ALL POSTS
Paramount Options Jasmine Warga’s YA Novel About Suicide Pacts
If you thought “The Fault in Our Stars” required a box of tissues, gird your heart for Jasmine Warga’s “My Heart And Other Black Holes.” Paramount has bought the rights to the...
Sony to Adapt Broadway’s ‘Beautiful: The Carole King Musical’ into Movie
Broadway’s “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical” will soon be translated for the multiplex. The stage production focuses on King’s early career and includes songs like “Will You Love Me...
‘Insurgent’ Opens With $101 Million Intl’l Box Office, Continues 2015’s Trend of Female-Centric Hits
Female moviegoers have made “Fifty Shades of Grey,” “Cinderella,” and now “Insurgent” the three biggest live-action openings of the year so far. The “Divergent” sequel raked in $54...
‘Pretty Woman’ at 25: 10 Reasons Why This R-rated Cinderella Still Works Its Magic
The two biggest box-office openings so far in 2015 are a pair of fantasies aimed squarely at the female movie-going population: “Cinderella” and “Fifty Shades of Grey.” That their main...
Disney Channel Developing TV Movie About Pitcher Mo’Ne Davis
Mo’Ne Davis, the 13-year-old who became the first girl ever to pitch in the Little League World Series, will be the subject of a Disney Channel movie. The inspirational “Throw Like Mo” will...
Weekly Update for March 20: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week The Divergent Series: Insurgent “Insurgent” raises the stakes for Tris as she searches for allies and answers in the ruins of a futuristic Chicago. Tris...
Ann Hui Wins Multiple Hong Kong Directors’ Guild Awards for ‘The Golden Era’
The Hong Kong Directors’ Guild named Ann Hui Best Director in an awards ceremony Thursday night for her war biopic “The Golden Era.” The picture also won the Best Film and Best Actress...
Anonymous Actress Stands Up To Hollywood for Sexist Casting Practices
An actress using the pseudonym Miss L has launched a project targeting sexist casting calls and exposing the pressure she and her female colleagues face to appear in nude scenes. Miss L has chosen...
Ashley Judd and New SXSW Doc ‘GTFO’ Battle Misogynistic Trolls
Warning: This post contains graphic language about sexual violence. Ashley Judd is firing back against misogyny in the Twittersphere. In a brave and revealing essay for Identities.Mic, the...
Noteworthy Women-Centric VOD Films and Webseries
The internet has revolutionized the way that stories can be told and who can tell them. Easy access to audiences and the capability to make a product available with just a single upload have opened...
Guest Post: Meet Sally Pacholok, the Next Erin Brockovich
In 2012, I bought the life-story rights of a nurse who took on the medicalestablishment when she uncovered an epidemic of misdiagnoses. I had alwayswanted to produce a feature film, and I finally...
Amy Schumer to Receive CinemaCon’s Breakthrough Performer Award
Amy Schumer, star and screenwriter of “Trainwreck,” has been selected as CinemaCon’s Breakthrough Performer of the Year. Schumer is set to receive the award at Caesars Palace on April 23....
Writer Annie Neal to Transform Agatha Christie into a Swashbuckling Sleuth in Action-Adventure Film
What do Sherlock Holmes, Abraham Lincoln, and Agatha Christie have in common? They’re all big-screen action heroes in period drapery, at least if Paramount’s “Agatha” makes it to theaters....
Trailer Watch: Hailee Steinfeld is a Trained Assassin with a Curfew in ‘Barely Lethal’
In the international trailer for “Barely Lethal,” Hailee Steinfeld shows true grit as an orphan who attends a special school dedicated to training its young students to kill. The “Pitch...
Biopic of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Development
A movie about the personal and political lives of Angela Merkel, the popular leader of Germany, is been slated for a 2017 release. The biopic will hit theaters during an election year, in which...
Quote of the Day: Sally Field: “They Don’t Write Roles for Women of Age and Women of Color”
Sally Field spoke candidly about the lack of roles for women — particularly older women and women of color — in Hollywood during a recent interview with Variety. The Oscar-winning...
Sarah Polley, Amy Pascal to Team Up for ‘Little Women’ Remake
“Little Women” is headed back to theaters, this time with a script from Sarah Polley and the producing might of Amy Pascal. Two decades after director Gillian Armstrong’s retelling of Louisa...
