ALL POSTS
Guest Post: Director Kandeyce Jorden’s Journey Through the World of Female DJs
When director Kandeyce Jorden found herself at a personal crossroads, she went looking for a creative project that would open her eyes to a new way of life–and she found it in the...
Susan Lacy Leaves WNET for HBO Documentary Films
Susan Lacy is leaving her long-time spot at WNET to work with Sheila Nevins at HBO Documentary Films. Lacy, who is the creator and executive producer, of WNET’s classic American Masters...
Trailer Watch: Downton Abbey – Season 4
A clip for the upcoming season of Downton Abbey has been released. Season 4 will follow the happenings of the crowd at the Crawley estate six months after the events of season 3. Downton Abbey...
Nancy Gibbs to be First Female Managing Editor at Time Magazine
Nancy Gibbs has been named the Managing Editor at Time Magazine, the first woman to hold that position in the 90 year history of the publication. She succeeds Richard Stengel, who held the...
Women Director News: Andrea Arnold Filmmaker in Residence and Catherine Hardwicke to Direct MTV Pilot
Two great women directors have recently been in the news. Andrea Arnold has been named the Filmmaker in Residence for the 51st New York Film Festival and Catherine Hardwicke will be directing a...
TIFF: IFC Films Acquires Liza Johnson’s Hateship Loveship
Out of Toronto, IFC Films is acquiring the U.S. rights for Liza Johnson’s Hateship Loveship starring Kristen Wiig. Based on a short story by Alice Munro and adapted by Mark Poirier,...
Forbes Announces Top Female Earners on Television
Forbes announced their 14th annual Celebrity 100 list which looks at the earnings of American celebrities from June 2012 – June 2013. The list is compiled by analyzing projects and...
Trailer Watch: Concussion – Directed by Stacie Passon
Concussion, hands down one of the sexiest movies of the year, premiered at Sundance and later screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival and Outfest to critical praise. Written and directed by...
Guest Post: My Adventures of Filming in China
This film was the hardest thing I have done in my career but ultimately the most rewarding. I was asked to develop My Lucky Star as an adventure-comedy for the biggest female star in China,...
Trailer Watch: The Selfish Giant – Directed by Clio Barnard
Clio Barnard’s latest, The Selfish Giant, has just released a UK trailer. The film, based on Oscar Wilde’s story of the same name, premiered at Cannes earlier this year and recently...
Trailer Watch: Grace of Monaco – Starring Nicole Kidman
The first trailer for Grace of Monaco starring Nicole Kidman has been released. Kidman plays the former actress Grace Kelly, who married to Prince Rainier III of Monaco and left Hollywood and...
Tribeca Film Acquired Marion Vernoux’s Bright Days Ahead
Tribeca Film has acquired the rights for Marion Vernoux’s Bright Days Ahead which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last week. As far as we can tell, this is the first female...
Cynthia Lopez to Receive 2013 Good Egg Award
Chicken & Egg Pictures will be honoring Cynthia Lopez during this year’s Independent Film Week. Lopez will receive the 2013 Good Egg Award which is annually given to a leader in the...
Wadjda to be Saudi Arabia’s Oscar Entry
Wadjda, directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour, the first film directed by a woman from Saudi Arabia opened in limited release this past weekend. The film made $40,419 after screening in just three theaters...
Women Win Top Doc Awards at TIFF
Women directors took home the top audience awards in the documentary area at TIFF this year. Jehane Noujaim’s The Square took home the top audience prize. The film looks at the Egyptian...
Weekly Update for September 13: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Wadjda – Haifaa Al-Mansour What Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) wants to do is simple – ride a bike. That shouldn’t be so...
TV News Roundup for September 13th: Lauren Iungerich’s New Comedy, Katherine Heigl as CIA Officer and Tina Gordon Chism to HBO
Here’s some of the most notable TV news from the past week including Katherine Heigl’s return to television, Tina Gordon Chism developing a comedy series at HBO, Awkward’s Lauren...
Fall TV Preview – The Best and Worst So Far
It’s September, which means it’s time for a new television season. But the plethora of new shows arriving this year can be equal parts gift and curse. Before you start setting your DVRs...
Tribeca Rerun: Wadjda – Written and Directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour
Originally published on April 26. Wadjda is in theaters today. What Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) wants to do is simple – ride a bike. That shouldn’t be so difficult, but when you...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Vivian Qu
Vivian Qu was born in China. She has produced the features Night Train (07), Knitting (08), which screened at the Festival, and Longing for the Rain (13). Trap Street (13) is her directorial...
J.K. Rowling to Write Harry Potter Inspired Film Series
J.K. Rowling has teamed up with Warner Bros. to write a film series inspired by Rowling’s Harry Potter series. This will be her screenwriting debut. She will be adapting Fantastic Beasts and...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Alanis Obomsawin
Alanis Obomsawin was born in New Hampshire and was raised near the Odanak Reserve at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. She has produced over thirty documentaries on Aboriginal rights issues for the...
TIFF 13 Departure Thoughts
As I get ready to make my departure from Toronto after a whirlwind week there are a couple of things to mention as the festival winds down. First, even though there were a great many women directed...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Iram Haq
Iram Haq studied art direction at Westerdals School of Communication in Oslo. She has acted in the features Import-Export (05), Fallen Angels (08), and Tomme tonner (10). She wrote and directed...
Guest Post: The Pregnant Director
During the filming of my second feature film And While We Were Here, which hits theaters on September 13th, I was eight months pregnant with my second child. Despite my girth, my collapsed...
