ALL POSTS
BIFA Holding Mandatory Unconscious Bias Training Ahead of 2018 Awards
The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) is addressing its own prejudices. Screen Daily reports that the organization is requiring its voters to complete unconscious bias training before its 2018...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Renée Beaulieu — “The Naturally Wanton Pleasure of Skin”
Renée Beaulieu holds a degree in screenwriting from INIS (the National Institute of Image and Sound), a PhD in film studies, and is a certified pharmacist. Her previous features include “Le...
Quote of the Day: Viola Davis Explains How Her “Widows” Hair Makes a Statement
In just a few short days “Widows” will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The caper’s star, Viola Davis, is speaking out about her look in the film,...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Patricia Rozema – “Mouthpiece”
Patricia Rozema’s first comedy feature, “I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing,” screened at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, where it won the Prix de la Jeunesse. It then...
Trailer Watch: Emma Stone & Rachel Weisz Vie for Olivia Colman’s Attention in “The Favourite”
Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz duke it out in a new trailer for “The Favourite.” Set in 18th century England, the comedy sees the Oscar winners at war with one another and England at war...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Wanuri Kahiu – “Rafiki”
Kenyan director-producer-writer Wanuri Kahiu’s first feature, “From A Whisper,” was based on the real-life events surrounding the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in...
September 2018 Film Preview
While the summer movie season is winding down, the release of films by and about women is not. September features a bevy of women-driven indies and star-studded studio releases. The month kicks off...
Weekly Update for August 31: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS MADE BY WOMEN OPENING Let the Corpses Tan – Written and Directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani (Opens in NY and LA) After stealing a truckload of gold bars, a gang of thieves...
“Sesame Street’s” Joan Ganz Cooney Becomes First Woman to Receive Top IBC Honor
Joan Ganz Cooney is making her way into history books. She’ll be the first woman to receive the International Broadcasting Convention’s International Honor for Excellence. Ganz Cooney is...
Trailer Watch: Amandla Stenberg in a Holocaust Story Unlike One That Has Ever Been Seen Before
“It wasn’t that I had not known I was different,” says Amandla Stenberg in a new trailer for “Where Hands Touch.” “As I reached 16 I realized Hitler had a plan for...
Venice 2018 Women Directors: Meet Nicole Palo – “Emma Peeters”
Nicole Palo’s credits include the 2005 short “Anna Doesn’t Know” and the 2008 feature “Get Born.” “Emma Peeters” will premiere at the 2018 Venice Film...
YouTube Orders Theresa Rebeck Pilot About Gender Inequality in Gaming Industry
Theresa Rebeck has a new show in the works. The “Smash” creator is taking on the world of gaming — and tackling its infamous misogyny. Deadline reports that YouTube has given a...
DGA Report: Women and POC First-Time TV Directors Made Gains in 2017-18 Season
Sometimes the fight to make the entertainment industry more inclusive can feel downright Sisyphean. Thankfully, that’s not always the case, as the Directors Guild of America’s (DGA)...
Teaser Watch: Elena Ferrante’s Epic Tale of Female Friendship Comes to HBO in “My Brilliant Friend”
Elena and Lila’s story is just months away from its small screen premiere. The first teaser has dropped for “My Brilliant Friend.” Based on Elena Ferrante’s international...
Dana Nachman on Her Guide Dog Documentary “Pick of the Litter”
Dana Nachman is an award-winning filmmaker of both fiction and documentary films. Nachman’s 2018 feature documentary, “Pick of the Litter,” was sold within 48 hours of its premiere at...
Female UK Playwrights Call for More Women-Written Plays to Be Commissioned, Included in Canon
Charlotte Jones, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Tanika Gupta, and more playwrights are calling time’s up on UK theater’s exclusion of women writers. According to The Stage, they are demanding...
Venice 2018 Women Directors: Meet Elsa Amiel — “Pearl”
Elsa Amiel previously directed two short films, “Ailleurs seulement” and “Faccia d’Angelo.” “Pearl” is her feature debut. “Pearl” will premiere...
Sonia Sanchez Awarded $100,000 Lifetime Achievement Prize from Academy of American Poets
Sonia Sanchez is the recipient of The Academy of American Poets’ prestigious Wallace Stevens Award. The New York Times reports the poet, author, and activist received the $100,000 lifetime...
