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Women and Hollywood Podcast #6: Kate Muir, Chief Film Critic at The Times of London
Please listen to my podcast with Kate Muir, Chief Film Critic at the Times of London. We discuss Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken and Ava DuVernay’s Selma, as well as the holiday films that will be...
The Best TV Shows and Moments of 2014: Comics, Convicts, and Curmudgeons
The A to Z of Women in Film in 2014: Part 2
Read the first part of this series, “The A to M of Women in Film in 2014,” here. N is for Nicole Perlman The male domination of the Marvel universe became an increasingly hot topic this year,...
The Best Women-Directed Films of 2014
Women and Hollywood’s end-of-year coverage includes our “Best Women-Directed Documentaries of 2014 (That We Managed to See)” list, with much more to come in the next few days. The abysmal...
The Big O: Want to Win Oscar’s Heart? Put Down the Mascara and Hide the Comb
Yep, they are falling for it again. Call it glamming down, uglifying, or letting yourself go, but more actresses than usual are forgoing makeup and regular shampoos in order to impress those...
Liv Ullmann Awarded Coolest-Sounding Honor Ever for ‘Miss Julie’
Liv Ullmann will receive the Nordic Honorary Dragon Award from the Goteborg Film Festival (Jan. 23 — Feb. 2, 2015) in Sweden. The Norwegian actress and director will attend the festival,...
Trailer Watch: Searching for Solutions to Women’s Oppression in ‘A Path Appears’
Trailer Watch: The ‘Broad City’ Broads Ogle Hot Guys in a New Teaser
You know that scene in every 80s teen movie where a couple of high-fiving dorks gawk at a group of ridiculously beautiful women who are weirdly giving them the time of day? Broad City’s Ilana...
Seeking Our Story: The Art of Pioneering Animator Lotte Reiniger
The following is an excerpt from a forthcoming book by author Heidi Honeycutt. Charlotte “Lotte”Reiniger (1899–1981)was a German silhouette artist and animator in the first half of the...
The Best Women-Directed Documentaries of 2014 (That We Managed to See)
It’s very difficult to create a best-of-year list when you haven’t seen everything that’s available. More documentaries were released this year that can be seen by any reasonable person. But I...
13% of 2014 Black List Scripts Written by Women
Kristina Lauren Anderson’s Catherine the Great topped the 2014 Black List. Anderson’s scripted biopic of the Russian royal was the most popular among the 250 film executives who were polled by...
The A to Z of Women in Film in 2014: Part 1
In some ways, it’s been a year like any other. Some extraordinary female talent has broken through. Some miraculous, female-led stories have been told. And yet the industry as a whole has done its...
Brit Marling’s Feminist Western ‘The Keeping Room’ Bought by Drafthouse Films
A new feminist Western will ride into town next fall. Brit Marling will star alongside Hailee Steinfeld and Muna Otaru in The Keeping Room, in which a trio of Southern women band together to fend...
The Sony Hack, Amy Pascal, and Gender and Power in Hollywood
It hasn’t been a good couple of weeks for Amy Pascal and the folks at Sony. I would even venture to say that these last couple of weeks have been the shittiest of Ms. Pascal’s 30-year career in...
Only 5% of Oscar-Qualifying Scores Composed by Women
The statistics for women directors in the film industry are abysmal, but the statics for women composers are even worse. A recent study found that, of the 250 top-grossing films last year, only 2%...
Agnes Varda Criticizes Lack of Recognition for Women Directors at European Film Awards
One of the world’s most respected female directors has spoken out against the lack of recognition given to women in the film industry. Upon receiving a lifetime-achievement honor from the...
Margaret Cho to Host Late-Night Cable Talk Show About Sex
Looks like we’ll finally get some gender diversity in late night. TLC has announced a new show called All About Sex to be hosted by four women: comedians Margaret Cho and Heather McDonald,...
Weekly Update for December 12: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks Based on the international hit play by Richard Alfieri which has played in 24 countries and in 14 languages, Six Dance Lessons in...
Quote of the Day: Ava DuVernay
Earlier this week, Shonda Rhimes thanked her foremothers while receiving the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award for creating cracks in the glass ceiling so she could get through when the ABC VIP began...
Amy Schumer to Produce Comedy Central Show Starring Rachel Feinstein
Trailer Watch: What a Parent-Preteen Fight Looks Like from the ‘Inside Out’
BBC to Adapt J.K. Rowling’s Cormoran Strike Mystery Series for Television
J.K. Rowling’s post-Hogwarts mystery series is coming to television. Well, to British television, anyway. The BBC will adapt Rowling’s The Cuckoo’s Calling and The Silkworm — the two...
Penny Marshall to Direct Biopic Of Effa Manley, the First Woman to Make Baseball Hall Of Fame
A League of Their Own director Penny Marshall is returning to the diamond field with Effa, a biopic about Effa Manley, the first woman inducted into the baseball hall of fame. Manley was the...
Shonda Rhimes Pays Tribute to Hollywood’s Female Pioneers: “I Haven’t Broken Through Any Glass Ceilings”
It’s an unlikely statement, even a confusing one. “I haven’t broken through any glass ceilings,” announced Shonda Rhimes upon receiving the Hollywood Reporter’s Sherry Lansing Award,...
Sarah Silverman on Joan Rivers: She Was Punished “for the Crime of Getting Her Own Show”
https://medium.com/media/4d27489cc07caf17804240a953eb5868/href [via THR]
‘The Red Tent’: The Old Testament Minus Testosterone
Golden Globes Justifies Its Existence With Nods for ‘Transparent,’ ‘Jane the Virgin,’ Julianne Moore in ‘Maps to the Stars’
The Golden Globes proved its bona fides as a worthy alternative to the Oscars and the Emmys with this year’s nods. Nominees include small-screen dark horses unlikely to be recognized by the Emmys...