Women Make Up Over Half of the Nominees for the 2013 Man Booker Prize
The Man Booker Prize, Britain’s most prestigious literary award, announced their shortlist earlier this week. Of the 6 nominated, 4 women and 2 men make up the list. Judges for the award have...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Dana Rotberg
Dana Rotberg was born in Mexico City and graduated from Mexico’s Centro de Capacitacion Cinematografica. She has won numerous awards for her films, including Best Documentary from the...
Trailer Watch: Second Trailer for August: Osage County
August: Osage County premiered at TIFF garnering a ton of Oscar buzz. The film, based on Tracy Lett’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, follows the Weston daughters (Julia Roberts, Juliette Lewis...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Lara Zizic
Lara Zizic received her master’s degree in filmmaking at Columbia University. She directed the short film The Isabel Fish (06) and co-directed the feature Mission Congo (13). ...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Allison Berg
Allison Berg was born in New York City. She received the Special Jury Award at SXSW for her debut feature documentary Witches in Exile (04). The Dog (13) is her latest film. The Dog is playing...
The Big O: Assessing the Actress Races Coming Out of Venice, Telluride and Toronto
Telluride and Venice are fini. Toronto wraps this weekend. Time for some serious girl talk about how the lead and supporting actress categories have somewhat shifted now that the festival Oscar...
Ellen Page in Talks to Star in Queen and Country
Ellen Page is in talks to star in Queen and Country based on the comic by Greg Rucka. Page would play Tara Chace, a British SOS operative, whose missions take her all over the world to protect the...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Dyana Gaye
Dyana Gaye is a Franco-Senegalese filmmaker who graduated with a master’s degree in film studies from the University of Paris 8. She directed the short films Une femme pour Souleymane...
Batwoman Writers Quit After DC Won’t Approve Lesbian Wedding
Even though Batwoman has proposed to long-time partner Maggie Sawyer twice, DC refused to allow the pair to finally marry in the comic in an upcoming issue. The writers behind Batwoman J.H. Williams...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Claire Blanchet
Claire Blanchet studied animation at Concordia University. She has co-directed Trash and No Star! (08) and The Wobble Incident (09). The End of Pinky (13) is her latest short film. The End...
Salon Pictures Announces Slate of Women Directed Films
Just months after they opened their doors for business, Salon Pictures has announced a slate of films including three features to be directed by women: Eva Sorhaug (90 Minutes) helms Lenny,...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Marion Vernoux
Marion Vernoux was born in Montreuil-sous-Bois, France. She wrote the screenplay for Bernard Schmitt’s Pacific Palisades (90). Her directorial credits include Personne ne m’aime...
Emma Watson to Star in Francesca Gregorini’s Your Voice in My Head
Emma Watson is set to star in Francesca Gregorini’s Your Voice in My Head adapted from Emma Forrest’s memoir of the same title. The film, adapted by Forrest, follows a young woman who is...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Gita Pullapilly
Gita Pullapilly was born in South Bend, Indiana. She studied finance at University of Notre Dame and journalism at Northwestern University’s Medill School. She produced all of Aron...
TIFF Trailer Watch: Under the Skin – Starring Scarlett Johansson
Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson, premiered last night at TIFF. The film follows an alien seductress who preys on men while drifting around Scotland. A24 acquired the U.S. rights to...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Sarah Spillane
Sarah Spillane has been writing and directing film and television for the past decade. Among her work is the documentary short The Apology (08) and the fiction short This Life (09). Around...
Chicken & Egg Pictures Appoints Jenni Wolfson as Executive Director
Chicken & Egg Pictures has recently appointed Jenni Wolfson as their first executive director. Wolfson joins Chicken & Egg from WITNESS, an international human rights video advocacy...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Anne Weil
Anne Weil has worked as an editor on such films as Seaside (02), Toi et moi (06), Actrices (07), and A Castle in Italy (12). She has directed the short film Une cuilleree pour papa (92) and...
Carol Burnett to Receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
On October 20th, Carol Burnett will receive the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, an award given to comedians and satirists who have had an “impact on American society in ways similar to...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Megan Griffiths
Megan Griffiths was born in Athens, Ohio and received her MFA in film from Ohio University. She has written and directed the short films Moving (08), and Eros (09), and the features First...
TIFF 13- Dispatch 1: Mid-Life Women in Crisis
Ed. Note: There are spoilers for some of the films reviewed. This is my third Toronto Film Festival and I am starting to understand how to manage it. It is an endurance test. You need...
Trailer Watch: Ass Backwards – Written by and Starring Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael
Ass Backwards, written by and starring Casey Wilson and June Diane Raphael, premiered earlier this year at Sundance. The first trailer for the film shows Kate (Wilson) and Chloe (Raphael) who are...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Pirjo Honkasalo
Pirjo Honkasalo was born in Helsinki, Finland. She co-directed several features with Pekka Lehto, including Flame Top (80). Her documentary directorial credits include Mysterion (91),...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Beeban Kidron
Beeban Kidron was born in London. She studied at the National Film and Television School and co-founded the educational charity FILMCLUB. Her directing credits include the fiction features Used...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Judy Kibinge
Judy Kibinge was born in Nairobi and studied at Manchester Polytechnic. She is the founder of DOCUBOX, a documentary film fund for East Africa. She has directed the features Dangerous...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Liza Johnson
Liza Johnson holds a Masters in visual art from the University of California, San Diego and has had her artwork exhibited in such galleries as MoMA and the National Gallery of Art. Her...