ALL POSTS
Trailer Watch: Admission Written by Karen Croner, Starring Tina Fey
Tina Fey stars in Admission, adapted by Karen Croner from a novel by Jean Hanff Korelitz, a film that looks to be more of a dramatic foray for Fey. She plays a college admissions officer who receives...
Bryce Dallas Howard and Ron Howard Launch Short Film Contest
Bryce Dallas Howard is following in her dad's footsteps and getting into directing. The two teamed up when Dallas Howard directed the short film, when you find me based on eight user...
Sexism Watch: The Hollywood Reporter Writer’s Roundtable 2012
I’m a scriptwriter who writes scripts that tell stories about women. Scriptwriting’s a solitary activity most of the time and it’s arduous, but the voices of other scriptwriters...
Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 Crushes the Box Office
Unsurprisingly, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 killed it at the box office this weekend. Overseas it grossed $340.9 million, making it the best global opening of the franchise. Back on US shores it...
Guest Post: Bella Swan and Me
This weekend, the fifth and final installment of the Twilight franchise opened, and to no one’s surprise, killed at the box office. Conversations about the film will undoubtedly focus on the...
Link Roundup: Film Edition
Here's some recent women in film news. Emmy Rossum to Star Opposite Hilary Swank in 'You're Not You' (The Hollywood Reporter) Jennifer Garner Near Deal To Star in Drama...
Watch This: Restless – Starring Charlotte Rampling, Michelle Dockery and Hayley Atwell
Well, this looks amazing. Restless, stars Michelle Dockery (Downton Abbey) as Ruth, a woman who discovers that her mother, Sally (the iconic Charlotte Rampling) was a spy during World War II....
Guest Post: Loaded Questions
I started working on my first feature film Fully Loaded in 2007. It was like climbing a mountain four times as high as it says in the damn guidebook. It was like changing churches. It was...
Guest Post: Backwards: Can Women Have It All? A Filmmaker’s Perspective
Anne-Marie Slaughter’s controversial article, “Why Women Can’t Have it All,” discusses the challenges facing working women and moms. While I do not yet have children, having...
A New Post Twilight Hollywood
We have finally reached the end of an important moment in film history. I know that many people dismiss the Twilight saga for a multitude of reasons – it's about vampires, it is...
Guest Post: Wanted: Female Astronauts: Geena Davis Celebrates “Add Female Characters” Month at Third Symposium on Gender in the Media
Did you know that November is Add Female Characters Month? It is according to Geena Davis, who took over the back page of Variety to declare it such. The ad ran on Tuesday, November 13, the...
Women Win Big at the National Book Awards
Let’s celebrate the female winners of the National Book Award. Louise Erdrich won the fiction award for The Round House, her fourteenth novel, about a teenage boy’s effort to...
AFI Review: Ginger and Rosa – Directed by Sally Potter
In my favorite Anne Sexton poem “Rowing,” one line in particular always sticks out to me: “I wore rubies and bought tomatoes/and now, in my middle age/about nineteen in the head...
Trailer Watch: The Host – Based on Stephenie Meyer’s Novel
The Host is not Twilight and that might be a good thing. Based on Stephenie Meyer's novel, the film follows Melanie (Saoirse Ronan), who is inhabited by an alien. Set in the future, this alien...
Apply for This Athena Film Festival Workshop — Crafting a Short: How to Find Your Story and Make It a Movie
We are gearing up for the 3rd Athena Film Festival from February 7–10, 2013. We are very excited to be partnering with the American Film Institute’s Directing Workshop for Women for a day of...
Dueling Skyfall Reviews: Feminist Mom Approved — Skyfall
Skyfall, the newest 007 blockbuster, is a fabulous, almost win-win-win for women! The film has three significant female characters and Bond himself is portrayed as a humbled, post-modern anti-hero...
Dueling Skyfall Reviews: Skyfall: A Post-Election Conservative Wet Dream
FAIR WARNING: Do not read this if you don’t want to know how the new James Bond movie Skyfall ends. Although, if you were disappointed by last week’s election results, it might give...