‘One Big Happy:’ Lesbians Can Be Lame, Too
Novelist Louise Erdrich to be Honored by Library of Congress
Louise Erdrich will be awarded this year’s Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. The renowned author is perhaps best known for her novels “Love Medicine” and “The Round House,”...
Mia Hansen-Løve, Jasmila Žbanić Among Finalists for German Women’s Film Festival Competition
The International Women’s Film Festival in Dortmund/Cologne has announced the eight finalists vying for the €15,000 RWE Film Award. The filmmakers in competition — all women directors...
33% of Contenders for San Francisco Festival’s Golden Gate Awards Directed by Women
Six women-directed films — three narrative, three nonfiction — will compete for the San Francisco International Film Festival’s Golden Gate Awards this year. The total of 18 films...
Kirsten Schaffer Appointed New Executive Director of Women In Film, Los Angeles
Kirsten Schaffer has been named the next Executive Director of Women In Film, Los Angeles. Schaffer previously served as Executive Director of Outfest, the prominent LGBT media arts organization....
Christine Vachon at SXSW: “TV Has Already Left [Film] in the Dust” in Terms of Roles for Actresses
Legendary indie producer Christine Vachon celebrated the 20th anniversary of her production company Killer Films — now known as Killer Content — with a keynote at this year’s SXSW....
Amy Schumer at SXSW: “I Wanna Get [‘Feminism’] Tattooed on My Cl*t”
“I wanna get [the word ‘feminism’] tattooed on my cl*t,” Amy Schumer announced recently at SXSW, where she’s debuting the comedy “Trainwreck.” The raunchy rom com marks Schumer’s...
Joan Didion’s Essay ‘Goodbye to All That’ Optioned for Screen Adaptation
Call it the Joan-aissance. After appearing in a viral ad for the French fashion house Céline, literary icon Joan Didion is back in the news for having one of her best-known essays optioned for a...
Meera Menon to Direct Female-Driven Wall Street Drama ‘Equity’
“Farah Goes Bang” director Meera Menon has found her next project. Broad Street Pictures has chosen Menon to helm “Equity,” which the production company bills as the first female-driven...
Director/Choreographer Kathleen Marshall on Her Process, Female Mentors, and Developing New Musicals
Cross-posted with permission from The Interval. Let’s go put on a Broadway show! We can do it! Okay, this is some hubris on our part, but also the effect that listening to someone talk both...
Talking Women’s Issues and the Intersection of Feminism and Film in Kolkata, India
It is a very exciting time to be in India. The country is having a national conversation about gendered violence. There are not only the very heated debates about “India’s Daughter,” but new...
Director Rose Troche Honored with the 2015 Outfest Fusion Achievement Award
Writer-director-producer Rose Troche was recognized with the 2015 Outfest Achievement Award at an event for the LGBT film festival on Saturday, March 14, at the Egyptian Theater. Troche’s...
‘Suffragette,’ Starring Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep, to be Released by Focus Features
Director Sarah Gavron’s “Suffragette” will be distributed in North America by Focus Features this fall. The British film focuses on the early-twentieth-century battle to win the vote for UK...
Trailer Watch: Looking for a Death Partner in Jessica Hausner’s ‘Amour Fou’
The trailer for Austrian writer-director Jessica Hausner’s “Amour Fou’” begins with a conversation between a younger woman and an older man about what can and cannot be chosen in life, with...
Quote of the Day: Paul Feig on Women Directors and Sexist Reactions to All-Female ‘Ghostbusters’
Paul Feig isn’t mincing words when it comes to sexism in Hollywood and beyond. While doing press at SXSW for “Spy,” his third collaboration with Melissa McCarthy, which premiered at the...
Rihanna Becomes Subject of Documentary “Character Study,” First Black Spokeswoman for Dior
Rihanna’s world domination continues. Two weeks before the release of “Home,” in which the “Diamonds” singer voices a resourceful teenager who befriends a banished alien, Rihanna...
America Ferrera Returns to TV in NBC’s Single-Cam Comedy ‘Superstore’
America Ferrera’s finally back! The Emmy and Golden Globe winner has signed on to her first TV series since “Ugly Betty” wrapped up its four-season run in 2010. Ferrera will star in and...
Trailer Watch: Zoe Saldana Doesn’t Regret Marrying a Manic-Depressive Man in ‘Infinitely Polar Bear’
https://movies.yahoo.com/video/infinitely-polar-bear-trailer-163000047.html?format=embed
SXSW Women Directors: Meet Jessica Edwards — ‘Mavis!’