Foreign-Language Oscar Submissions: Colombia Picks “Birds of Passage,” Estonia “Take It Or Leave It”
Two more women-directed films have joined the foreign-language Oscar race. Colombia named Cristina Gallego — and Ciro Guerra’s — “Birds of Passage” as their entry, and...
Trailer Watch: Anjelica Huston Won’t Be Bullied in Theresa Rebeck’s “Trouble”
Anjelica Huston and Theresa Rebeck are re-teaming for “Trouble.” A trailer for the drama about siblings feuding over property recently dropped. Huston and Rebeck previously collaborated...
“Crazy Rich Asians” & “The Wife” Among 22 Films to Receive ReFrame’s Gender Equality Stamp
ReFrame has bestowed its stamp of approval to 22 more films. Introduced earlier this summer, the stamp is given to films and TV projects that hire female-identifying individuals on both sides of the...
Trailer Watch: Elle Fanning Faces the End of the World in “I Think We’re Alone Now”
Elle Fanning (“Mary Shelley”) and Peter Dinklage (“Game of Thrones”) cross paths in a post-apocalyptic world in “I Think We’re Alone Now.” “Has anyone told you...
Venice 2018 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Marx — “L’Enkas”
Sarah Marx previously directed “Fatum,” a 2012 short about about a man struggling to reintegrate into society after serving time in jail. She later shot a documentary in a prison in...
London Film Fest’s Competition Lineup Is 50 Percent Women-Directed
Venice Film Festival is currently underway, and just one title screening in its Competition is directed by a woman. In contrast, the BFI London Film Festival just announced its 2018 Competition...
Amidst Backlash Over Lack of Women Directors, Venice Film Fest Signs Gender Parity Pledge
The Venice Film Festival is finally taking tangible steps toward gender equality. The festival signed the 5050×2020 Pledge yesterday, in spite of Artistic Director Alberto Barbera previously...
Quote of the Day: Guillermo del Toro Says Important Voices in the Biz Aren’t Being Heard
Guillermo del Toro is speaking out about the sexism plaguing the film industry. “I think the goal has to be 50-50 by 2020. If it’s 50-50 by 2019, that’s even better,” he said, referring...
Adina Pintilie’s Berlinale Winner “Touch Me Not” Snagged by Kino Lorber
“Touch Me Not” has secured North American distribution prior to its North American premiere at next month’s Toronto International Film Festival. Kino Lorber scored rights to the...
Trailer Watch: Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, & More Unite in “Tea with the Dames”
Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Eileen Atkins, and Joan Plowright crack open champagne and spill the beans in a new trailer for “Tea with the Dames.” The upcoming documentary sees the legendary...
Quote of the Day: Amandla Stenberg on Refusing to Compromise Her Own Power
Amandla Stenberg broke out in 2012 with her supporting role in “The Hunger Games,” but the actress takes the lead in another dystopian YA adaptation in theaters now. She toplines Jennifer...
Rotten Tomatoes Updates Critics Criteria to Be More Inclusive, Adds Over 200 Tomatometer-Approved Writers
After recent studies from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film found that film criticism is dominated by white men, Rotten Tomatoes is...
BBC America & Women’s Media Center Team Up to Increase Women’s Onscreen Representation
BBC America and Women’s Media Center (WMC) are working together to improve the media’s depictions of women. A press release has announced that the TV network and the feminist organization...
TIFF Names Joana Vicente as New Executive Director and Co-Head
The Toronto International Film Festival kicks off in just over a week, and the fest has announced major news in advance of its 2018 edition. A press release named Joana Vicente as the new Executive...
Miu Miu Women’s Tales 2018 Will Screen Shorts by Haifaa Al-Mansour and Dakota Fanning
Venice Film Festival has announced the offerings for this year’s Miu Miu Women’s Tales, a “dedicated program of film screenings and revealing conversations by some of the most exciting...
Trailer Watch: Rosamund Pike Is Addicted to War Zones in Marie Colvin Biopic “A Private War”
“War is not so terrible for governments, for they are not wounded or killed like ordinary people,” observes Rosamund Pike in the first trailer for “A Private War.” The biopic...
