ALL POSTS
Jessica Chastain Launches Production Company
In welcome but wholly unsurprising news, outspoken actress Jessica Chastain has launched a production company. Chastain is partnering up with development executive Elise Siegel at Freckle Films,...
Trailer Watch: ‘Orphan Black’ Season 4 Gets Premiere Date and New Preview
Stockard Channing to Star in Buddy-Comedy Pilot ‘Me & Mean Margaret’
Stockard Channing is returning to television in the NBC multi-cam series “Me & Mean Margaret.” Channing will play the nasty diva of the title, a legendary actress who’s as famous for her...
Shonda Rhimes Explains Her Year of Yes in Inspirational TED Talk
Before writer and showrunner extraordinaire Shonda Rhimes decided to spend a year saying yes to everything, public speaking was not her bag. Luckily for us, her “year of yes” — which became...
Amazon Orders Jill Soloway Pilot ‘I Love Dick’
If you loved Jill Soloway’s forays into academia on “Transparent” (including her on-screen stint as an over-the-top women’s studies lecturer in Season 1), you’re in luck: the...
Trailer Watch: Meryl Streep’s Opera Singer ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’ Dazes More Than She Dazzles
In the opera biopic “Florence Foster Jenkins,” it ain’t over ’til the deluded lady sings — and boy oh boy, would her listeners like it to be all over. Meryl Streep plays the aging...
Indigenous Media Launches ‘Made By Women’ Incubator With Major Mentors
The absence and exclusion of women in Hollywood are severe and unjust, which is why it’s encouraging to see so many initiatives sprout up in recent years to battle industry sexism. The latest is...
4 Women-Directed Gothenburg Film Fest Features to Put on Your Radar
This is the third of three dispatches from the 2016 Gothenburg International Film Festival. As the largest film festival in Scandinavia, the world’s leader in gender equality, the Gothenburg...
New ABC Chief Channing Dungey Becomes First African-American Broadcast Network Head
Channing Dungey made history yesterday by becoming the first African-Amerian head of a major broadcast network. Dungey will take over managing ABC from diversity champion Paul Lee. She was...
Marti Noxon to Adapt ‘Dietland’ for TV; Noxon and Barbara Hall Signs Development Deals
A couple of TV heavyweights have inked overall deals. Marti Noxon, a co-creator of Lifetime’s “UnReal” and an EP on “Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce,” has signed a seven-figure, three-year...
WMC Study: Women Get Fewer Than 1 in 5 Oscar Nominations in Non-Acting Categories
When the Oscars take place on Sunday, February 28, just 22% of the non-acting award hopefuls at Dolby Theatre will be female. Depressingly, that’s actually an above-average rate for women...
Desolate Towns and Sacred Spaces: February 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
This week’s crowdfunding picks are tied together by a strong sense of place, conjuring images of faraway landscapes or fleshing out the complexities of America’s marginalized communities....
We’ve Missed You, ‘Broad City’!
The effervescent, whip-smart “Broad City,” still the best rendering of best-friendship on TV, returned last night with an eye on one of New York (and women’s) most essential and least...
How the Swedish Film Institute Achieved 50–50 Funding Distribution Between Male and Female Directors
This is the second of three dispatches from the 2016 Gothenburg International Film Festival. Last year, we praised Anna Serner, the head of the Swedish Film Institute, who achieved her...
Elizabeth Wood’s ‘White Girl’ and Penny Lane’s ‘NUTS!’ Land at Streaming Sites
Two female-helmed features out of Sundance — Elizabeth Wood’s drug drama “White Girl” and Penny Lane’s animated medical documentary “NUTS!” — have found distribution....
Guest Post: How I Met the Subject of My Doc (Which Was Nominated for an Oscar 8 Years Later)
Listen: Women & Hollywood Podcast #20: Playwright Theresa Rebeck
What Happened After Swedish Theaters Introduced a Bechdel Rating for Its Movies?
