ALL POSTS
Trailer Watch: Starlet — Starring Dree Hemingway and Besedka Johnson
Starlet is about an unlikely relationship between a young woman, Jane (Hemingway) and 85 year old, Sadie (Johnson). After Jane purchases a thermos filled with money from Sadie’s garage sale, she...
Cross Post: How To Build Gender Parity Initiatives and Influence Theatre
The Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative is a grassroots advocacy group of women and men whose mission is to promote female theater artists in LA and beyond. We’ve been around for two and a...
Guest Post: Labor of Love: How Women are Changing Documentaries
In 2010, I finished my first feature documentary, Living Downstream. Based on the book by ecologist and cancer survivor, Sandra Steingraber, the film follows Steingraber as she tries to ring the...
Trailer Watch: Carrie — Directed by Kimberly Peirce, Starring Chloe Grace Moretz
It’s a little hard not to be wary of a Carrie remake. The iconic 1976 film starring Sissy Spacek and a terrifying Piper Laurie is one of my favorite horror movies. But bring in acclaimed director...
Quote of the Day: “It’s a Bit Baffling As To Why Everybody Has To Be Treated As If They Were Five Years Old.”
So says Dame Maggie Smith while doing press for her new film Quartet at the London Film Festival. Smith who also stars in the highly addictive Downton Abbey was speaking at a press conference for...
Cross Post: Conflicts of Women: An Interview with Mary Ann Anderson About Her Dear Friend, Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino isn’t one for bullshit. She shoots straight, looks you in the eye and lays it all on the line with every acting performance and picture she directs. She is a street smart gal, wise to...
Women in Film Foundation Announces New Trustees and Film Finishing Fund Winners
Women in Film recently announced their new trustees and 2012 Film Finishing Fund winners. They have added 13 new trustees to their 30 member board. All are based in Los Angeles. They also...
Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to Co-Host Golden Globe Awards
In contrast to the Oscars which went with Seth MacFarlane as its host, The Golden Globes went for peak vagina by announcing that Amy Poehler and Tina Fey will be hosting their 70th anniversary show...
Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere Has Big Opening Weekend
Ava DuVernay’s Middle of Nowhere opened with the top per screen average this past weekend. As Indiewire reports, opening on just 6 screens, the film made $78,030 — about $13,005 per theater....
Jodie Foster to Direct ‘Money Monster’
As we previously reported, Jodie Foster will be directing and executive producing, Angie’s Body, a new series for Showtime. According to The Playlist reports that Foster has also recently signed...
Lizz Winstead, Co-Creator of The Daily Show, Creates Lady Parts Justice
Co-Creator of The Daily Show and one hilarious lady, Lizz Winstead recently launched Lady Parts Justice, a website using comedy to bring awareness to women about just how much we have to lose in...
From the Mouth of Girls
Women Moving Millions, a community of women who have donated $1 million or more to organizations that support women and girls, have launched a video with Global Girl Media asking a group of young...
Women Directed 5 of 8 Documentary Shorts on Oscar Shortlist
Eight documentary shorts have been chosen for the 2013 Oscar shortlist. Between three and five will receive a nomination. Five of eight of the shorts are directed by women. Nominations will be...
New Trailer: Zero Dark Thirty — Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
I love that they are keeping many details about this movie so closely held. It makes people even more excited. The fact that a woman directed film is one of the most anticipated of the awards season...
As If!: The A.V. Club’s Top 50 Films of the 90’s has No Women Directors
The A.V. Club recently published a three-part series listing their top 50 films from the ’90s. As expected the likes of Tarantino, Scorsese, Fincher and the Coen Brothers appear, several, multiple...
Middle of Nowhere Enters The Oscar Conversation
I’ve been talking about Middle of Nowhere since I saw it last June at the LA Film Festival. As I wrote in my piece Could Middle of Nowhere Be a Game Changer? this is a very special movie. I talked...
Another Day, Another Sexist Controversy
Alfred Hitchcock is having a renaissance this year. First, Vertigo was named the Greatest Film of All Time in Sight and Sound’s recent poll. And now not one, but two, films that deal with Alfred...