Alexandra Wallace Becomes First Woman in Charge of the Today Show
Alexandra Wallace, senior vice president of NBC News, was just announced as the new executive in charge of the Today show. At a whopping four hours, the program is one of the most profitable of...
Sexism Watch: Popular Media is Dominated By Men
As consumers of media we know that things are biased. That's why it is so important that we have data to backup what we are seeing and feeling. And it's great that we have people...
Diane Keaton to be Honored with Sherry Lansing Leadership Award
Diane Keaton will receive The Hollywood Reporter’s Sherry Lansing Leadership Award. The award recognizes a woman who works in the entertainment industry who is a leader, pioneer and...
32nd Annual Muse Awards Recipients
New York Women in Film and Television have announced the recipients of their annual Muse awards. Actresses Mariska Hargitay (of Law and Order fame) and Lucy Liu (currently starring on Elementary)...
Guest Post: Women in Film Los Angeles Gets Busy
Women in Film Los Angeles (WIF) is already well known for its foundation’s scholarship programs and its unique Film Finishing Fund which helps women filmmakers from around the world to finish...
Flying Lessons — Starring Maggie Grace
Flying Lessons follows 25 year old Sophie (Maggie Grace), who returns to her hometown when her life hits a crossroads. When she arrives home, Sophie must face a complicated relationship with her...
New Generation of Polish Filmmakers Hit Tribeca Film Center
From November 15th-17th, eighteen films by The New Generation of Polish Filmmakers will screen at the Tribeca Film Center. New York Women in Film and Television is the event partner alongside Munk...
Cross Post: Hollywood’s New Feminists, Why the Old One Went Away and What’s Coming Next?
Women’s rights made a major impact on Hollywood in the 1970s. Feminism, now a dirty word, was such a force to be reckoned with that you didn’t dare depict a woman in a film who didn’t have, at...
Veterans Day News: The Invisible War Inspires Creation of Program To Treat Military Sexual Assault Victims
Last week in LA, in a star studded event to celebrate the DVD release of The Invisible War that included Senator Barbara Boxer, the filmmakers and executive producers launched a new program that was...
Quote of the Day: Alexandre Desplat on Kathryn Bigelow “She’s a Master Director. She’s a Genius”
Academy Award nominated composer Alexandre Desplat who has scored Zero Dark Thirty spoke with Steve of Collider.com about another film he worked on Rise of the Guardians, and Desplat took the...
Interview with Rose Bosch — Director and Writer of La Rafle (The Round Up)
I loved the book Sarah’s Key (the movie not as much) but it revealed to me another story of the Holocaust and World War Two that I knew nothing about — the Vel’ de’ Hiv’ roundup of...
Trailer Watch: Side Effects — Starring Rooney Mara
Rooney Mara gets her lead post her Oscar nominated performance in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in Side Effects, a thriller from Seven Soderberg. It looks a bit messy but one can never...
A New Role for Ashley Judd: U.S. Senator?
This election cycle may be over and in this day and age not a second passes until the next cycle begins. The speculation has begun that the always outspoken and intelligent Ashley Judd could be...
Celebrating Five Years of Women and Hollywood
I seem to always forget the anniversary of the site. I guess that’s good because that means I am busy and have a lot going on. But this year is a milestone — 5 YEARS! and I didn’t want to...
Watch This: Judi Dench on Skyfall
Skyfall, marks the 50th anniversary of the James Bond franchise and it revitalizes itself with a compelling storyline that puts major focus on Dench’s character M. When M’s past comes back to...
Cross Post: Sexism in Hollywood: Where Are the Women in Argo?
Ben Affleck’s Argo is shaping up to be this year’s biggest success story. With a near-win for the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival, stellar reviews across the board and an A+...
DOC NYC Opens Its Third Annual Festival
As readers of this site will know the documentary world is full of women. The folks running DOC NYC sure know that as their program is full of women directed films. (Also check out the poster.) The...