This is the first of three dispatches from the 2016 Gothenburg International Film Festival. The Bechdel Test is a vastly imperfect tool for gauging a film’s feminism and gender progressivism. And...
Urgent PSA: ‘Broad City’ Returns Tonight!
Women and Hollywood is Hiring a News Editor
For the two years that she’s been with us, Inkoo Kang has been my rock: A fantastic writer and editor, a dedicated professional and a wonderful colleague. But on the good news and bad news front,...
Trailer Watch: Alice Returns to Wonderland and Battles Time in ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’
Maïwenn’s Cesar-Nominated ‘My King’ Lands U.S. Distribution Deal
Maïwenn’s highly acclaimed drama “My King” (Mon roi) — currently up for eight Cesar Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress for Emmanuelle Bercot and Best Actor for...
Trailer Watch: Mirjana Karanovic Questions What It Means to Be ‘A Good Wife’ in Post-War Serbia
A trailer has been released for Serbian actress Mirjana Karanovic’s directorial debut, “A Good Wife.” Karanovic (“Grbavica”), who co-wrote the script, stars as Milena, a homemaker living in...
LA’s She Screen Series Showcases Movies and TV Shows With Female Protagonists
Trailer Watch: Charlize Theron Unleashes the Monster Within Emily Blunt in ‘The Huntsman’
The ‘Ms. Factor’ Website Launches: A Toolkit to Make the Case For More Films By and About Women
A website has been launched for the Ms. Factor Toolkit: The Power of Female Driven Content. The project is a partnership between Women and Hollywood and the PGA Women’s Impact Network. The...
Trailer Watch: Kathy Bates Calls Melissa McCarthy Every Name in the Book in ‘The Boss’ Spot
After transforming from mousy assistant to formidable agent in “Spy,” Melissa McCarthy is all brass and bluster in “The Boss.” McCarthy plays Michelle Darnell, the self-proclaimed wealthiest...
Universal Buys Gillian Flynn’s Ghost Story ‘The Grownup’
Universal might have yet another female-led hit in its hands. The studio emerged the winner of a four-way bidding war for the rights to Gillian Flynn’s award-winning short story “The Grownup.”...
Watch: Journalist-Activists Film From Inside the Women’s Movement in ‘Here Come the Videofreex’
Trailer Watch: Claire Rewrites History in ‘Outlander’ Season 2
The hotly anticipated second season of Starz’s “Outlander” has a premiere date and a trailer. The time-traveling Claire (Catriona Belle) has quite the burden to bear: she knows too much....
Women Directors Missing From This Year’s Pilot Season
The new TV pilot season brings some good but mostly bad news for women directors. First, the good news: Leslye Headland (“Sleeping With Other People,” “Bachelorette”) and Jennifer Getzinger...
Trailer Watch: Kerry Washington Won’t Keep Silent in Anita Hill HBO Film ‘Confirmation’
“During the fall of 1982, Judge Thomas began to use work situations to discuss sex,” states Anita Hill (Kerry Washington) in a newly released trailer for HBO’s upcoming “Confirmation,” set...
Study: Only 21% of European Films Directed by Women
A new study has found that only one in five European films is directed by a woman, while 84% of public-funding resources go to male-directed films. Those are two of thedire statistics that emerge...
Trailer Watch: A Teacher Works with MI6 in Susanna White’s Spy Thriller ‘Our Kind of Traitor’
A trailer has arrived for British helmer Susanna White’s upcoming “Our Kind of Traitor.” The spot for the spy thriller comes hot off the news that Jessica Chastain will star in White’s next...
Weekly Update for February 12: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week How To Be Single — Co-Written by Dana Fox and Abby Kohn Single ladies Alice (Dakota Johnson) and Robin (Rebel Wilson) try to find the right way to be single...
Trailer Watch: Tina Fey is In Over Her Head In a War Zone In ‘Whiskey Tango Foxtrot’
The second trailer for “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” begins with reporter Kim Barker (Tina Fey) declaring, “Everyone needs to shake up their life now and then.” Few would contest Kim’s words of...
