ALL POSTS
Quote of the Day: Manohla Dargis Putting the Button on Blue
Manohla Dargis has had some issues with the film Blue is the Warmest Color (which did very well at the box office in the US where it opened this weekend) since she saw it back in Cannes in May. In...
Trailer Watch: Belle — Directed by Amma Asante
Amma Asante’s Belle premiered last month at TIFF. The film tells the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) the bi-racial, illegitimate daughter of a Royal Navy admiral in the 18th...
Weekly Update for October 25: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Blue is the Warmest Color There’s no doubt when Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Color hits theaters today it will cause controversy. The movie...
October Horror Series Interview: Emily DiPrimio on Horror, Carver and Directing at 13 Years Old
At 13, Emily DiPrimio is well on her way to starting a career in the lady-sparse horror genre. She co-wrote and will co-direct, Carver, which just made its Kickstarter goal earlier this month. From...
Questions of Queer Identity, Coming of Age and Loss of Self in Blue is the Warmest Color
There’s no doubt when Abdellatif Kechiche’s Blue is the Warmest Color hits theaters today it will cause controversy. The movie has already experienced the both praise and backlash from critics,...
Octavia Spencer to Murder She Wrote Reboot, Melissa McCarthy to Produce Sitcom and Other TV News
In the most exciting TV news of the week, NBC has given a put pilot commitment to a Murder She Wrote reboot starring Oscar winner, Octavia Spencer. Alexandra Cunningham will write and executive...
Stockholm International Film Festival Announces Competition Films and Lineup
The Stockholm International Film Festival has announced their films in competition and their general lineup. The 24th annual festival runs from November 6–17 and will screen over 180 films from 50...
Trailer Watch: Gloria
Gloria, which screened at TIFF last month and has been riding high since its premiere in Berlin, is Chile’s submission for the Best Foreign Language Film for the upcoming Academy Awards. The...
We are the Weirdos, Mister: Revisiting The Craft
I was eight years old when The Craft came out in 1996. I remember seeing the VHS on the shelves of the video store for years and then finally picking it out when I was in sixth grade. There’s...
Pathe Picks Up Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette
We recently reported about Sarah Gavron’s latest, Suffragette, previously titled The Fury, when Carey Mulligan was in early talks to star. The film has since been retitled, Mulligan is signed,...
The Big O: Will Audiences (and Oscar Voters) Surrender to 12 Years a Slave?
Can movie audiences handle the truth — especially when it’s unpleasant to sit through? That is one of the main questions surrounding the widely praised 12 Years a Slave. Consider there are...
Gotham Awards Announce Nominees for 23rd Annual Ceremony
The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) have announced the nominees for the 23rd annual Gotham Independent Film Awards. Nomination criteria includes that the works must be independent American...
Women and Hollywood is Hiring a News Editor
After almost a year and a half, Kerensa Cadenas will be moving on from the day to day work of helping me edit and write Women and Hollywood. In the time Kerensa has worked on the site it has grown...
The LA Femme Film Festival: By Women, For Everyone
Leslie LaPage launched the LAFemme Film Festival in 2005 after a dispiriting trip to the Sundance Film Festival, where she saw precious few films directed or written bywomen. The first LA Femme...
There’s a New “Final Girl” in the House — and She’s a Beast: A Review of You’re Next
Crispian : Where’s Felix? Erin : I put a blender on his head and killed him. You’re Next is sick, and I mean sick like “disgusting” and sick like “badass” because somewhere in my...
The Disrespecting of Parks and Recreation
A furor went through the ranks of tasteful television-lovers earlier this week with the announcement that NBC was moving three episodes of Parks and Recreation, bringing the show back for two weeks,...
Big Vision Empty Wallet Chooses All-Female Screenwriting Fellowship Roster
At the kick-offmeeting for Big Vision Empty Wallet’s 2013 Screenwriting Fellowship we laughed,shared our industry horror stories, toasted our successes, and examined ourcreative goals. My business...
AFI Film Festival Announces 2013 Lineup
The AFI Film Festival, held in Los Angeles, announced its 2013 lineup yesterday. Mother of French New Wave cinema, Agnes Varda, will be this year’s guest artistic director. While this year boasts...
Cinema Eye Announces List of 25 Most Influential Documentaries
Cinema Eye announced their list of the 25 Most Influential Documentaries which was put together by current filmmakers who are vying for the 2014 Cinema Eye Honor, one of the top awards for...
New Trailer for Frozen — Co-Directed by Jennifer Lee
Disney has released a new trailer for Frozen, co-directed by Jennifer Lee. The film voiced by Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel and Jonathan Groff, follows Anna (Bell) who must find her sister Elsa...
An Unexpected Gem: ABC’s Trophy Wife
The concept for the show sounded so awful, that earlier this summer, when the screeners for ABC’s new comedy Trophy Wife were made available to critics, I admit that I put off watching it. How...
The Hollywood Reporter Announced the Top 50 Showrunners
The Hollywood Reporter has announced their 50 power showrunners of 2013 for comedy and drama. 12 women out of 50 were on the list. And four women out of 10 were on the 2014 Showrunners to...
Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood to Star in Patricia Rozema’s Into the Forest
Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood will be playing sisters in Patricia Rozema’s upcoming Into the Forest. Rozema will direct the adaptation of Jean Hegland’s novel of the same name. The film...
Quote of the Day: Diablo Cody on Writing Strong Female Characters
Film School Rejects does a really great interview with Diablo Cody on the release of her directorial debut Paradise. (Side note- Many of the interviews she has done for the release of this film have...
IDFA Announces 2013 Lineup
The International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) announced their 2013 lineup. The festival will screen a total of 288 films and over a 100 will be premieres. This year the festival...
