ALL POSTS
Interview with Natalia Smirnoff — Writer and Director of Puzzle
Puzzle is the story of Maria del Carmen an average 50 year old woman whose role in life is to take care of her husband and two almost sons. When she discovers that she has immense talent for putting...
Thelma and Louise Turns 20
I can’t believe that it is 20 years since Thelma and Louise was released. We still have so much work to do. This is a movie that resonated with people in a profound way, it’s a movie that people...
Guest Review: A Chessmate Movie for Women By Aviva Kempner
One of the few times I played chess I lost in four moves. Humiliated I never tried again. After seeing Caroline Bottaro’s female empowering film, Queen to Play, I want to reconsider my easily...
Trailer Watch: Claire Danes in Homeland
Claire Danes takes the lead in the new spy show from the producers of 24. Will air on Showtime this fall.
Guest Post: My Exprience at the AFI Directing Workshop for Women by Amy French
On May 9th, an audience of six hundred people gathered at the Director’s Guild Theater in Los Angeles to ask the question, “Are women directors better suited to explore the subtle nuances of...
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Showrunners doc
It seems like we are making some progress on women creating TV shows but from the looks of this trailer, TV is only populated by men. Not a single female showrunner is in the trailer and not a single...
Bridesmaids Box Office Update
The news on The Bridesmaids box office week two is that it only dropped 20%. Think about that. According to box office mojo that 20% decline was less than recent comedies like The 40 Year Old Virgin...
Cannes Winners: The Women
The Cannes Film Festival concluded last evening and Poliss directed by Maiwenn won the jury prize (which is third place.) The film has been picked up Sundance Selects. None of the other films by...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Mariska Hargitay
Mariska founded the charity Joyful Heart Foundation which is up for a $500,000 Chase Community Giving Grant. Joyful Heart’s mission is to heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual assault,...
The World’s Most Powerful Celebrity is Lady Gaga
Forbes has put out another one of its list, this year’s most powerful celebrity list. This list is not just about money. Here’s the methodology: The Celebrity 100, which includes film and...
Poster Watch: Sarah’s Key starring Kristen Scott Thomas
I loved this book and I cannot wait for the film. It opens here on July 22.
Bridesmaids Box Office Stays Strong
Just a little bit of news on the box office for Bridesmaids. Variety has reported that it beat Thor at the box office on Monday and Tuesday. As of yesterday, the gross was over $32 million which...
2011 Hollywood Writers Report — Women Make Up 24% of All Writers
The 2011 Hollywood Writers Report published by the Writers Guild of America, West was released yesterday, and the report, entitled Recession and Regression shows little progress for...
Get Ready for the Women’s World Cup
ESPN will debut a documentary series on June 25 to coincide with the beginning of the Women’s World Cup soccer tournament in Germany. Here’s the description: The short films will offer in-depth...
Jane Campion and Women Directors at Cannes
When Jane Campion shows up at Cannes people take notice, especially because she is the only woman to have ever won the Palme d’Or. Let’s say that again. The year is 2011 and only one woman has...
Hanging With The Topp Twins
The Topp Twins were in NYC last weekend for the opening of the documentary on their lives. Here’s my conversation with them and a glimpse of them singing Untouchable Girls after the screening....
Season Preview: ABC’s Lineup
Scandal — written by Shonda Rhimes (midseason) https://medium.com/media/4d27489cc07caf17804240a953eb5868/href Suburgatory — written by...
Season Preview: NBC’s Lineup
Smash — written by Theresa Rebeck (midseason) Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea — written by Julie Larson and Dottie...
Roseanne Pulls Back the Wizard’s Curtain on Network TV and it Ain’t Pretty
I have always loved Roseanne. I love her because she makes people uncomfortable (even me at times.) I love that she says what she believes, damn the consequences. Now, she can say whatever she wants...
Eve Ensler to Make Directing Debut With The Other Side Starring Jane Fonda
Vagina Monologue writer and V-Day activist Eve Ensler will be making her directorial debut on The Other Side a film that will also focus on the epidemic of rape in the Congo. In the...
Private Practice Takes on Abortion Again
This past week, Private Practice created by Shonda Rhimes stood up again for a woman’s right to choose. This episode was written by Jennifer Cecil and Barbie Kligman. Here’s what happened. A...
Angelina Jolie’s Directorial Debut Gets a Name and a Date
Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut, a love story set in Bosnia War in the 90s finally has a title — In the Land of Blood and Honey. The other news is that it will be released on December 23rd...
More Pilot Pickups Created by Women
NBCUntitled Parham/St. Clair — Jessica St. Clair and Lennon ParhamAre You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea — Dottie Zicklin and Julie Larson ABCApartment 23 — (formerly titled...
Bridesmaids is a Big Fat Hit!
Women took up the mantle and went to see the film. The gross was about $24.5 (UPDATE — $26.2) million about $10 million more than predicted. I don’t know who does the predicting on these...
Tickets Available to LA Screening of No Woman, No Cry
More Magazine has made available several tickets to a special screening of Christy Turlington Burns’ documentary No Woman, No Cry. The screening will be held on Monday, May 23rd at 4:30pm at LA...