Meryl Streep Backs Writers Lab for Women Screenwriters Over 40
Meryl Streep is once again putting her money where her mouth is and supporting women in the film industry. The “Ricki and the Flash” star has signed on for the second time to fund The Writers...
Full Frame to Honor Director/Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson With Award, Retrospective
Filmmaker Kirsten Johnson will be feted at the 2016 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. Johnson will receive this year’s Tribute Award and have her 27-year career behind the camera showcased in...
Bring Your Kids to Work Week: Submissions Now Open for a Kid-Friendly Residency for Writers
SPACE on Ryder Farm and The Lilly Awards Foundation have announced year two of their Family Residency Program. What distinguishes this program from so many others is that it’s kid-friendly. As...
Trailer Watch: Tension and Dread Are the Main Courses in Karyn Kusama’s ‘The Invitation’
A man (Logan Marshall-Green) fears that his estranged ex-wife and her new husband have invited him to their home for suspicious reasons in Karyn Kusama’s “The Invitation.” The newly released...
Berlinale 2016 Women Directors: Meet Livia Ungur — ‘Hotel Dallas’
Livia Ungur was born in Communist Romania. She immigrated to America to study art, graduating from the Yale School of Art in 2015. She make films, sculptures, installations and performances. Since...
Apply to Get Your Web Series Made With the Support of Issa Rae and Project Greenlight Digital
Issa Rae and Project Greenlight Digital Studios are partnering up to showcase the visions of underrepresented writers. The New Normal Writing Contest is now accepting pitches for an anthologyweb...
Candice Bergen to Return to TV in ABC’s Cancer Comedy ‘Pearl’
Candice Bergen is the latest ’90s TV icon making a comeback. The “Murphy Brown” star will play the titular character in the ABC comedy “Pearl,” about a matriarch who decides to take...
Producer Reveals the Incredibly Terrible Ways Screenwriters See Female Characters — And Women
Producer Ross Putnam has created a new Twitter account that reveals the myriad ways Hollywood screenwriters devalue female characters and, by extension, women. The mastermind behind...
Trailer Watch: Reproductive Rights Are Under Attack in Sundance-Winning Abortion Doc ‘Trapped’
“Women are going to have abortions — it’s just that they’re not going to be safe and legal.” So begins the terrifying trailer for Dawn Porter’s timely new documentary “Trapped.”...
Taraji P. Henson to Play History-Making Math Genius in New Film ‘Hidden Figures’
After winning a Golden Globe for her portrayal of the irrepressible Cookie on Fox’s “Empire,” Taraji P. Henson has booked a new gig that will see her playing another fearless female. Henson...
Can Nikki Glaser Make Sexpert Comedy a Thing?
Back in the ’90s, “sex-positive” was a really big deal. Anka Radakovich held court over at Details magazine with her pioneering sexpert column; vibrators like “The Rabbit” made it into the...
‘The Killing’ Creator Veena Sud To Pen Remake of German Thriller ‘We Monsters’
Veena Sud is scripting Broad Green Pictures’ remake of German thriller “We Monsters.” The original film premiered at TIFF last year, and tells the blood-curdling story of a young girl who,...
Sofia Coppola to Direct Opera in Rome
Back in December Sofia Coppola made her musical directorial debut with the Netflix special “A Very Murray Christmas.” Now the Oscar winner is taking on another music-centric endeavor: directing...
Starz Plans Sequel to Philippa Gregory Historical Drama ‘The White Queen’
“The White Queen,” Starz’s Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated adaptation of the first in Philippa Gregory’s Cousins’ War book series, is getting a sequel. “The White Princess” is based on...
Charlotte Rampling To Star in Adaptation of Jane Austen’s Unfinished Novel ‘Sanditon’
Charlotte Rampling has booked a new gig. The British actress, who will be competing for the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in “45 Years” later this month, will star in “Sanditon.”...