ALL POSTS
Updated: Lupita Nyong’o Options Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Trans-Atlantic Love Story Americanah
Update: Since this post was published, Lupita Nyong’o was (finally) cast in the next Star Wars movie and Brad Pitt’s production company, Plan B, joined D2 Productions. and Potboiler Productions...
Crosspost: The Fault in Our Stars: Our Love Affair with Romance and Feminism
Pain demands to be felt. So goes one of the wise lines from John Green’s bestselling novel The Fault in Our Stars. The line is prominently featured in the movie of the same title — and...
Obvious Child Director Gillian Robespierre: “We Don’t Make Abortion Funny. We Make a Character Funny.”
Obvious Child is the kind of movie that helped me remember why I love movies. I was laughing my ass off even before the credits, and that’s when I knew I was in for a treat. In this tightly...
Eimear McBride’s First Novel Wins Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction
It took debut novelist Eimear McBride many years to get her first book published after writing it in six months, but since then, it’s been much smoother sailing. Since A Girl is a Half-formed...
Lupita Nyong’o is Going to a Galaxy Far, Far Away
Earlier this week, it was announced that Lupita Nyong’o will be joining the cast of Star Wars: Episode VII. This is big news one of Hollywood’s biggest fantasy epics, which has been told...
Celine Sciamma’s Black Parisian Drama Girlhood Finds Distribution
Just a few weeks after its screening at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight, Celine Sciamma’s third film, Girlhood, has been picked up for American distribution (it has also sold throughout...
Trailer Watch: Dakota Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen Stop Being ‘Very Good Girls’
Following on the heels of Elizabeth Olsen’s Godzilla and Dakota Fanning’s Night Moves is the directorial debut of veteran screenwriter Naomi Foner. Very Good Girls, also penned by Foner, stars...
Guest Post: Creating My Film Footprint: The Importance of Women on Both Sides of the Camera
As far back as I can remember, I have always hada deep passion for movies, which probably derives from my fascination with thehuman character. The ability that film offers to travelwith a character...
In Praise of “Go Fuck Y’Self” Women: Lori Petty in Orange is the New Black
Orange is the New Black is back Friday, all 13 episodes of the second season will be miraculously available at 12:01 AM on Netflix. And what a return it is. I’ve only seen the first episode, and...
30% of Films at Karlovy Vary Festival Directed by Women
The 49th Karlovy Vary Film Festival, which will take place on July 4–12 in Carlsbad, the Czech Republic, will showcase ten women-directed films (from a total of 34). Female representation at the...
Star Wars Announces Lupita Nyong’o and Gwendoline Christie’s Additions to the Cast, But Why Did They Wait?
Last week, I deplored the fact that the only casting confirmation we’d heard about Lupita Nyong’o’s post-Oscar career was a voiceover gig in The Jungle Book. I was thrilled to be proven wrong...
Women Writers Fight Against Lupus (Bonus Book Excerpt from Jane Espenson)
Seventeen women writers from TV shows as diverse as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, Family Guy, and Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD have grouped together to...
Women in Film-LA to Honor the Leaders of Its PSA Program
For the last 20 years, Women in Film has given its members the opportunity to hone their skills while giving back to the community through its Public Service Announcement Production Program. Each...
June 2014 Film Preview
With only one movie with a female protagonist opening wide, June will be a lean month for women at the multiplex, even by Hollywood standards. Despite not being a feminist, Shailene Woodley will...
Submit Your Film to the Athena Film Festival
The Athena Film Festival is currently accepting submissions until September 15, 2014, for its sixth annual event. Located at Barnard College in Manhattan, the Athena Film Festival is an engaging...
Maleficent Soars to the Top of the Box Office with $170 Mil in Global Ticket Sales
After a four-year absence from the big screen, Angelina Jolie crushed the competition and delivered the highest opening weekend of her career with Maleficent. Disney’s retelling of Sleeping...
Weekly Update for May 30: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
FilmsAbout Women Opening Maleficent– Written by Linda Woolverton We’veall been waiting a long time for Angelina Jolie to be back on the big screen.She’s devoted her time to many worthy...
