ALL POSTS
Pick of the Day: “Finding Kukan”
Here are a few factoids about “Kukan,” the 1941 documentary about China during Japan’s WWII invasion and occupation: Its title is a term that refers to perseverance in the face of...
Women and Nonbinary Filmmakers Directed Over Half of Full Frame 2022’s Official Selections
The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival has unveiled the Official Selections for its 25th edition, to be held online April 7-10. Of the 37 films featured in the NEW DOCS and Invited Program...
Trailer Watch: Life Gets a Little More Complicated for Jessie and Tom in “Starstruck” Season 2
“Starstruck” is back — and Jessie (Rose Matafeo) and Tom (Nikesh Patel) are back together. A trailer has dropped for Season 2 of the HBO Max rom-com series, created and co-written...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Jessica Edwards – “Skate Dreams”
Jessica Edwards launched Film First in 2010 to produce documentary shorts and feature-length work. Her award-winning debut short, “Seltzer Works,” premiered at SXSW and was broadcast on...
Marlee Matlin Will Make Directorial Debut with an Episode of Fox’s “Accused”
Weeks after landing the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture alongside her “CODA” co-stars, Marlee Matlin is stepping behind the camera. She’s set to...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Vasilisa Kuzmina – “Nika”
Born in Moscow, Vasilisa Kuzmina is a young Russian filmmaker and scriptwriter. After getting a B.F.A. in acting at the Moscow Drama School, Kuzmina debuted as a film director with the web series...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Zara Katz and Lisa Riordan Seville – “A Woman on the Outside”
Zara Katz is currently Photography Director at NBC News Digital and has worked for editorial outlets including The New York Times, Time magazine, and The New Yorker. She was senior photo producer on...
Jane Campion and Maggie Gyllenhaal Make History at DGA Awards
Jane Campion made history at Saturday night’s DGA Awards, becoming the third woman ever to take home the night’s top honor, the Theatrical Feature Film award. Recognized for her first...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Rosa Ruth Boesten – “Master of Light”
Born in Utrecht and based in Amsterdam, Rosa Ruth Boesten, made her first documentary about her grandmother, a single mother and struggling artist who made textile art. She studied directing of...
An Opinion of Our Own: Web Series Picks
In a media landscape that can feel impossible to get a handle on, with new releases daily across numerous platforms, the role of the critic has never been more vital for individual viewers. When...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Allison Otto – “The Thief Collector”
Allison Otto is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, cinematographer, and visual journalist. Her documentary short “The Love Bugs” was awarded Best Short Documentary in the 42nd Annual...
Pick of the Day: “Turning Red”
A hilarious and moving tribute to the power of friendship, family, and self-acceptance, Domee Shi’s “Turning Red” is a delight from start to finish. Pixar’s latest tells the...
Patricia Rozema on Revisiting Her Queer Classic “I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing”
Patricia Rozema’s first feature, “I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing,” screened at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Prix de la Jeunesse, was runner-up for the...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Linda Goldstein Knowlton – “Split At The Root”
Linda Goldstein Knowlton is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker, working in documentary, scripted feature films, and television. Her award-winning documentary “We Are The Radical Monarchs” ...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Iliana Sosa – “What We Leave Behind”
Iliana Sosa is a documentary and narrative fiction filmmaker based in Austin, Texas. Her documentary short “An Uncertain Future,” co-directed with Chelsea Hernandez, premiered at the 2018...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Vanessa Winter – “Deadstream”
Vanessa Winter is a Utah-based writer and director. Practical creature FX with absurd twists are the hallmarks of her and her collaborator and husband Joseph Winter’s viral horror shorts for...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Amy Bandlien Storkel – “The Pez Outlaw”
Amy Bandlien Storkel is a documentary filmmaker best known for co-producing “The Legend of Cocaine Island” (Netflix, 2019) and the Emmy Award-winning documentary “Alabama...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Linda Yellen – “Chantilly Bridge”
Linda Yellen is an Emmy Award-winning director, writer, and producer. She has made over 27 productions for film and television, with premieres at Cannes, Sundance, and Toronto film festivals. Among...