Jessica Edwards has a broad background in the film industry as a director, producer and publicist. Her short film “Seltzer Works” screened at SXSW and many other festivals before airing on PBS....
Quote of the Day: Shonda Rhimes: “I Make TV Look Like the World Looks”
“I really hate the word ‘diversity,’” announced Shonda Rhimes at the Human Rights Campaign Gala this past Saturday. The “Scandal” creator and “How to Get Away With Murder” producer...
Ava DuVernay’s SXSW Keynote: “I Have Had the F*cking Most Awesome Year”
“I’ve had the fucking most awesome year,” Ava DuVernay admitted in her keynote speech at this year’s SXSW festival. “I can’t even describe it.” The “Selma” director displayed...
Guest Post: Why I Started a Festival Dedicated to Socially Relevant Films
March 16 is a bittersweet day for me. This year, the day marks the 11th anniversary of the violent death of mydear cousin, actress/producer Vanya Exerjian. But it’s also the launch date of the...
Trailer Watch: Queen Latifah Sings Through Her Suffering in Dee Rees’ ‘Bessie’ Smith HBO Biopic
HBO has released a teaser trailer for “Bessie,” the upcoming biopic of Bessie Smith from writer-director Dee Rees (“Pariah”). “It’s a long road, but I’m gonna find the end,” sings...
SXSW Women Directors: Meet Katie Cokinos — ‘I Dream Too Much’
Katie Cokinos has a history of supporting independent film, starting in Texas, where she was an administrator for SWAMP and Managing Director of the Austin Film Society. She’s made five short...
Netflix Picks Up Hannah Fidell’s ‘6 Years’
One day after its world premiere at SXSW 2015, Hannah Fidell’s improvised coming-of-age romance “6 Years” has been purchased by Netflix. The film stars Taissa Farmiga and Ben Rosenfeld as a...
SXSW Women Directors: Meet Alex Sichel and Elizabeth Giamatti — ‘A Woman Like Me’
Alex Sichel (Writer, Director) directed the feature “All Over Me”, released by New Line, which UCLA’s Journal of Cinema and Media Studies named one of the top films by women directors. All...
SXSW Women Directors: Meet Director Phie Ambo & Producer Malene Flindt Pedersen — ‘Good Things Await’
PhieAmbo directed the film “Mechanical Love,” which was in the Joris Ivenscompetition in 2007. It has screened at 15 film festivals and won two first prizes. In 2005 she directed the film...
SXSW Women Directors: Meet Alexandria Bombach and Mo Scarpelli — ‘Frame by Frame’
AlexandriaBombach is an Emmy Award-winning filmmaker who lives on the road. The founder of Red Reel, Bombach is known to sell all her belongings to tell a story shebelieves in. Mo Scarpelli is a...
SXSW Women Directors: Meet Betzabé García — ‘Kings of Nowhere (Los Reyes Del Pueblo Que No Existe)’
Betzabé García’s first feature documentary film, “Kings of Nowhere,” was thewinner of the Program of Promotion of Projects, the Cultural Joint Ventures ofthe National Fund for Culture and...
India’s Daughter: Can a Movie Change a Country’s Attitude Towards Women?
As I sit on this flight to India to participate in the American Film Showcase program, I can’tstop thinking about the documentary “India’s Daughter.” The filmmade headlines across the world...
SXSW Women Directors: Meet Zuzanna Solakiewicz — ’15 Corners of the World’
Zuzanna Solakiewicz graduated from the University of Warsaw before going on to study directing at the Sam Spiegel Film & TV School in Jerusalem. She has completed an internship at the Lodz Film...
SXSW Women Directors: Meet Anna Sofie Hartmann — ‘Limbo’
Anna Sofie Hartmann was born in Denmark. She studied for a year at the European Film College in Aarhus. After moving to Berlin, she worked at the Studio Olafur Eliasson. In 2008 she began studying...
Weekly Update for March 13: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This WeekCinderella — Co-Written by Aline Brosh McKenna After her father unexpectedly dies, young Ella (Lily James) finds herself at the mercy of her cruel stepmother...
Trailer Watch: ‘Iris’ Makes Fashion Fun Again
“I didn’t give a damn about going to the party or being at the party, it was getting dressed for the party — and there’s truth and poetry in that,” says fashion icon Iris Apfel, the...