the 11 on the Showrunners to Watch...
Rebel Wilson Sells Comedy to Universal
I’m sure you are thinking that Women and Hollywood has become Rebel Wilson’s unofficial fan page. We kind of are, but we can’t help but be super excited that Rebel Wilson is blowing up. The...
Women Donors Save the Orange Prize for Literature
A group of female donors including Cherie Blair, Martha Lane Fox and the novelist Joanna Trollope have come in at the last minute to keep the Orange Prize for women’s fiction in existence. The...
Kelly Marcel Writing Fifty Shades of Grey Screenplay
As we previously reported, 3 female screenwriters, Karen Croner, Veena Sud and Kelly Marcel were in talks to adapt Fifty Shades of Grey. The golden ticket goes to Kelly Marcel for the...
Lena Dunham at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit and New Book Proposal
Lena Dunham is on a roll that looks like it cannot be stopped. Despite getting shut out of the Emmys, Dunham has been busy with season 2 of Girls (airing in January), publishing essays in The New...
The Best Quotes from Tina Fey’s Entertainment Weekly Interview
I believe that we have all come to a group consensus that Tina Fey is the best. As we reported last week, NBC feels the same about Fey. And so does Entertainment Weekly! In the current issue, Fey...
Guest Post: We Came! We Saw! We Threw Bananas! WE WERE THEATRE!
Since 2001 Guerrilla Girls On Tour! have staged an annual protest around the time of the Tony Awards to highlight sexism in theatre. We chose the Tony Awards because we wanted people to think about...
TV Pilot News: Malin Akerman to be ‘Trophy Wife’; Ilene Chaiken to CBS
Malin Akerman will be starring in Trophy Wife written and executive produced by Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins. As Deadline had reported, Trophy Wife received a cast-contingent pilot order earlier...
Tina Fey Covers EW and Signs a Four Year Deal with Universal TV
As the sun sets on her series 30 Rock starting next week with a slew of special guests including Amy Sedaris and Catherine O’Hara, Tina Fey takes a look back at the show and her movie career in an...
Link Round Up: Multiple New Women-Created, Focused TV Projects in Development
Over the past couple days multiple networks (and Netflix) have been reporting about a slew of women-created and women-focused TV projects that are currently in development. As we reported today,...
Women Created 26 Percent of the Television Shows in the 2011–2012 Season
As we get ready to launch the new television season the statistics are out for how women fared last season behind the scenes in the TV business. According to the Center for Study of Women in...
DVD and On Demand Round Up- September 13
This week there is an overwhelming amount of women-centric and created films released on DVD and On Demand. Here’s a round-up of your options to check out over the weekend. DVD Releases: Lola...
Renee Zellweger to Make Directorial and Stage Debuts
Renée Zellweger is going to be one busy lady. Zellweger has just signed on to make her feature directorial debut with 4 ½ Minutes. The film, which is loosely based on the experiences of stand-up...
Interview with Sarah Koskoff — Writer of Hello I Must Be Going
Hello I Must Be Going is the coming of age story of a 35 year old woman who had been sleepwalking through her life until her whole world is shaken when her husband leaves her. With no skills, no...
Women Directors Are Way More Successful in the Indie World
As we embark on the fall festival season, Dr. Martha M. Lauzen has published another one of her vitally important studies tracking the progress of women working behind the scenes on movies. In...
Interview with So Yong Kim — Writer/Director of For Ellen
So Yong Kim’s For Ellen stars Paul Dano in a beautiful performance as a young father forced to make a life altering decision about his relationship with his daughter Ellen. Dano plays Joby a...
Cross Post: Brenda Chapman on Writing BRAVE
Brave rocked the box office. Its themes of identity, responsibility, and family were equally appealing to boys and girls, adults and children. Its unique characters were memorable and brimming with...
Trailer Watch: For Ellen — Directed and Written by So Yong-Kim
In theaters September 19th. For Ellen, written and directed by So Yong-Kim, focuses on a absentee father and musician (Paul Dano) who has to make the decision about whether to fight for custody of...
Hope Springs Written by Vanessa Taylor
Here’s a confession. I got nervous when I saw the posters for Hope Springs. I am so used to seeing Meryl Streep play roles in which she seems larger than life that when I looked at the hairdo, the...
The Adrienne Shelly Foundation Announces 2012 Grant Recipients
The Adrienne Shelly Foundation announced their five new grant recipients for 2012. The five grants are awarded in conjunction with other organizations/ institutions including: Columbia University,...
Celeste and Jesse Forever
Here’s the first installment where we (the folks who bring you Women and Hollywood) give our opinions (sometimes similiar) of a film opening. I loved Rashida Jones before seeing Celeste and Jesse...
Guest Post: Should the Emmy Statue Get a Sex-Change?
Women are still going backwards and in high heels, but not in a good way. According to recent stats — women TV writers are losing ground. I just perused the Emmy website and counted only...