Guest Post: How to Carry the Collaborative Spirit into the Realm of Distribution
Last summer, filmmakers David Lowery, Destin Cretton, AdamWingard and Joe Swanberg discovered that all of their movies were hittingtheaters and VOD on or around the same date. In this competitive...
Guest Post: Telling a Female Story with a (Nearly) All-Female Crew
“There is a special place inhell for women who don’t help other women.” — Madeleine Albright And even more so when itcomes to making movies. My first feature film, Emoticon 😉, tells...
Women and Hollywood is Hosting an LA Meet Up on June 13
I’m coming to LA and am going to host a meet up where we can all hang out, chat, network and make some trouble on June 13. Details: June 13 7pm to at least 9. Le Zinque in Venice — 600...
Review: We Are the Best! is an Unapologetically Awesome (and Complex) Story of Female Friendship and Rebellion
Somegirls just don’t care about being pretty. That’sa truth that none of the kids around 13-year-old best friends Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) and Klara (Mira Grosin) can comprehend.The other girls...
Maleficent Writer Linda Woolverton on Adapting Fairy Tales for a New Generation
Morethan a decade before Frozen’s Jennifer Lee became thefirst woman to direct a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature and Brave’s Brenda Chapman became thefirst female director of a Pixar film,...
Quote of the Day: Dakota Fanning
Former child-actor prodigy Dakota Fanning has gone from starring in films to critiquing them. The current NYU student, who’s a women’s studies major with an emphasis on studying “the portrayal...
Trailer Watch: Quvenzhane Wallis Anoints Herself Robin to Jamie Foxx’s Batman in New Annie Spot
Though he just starred as a villain in the new Spider-Man sequel, Jamie Foxx styles himself as a hero — namely, Batman — in the new Annie trailer. “This city needs me,” declares his...
Night Moves Director Kelly Reichardt On How Her “Action Film” Is About People, Not Politics
After gaining notice for Wendy and Lucy and Meek’s Cutoff, her small but critically acclaimed collaborations with actress Michelle Williams, director Kelly Reichardt has made the...
Pixar to Release Its Second Movie With a Female Protagonist Next Year
On the heels of Disney’s Frozen becoming the fifth highest-grossing film of all time comes news of Pixar’s next girl-centric movie. Inside Out, which will only be the second Pixar release with a...
Guest Post: The Film Fatales Inspire DIY Chapters
On Tuesday night, afull house of Independent Filmmaker Project members gathered at the Made in NY Media Center in downtownBrooklyn to meet the Film Fatales face-to-face. Earlier this month,...
The Other Women of Mad Men
In a recent Facebook discussion about the awful events of last weekend, and whether or not our sexist cultural landscape was to blame, I was reminded by a brilliant, feminist playwright friend of...
Trailer Watch: Robin Wright Animates Herself in The Congress
Actresses of a certain age will take any number of drastic measures to stop the march of time, but few are probably brave enough to undergo the extreme procedure Robin Wright volunteers for in The...
Nia Vardalos Prepping My Big Fat Greek Wedding Sequel
No success story better exemplifies Hollywood’s inability to cater to female tastes than Nia Vardalos’ sleeper hit My Big Fat Wedding, a romantic comedy written by and starring a then-chubby...
The Mindy Project, The Good Wife, and Orange is the New Black Earn Multiple TCA Nods
Several perpetually overlooked shows when it comes to awards time by and about women were nominated by the Television Critics Association Awards. Robert and Michelle King’s The Good Wife led the...
Killer FIlms and Glass Elevator Merge
Two production companies known for their friendliness to female-centric and women-driven projects have announced a merger. Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler’s Killer Films — the outfit...
Frozen Becomes the 5th Top-Grossing Movie of All Time
Thanks to the international box office, Disney’s Frozen has become the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time, as well as the single highest-grossing film with a clear female protagonist and a...
Cross-Post: 5 Takeaways from the Sundance Institute’s Women in Film Financing Intensive
The following was originally published at Sundance.org. Money may not be the root of all evil, but it’s certainly a root cause of one: holding back women filmmakers. Financing was the most...