Woman to Watch: Issa Rae — Creator and Star of The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl
Issa Rae, 27, is beginning to make her mark in Hollywood. She recently sold with Shonda Rhimes a half hour comedy to ABC, I Hate L.A. Dudes, which is about a journalist who moves to Los Angeles to...
14 Women are in The Hollywood Reporter’s Top 50 Showrunners of 2012
The Hollywood Reporter recently named their Top 50 Showrunners of 2012 for both comedy and drama. 14 of the 50 showrunners named were women. And women made up 4 of the 11 on the Showrunners to Watch...
Call Me Maybe — Feminist Ryan Gosling Edition
Who says feminists have no sense of humor? This is from the folks at the School of Social Work at Portland State U. h/t Sandy Leotti
Rebel Wilson Sells Comedy to Universal
I’m sure you are thinking that Women and Hollywood has become Rebel Wilson’s unofficial fan page. We kind of are, but we can’t help but be super excited that Rebel Wilson is blowing up. The...
Lena Dunham Gets A Big, Big Book Deal
Current megastar Lena Dunham is smartly trading on her success and wide name recognition and sold her first book, a book of advice to young women, entitled Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells...
Must Watch: Nashville-Created by Callie Khouri
For me Connie Britton can do no wrong. She was phenomenal as one of my all-time favorite TV characters, Tami Taylor in Friday Night Lights, and on top of that she’s an outspoken advocate for...
Anne Hathaway to Star in Mindy Kaling’s The Low Self-Esteem of Lizzie Gillespie
Mindy Kaling’s Black List script The Low Self-Esteem of Lizzie Gillespie now has Anne Hathaway attached to star. Co-written with Kaling’s former The Office co-worker Brent Forrester, Gillespie...
Women Donors Save the Orange Prize for Literature
A group of female donors including Cherie Blair, Martha Lane Fox and the novelist Joanna Trollope have come in at the last minute to keep the Orange Prize for women’s fiction in existence. The...
New TV Projects From a Host of Women Including Elizabeth Banks, Reese Witherspoon and Amy Poehler
If all this television news continues, we are in for a lot of promising sounding female centric, female produced and female written shows. This time around Elizabeth Banks, Reese Witherspoon and Amy...
Kelly Marcel Writing Fifty Shades of Grey Screenplay
As we previously reported, 3 female screenwriters, Karen Croner, Veena Sud and Kelly Marcel were in talks to adapt Fifty Shades of Grey. The golden ticket goes to Kelly Marcel for the...
Hollywood Stars Stand Up for Reproductive Freedom
Love this. Sign the petition Draw the Line from the Center for Reproductive Rights.
11 out of 71 Academy Foreign Language Film Submissions Are Directed by Women
For the 85th Academy Awards, a record-breaking 71 countries have submitted films to compete in the Foreign Language Film category. However, according to our research, only 11 of those 71 films are...
Interview with Liv Ullmann and Dheeraj Akolkar — Star and Director of Liv & Ingmar
When you are given an opportunity to meet a legend in the film business you don’t turn it down. So I headed to meet Liv Ullmann who has appeared in more movies than I can count and as of late has...
Cross Post: Heroines of Cinema: 10 Reasons to Love Emma Thompson
Having previously examined the downside of being of a star actress, it seemed time for a corrective tonic. Not that I feel any A-list actress particularly needs to be acclaimed a heroine. Actors...
Hamptons Film Festival: Catching Up With the Very Busy Producer Amy Hobby
Apologies for the background noise. Gayby opens in NY this Friday. Making a Comedy About Friends Making Babies (NY Times)
Happy Weekend: Rebel Wilson and Ellen Rap Salt-N-Pepa
Rebel Wilson is one of our favorite funny women. Pairing her up with Ellen to rap Salt-N-Pepa’s “Shoop,” (a classic song) will make your weekend. Go see Rebel sing in Pitch Perfect which is...
Cross Post: She has a name. Her name is Sharon Carter!