Interview with Aurora Guerrero — Writer/Director of Mosquita y Mari
Mosquita y Mari writer and director Aurora Guerrero answered some questions (by email) fresh from the film recently winning Best Actress (Fenessa Pineda) and the Audience Award for Outstanding First...
Ruby Sparks- Written by Zoe Kazan and Directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton
It’s no surprise that Zoe Kazan who penned the delightful new film Ruby Sparks opening today is a good writer. Both her parents — Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord are also top tier Hollywood...
13 Women Included in Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film
Yesterday, Filmmaker Magazine released its “25 New Faces of Independent Film,” showcasing new and emerging talent in independent film. Within the 25 selections, 37 individuals are...
Trailer Watch: Celeste and Jesse Forever — co-written by Rashida Jones
Looks adorable. Opens August 3.
Trailer Watch: Two Days in New York — Written and Directed by Julie Delpy
This is Delpy’s follow-up to 2 Days in Paris. Opens August 10 in theatres.
Trailer Watch: For a Good Time, Call…Written By Lauren Miller and Katie Anne Naylon
This was a big hit at Sundance. Could it be this year’s Bridesmaids? The film opens August 31. Yahoo! Video Player
Cross- Post: After Audra McDonald’s Historic Tony Award Win, Will Hollywood Finally Fully Embrace Her Talent?
Congratulations are in order for Audra McDonald who made history during last night’s Tony Awards celebration, becoming the first black woman to claim 5 Tony Award wins; last night’s pickup for...
Hollywood Reporter Drama Showrunner Panel — Four White Guys and Two Women of Color
It’s great to see Shonda Rhimes and Veena Sud here. Honestly, I don’t know how they could have done a panel with drama showrunners without including Rhimes since she has three shows on the air....
Author Jennifer Weiner Keynotes BookExpo America’s 2012 Bloggers Conference
Jennifer Weiner is one hugely successful author. I’ve liked many of her books especially her really early ones like Good in Bed and In Her Shoes (and the movie of the book is a seriously...
Cross Post: Women Writing Pilots — Nice Work if You Can Get It
Last week the networks announced the pilots they are picking up to series from among the ninety or so that were produced this year for ABC, CBS, CW, FOX and NBC. Certainly the relative success that...
Guest Post: What It Feels Like for a Girl
I really never thought I’d hear a sentence like this in 2012: “I can see making a coming-of-age story about a boy. But when it’s a girl… it’s just creepy.” And yet, that’s what a...
Trailer Watch: Forbidden Voices — Directed by Barbara Miller
An incredibly moving story of three women bloggers fighting to keep telling the truth. As First Lady Michelle Obama says: “courage can actually be contagious.” This film opened in Switzerland...
The Guthrie Theatre Announces Its 50th Anniversary Season With No Female Playwrights on the Program
The Guthrie Theatre is one of the most prestigious regional theatres in America. Next year it will be celebrating it’s 50th anniversary season. Joe Dowling, the 7th Artistic director of the...
Guest Post: A Wake Up Call
March may have been Women’s History Month, but we should be working actively all year to have more women’s work on film and on stage. We cannot accept the lowly statistics without activism....
Rocking Comment from Brave Director Brenda Chapman
I just wanted to thank all of you for the amazing the comments on the site this week. While I might not be the biggest responder to comments, I do read each and every one and try to comment on the...
Sneak Preview: Shonda Rhimes’ Scandal
Thanks to Shonda Rhimes next week will be a milestone week. It will be the first time in 30 years that a single African American woman will be the lead on a network TV show. (Jada Pinkett Smith was...
Smash Gets Renewed But Creator and Showrunner Theresa Rebeck Departs
With a one-two punch on Thursday afternoon, NBC renewed Smash — the show about creating a musical based on Marilyn Monroe, but also revealed that the creator, main writer, executive producer...
Guest Post: Just Do It: One Woman’s Journey to Making a Feature
I wish someone had told me when I started out that if you want to make a feature, you need to find a way to do it. Don’t wait for permission. Don’t wait for someone to recognize your brilliance...
Trailer Watch: Where Do We Go Now — Written and Directed by Nadine Labaki
The film will open the New Directors/New Films series on March 21 in NYC. Here is an interview I did with Labaki in Toronto back in September where it won the audience award. NYTLogo_gray#888888
Happy International Women’s Day: Women in Film and TV (UK) Releases 2012 Power List
Women in Film and Television (UK) partnered with Screen International and Broadcast have released the 2012 Women in Film and Television Power List. Here’s a quote from the head of Women in Film...
Trailer Watch: What to Expect When You Are Expecting — The Dude Version
This version is the studio trying to get some dudes to come and see this movie. Best line- it’s a dude club — like fight club but with babies. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone will see...
Jennifer Haley Wins 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
US based playwright Jennifer Haley has been awarded the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the most prestigious award for female playwrights for her play The Nether. She prevailed over 9 other...
Ten Finalists for the 2012 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
Now in it’s 34th year, this is the most prestigious prize for female playwrights. It’s like the female Pulitzer. It’s a way for female playwrights to get noticed, since they are stil not...