ALL POSTS
New Trailer: The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones – Written by I. Marlene King and Jessica Postigo
Based on the YA series by Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones follows Clary Fray (Lilly Collins), your typical teenage girl until she finds out she’s not so typical. After...
If She Can See It, She Can Be It – Panel Discussion in NYC on April 11
The NY International Children’s Film Festival PRESENTS IF SHE CAN SEE IT, SHE CAN BE IT! FILM SCREENING AND PANEL DISCUSSION SPONSORED BY THE ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS &...
Danny Boyle Talks About the Need for Better Female Characters
Recently, Jessica Chastain talked about how she feels that roles for women have taken a step back, and it looks as if Oscar winning director Danny Boyle agrees with her. Boyle, known for his films...
Watch This: Gwyneth Paltrow Saving Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man 3
In a new TV spot for the upcoming Iron Man 3, Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) does the saving. The clip shows Potts in a full suit of armor swooping in to save her beau Tony Stark aka Iron Man (Robert...
Emma Watson to Receive MTV’s Trailblazer Award
Emma Watson is set to receive MTV’s second annual Trailblazer award which honors young actors who have created their own unique path in the industry. Last year’s recipient was Emma Stone....
New Trailer Watch: Midnight’s Children – Directed by Deepa Mehta
Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children, adapted from Salman Rushdie’s novel, follows two children Saleem and Shiva, who are born just at the moment where India regains its freedom from...
SXSW Review – The Other Shore
Diana Nyad is a warrior. There has never been a woman so aptly named after a Goddess. The Other Shore tells the story of Nyad’s attempts to accomplish the near impossible feat,...
Watch This: Jewel as June Carter Cash in Lifetime’s ‘Ring of Fire’
Singer Jewel will be starring as June Carter Cash in Lifetime’s television movie, Ring of Fire. Directed by the great Allison Anders (director of Gas, Food Lodging), the press materials...
Cross Post: Chastain, “Roles for Women Have Taken a Step Back”
It’s refreshing to read a quote from an actress working today willing to criticize the kinds of roles offered to women now in Hollywood. Sure, it’s easy to get attention if you put on a...
Trailer Watch: Venus and Serena – Directed by Maiken Baird and Michelle Major
Check out the trailer for Venus and Serena, directed by Maiken Baird and Michelle Major. The documentary gives us a look into the lives of bad-ass, iconic tennis powerhouses Venus and Serena Williams...
Thank you Barbara Walters
Barbara Walters may be leaving our television screens next year. The legendary television personality is reportedly retiring in 2014, and leaving her co-created show, The View after co-hosting it for...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: John Legend
John Legend is completely swoon-worthy. He’s an extremely talented and good looking musician. Oh and he’s an outspoken feminist. Legend is involved in the charity, Chime for Change,...
Anne Hathaway and Chloe Grace Moretz Sign onto Lynn Shelton’s Laggies
When Women and Hollywood interviewed Lynn Shelton earlier in the year at Sundance, she mentioned her next project, Laggies, written by Andrea Seigel. Shelton described it about a twentysomething...
Melissa McCarthy to be CinemaCon’s 2013 Female Star of the Year
The very funny Melissa McCarthy will be receiving CinemaCon’s 2013 Female Star of the Year award. Previous winners have included Jennifer Garner, Cameron Diaz, Katherine Heigl, Anne...
Watch This: Amy Poehler Interviews Irma Kalish – Pioneer Comedy Writer
For her super smart web series for girls, Smart Girls at the Party, Amy Poehler interviews Irma Kalish, a pioneer female comedy writer, who wrote for iconic shows such as Good Times, All in the...
Weekly Update March 29: Women-Centric, Directed, Written Movies Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend The Host From Stephenie Meyer (author of the Twilight Saga) comes “The Host,” a love story set in the future, where earth is occupied by a species...
SXSW Interview with Sini Anderson, Tamra Davis and Kathleen Hanna of The Punk Singer
I can’t write about Sini Anderson’s great documentary The Punk Singer without mentioning that Kathleen Hanna has been one of my life-long heroes. When I was sixteen a friend gave me...
Hall of Shame – The Producers of Dr. Who
Building on the report that the US Writer’s Guild recently released about the lack of momentum in increading women writers on US based TV shows, there has been a bit of a brouhaha over the...
Fay Kanin – Former Academy President, Screenwriter Dies
Fay Kanin, the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning screenwriter passed away at the age of 95 of natural causes. Kanin, alongside her husband Michael Kanin, were one of the most popular married...
Ashley Judd Not Running for Senate
After months of speculation, Ashley Judd has decided to not run for senate. She used twitter and her website to release her decision. She made clear that while she has a deep commitment to...
SXSW Review: Women-Directed Shorts including Sequin Raze and Ellen Is Leaving
At SXSW I was able to catch some excellent short films. There were a bunch of great women-centric ones including: Dotty a funny and touching look at an elderly woman struggling to send a...
The Golden Girls on Marriage Equality
We here at Women and Hollywood want to give a shout out in support of marriage equality and we believe that this clip from The Golden Girls appropriately addresses this amazing week at the...
WGA Releases Annual Writing Report And Women Make Small Progress
The Writers Guild West released its annual diversity report on the status of women, minority and older writers. Hollywood continues to make incremental, pathetic, baby steps towards diversity....
Lily Tomlin on Feminism, Humor and Girls
With the release of Admission, the awesome Lily Tomlin has been popping up in the media. Seeing Tomlin reminds us of what a pioneer she has been in Hollywood ranging from her career as a...
Bette Midler as Sue Mengers in I’ll Eat You Last
I am so there. Previews begin April 5. Tickets here.