One of the big would-be stories this week was the announcement of five actresses apparently on the ‘short list’ to play Sharon Carter in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Such stories are...
The Ugly Intricacies of Desire in Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights
Tackling a beloved and classic piece of literature to interpret into film is not an easy task and one that director Andrea Arnold typically doesn’t like to do. But after the idea to direct an...
Guest Post: Hollywood’s Dirty Little Secret
According to the latest “Boxed In” report compiled by Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, Executive Director at The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State University, released...
Lena Dunham at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit and New Book Proposal
Lena Dunham is on a roll that looks like it cannot be stopped. Despite getting shut out of the Emmys, Dunham has been busy with season 2 of Girls (airing in January), publishing essays in The New...
The Best Quotes from Tina Fey’s Entertainment Weekly Interview
I believe that we have all come to a group consensus that Tina Fey is the best. As we reported last week, NBC feels the same about Fey. And so does Entertainment Weekly! In the current issue, Fey...
Trailer Watch: Stoker — Starring Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska
Stoker follows India (Mia Wasikowska) after her father’s death when her mysterious Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode) moves in with her and her emotionally unstable mother (Nicole Kidman). India begins...
Meryl Streep in Talks for Into the Woods; Mommy and Me with Tina Fey No Longer Option
Meryl Streep is in talks of joining Rob Marshall’s adaptation of Steven Sondheim’s Into the Woods. Into the Woods is a musical that takes different aspects and characters of classic fairy tales...
Fill the Void Written and Directed by Rama Burshtein Gets Picked Up by Sony Pictures Classics
The team at Sony PIctures Classics has been very busy since Toronto and they added another women directed film Fill the Void written and directed by Rama Burshtein to their list of acquisitions. The...
PBS To Air 6 Women Focused Documentaries for Women and Girls Lead Campaign
The second part of Half the Sky aired last night on PBS — which marked the start of the Women and Girls Lead Campaign. This campaign focuses on programming that brings attention to the issues...
Guest Post: We Came! We Saw! We Threw Bananas! WE WERE THEATRE!
Since 2001 Guerrilla Girls On Tour! have staged an annual protest around the time of the Tony Awards to highlight sexism in theatre. We chose the Tony Awards because we wanted people to think about...
First Look: The Guilt Trip — Directed by Anne Fletcher
Barbra Streisand co-stars in Anne Fletcher’s The Guilt Trip as the mother of Andy (Seth Rogen) who agrees to go on a cross-country road trip with her son. Let’s hope that the film is not one...
The Academy Picks Family Guy Creator Seth MacFarlane to Host Oscars
I don’t get it. Yes, the Academy wants to make people think that it is hip and young and I understand that, but Seth MacFarlane? The guy who directed Ted (which was a huge hit) and the creative...
Kathryn Bigelow’s Movie Gets New Poster
I have to tell you all up front that you will probably get sick of me talking about this film but you need to be prepared because she is probably going to be the only woman in the Oscar conversation...
Rebel Wilson, Pitch Perfect and Body Acceptance
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rebel Wilson discusses the difficulty she had in getting cast for roles when she was starting out in Hollywood. Despite her talent, Wilson wasn’t...
Trailer Watch: Wadjda — Directed and Written by Haifaa Al-Mansour
As we previously reported, Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Wadjda (the first woman from Saudi Arabia to direct a feature) was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics. Wadjda follows a 10 year old girl, who...
Must Watch — Half the Sky — Turning Oppression Into Opportunity
Forty plus years into the modern women’s movement there are still undeniable atrocities happening to girls and women throughout the world. For centuries these atrocities have gone on as part of...
Trailer Watch: Winnie — Starring Jennifer Hudson
Winnie focuses on Nelson Mandela’s (Terrence Howard) second wife Winnie Mandela (Jennifer Hudson) as she goes through her husband’s imprisonment, her own solitary confinement and continuing...
Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, America Ferrera and Gabrielle Union Join The Respect Challenge
Some of our favorite actresses have joined The Respect Challenge, a campaign created by the non-profit Futures Without Violence. The campaign is designed to celebrate everyday heroes — someone...