ALL POSTS
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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 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...
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 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...
Interview with Anne Fontaine – Director of Adore
Women and Hollywood got the chance to interview Anne Fontaine about her new film, Adore, which she directed. Adore hits theaters today. Women and Hollywood: You say in the press notes...
TIFF Women Directors: Meet Leanne Pooley
Leanne Pooley was born and raised in Canada, and now lives in New Zealand. She has directed over twenty features, including the documentaries Haunting Douglas (03), The Promise (05), Try...
SXSW Rerun: Interview with Hannah Fidell, Lindsay Burdge and Kim Sherman of A Teacher
Originally published on April 9. A Teacher is in theaters in New York and Los Angeles today and is available on VOD. A Teacher is a tense, unflinching piece of film that gets under your...
TIFF Women Directors and Producers: Meet Sabine Emiliani and Stephanie Levy
Sabine Emiliani’s documentary editing has garnered accolades from Sundance to Cannes to the Academy Awards. Ms. Emiliani’s 2006 Oscar-winning documentary, March of the Penguins...
Sundance Rerun: Interview with Lynn Shelton – Director of Touchy Feely
Originally published on on February 5. Touchy Feely is open in limited release today. It is also available on VOD. I had never met Lynn Shelton before last month but I already felt like I knew...
Pondering Roseanne On Its 25th Anniversary
As we stare down the beginning of another grim new crop of fall television shows, the prospects this year seem even worse in part because of a looming anniversary: twenty-five years ago this...
September Film Preview
As we head out of a strong August for women directed and centric films, we go straight into a September filled with varied and interesting projects from new and veteran women filmmakers. Films this...
Guest Post: Filming the Unimaginable
I remember feeling scared of entering the room Neil was in, of approaching him. Maybe part of this was fear of seeing his suffering, but it was also disquiet about the ethics of filming...
Weekly Update for August 23 & 30: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Check out the women centric, directed and written films playing near you in the next two weeks. Films About Women Opening This Weekend August 23: Short Term 12 ...
Summer’s Final Thoughts: Wonder Woman, Strong Women, Indie Women and All the Women in Between
This summer will be remembered for, among other things, the fact that male superheroes and male non superheroes were practically all the we saw onscreen. For all the box office fatigue —...
Interview with Jill Soloway – Writer and Director of Afternoon Delight
Women and Hollywood got the chance to interview Jill Soloway about her film Afternoon Delight, which she wrote and directed. Afternoon Delight opens in theaters on August 30th. Women...
SXSW Rerun: Interview with Brie Larson – Star of Short Term 12
Originally published on March 26. Short Term 12 is in theaters today. Short Term 12 , written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, was hands down one of my favorite films I saw at SXSW....
Guest Post: For Life
In my country, a female director is a rare exception (but fortunately not for long). In the Middle-East, some consider that a miracle and others a heresy. On the set of Inch’Allah,...
Political Women on the Small Screen: Barbara Hall’s Secretary of State TV Show and Hillary Clinton Miniseries Update
CBS is working with Barbara Hall, co-executive producer of Homeland, on a series about a female secretary of state. Entitled Madame Secretary, the series will follow a female secretary of state as...
Interview with Jerusha Hess – Writer and Director of Austenland
Women and Hollywood: Can you talk a little bit about what drew you to this project? Jerusha Hess: I got the book from the author. I had no idea about the book. I was interested in another project...
Interview with Golshifteh Farahani – Star of The Patience Stone
This is from Toronto Film Festival in 2012 The Patience Stone was the movie in Toronto that two separate women told me I needed to see. And boy was it worth it. It is basically a monologue...
Cross Post: In ‘Planes’ Males Soar, Females Get Grounded
I’ve blogged twice about the sexist preview for “Planes,” and after seeing the movie today, I’m afraid I’ve got to blog about this awful scene once more. The sexist...
Jennifer Lawrence Covers the September Issue of Vogue
Jennifer Lawrence covers Vogue’s coveted September issue (consisting of a backbreaking 665 pages). In a seven hour interview with Jonathan Van Meter, Lawrence spoke about The Hunger Games,...
Karen Black: Perfectly Misunderstood
Karen Black died last week and she was my unlikely friend. I say so because all the conventional markers could not have predicted it. I am an atheist, a feminist and a film director and Karen...
Cross Post: Fostering Our Future
The new fantastic, flashy, female-fronted shows of the season have received seemingly endless and endlessly deserving ink. We all love “Orphan Black” and “Orange Is the New...