Trailer Watch: Kick-Ass 2 – Starring Chloe Grace Moretz
Check out the international trailer for Kick-Ass 2 which hits theaters on August 16. The trailer’s focus is mainly on Hit-Girl (Chloe Grace Moretz) dealing with the after effects of the first...
Peabody Award Winners Include Switched At Birth, Girls, Southland
The Peabody Awards announced the winners for their 72nd annual awards. The Peabody Awards recognize “distinguished achievement and meritorious service by broadcasters, cable and Webcasters,...
Making Connections
As Women and Hollywood has grown over the last couple of years we have been getting more and more emails from people who have ideas and projects that they need help with. There are also people...
Women Written Pilots Roundup
As pilot season continues to pick up, we wanted to bring to your attention a couple of more women-written and women centric pilots that are getting some excellent talent attached to them. Annie...
Bring Shola Lynch’s Free Angela & All Political Prisoners to Your Local Theater
Shola Lynch’s Free Angela & All Political Prisoners focuses on the remarkable life of the incomparable Angela Davis, a professor, a member of the Communist party and influential social...
Details Emerge on Lynne Ramsay’s Exit
We’ve been talking a lot about Lynne Ramsay here at Women and Hollywood since her departure from Jane Got a Gun last week. Confirmed details are still scarce, but rumors and commentary have...
Amy Pascal Asks Hollywood to Eliminate Gay Stereotypes from Films
Amy Pascal is truly a force. She championed Kathryn Bigelow and Zero Dark Thirty all the way. And at the LA Gay and Lesbian Center gala last week, Pascal asked the industry to take a long, hard look...
SXSW Interview with Brie Larson – Star of Short Term 12
Short Term 12, written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, was hands down one of my favorite films I saw at SXSW. The film follows Grace (Brie Larson), a young staffer at a group home who...
Helen Mirren Stands Up For a Future Full of Women Directors
On Sunday evening, Helen Mirren who has always been wonderfully outspoken in calling out sexism in Hollywood, used the occasion of being awarded the Legend award from Empire magazine to...
Pussy Riot Band Members Speak Out on 60 Minutes
60 Minutes did a segment on Pussy Riot, the now infamous feminist punk band from Russia who were sent to prison for their demonstration against Vladimir Putin. Two of the members are still serving...
MPAA Releases Ticket Stats And Contrary to What Hollywood Wants Us To Believe, Women Do Go To The Movies
It’s the time of the year when the MPAA (the lobbying group from Hollywood) releases their annual stats. Since Hollywood films are so skewed towards the young boys I always think the...
Sundance 2013 Roundup: Women Directed Films Received Distribution
If you remember, the Sundance lineup in US features and US documentarues documentaries evenly divided between female and male directors. Since it’s been a couple of...
Guest Post: “It’s A Great Career, But I Earned It”: A Power Talk With Sheila Nevins
After listening to Sheila Nevins speak for even five minutes, it’s not hard to understand why she’s so successful in the documentary world. She is, in a word, frank, but also gifted with...
Taymor vs. Spider-Man Sets Trial Date
As we previously reported, Julie Taymor’s lawsuit against the producers of Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark was revived back in January. However, the expected settlement between the parties...
Interview with Karen Croner – Writer of Admission
Women and Hollywood: I read that you started in the documentary world? Can you talk about how you shifted into writing? Karen Croner: When I first started writing, I was very interested in true...
Weekly Update March 22: Women-Centric, Directed, Written Movies Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Admission – Written by Karen Croner Comedies today seem to always go for the broadest, raunchiest laughs. The audience is not trusted to get the...
More Lynne Ramsay News
As expected, the initial reports of the Lynne Ramsay departure from Jane Got a Gun were very sketchy. More details are coming out, among them the important detail that Ramsay did not just NOT...
Admission Gives Us Some Real Feminism On Screen
Comedies today seem to always go for the broadest, raunchiest laughs. The audience is not trusted to get the comedic nuances in everyday life. That is not the case with the new film...
6 of 8 Film Independent DocuLab Fellows Are Women Directors
Film Independent has chosen eight projects for their 2013 Documentary Lab — six of those projects are directed by women. Each filmmaker will participate in an eight week program that helps...
Interview with Deborah Mailman – Star of The Sapphires
The ads for The Sapphires might feature Chris O’Dowd but the second you sit down for the Sapphires, you will know that reality the movie is not about him. The movie is the true story...
Exclusive Clip from WIGS’ Blue – Starring Julia Stiles
As we previously reported, WIGS recently announced their new seasons for popular shows Lauren and Blue as well as Paloma, written and directed by Julia Stiles. Blue stars Stiles as a single mother...
Guest Post: Screenplay Design with Diane Drake
Diane Drake is a professional screenwriter, creative consultant, and screenwriting instructor with the UCLA Extension Writer’s Program. Her produced original screenplays include Only You,...
Watch This: Awkward Season 3 – Created by Lauren Iungerich
Awkward is hands down one of the best teen shows airing right now. Created by Lauren Iungerich, the show follows Jenna (Ashley Rickards), an unpopular girl, who gains sudden notoriety after an...
Interview with Katrin Benedikt – Co-Writer of Olympus Has Fallen
Hollywood is such a crazy place that this year there are two films that focus on the White House being taken over. The first one out of the gate is Olympus Has Fallen starring the terrific...
Cross Post: “Oz the Great and Powerful” Rekindles the Notion That Women Are Wicked
Dorothy Gale–the girl who went to Oz–has been called the first true feminist hero in American children’s literature. Indeed, she was condemned by many readers, including...
Annie Baker Wins Susan Smith Blackburn Prize
Annie Baker has won the prestigious Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for her play, The Flick, an exploration of love, friendships and work. New York Times theater critic, Charles Isherwood spoke highly...