ALL POSTS
Writer to Watch: Sierra Teller Ornelas of “Superstore”
Working on “Superstore,” the NBC comedy about a motley crew of employees at a big-box store, marked the first time Sierra Teller Ornelas wasn’t the only Latina in the...
Quote of the Day: “Designing Women” Creator Linda Bloodworth Thomason Calls Out Les Moonves
“In spite of my proper Southern mother’s admonition to always be gracious, I am all out of grace when it comes to Mr. Moonves,” Linda Bloodworth Thomason writes in a guest column for...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Pella Kågerman – “Aniara”
Pella Kågerman was educated at the Royal Institute of Art. She co-wrote Hugo Lilja’s film “The Unliving,” which won prizes at Berlinale, Stockholm Festival, and Clermont-Ferrand....
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Eva Husson — “Girls of the Sun”
Eva Husson is a writer and a director. Her short “Hope to Die” gained international recognition, including nominations at the Student Academy Awards, the American Society of...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Maryam Keshavarz – “Viper Club”
Maryam Keshavarz is an Iranian-American writer and director. While pursuing her MFA at NYU, Keshavarz’s short film “The Day I Died” won the Gold Teddy and Jury Special Mention Prize at the...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Veena Sud – “The Lie”
Veena Sud created “The Killing,” which was nominated for six Emmys. She also created “Seven Seconds,” an ensemble drama centered around the hit and run of a young black teenager by a...
Mary Harron’s Manson Family Drama “Charlie Says” Acquired by IFC Films
Mary Harron’s latest has found a home. IFC Films snagged North American rights to the “American Psycho” helmer’s take on the Manson Family, “Charlie Says.” The...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Nicole Holofcener – “The Land of Steady Habits”
Nicole Holofcener has written and directed six feature films including “Enough Said”and “Friends with Money.” She also co-wrote Marielle Heller’s “Can You Ever Forgive...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Chanya Button – “Vita & Virginia”
Chanya Button is a director, writer, and producer whose diverse work spans film and theater. Her debut feature, “Burn Burn Burn,” was nominated for the BIFA Discovery award. Her shorts...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Amma Asante — “Where Hands Touch”
Amma Asante made her feature debut with 2004’s “A Way of Life.” The film earned her the Most Promising Newcomer prize at the 2005 BAFTA Awards. She was also honored with the BFI London Film...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Astra Taylor – “What Is Democracy?”
Astra Taylor is a filmmaker, writer, and political organizer. Her book “The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age” won the American Book Award in 2015. Taylor is a...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Soudade Kaadan – “The Day I Lost My Shadow”
Soudade Kaadan is a Syrian director who was born in France. Her films have screened at several venues nationally and internationally and have received international awards. Her latest documentary,...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Ritu Sarin – “The Sweet Requiem”
Ritu Sarin was born in New Delhi, and completed her MFA in Film and Video at California College of the Arts. She has directed several films with Tenzing Sonam, including “Dreaming Lhasa,”...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Bai Xue – “The Crossing”
Bai Xue was born in China and obtained her MFA from the Beijing Film Academy. After competing in the CFDG China Youth Film Director Support Program, she made “The Crossing,” her first...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Annabel Jankel – “Tell It to the Bees”
Annabel Jankel was born in London and began her career directing music videos for artists such as Talking Heads, Miles Davis, and Elvis Costello. Along with her partner, Rocky Morton, Jankel directed...
Weekly Update for September 7: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING I Am Not a Witch – Written and Directed by Rungano Nyoni (Opens in NY; Opens in LA September 14) When eight-year-old Shula (Maggie Mulubwa) turns up alone and...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Laura Luchetti — “Twin Flower”
Laura Luchetti has directed short films, music videos, commercials, documentaries, and theater productions. Her first feature, “Febbre da Fieno,” has been featured at many international...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Naziha Arebi — “Freedom Fields”
Naziha Arebi has made short films shown worldwide, completed a series of educational shorts on Libyan reconciliation, and directed a short doc about the assassinated Libyan activist Salwa...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Victoria Stone — “The Elephant Queen”
Director Victoria Stone has worked in Africa for over 30 years telling wildlife stories that have been shown in more than 140 countries with audiences in excess of 600 million. Her previous film,...
Fall 2018 Film Preview
By Keno Katsuda and Antora Majumdar Although 2018 is more than halfway over, there are still plenty of amazing women-centric and women-created films yet to be released. Emma Thompson leads one of the...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Sine Plambech — “Heartbound”
Sine Plambech is an anthropologist at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Barnard College, Columbia University. For 15 years, Plambech has worked...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Ash Mayfair — “The Third Wife”
Ash Mayfair was born and raised in Vietnam, and received her MFA in filmmaking from NYU. Her short films — including “The Silver Man” and “No Exit” — have been screened at...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Nandita Das — “Manto”
Nandita Das has acted in more than 40 feature films in 10 different languages. She made her directorial debut with 2008’s “Firaaq.” Das also acted, wrote, and directed the 2012 play...
TV Preview: Series By and About Women Premiering This Fall
It’s always sad to see summer end, but at least we have the promise of fall TV to cheer us up. Autumn 2018 promises to be an exciting season for women-driven television projects. Some of the...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Jasmin Mozaffari — “Firecrackers”
Jasmin Mozaffari’s student thesis film, “Firecrackers,” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to screen at numerous other fests across Canada and Europe....