Trailer Watch: Sweet Dreams — Directed by Lisa Fruchtman and Rob Fruchtman
Award winning documentary filmmakers Lisa Fruchtman and Rob Fruchtman have a new documentary being released, Sweet Dreams. The film has already received many critical accolades including being a top...
Cross Post: Heroines of Cinema: ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’ and the Real Problem With Male Filmmakers and Female Sexuality
I am a man, and this is an article concerning female sexuality, at least in part. I feel that should be noted immediately, lest anyone take it as an unnoticed irony rather than a relevant starting...
The Haunting of Hill House and a Sense of Belonging
“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against...
LFF Interview with Flora Lau — Director of Bends
The title of Flora Lau’s debut feature film, Bends, refers to the winding river that separates Hong Kong from the Chinese mainland. The theme of the film is separation — the wealthy from the...
Carol Burnett Receives Mark Twain Prize
On Sunday, the iconic Carol Burnett received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, one of the highest honors for a comedian. Burnett was paid tribute by other iconic stars like Julie Andrews and...
DOC NYC Announces Line Up
DOC NYC, the largest documentary festival in the U.S., has just announced its slate. The festival will run from November 14–21. Over 125 documentary filmmakers and and special guests are expected...
LFF Women Directors: Meet Chloe Ruthven
Chloe Ruthven’s first feature, Mario and Nini, followed two nine-year-old boys over five years, as she struggled to help them find alternatives toa life of crime. The film premiered at Sheffield...
Weekly Update for October 18: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Carrie — Directed by Kimberly Peirce Peirce’s modernized version of the classic stars Chloe Grace Moretz as Carrie, an ostracized teen, who learns...
Quote of the Day: Alfre Woodard
When asked by Variety about this year’s films starring or about African American and African experiences, she said: We’ve all been putting down roots in dry, dry land, but this year we see the...
The Lady Killers: Considering the Female Killer in Horror
In contrast to many other genres, horror films have long been hospitable to the concept of the female hero. From Marion Crane to Laurie Strode, Nancy Thompson to Clarice Starling, many of horror’s...
Films By and About Women
Women Centric Films Currently Playing The Huntsman Winter’s War The Meddler — Written and Directed by Lorene Scafaria Nina — Written and Directed by Cynthia Mort Sworn...
The Women of 12 Years a Slave
As a child my mother, an anthropologist, informed me that my great uncle’s mother disappeared from the shores of Lake Victoria or Nam Lolwe, as we call it, when he was a boy. My great great aunt...
The Big O: Oscar Didn’t Always Have a Horror Problem
There is a new Carrie intown. She has access to the Internet now and her high-school tormentors usetheir smart phones to broadcast her shower-scene to even greaterembarrassment. But the wallflower...
LFF Interview with Destiny Ekaragha — Director of Gone Too Far!
Destiny Ekaragha’s debut feature film, Gone Too Far!, follows two incredibly well received short films, Tight Jeans and The Park, onto the screens of her local film festival, the BFI’s LFF. But...
America Ferrera Heads Back to Television
America Ferrera is heading back to television screens in her first leading role since Ugly Betty. Ferrera will headline Damascus, playing a nun in law school who uses her studies to benefit the...
LFF Women Directors: Meet Elina Psykou
Born in Athens, Greece in 1977, Elina Psykou studied Film Direction at Lykourgos Stavrakos Film School and Sociology at Panteion University, both in Athens. She continued her studies receiving her...
LFF Women Directors: Meet Chiemi Karasawa
Chiemi Karasawa founded Isotope Films in 2005 to develop and produce original content based on non-fiction material. Her award-winning work as a producerincludes Billy the Kid, The Betrayal, Tell...
“It Reaches the Level of Myth” — An Interview with Kimberly Peirce — Director of Carrie
Kimberly Peirce is taking a stab at reimagining one of the most iconic horror classics, Carrie, which arguably stars one of the best horror heroines in the genre. Hitting theaters on Friday,...
After Tiller Expands Across the Nation
Lana Wilson and Martha Shane’s deeply affecting and discourse changing documentary, After Tiller, is about the current state of late-term abortions after the murder of Dr. George Tiller in 2009....
Interview with Diablo Cody — Director of Paradise
Diablo Cody’s directorial debut, Paradise, is out on October 18th, 2013 in Los Angeles and New York theaters. The story about a young Mormon girl named Lamb who survives a horrific plane crash and...
Sarah Paulson Talks 12 Years a Slave and Being a Woman in Hollywood
Sarah Paulson is excited about this year’s Oscar race. “There are probably 10 women who could be nominated for Best Actress. When do we ever have that?” says the actress. “Usually it’s...
LFF Women Directors: Meet Cherien Dabis
Cherien Dabis is an award-winning Palestinian American filmmaker who received her M.F.A. in film from Columbia University. She wrote, directed, produced and edited several short films including Make...
Eleanor Catton Wins Man Booker Prize
Besides winning this year’s prestigious Man Booker Prize, Eleanor Catton made history multiple times. At 28, Catton is the youngest winner in the history of the prize and her novel, The...
How Can We Still be Talking About Whether Women Are Funny?
Yesterday morning brought the great news that Amy Poehler and Tina Fey will be hosting the Golden Globes in 2014 and 2015. They were so terrific as hosts last year that the Globe people were smart...
France Pushes for Gender Equality in the Film Industry
France is setting up a sex equality charter for improving the numbers of women working within the film industry. The five point charter was signed last week by Culture and Communications Minister...
Guest Post: A Trip Down the Rabbit Hole: Things I’ve Learned and Want to Fix
Back in 2011, I wrote a guest blog for Women and Hollywood entitled I Sold My House to Make My Feature.I had spent many years working in film art departments both in the U.S. and the U.K. ( Harry...