SXSW 2022 Women Directors: Meet Daresha Kyi – “Mama Bears”
Daresha Kyi is an Emmy Award-winning director who also writes and produces film and television in Spanish and English. She made her feature doc directorial debut with “Chavela,” a...
SXSW 2022 Preview: Inuit Girls Take On an Alien Invasion in the Arctic, Gabby Giffords Fights for Gun Control, & More
Kicking off March 11, SXSW will take place in-person for the first time since 2019. With a Feature Competition slate that is majority-women-directed, there are a bunch of films we’re looking...
Under the Radar: Iliana Sosa’s “What We Leave Behind” Is an Intimate Portrait of a Family’s Loyal Patriarch
“Life’s catching up with me.” Shirtless and laid bare in a symbolic display of openness and vulnerability, Julián Moreno speaks to his granddaughter as they so often have for several years –...
Pick of the Day: “Fresh”
Your mileage may vary on “Fresh.” A rom-com-horror hybrid exploring the modern dynamics of power, dating, gender, and sex via a pretty twisted allegory, it’s sure to be polarizing...
Pick of the Day: “The Dropout”
Amanda Seyfried follows up her Oscar-nominated portrayal of silver screen legend by taking on the role of a Silicon Valley fraudster in “The Dropout.” The “Mank” actress heads...
March 2022 Film Preview
Women’s History Month is chock-full of suspenseful thrillers and dark dramas featuring characters either seeking truth from others or harboring deep secrets of their own. We’ll be welcoming...
Paramount+ Snags Jessica Brown Findlay-Starrer “Flatshare,” Rose Lewenstein Penning Adaptation
Jessica Brown Findlay is heading far from the luxurious county estate where she launched her career. The “Downton Abbey” alumna will try out decidedly less glamorous living arrangements...
Stephanie Laing on Channeling Grief and Loss into Art and Comedy in “Family Squares”
Stephanie Laing has eight Emmy nominations and two wins. She just directed all six episodes of the limited series “Mammals” for Amazon Studios. Laing launched her directing career on HBO’s...
Guest Post: How to Make a Movie on a $100K Budget
By Suzette Brown Making an independent film successful is not easy — the key is arming yourself with proper planning. On the first feature I produced, I was told by the director, “There are...
Kat Coiro to Bring Liane Moriarty’s “The Husband’s Secret” to the Big Screen
Kat Coiro has booked her follow-up to “Marry Me” less than a week after the Jennifer Lopez-starrer opened in theaters and began streaming on Peacock. She’s been tapped to helm the...
Quote of the Day: Emma Thompson on Baring It All in “Leo Grande” & Struggling with Body Image
In “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” — which recently premiered at Sundance and is screening at the Berlinale — there’s a powerful scene in which a 50-something woman...
Endurance Through Adversity: Short Film VOD Picks Honoring Black History Month
As yet another February rolls around, Black media consumers are faced with a choice: Fully embrace the content strategy efforts of major brands in both traditional and social media, or offer those...
Emily Ting Talks Imposter Syndrome, Quieting That Negative Inner Voice, and “Tall Girl 2”
Emily Ting is an award-winning writer, director, and producer. Her first feature, “Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong,” starring real life couple Jamie Chung and Bryan Greenberg, premiered at...
Amy Goldstein Revisits a Historic Sit-In with “The Unmaking of a College”
Amy Goldstein is a director, producer, and screenwriter of television series, feature films, and music videos. Her latest documentary, “Kate Nash: Underestimate the Girl,” was made for...
“Master,” “The Janes,” & More to Screen at 2022 Athena Film Festival
The 12th annual Athena Film Festival (AFF) has unveiled its lineup. To be held in-person March 11-13 at Barnard College in New York City and virtually March 11-20, the fest will celebrate women...
