ALL POSTS
May 2016 Film Preview
“Gayby Baby” There’s an array of choices to support female-centric and/or women-directed films in May. The month kicks off with “Gayby Baby,” a documentary that explores the increased...
Elisabeth Moss Will Star in Adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale”
“Mad Men” and “Top of the Lake” star Elisabeth Moss has signed on to an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Streaming service...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Trisha Ziff — “The Man Who Saw Too Much”
Trisha Ziff’s feature documentary credits include “Chevolution” and “The Mexican Suitcase.” Ziff’s “Pirate Copy; Pirate Stories” is a collection of three shorts following a road trip...
Trailer Watch: “Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)” Sparks Sexual Awakening
Eva Husson titled her directorial debut “Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story),” but it’s evident from the trailer here that what she’s talking about is a teenage version of love. No less fraught...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Zaynê Akyol— “Gulîstan, Land of Roses”
Zaynê Akyol is an award-winning filmmaker of Kurdish origin who was born in Turkey and raised in Quebec. Akyol won the René Malo Chair/National Film Board of Canada award for most promising...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Heidi Brandenburg — “When Two Worlds Collide”
Heidi Brandenburg co-founded Yachaywasi Films to explore social and environmental issues and challenge audiences to rethink preconceptions. Born in Paraguay and raised in Peru and Germany, she now...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Katja Gauriloff — “Kaisa’s Enchanted Forest”
Katja Gauriloff was born in Inari, Finland and is part of Lapland’s indigenous Sami Skolt tribe. Today she is a film director and co-owner of the Oktober Production Company. Her previous...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Anjali Nayar — “Gun Runners”
Anjali Nayar’s award-winning filmmaking and journalism work has explored myriad topics, ranging from climate change to political activism to pop culture. In her fractionally fictional documentary,...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors — Meet Monika Grassl — “Girls Don’t Fly”
Monika Grassl was born in in Vienna, Austria. In 2006 she wrote an analysis about Austrian documentary filmmaking for the Vienna Film Fund. She also created monthly portraits about unusual people...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Francesca Scalisi— “Half-Life in Fukushima”
Francesca Scalisi is an Italian director and editor. She is a co-founder of “Dok Mobile,” a film production company based in Switzerland. In 2015, she directed and produced the short film,...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Alethea Arnaquq-Baril — “Angry Inuk”
Alethea Arnaquq-Baril is an Inuit filmmaker from the Canadian Arctic, where her production company, Unikkaat Studios, is based. For her award-winning APTN documentary “Tunniit: Retracing the Lines...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Susanne Regina Meures — “Raving Iran”
Susanne Regina Meures was born in west Germany. She studied photography and art history at The Courtauld in London and film at the Zurich University of the Arts. She worked for numerous print...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Nicole Ma — “Putuparri & the Rainmakers”
Nicole Ma is an award-winning director and producer of new media, for Yiwarra Kuju: Canning Stock Route Project, and the inaugural exhibitions for the National Museum of Australia. Ma’s work...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Tal Barda — “The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev”
Tal Barda is a graduate of Tel Aviv University’s Film and Television Department. She is also a graduate of Le Mirail University in France. Her directing and producing credits include “A...
Weekly Update for April 29: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
“The Wait” Films About Women Opening This Week Viktoria — Written and Directed by Maya Vitkova (Opens in NYC) Maya Vitkova’s debut feature “Viktoria,” follows three generations of...
Trailer Watch: Maïwenn’s “Mon Roi” Hits the U.S.
Filmmaker Maïwenn may be best known stateside for playing Diva Plavalaguna in “The Fifth Element,” but her notable French filmmaking career may soon take off in the U.S. thanks to...
Penélope Cruz to Star in Toni Kalem’s “Layover”
Penélope Cruz is set to hit the road in Toni Kalem’s “Layover.” The Oscar-winner will play a traveling saleswoman who, according to the release, goes “on the lam from her life.” Claire...