Guest Post: Coming Up Roses Or Bust…
“You’ll never get this made,” was the blunt and firm response from a well-regarded producer after reading my screenplay synopsis. The central theme of my film — a woman desperately...
Guest Post: Time For A Major Women’s Film Award Initiative?
As the awards season gets under way each year I look for the women who are nominated and most years I’m disappointed — the only award category where it is certain that a woman will be...
Guest Post: Why Make Babies When You Can Just Make Documentaries?
Being a woman, I was told since I was a teenager, “just wait, it’ll hit you — you’ll suddenly be overcome by the rash, ridiculous desire to have kids.” This was presented as a...
Women Director News Roundup: Nancy Savoca, Christine Jeffs and Sarah Siegal-Magness
Some new feature projects have recently been announced coming from Nancy Savoca, Christine Jeffs and the directorial debut of Precious producer Sarah Siegal-Magness. Nancy Savoca is attached to...
This Woman Is Too Fat for Hollywood?
I love Romola Garai. First, she’s a good actress. She’s just so excellent in The Hour which is written by Abi Morgan. Second, she knows that she needs to be in magazines and make appearances in...
Cross Post: Cloud Atlas Charts New Territory Between Women and Men With Halle Berry and Hugh Grant
I was belatedly watching “Cloud Atlas” at my local Cineplex, catching up on movies that I hadn’t seen because, thanks to Hurricane Sandy, I no longer had my Manhattan to upstate NY umbilical...
Mila Kunis to Executive Produce Feminist TV Drama for The CW
Mila Kunis will be executive producing a drama for The CW on feminism! The headline from the Hollywood Reporter “Mila Kunis to Exec Produce Women’s Lib Drama for CW” piqued our interest since...
Epic Meryl Streep and Judi Dench Showdown Follows after British Independent Film Awards Nominations
As awards season continues to heat up, the British Independent Film Awards just announced their nominees. While the women centric results from the European Film Awards were dire to say the least,...
Where are the Women Recipients of the American Society of Cinematography Outstanding Achievement Awards?
The American Society of Cinematographers announced the recipients of their 27th annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards. The awards will take place on February 10. No women were honored of the...
Closing Out The Political Season
We are so glad that the election is over and that Obama was re-elected. We will also have a record amount of female Senators — 20. That’s almost critical mass. Mazie Hirono (HI) will be the...
Trailer Watch: West of Memphis — Directed by Amy Berg
In 1994, three teenagers from Arkansas were convicted, despite lack of any physical evidence, of ritually murdering three 8 year old boys. Amy Berg’s acclaimed documentary West of Memphis takes a...
Guest Post: Into the Amazonian Jungle: Shooting in a Third World Country
Festival of Lights marked my departure from the documentary tradition for the first time in my professional career. I had always been attracted to the works of Margaret Mead and Mary Leaky, and...
Election Day Video: Kate Walsh on Why She’s Voting Obama
Kate Walsh, from Private Practice, tells her story about why she’s voting Obama. Make sure you go out and vote today.
2 Women Directed Animated Features on Oscar Shortlist
21 animated features have made it to the Oscar shortlist for best animated feature. Since over 16 films were submitted, a maximum of 5 films can be nominated. However, of these 21 animated...
Book Excerpt: Fanpire: The Twilight Saga and the Women Who Love It
From the Introduction: Welcome to the Twilight Zone As I sit attentively in the lecture “So Many Species, So Little Time: The Men of Twilight,” a teenage girl wearily plunks herself down beside...
The Disney Princesses Welcome a New Sister — Princess Leia
Start your day off with a little levity. We’re all going to need it. It’s kind of funny that Princess Leia our first example of a kick ass competent woman in sci-fi has joined the family of...
No Women Nominated for European Film Awards in Major Categories
Last week The European Film Awards announced their nominees for their annual awards. Michael Haneke’s Amour and Steve McQueen’s Shame picked up a majority of the nominations. But how did women...