Berlinale 2022 Women Directors: Meet Ursula Meier – “The Line”
Of Swiss and French nationalities, Ursula Meier studied filmmaking in Belgium. In 2008, her first feature film, “Home,” was selected for the Cannes Critics Week and received numerous...
Madeleine Carter on Following Rep. Jamie Raskin for Her New Doc “Love & The Constitution”
Madeleine Carter is a filmmaker, producer, and executive. Her credits include “Live from Space,” “To Catch a Smuggler,” and “Brothers in War.” She received an Emmy...
Dakota Johnson Set to Board S.J. Clarkson’s Marvel Comics Pic for Sony
S. J. Clarkson’s previously announced Marvel comics film for Sony appears to have netted its lead: Dakota Johnson has been tapped to star as Madame Web. Deadline broke the news. Madame Web is...
“Claws” Showrunner Janine Sherman Barrois Launches New Production Banner at Warner Bros. TV
“I want to focus on stories, certainly about Black people and BIPOC people, but also stories of powerful women in general and powerful families,” says “Claws” showrunner Janine...
February 2022 Film Preview
February brings a slate of films about and made by women centered on the theme of love, in all its follies. Kicking off the month is Oscar hopeful “The Worst Person in the World”...
Sundance Winners: “Nanny,” “The Exiles,” and More
It’s a wrap on Sundance 2022. Over 60 percent of Competition titles this year were directed or co-directed by women, and a number of them took home top honors. The U.S. Grand Jury Prize:...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt – “Aftershock”
Tonya Lewis Lee is a director, producer, and writer whose work through storytelling often explores the personal impact of social justice issues such as civil rights and criminal justice. Paula Eiselt...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Abigail Disney and Kathleen Hughes – “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales”
Abigail Disney is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker, activist, and co-founder of Fork Films, a nonfiction media production company which produces the podcast “All Ears.” She is the...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Shalini Kantayya – “TikTok, Boom.”
Shalini Kantayya is a filmmaker whose film “Coded Bias” premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and is now streaming on Netflix. The film won a Social Impact Media Award for Best...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Eva Longoria Bastón – “La Guerra Civil”
As an award-winning actress, director, producer, entrepreneur, and activist, Eva Longoria Bastón has become one the most significant trailblazers behind the camera. For over a decade, she has been...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes – “The Janes”
Tia Lessin was nominated for an Academy Award for her work as a director and producer of the Hurricane Katrina survival story “Trouble the Water,” winner of the 2008 Sundance Grand Jury Prize and...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Jamie Dack – “Palm Trees and Power Lines”
Jamie Dack is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, NY. Her short film “Palm Trees and Power Lines” premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival as a Cinéfondation selection. Her debut feature...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Julie Ha – “Free Chol Soo Lee”
Julie Ha’s storytelling career spans more than two decades, with a specialized focus on Asian American stories. She worked as an editor for 10 years at KoreAm Journal, a national Korean American...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Amy Poehler – “Lucy and Desi”
Perhaps best known for her Emmy-nominated series “Parks and Recreation,” Amy Poehler currently serves as co-creator, executive producer, and the lead voice of Fox’s animated series...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Ondi Timoner – “Last Flight Home”
Ondi Timoner is an internationally-acclaimed filmmaker who has the rare distinction of winning the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance twice – for “Dig!” (2004), about the collision of art and...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Rita Baghdadi – “Sirens”
Rita Baghdadi is an award-winning Moroccan-American documentary filmmaker whose work has been supported by Sundance, Tribeca, Netflix, HBO, Film Independent, and the International Documentary...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing – “Midwives”
Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing has worked as a freelance filmmaker in Myanmar since 2006, acting as director, producer, editor, and sound recordist. Her short “Burmese Butterfly” played festivals in...
Sundance 2022 Women Directors: Meet Monia Chokri – “Babysitter”
Monia Chokri is a Canadian stage and television actor, as well as an award-winning director. Her first feature film, ”A Brother’s Love,” won the Un Certain Regard jury’s Coup de Coeur at the...