Julie Dash’s Landmark Film “Daughters of the Dust” Restored for Re-release
Cohen Media Group has announced that their branch Cohen Film Collection has acquired rights to and will release a new restoration of Julie Dash’s landmark film “Daughters of the Dust.” They...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Tiffany Hsiung — “The Apology”
Tiffany Hsiung is an award-winning filmmaker based in Toronto. Since 2009, Hsiung has been documenting the lives of survivors of military sexual slavery during World War II; for the past six years,...
“Viktoria” Director Maya Viktova on the Difficult Journey To Make Her Directorial Debut
Maya Viktova is a writer-director and producer. In 2008, she executive produced Kamen Kalev’s debut feature “Eastern Plays,” which premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2009 and...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Christy Garland — “Cheer Up”
Before moving to documentary filmmaking, Christy Garland directed several award-winning dramatic and comedic shorts, while working in the film industry as an assistant director. The Canadian...
“Game of Thrones” Season 6 Has Less Misogyny… For Now?
Did “Game of Thrones” take all the criticism about misogyny to heart? The plot of its season premiere would suggest so. While Season 6 kicked off with about the same level of crushing gloom and...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Min Sook Lee — “Migrant Dreams”
Award-winning filmmaker Min Sook Lee has a diverse and prolific portfolio of multimedia work. Lee has directed numerous critically acclaimed social documentaries, including “My Toxic Baby,”...
“Women’s Films Have an Uphill Battle”: Women in Sundance Fellows Learn from the Vets
Women at Sundance Fellows: Kering Earlier this week, Women in Sundance fellows were gathered for a special workshop, put together by Kering and the Sundance Institute. The workshop was designed to...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Aude Leroux-Lévesque — “Living with Giants”
In 2009, Aude Leroux-Lévesque moved to Bangladesh to co-direct her first documentary, “Call Me Salma.” The film aired on Direct 8, ARTE, EBS Korea, and screened at over a dozen film festivals....
Trailer Watch: Alicia Vikander Goes Dutch in “Tulip Fever”
Alicia Vikander’s star is continuing to rise. She just signed on to be the next Lara Croft in a “Tomb Raider” reboot, but before she hits the video game world, she’ll revisit a period drama...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Nettie Wild— “KONELĪNE: our land beautiful”
Nettie Wild is one of Canada’s leading documentary filmmakers. She is best known for her award-winning documentary features “FIX: The Story of an Addicted City” (2002), “A Place Called...
Friends, Family, and Strange Creatures: May 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
“No Man’s Land” This month’s crowdfunding picks feature nuanced works by women directors looking to tell stories that don’t get told often enough. These picks examine family relationships,...
An Authorized Whitney Houston Doc Is in the Works
From the same team that brought us “Amy,” the Oscar-winning Amy Winehouse documentary, a Whitney Houston documentary is now in the works, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Houston, widely...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Nimisha Mukerji — “Tempest Storm”
An award-winning director of film and television, Nimisha Mukerji’s work has been featured on National Geographic and VICE. Her critically acclaimed debut feature “65_RedRoses” was selected by...
Nzingha Stewart To Write and Direct “The 10th Date” for Lifetime
According to Deadline, Lifetime is preparing a two-hour movie called “The 10th Date,” which could serve as a backdoor pilot for a series. The project will be written and directed by Nzingha...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Maria Arlamowsky — “Future Baby”
Maria Arlamowsky lives and works in Vienna, Austria. She studied at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna, the Film Academy, and Donau University in Krems. (Press materials) “Future...
Women In Film Los Angeles Now Accepting Grant Applications
Female filmmakers, are you ready for some cash? Women In Film Los Angeles has begun accepting applications for their 2016 Finishing Fund grants. The entry period opened yesterday and WIF will be...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Joanna Sokolowski and Kate Trumball-LaValle — “Ovarian Psycos”
Documentary filmmakers Joanna Sokolowski and Kate Trumbull-LaValle met while earning their M.A. in Social Documentation at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Directing their thesis films, the...