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Natalia Meschaninova — “Core of the World”
Natalia Meschaninova made her feature debut with 2014’s “Hope Factory,” a coming-of-age drama set in Russia. “Core of the World” will begin screening at the 2018 Toronto...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Carol Morley — “Out of Blue”
Carol Morley’s credits include “The Alcohol Years,” a BAFTA-nominated film about her scurrilous teenage past, “Dreams of a Life,” which went behind the anonymous newspaper headline about...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Camilla Strøm Henriksen – “Phoenix”
Camilla Strøm Henriksen was born in Oslo and studied directing at the London Film School. She has appeared on and directed numerous Norwegian television shows. Henriksen previously directed the...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Renée Beaulieu — “The Naturally Wanton Pleasure of Skin”
Renée Beaulieu holds a degree in screenwriting from INIS (the National Institute of Image and Sound), a PhD in film studies, and is a certified pharmacist. Her previous features include “Le...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Wanuri Kahiu – “Rafiki”
Kenyan director-producer-writer Wanuri Kahiu’s first feature, “From A Whisper,” was based on the real-life events surrounding the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in...
September 2018 Film Preview
While the summer movie season is winding down, the release of films by and about women is not. September features a bevy of women-driven indies and star-studded studio releases. The month kicks off...
Venice 2018 Women Directors: Meet Nicole Palo – “Emma Peeters”
Nicole Palo’s credits include the 2005 short “Anna Doesn’t Know” and the 2008 feature “Get Born.” “Emma Peeters” will premiere at the 2018 Venice Film...
Dana Nachman on Her Guide Dog Documentary “Pick of the Litter”
Dana Nachman is an award-winning filmmaker of both fiction and documentary films. Nachman’s 2018 feature documentary, “Pick of the Litter,” was sold within 48 hours of its premiere at...
Sonia Sanchez Awarded $100,000 Lifetime Achievement Prize from Academy of American Poets
Sonia Sanchez is the recipient of The Academy of American Poets’ prestigious Wallace Stevens Award. The New York Times reports the poet, author, and activist received the $100,000 lifetime...
“Crazy Rich Asians” & “The Wife” Among 22 Films to Receive ReFrame’s Gender Equality Stamp
ReFrame has bestowed its stamp of approval to 22 more films. Introduced earlier this summer, the stamp is given to films and TV projects that hire female-identifying individuals on both sides of the...
Venice 2018 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Marx — “L’Enkas”
Sarah Marx previously directed “Fatum,” a 2012 short about about a man struggling to reintegrate into society after serving time in jail. She later shot a documentary in a prison in...
Quote of the Day: Amandla Stenberg on Refusing to Compromise Her Own Power
Amandla Stenberg broke out in 2012 with her supporting role in “The Hunger Games,” but the actress takes the lead in another dystopian YA adaptation in theaters now. She toplines Jennifer...
Trailer Watch: An Actress and Activist Explores Her Roots in “Jane Fonda in Five Acts”
“This is the beginning of my last act. In order to know how to go forward, I’m going to have to know where I’ve been,” says Jane Fonda in the first trailer for “Jane...
Quote of the Day: “Star Wars'” Kelly Marie Tran Refuses to Be Silenced by Online Harassment
More than two months after she left social media in the wake of racist and sexist trolling, “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” star Kelly Marie Tran is speaking out about the experience. The...
Meg Wolitzer and Jane Anderson on “The Wife’s” 14-Year Journey to the Screen
I read Meg Wolitzer’s “The Wife” about a decade ago, and it is one of those books that sticks with you. I was convinced it’d make a great movie — so much so that I...
Trailer Watch: Netflix Doc “City of Joy” Turns the Camera on Women in the Eastern Congo
“We had no experience with war. When we first heard the word rape we didn’t know what it was,” says one of the characters at the center of “City of Joy.” The upcoming...
Quote of the Day: Oscar-Nominated DP Rachel Morrison on Working While Pregnant
“There’s a common misconception that likens pregnancy to some kind of disability — the idea that women who are pregnant shouldn’t be active and can’t go about their normal lives,”...
Weekly Update for August 10: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Crazy Rich Asians – Written by Adele Lim and Peter Chiarelli (Opens August 15) “Crazy Rich Asians” follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) as she...
Teaser Watch: “Chewing Gum’s” Michaela Coel Confronts War Crimes in “Black Earth Rising”
“Chewing Gum” creator and star Michaela Coel is showing off her dramatic chops in a new teaser for “Black Earth Rising.” The eight-part BBC Two series sees the BAFTA winner...
EWA Pens Open Letter to Venice Film Festival About Lack of Women Directors
European Women’s Audiovisual Network (EWA) has shared an open letter to Paolo Baratta, President of the Venice Biennale, about the lack of women-directed films screening in Venice International...
Archie Panjabi Legal Drama Lands at NBC
It’s been years since Archie Panjabi left Lockhart/Gardner behind, but she’s returning to the legal biz. The Emmy-winning “Good Wife” alumna will topline...
“Sex and the City and Us” Author Jennifer Keishin Armstrong on the Show’s Legacy
Jennifer Keishin Armstong has chronicled the history of TV shows in several books, including “Seinfeldia” and “Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted.” It seems almost perfect that...
Weekly Update for August 3: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING The Miseducation of Cameron Post – Directed by Desiree Akhavan; Written by Desiree Akhavan and Cecilia Frugiuele Cameron Post (Chloë Grace Moretz) looks the part of...
Abigail Disney’s Fork Films Announces $625,000 in Grant Funding to Docs
Fork Films is at it again. Abigail Disney’s company announced that it has provided $625,000 in grant funding to 16 new documentaries “that align with the company’s dedication to...
Marvel Exec Victoria Alonso Will Be Honored by the HPA
Victoria Alonso is set to receive the Hollywood Professional Association’s (HPA) Charles S. Swartz Award, The Hollywood Reporter confirms. The producer and executive vp of production at Marvel...
August 2018 Film Preview
If you’re looking for a respite from the hot summer days, August is looking to be an excellent month for movies helmed by women or led by women characters. One of the most highly anticipated...