Cannes Winner “Girl” Is Belgium’s 2019 Foreign-Language Oscar Pick
“Girl” will be representing Belgium in the 2019 foreign-language Oscar race, Deadline confirms. The drama about a transgender teen took home the Camera d’Or at Cannes for best first...
Ava DuVernay to Premiere Short Film on OWN, Signs Open Letter About Hollywood’s Pay Gap
Ava DuVernay is set to premiere a new short film on OWN. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker will debut “August 28th: A Day in the Life of a People” on the network behind her TV series,...
Trailer Watch: Joey King Loses Her Grandma and Gains a Mission in Teen Pic “Summer ’03”
Joey King feels pressure to make her grandma’s dying wish a reality in a new trailer for “Summer ’03.” As she takes her final breath, Grandma (June Squibb,...
Trailer Watch: An Army Vet Brings a Malevolent Force into Her Home in “Lost Child”
“These are the Ozarks woods,” a family friend reminds Fern (Leven Rambin, “True Detective”), an army veteran who has just returned home. “These people around here, they...
Weekly Update for August 24: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING The Bookshop – Written and Directed by Isabel Coixet (U.S. Release) (Opens in NY and LA) England, 1959. Free-spirited widow Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) risks...
Inclusive “Bewitched” Remake from Yamara Taylor & Kenya Barris Gets Pilot Commitment at ABC
Time to joyfully wiggle your nose. Deadline confirms a racially inclusive “Bewitched” remake is on the way at ABC. The sitcom, written by “Black-ish’s” Yamara Taylor and...
Camden International Film Fest’s 2018 Lineup Is Over 50% Women-Directed
This year’s Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) promises to be a good one for women filmmakers. According to a press release, the documentary fest boasts full gender parity among its...
Sundance Institute Fellow Tayarisha Poe Directing Her First Feature Film
Tayarisha Poe’s “Selah and the Spades” is officially making its way to the big screen. According to Deadline, Poe is helming the film from her own script, marking her feature...
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen Writing Drama About Hawaiian Women for ABC, Viola Davis Producing
“Crazy Rich Asians” is breaking down barriers at the box office and on the small screen. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the commercial and critical hit directly influenced...
Both Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships Go to Women Writer-Directors
Erica Liu and So Young Shelly Yo are the 2018 SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellows. SFFILM, a Bay Area-based org championing films and filmmakers, announced the news in a press...
Sharon Horgan to Make Her Feature Directorial Debut, Has Yet Another Show in the Works
Sharon Horgan is squeezing two more projects into her jam-packed schedule. Deadline confirms the “Catastrophe” star and co-creator will direct her first feature film, and is teaming up...
Trailer Watch: Nicole Holofcener Explores a Mid-Life Crisis in “The Land of Steady Habits”
Convinced that something needs to change, Anders Hill (Ben Mendelsohn) quits his job in finance, which he describes as a “system of monstrous greed.” He doesn’t need more toys or...
Michaela Coel to Star in and Write Drama About Sexual Consent for BBC
Best known for “Chewing Gum,” an E4 comedy about a religious and reluctant virgin, Michaela Coel is set to tell another story with sexuality at the forefront, though this one more...
Trailer Watch: Dakota Johnson Makes a Deal with the Devil in “Suspiria”
“At the beginning she gave me things. Perfect balance. Perfect sleep. Now she wants to get inside of me. I can feel her. She can see me,” says Chloë Grace Moretz in a new trailer for...
Under the Radar: Yoko Yamanaka’s “Amiko” Is A Raw Coming-of-Age Story
High schooler Amiko (Aira Sunohara) is in love. The object of her affections is Aomi (Hiroto Oshita), a cool, counterculture guy with whom she bonds over their shared love of Radiohead. Despite his...
Melissa Rosenberg and Kay Cannon Score TV Deals
“Jessica Jones” showrunner Melissa Rosenberg and “Blockers” director Kay Cannon have both inked deals with indie television studios. According to The Hollywood Reporter,...
Amma Asante’s “Where Hands Touch” Acquired by Vertical
Amma Asante’s latest has secured distribution in advance of its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Deadline reports that Vertical Entertainment snagged North American...