Ava DuVernay Becomes First African American Woman Nominated for Best Director Golden Globe
From my latest Forbes post on the importance of Ava DuVernay’s historic nomination: One of the most important parts of seeing Ava DuVernay’s nomination is the visibility that she will get on a...
Angelina Jolie, Shonda Rhimes, Oprah Winfrey Make Women in Entertainment Power 100 List
The Hollywood Reporter’s 23rd annual Power 100 list is out, and it’s more or less the list you’d expect: a few superstar actresses (Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence, Shailene Woodley);...
Women Dominate NAACP Awards’ Directing, TV Drama, Fiction Categories
Women weren’t hard to find among the NAACP Awards’ sprawling and maverick nominees in film, television, music, and books. Three female filmmakers — Ava DuVernay (Selma), Amma Asante...
Trailer Watch: ‘Little Accidents’ Expose a Big Secret in Elizabeth Banks Drama
The Big O: The Lone Craft Category That is Almost Always Sewn Up By Female Nominees
Quick: Name the one Oscar category outside of acting that’s routinely dominated not just by female nominees, but female winners. Here’s a hint: It involves dressing for success. Or, rather,...
Trailer Watch: Julianne Moore Grieves for Herself in ‘Still Alice’
https://screen.yahoo.com/still-alice-trailer-183000579.html?format=embed
Trailer Watch: Hannah Grows Up (Just a Little Bit) in New Spot for ‘Girls’ Season 4
‘Zero Motivation’ Director Talya Lavie on Finding Humor in the “Gray” Lives of Female Israeli Soldiers
Since winning the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival’s top prize (and the Nora Ephron award), Talya Lavie’s debut film, Zero Motivation, has become a critical darling. Currently boasting a 88% score on...
Athena Film Festival to Honor Gina Prince-Bythewood, Sheila Nevins, and Cathy Schulman
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood, HBO documentary president Sheila Nevins, and Oscar-winning producer and Women in Film president Cathy Shulman will be feted at the 2015 Athena Film Festival for their...
Leslye Headland, Amy Berg, Jennifer Siebel Newsom to Debut Films at Sundance 2015
Nine women-directed narrative and documentary features (out of a total of 29 premieres) will make their debuts at next year’s Sundance Film Festival. Among the much-anticipated first-time...
African-American Film Critics Assn. Names ‘Selma,’ ‘Belle,’ ‘Unbroken’ Among 2014’s Top Films
Selma has been named the African-American Film Critics Association’s top movie of the year. The first studio picture with Martin Luther King, Jr., as the protagonist won accolates from the AAFCA...
Trailer Watch: ‘Appropriate Behavior’ is the Next Great Love Story
‘Miss Julie’ Director Liv Ullmann on Adapting a Misogynistic 19th-Century Play for 21st-Century Sensibilities
After making her film debut as a teenager and gaining international fame by starring in ten of Ingmar Bergman’s movies (including Persona and Scenes from a Marriage), Liv Ullmann directed her...
Manohla Dargis Thrusts Ava DuVernay into the Best Director Race
In this Sunday’s NY Times Arts & Leisure section, one of the Grey Lady’s chief film critics, Manohla Dargis, forcefully made the case for Selma director Ava DuVernay to get recognized in the...
Weekly Update for December 5: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Week Wild Based on Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling memoir, Wild finds Reese Witherspoon au natural and reminds us that she is one of the best actresses of her...
Trailer Watch: Angela Bassett Directs Yaya DaCosta in Whitney Houston Biopic for Lifetime
I’ll say this for Lifetime: The cable network may draw little in the way of “prestige” attention, but it’s at least making mainstream, widely available movies about women of color like...
Krysten Ritter to Play Superheroine Jessica Jones in Netflix Series
If you’re still mourning the end of Don’t Trust the B — — , here’s some good news: Krysten Ritter is returning to television. According to Deadline, Ritter has been cast as Jessica...
‘Take Care’ Director Liz Tuccillo on Making a Movie About the Inevitable Awkwardness of Exes
You may not have heard of Liz Tuccillo, but you’ve definitely heard of her work. Tuccillo’s first credited script was “The Post-It Always Sticks Twice” episode of Sex and the City, a...
The Big O: Actresses Often Benefit When Musicals Catch Oscar’s Ear
Let’s sing the praises of musicals — especially when it comes to providing opportunities for female performers to shine at Oscar time. Such celebrations of song make up what is probably the...
4 Tips for Female Filmmakers from Ms. In the Biz
Here’s the hard truth. Thenumbers for women in the entertainment industry aren’t great. This is somethingthat we are all well aware of. When both of us started out in the business, wecame onto...
36% of 2015 Sundance Competition Films Directed by Women
In recent years, the Sundance Film Festival has come further than many other events of its kind in representing female directors. Sundance 2015 appears to be shaping up to its reputation as...
Trailer Watch: ‘Jane’ is a Portrait of Jane Fonda As a Young, Pre-Fame Artist
Reese Witherspoon to Receive Palm Springs Film Festival’s Chairman Award for ‘Wild’
The Reese-surgence is in full swing. Reese Witherspoon will receive the Chairman Award from the Palm Springs International Film Festival (Jan. 2–12), an institution rife with Academy voters, for...
Bravo’s ‘Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce’: A Mixed Bag of Tricks from ‘Buffy’ Scribe Marti Noxon
Full disclosure: I have never been divorced (or married), or had kids, so I can’t attest to the veracity of the events in Bravo’s Girlfriends’ Guide to Divorce on a personal level. As a viewer...