Cannes Watch: Reviews of Polisse directed by Maiwenn
From Jordan Minzer in the Hollywood Reporter: A powerhouse of emotional jolts, free-wheeling comedy and socially-minded storytelling, Poliss (Polisse) reps an admirable step up for...
Human Rights Watch Film Festival: The Women
Women directors are dominant in the upcoming Human Rights Watch Film Festival in NYC from June 16–30. The themes of the Festival this year are: Truth, Justice and Accountability; Times of Conflict...
Save the Future for Women in Comedy — See Bridesmaids
How did we get to a place in 2011 where the female Hollywood comedian is on the endangered species list? My god we have three female Supreme Court justices, we’ve had three female secretaries of...
Guest Post: The First Grader by Ann Peacock
We LOVE it, but there’s no money for movies about Africa. This refrain was repeated over and over again as I trundled around town pitching the story to anyone who would stand still long enough to...
Weinstein Co. Picks Up Meryl Streep Film The Iron Lady
Looks like we will have a Meryl Streep film in Oscar contention this year. At Cannes, the Weinstein Co. has secured the US rights for the film. Film is written by Abi Morgan and directed by...
Cannes Watch: First Reviews of Sleeping Beauty Directed by Julia Leigh
From Sasha Stone on The Wrap: Much has been made of the supposed sexuality to be plumbed in Australian novelist and first-time auteur Julia Leigh’s “Sleeping Beauty.” First, a teaser poster...
Guest Post: Hooray For The Movie Bridesmaids by Cory Kahaney
Here we go again…my phone is ringing because some funny laaaady is getting lots of attention. In this case it’s ladies, and the movie is Bridesmaids. Someone is doing a piece on why this all...
Pilot Pickups: Fox and NBC
Here are the women created and written shows that got pick ups in the last two days. Note that all four of the shows picked up by NBC are written by women and all will star women. NBCUp All...
Cannes Watch: Reviews of We Need to Talk About Kevin
Here are some first looks at the female directed films being screened at Cannes. First up: We Need To Talk About Kevin — directed by Lynne Ramsey From Xan Brooks in the Guardian: We Need to...
Women Can Create Shows — The 2011–2012 Pilot Season
As pilot season winds down and the shows get series pickups in the next couple of weeks, Neely Swanson took a look at the female writers creating pilots this year for Deadline and found that there...
ITVS Launches Women and Girls Lead
ITVS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has launched a three project to air 50 documentary films — some new and some archival — that highlight women and girls leadership. The...
Sissy Spacek To Take Up Directing
The LA Times is reporting that Sissy Spacek will make her directing debut on Sweet Tea which is adapted from a collection of short stories Goodbye to the Buttermilk Sky by Julia Oliver. Here’s a...
Trailer Watch: The Future — Written and Directed by Miranda July
Film Opens July 29
In Praise of Melissa McCarthy
I finally saw Bridesmaids last night. LOVED IT. Will have a longer piece later this week, but I wanted to single out Melissa McCarthy for a gush of love immediately. She almost stole the movie from...
Box Office Roundup — Weekend of May 6, 2011
I thought we should take a look at some numbers from this past weekend since we haven’t done that for a while. First — looks like Mel Gibson has not been forgiven. The Beaver grossed only...
Attenberg to be Greek Entry for Academy Awards
Attenberg, written and directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari has been making its way around the world winning many awards including best actress at the Venice Film Festival and the top award at the...
Why Bridesmaids Matters
This feels like another cultural watershed moment for women on screen. A big studio comedy that is about women. We all know the difficulties women in comedy have faced. Gone are the days of Goldie...
Bossypants Returns to SNL
The Tina Fey publicity machine of the last couple of weeks has been in full swing. She’s been everywhere to sell her book Bossypants. And clearly, the publicity machine has worked because the book...
Trailer Watch: Columbiana
In this film Zoe Saldana kicks some serious ass. At least its not only the teens who are playing the action stars. The film opens in September
Cholodenko and Hardwicke Book New Projects
There are reports that two high profile female directors — Lisa Cholodenko and Catherine Hardwicke — are circling their next projects. According to Deadline, Hardwicke will helm the...
Opening This Weekend: Last Night Written and Directed by Massy Tadjedin and The Women of Thor
Summer is here and the blockbusters have started. This week’s installment of your favorite superhero at the box office brings us Thor directed by Kenneth Branagh. I was way more intrigued to see...
The Beaver — Directed by Jodie Foster
It would have been so much easier if The Beaver stunk and then I could write again about how I can’t stand Mel Gibson (and not just for what he did to his girlfriend) and how I don’t understand...
The End of An Era: Judy McGrath Exits as MTV CEO
Judy McGrath has been with MTV practically since its inception, and yesterday, after 30 years she abruptly resigned as the chairwoman and chief executive of MTV Networks. I can’t remember a time...
Save the Date: The Topp Twins are Coming to NYC on May 13 for a Q and A with Me!
One of my favorite films from the Athena Film Festival which I produced last February was The Topp Twins. As I say to everyone on paper this film sounds too way out to work. It’s about lesbian...
Trailer Watch: Buck — directed by Cindy Meel
This film premiered at Sundance and has been playing the festival circuit all spring. It opens on June 24
Trailer Watch: Martha Marcy May Marlene
Film will open October 7