Mansplaining Away Hollywood Misogyny
This weekend, Washington Post critic Ann Hornaday took a much needed look at the correlation between Hollywood and violence. This is not the first time a critic has taken on the correlation between...
Director Alice Rohrwacher on Her Cannes Grand Prix-Winning Film The Wonders
Italian director Alice Rohrwacher took home the Cannes Grand Prix, the festival’s silver medal, this weekend. Her sophomore debut, Le Meraviglie (The Wonders), centers on a German-Italian family,...
The Normal Heart and the Erasing of Women
The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer’s critically acclaimed play that was adapted for television in a film produced by HBO, is a dramatic archive of feeling about the profound atrocities of the AIDS...
Cannes Film Festival Wrap Up — Why Gender Matters
Here’s my latest piece on Forbes: This past weekend while we were all barbecuing and relaxing here in the states, the 67th Cannes Film Festival concluded. Not surprisingly, the festival continued...
Weekly Update for May 23: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Currently Playing The Immigrant Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return — Co-Written by Randi Barnes Mom’s Night Out — Co-Written by Andrea Gyertson Nasfell Stage...
Want a Princess Leia Action Figure? Sorry, Disney Doesn’t Sell Them
One of the implicit promises of the sale of the Star Wars franchise to Disney was that its universe would become more inclusive. Big Mouse is a genius at merchandising, after all, and movies have to...
Female-Directed Films Comprise 43% of Student Academy Award Winners
Shorts directed or co-directed by female filmmakers made up 43% of the winners at the 41st Student Academy Awards competition. Fourteen films, representing 16 aspiring helmers, were honored by the...
Trailer Watch: Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart in Clouds of Sils Maria
A tangle of jealousy, co-dependency and desire draws together Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, and Chloe Grace Moretz in French director Olivier Assayas’ Palme d’Or contender Clouds of...
TV: Angela Bassett to Direct Lifetime Movie About Whitney Houston
Lifetime has greenlit a movie about Whitney Houston, with the late singer’s Waiting to Exhale co-star Angela Bassett to direct. Whitney Houston will focus on the R&B diva’s troubled...
Quote of the Day: Shonda Rhimes Says No to Nice
Though she couldn’t attend the 39th annual Gracie Awards, Shonda Rhimes shared her sentiments on why Scandal, honored at the gala for Best Drama, is such a game-changing force. Actress Bellamy...
Female Filmmakers Win 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Prize at Cannes Student Competition
Female directors swept the Cinefondation, the student competition at Cannes. Annie Silverstein’s Kickstarter-funded “Skunk” won top honors. The University of Texas at Austin student will...
Emma Thompson on Her “Militant Feminist” Stand-Up Comedy Years
Emma Thompson is her usual, delightfully candid self in a new interview with Vanity Fair. Promoting The Love Punch — her new gray-haired, 99-percenters’ comedy with Pierce Brosnan, in which...
Crosspost: GendRE & IMDb: An Open-Data Analysis of the Film Industry Gender Gap
This post was originally published on No Country for Young Women. Last week, during the annual OECD Forum, I had the pleasure of discovering a new, groundbreaking initiative by entrepreneur Elian...
Why Shonda Rhimes’ Upcoming Fall Drama Is Already a Hit
No network was scrutinized more in this month’s Upfronts than ABC, which, for the past three seasons, has ranked dead last among the big four networks for viewers under 50. The female-skewing ABC...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Seth Rogen
Though Seth Rogen is still best known for his onscreen bromances — an association strengthened by his last starring role in (and co-direction of) the dude-pocalypse comedy This is the...
UK Classical Music Critics Fat-Shame Opera Singer
“Dumpy,” “unsightly and unappealing,” and “a chubby bundle of puppy fat” are some of the insults hurled at Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught in reviews — all written by male...
Winnie Holzman to Receive Lilly Award for Lifetime Achievement
Winnie Holzman, best known for creating My So-Called Life, Once and Again and co-creating Huge, will receive a lifetime achievement honor for writing the book and lyrics to the worldwide hit Wicked,...