Cannes Final Juries Curiously Feature Female Actors and Male Directors
The Un Certain Regard Jury: Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival, which will run from May 11–22 this year, has announced the jury members of the Un Certain Regard, Camera D’Or, and...
Daisy Ridley to Star in Holocaust Drama “The Lost Wife”
Daisy Ridley continues to ride the wave of her “Star Wars” success. According to Variety, the “Force Awakens” breakout is attached to star in “The Lost Wife,” a drama based on Alyson...
Trailer Watch: “The Fits” Turns Hysteria Into Dance
To film her directorial debut, “The Fits,” director Anna Rose Holmer scoured the West End of Cincinnati to cast real, non-actor teenagers for added authenticity. The resulting energy is clear...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Aslaug Holm— “Brothers”
Aslaug Holm is an award-winning director, cinematographer, and editor, as well as a partner and founder at Fenris Film since 1992. She has directed over 20 documentaries, including “The Rich...
LA Film Festival Unveils 2016 Lineup with 43% Women Directors
“Paint it Black”: LA Film Festival The LA Film Festival has revealed the lineup for its 2016 edition. Women directors are very well represented in the 22nd annual fest— take note, Cannes. The...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Molly Reynolds — “Another Country”
Molly Reynolds specializes in screen-based storytelling and digital media production. When she isn’t earning a living as a consultant in the digital sphere, she makes documentaries, including...
Lesli Linka Glatter Will Receive AFI’s Alumni Medal
Director Lesli Linka Glatter will be honored with the 2016 Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal, the American Film Institute has announced in a release. The award, AFI notes, “recognizes the...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Samira Goetschel — “City 40”
Samira Goetschel is an Iranian-born American award-winning filmmaker based in Los Angeles. An alumnus of NYU Film School, her graduating film, “Clown de la Vie,” won Best Short Film at the New...
Trailer Watch: “AbFab” Ladies Kill Kate Moss and Flee to France
Edina (Jennifer Saunders) and Patsy (Joanna Lumley) are coming to the big screen, and now a full-length trailer has been released giving us an idea of what to expect from the tremendously...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Viveka Melki— “After Circus”
Viveka Melki is a storyteller working primarily in film. Her projects shed light on social issues that are often overlooked and focus on the resilience and hope of individuals and communities...
Paramount TV Developing “All the Single Ladies” from Rebecca Traister
Paramount TV has picked up the rights to Rebecca Traister’s best-selling book “All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation,” Variety has reported. Traister,...
Disney’s Upcoming Slate Includes Few Female Directors
Like 20th Century Fox before them, Disney recently released a line-up of films with few female directors in sight. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney has staked out prime release dates for...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Susan Gluth — “Urmila: My Memory Is My Power”
Susan Gluth was born in Hamburg. After practical training as a forest ranger, cook, and veterinarian, she studied business and commerce, followed by film at the University of Television & Film...
Meet the Winner of Marvel’s Women in STEM Internship Challenge
Coinciding with the upcoming May 6 release of Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War,” Disney and Marvel Studios, Dolby Laboratories, Synchrony Bank, Broadcom MASTERS and Science &...
Karlovy Vary Film Festival to Feature Mexican Female Directors
“Amazing Cat Fish”: Karlovy Vary Film Festival The Karlovy Vary Film Festival, which runs from July 1–9 this summer, has announced this year’s fest will include a special segment focusing on...
Hot Docs 2016 Women Directors: Meet Eva Orner — “Chasing Asylum”
Academy and Emmy Award winner Eva Orner is an Australian filmmaker based in Los Angeles. According to her bio, Orner wrote, directed, and produced the feature documentary “The Network,” set...
Trailer Watch: Penélope Cruz Fights Breast Cancer in “Ma ma”
Few movies stars can bridge the divide between Europe and the U.S. as effortlessly as Penélope Cruz. Though she continues to appear in American studio flicks like “Zoolander 2” and“The...