An Appreciation of Summer Roberts: The O.C.’s Greatest Character
It’s eerie to think that 10 years ago this week, I watched The O.C. huddled around a TV in my friend’s parents basement. It was a show I had been anticipating all summer...
Trailer Watch: Paradise – Written and Directed by Diablo Cody
We’ve been reporting a lot about Diablo Cody’s directorial debut in the last couple weeks–first about the film’s initial October release alongside Kimberly Peirce’s...
Guest Post: Gender Disparity and the Problem of Marketability
A couple years ago, I wrote a script that was made into a movie, and this summer it came out on DVD and VOD. It’s called Red Line, and it’s about the survivors of a subway crash who...
Diablo Cody’s Paradise to Premiere on Direct TV Next Week
As we previously reported, Diablo Cody’s directorial debut was hitting theaters on October 18th, the same day that Kimberly Peirce’s remake of horror classic Carrie drops as...
Guest Post: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Gender Equality?
This piece is in response to a piece published on FilmInk that listed the 20 Most Powerful People in Australian Film As an Australian I’ve long believed that my home country’s industry...
Gwyneth Horder-Payton: A Woman Who Specializes in Directing Men
At a panel of directors who work on FX shows at the Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles on Sunday, one of the reporters in the room asked newly-minted Directors Guild of America...
TIFF Announces Documentary Line Up
Last week, the 2013 Toronto Film Festival began announcing its line up. However that came with dismaying news for female directors–out of the 16 galas not one was directed by a woman. And of...
Nine for IX: Swoopes Directed by Hannah Storm Premieres July 30
Sheryl Swoopes is one of the greatest women’s basketball players to have ever graced the court. Those early seasons after she had her son and she was playing on the Houston Comets when...
Alysia Reiner Talks About Being a Part of Orange is the New Black
In Orange is the New Black – the new Netflix sensation that takes place in a women’s prison, Alysia Reiner’s character is incredibly callous. She plays Natalie...
Weekly Update for July 26: Women Centric, Directed and Written Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend The To Do List – Written and Directed by Maggie Carey The teen sex comedy is a staple subgenre of teen films. Porky’s, Revenge...
Maggie Carey’s The To Do List Reinvents the Teen Sex Comedy
The teen sex comedy is a staple subgenre of teen films. Porky’s, Revenge of the Nerds and American Pie are just some of the films that have brought sex puns and now grossly iconic...
Women Centric Films in Toronto International Film Festival 2013 Gala & Special Presentation Line Up
After taking a look at the women directed films in the galas and special presentations, we also wanted to take a look at the women centric films that will be receiving lots of attention in...
Being Miranda Hobbes: Why Women Really Love Sex And The City
In her fantastic reclamation of the much-maligned HBO sitcom Sex and the City as part of television’s golden age, New Yorker television critic Emily Nussbaum argues this week that Carrie...
Toronto International Film Festival Announces Galas and Special Presentations for 2013
This morning the folks at the Toronto Film Festival rolled out the beginning of the line-up — the galas and the special presentations. These are the film where we see the biggest...
Guest Post: The Growing Influence of Women at Comic-Con
This year marked my 8th Comic-Con and my, has this event changed over the years. It is bigger than ever, covering everything from the largest movie franchises, popular TV shows, top video games,...
Sony Pictures Classics Only Counting on Women for Austenland
Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has made a calculated decision that the audience for the upcoming Jerusha Hess (who co-wrote Napoleon Dynamite) directed film will be predominantly women. They are...
Celebrate the 18th Anniversary of Amy Heckerling’s Clueless
I remember watching Clueless for the first time when I was in 5th grade. It was immediately my favorite movie because I wanted all of Cher’s clothes, her electronic wardrobe and thought Paul...
Weekly Update July 19th: Women Centric, Written and Directed Films Playing Near You
Films About Women Opening This Weekend Girl Most Likely – Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, written by Michelle Morgan Kristen Wiig could have made another...
2013 Emmy Nominated Women React to Nominations
As we reported yesterday, the caliber, talent and diversity of women nominated for the 2013 Emmy Awards is incredible. We have writers and directors like Lena Dunham and Allison Anders earning...
Cross Post: In Praise of Difficult Women
Fuck off, Don Draper, Walter White, Tony Soprano, et al. The age of the male antihero is over. Sure, you’ve had a good run. And, fuck, look at all those shiny, shiny Emmys. But I’m...