#Documentary
Trailer Watch: Taylor Swift Embraces Her True Voice in “Miss Americana”
“A nice girl doesn’t force their opinions on people. A nice girl smiles and waves and says thank you. I became the person everyone wanted me to be,” explains Taylor Swift in a new...
Gal Gadot and Vanessa Roth Are Teaming Up for Nat Geo Doc Series About Inspiring Young Women
Gal Gadot is helping pay tribute to other heroines. The “Wonder Woman” star is signed on to exec produce a Nat Geo short-form doc series that “follows the stories of young women...
Chicken & Egg Announces 2020 Award Recipients and Introduces Project: Hatched
Chicken & Egg Pictures is ringing in the new year by naming the recipients of its 2020 Chicken & Egg Awards and introducing its newest programs, Project: Hatched and the Chicken & Egg...
The Roles We Play: Crowdfunding Picks
Figuring out who you are — and who you want to be — can be a difficult process, especially in a world so eager to put limitations on which identities are considered acceptable. This is an...
Billie Holiday Doc “Billie” Lands at Greenwich Entertainment
Greenwich Entertainment, the distributor behind “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice,” one of 2019’s top docs, will release Billie Holiday documentary “Billie” this...
Heidi Ewing & Rachel Grady Team Up with Ronan Farrow for HBO Doc About Threats Against Journalists
Oscar-nominated filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady will examine the threats, intimidation, and violence used to silence journalists with Ronan Farrow for their next project. Deadline confirms...
Women Directed or Co-Directed 70 Percent of SXSW’s 2020 Competition Titles
Women-directed offerings dominate South by Southwest’s (SXSW) 2020 Competition lineups. The Austin, Texas-based fest just announced the program for its 27th edition, and women helmed or...
Judith Helfand’s “Cooked: Survival By Zip Code” to Air on PBS’ “Independent Lens”
“Cooked: Survival By Zip Code” will air on PBS as part of “Independent Lens.” A press release confirmed that Judith Helfand’s documentary about the 1995 Chicago heat...
“Advocate” Acquired by PBS’ “POV”
“Advocate” is headed to the small screen. A press release confirmed that PBS’ “POV” has acquired U.S. broadcast rights to Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe...
Awards Roundup: BAFTA Noms Exclude Actors of Color & “American Factory” Wins Big at Cinema Eye
The 2020 BAFTA nominations are in — and pretty damn disappointing. People of color, such as “Hustlers'” Jennifer Lopez and “The Farewell’s” Awkwafina, have been...
DGA Award Nominations: Ava DuVernay, Jessica Yu, Nanfu Wang, & More Land Nods
The Directors Guild of America (DGA) is beginning to unveil nominations for the 2020 DGA Awards. Women account for three of six nominees in the Movies for Television and Miniseries category: Ava...
Writers Guild Film Nominations: “Little Women,” “Booksmart,” & More
Three of our favorite films by and about women from last year are among the nominees for the 2020 Writers Guild Awards. “Little Women,” “Booksmart,” and “The...
Trailer Watch: A Jewish-Israeli Human Rights Lawyer Is an “Advocate” for Her Palestinian Clients
Lea Tsemel is, in her own words, “a very angry optimistic woman.” A new trailer for “Advocate” sees the controversial Jewish-Israeli human rights lawyer reflecting on her...
Greta Thunberg Doc in the Works at Hulu
Hulu is paying tribute to Time’s 2019 Person of the Year. The streamer will premiere an original doc about climate activist Greta Thunberg in 2020, Deadline reports. Tentatively titled...
Oscars Doc Shortlist Includes “For Sama,” “One Child Nation,” & More
We’re one step closer to finding out which films will receive Oscar nods. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced shortlists for a number of categories including...
IDA Documentary Awards Winners: “For Sama,” “American Factory,” & More
“For Sama” took home the top honor at this year’s IDA Documentary Awards, held Saturday in LA. Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts received the Best Feature Documentary Award for the...
Under the Radar: April Wright Celebrates the Cinema in “Going Attractions”
“Going Attractions: The Definitive Story of the Movie Palace,” from writer-director April Wright, is a loving documentary celebrating cinema and movie houses. Movie palaces were ornate,...
Women Make Up 46 Percent of Sundance 2020’s Competition Directors
The Sundance Film Festival has bested its ratio of women filmmakers for the third year in a row. Its 2020 competition lineup is 46 percent women-directed or co-directed, as compared to 2019’s...
New York Film Critics Circle Winners: “Atlantics,” “Honeyland,” & More
The members of the New York Film Critics Circle have cast their votes for the best films of 2019, and the results are in. Mati Diop’s “Atlantics” has been named as Best First Film....
Mary J. Blige Doc in the Works at Amazon
Oscar-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth is directing a documentary about the Queen of Hip Hop Soul, Mary J. Blige. The untitled Amazon Studios project is currently in development, a press release...
Oprah, Amy Ziering, & Kirby Dick’s Doc About Sexual Misconduct in Music Industry Goes to Apple
Oprah Winfrey is joining forces with the filmmaking team behind “The Hunting Ground” and “The Invisible War.” The mogul is collaborating with Amy Ziering and Kirby Dick on an...
Heidi Hassan & Patricia Pérez Fernández’s “In a Whisper” Wins Top Prize at IDFA 2019
The 2019 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), which concluded this past weekend, featured the highest ratio of women filmmakers in the fest’s 31-year history. Fittingly, this...
Jenny Carchman to Direct Docuseries About “Queen of Gossip” Cindy Adams for Showtime
Kristen Bell isn’t the only Gossip Girl in New York City. A docuseries about New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams is in the works at CBS’ Showtime Networks, Deadline reports. Set to...
Women and Hollywood’s Picks of the Week for November 21
Picks of the Week offers Women and Hollywood’s top recommendations — women-driven and women-made movies, series, VOD releases, and more — and tells you why they are worth your time and...
Projects from Alexandra Pelosi and Alexandra Shiva Added to MTV Documentary Films’ Slate
Alexandra Pelosi and Alexandra Shiva both have projects in the works at MTV Documentary Films. MTV Docs head Sheila Nevins announced the unit’s upcoming slate, and it includes a journey across...
Trailer Watch: A Trauma Expert Confronts Her Demons in “Afterward”
“I wonder if any of us have learned from the past,” says Ofra Bloch in a new trailer for “Afterward.” The documentary sees the Jerusalem-born trauma expert embarking on a...
PGA Awards: Over 70 Percent of Doc Nominees Are Directed or Co-Directed by Women
Earlier this year, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for “Free Solo,” a look inside Alex Honnold’s quest to make history as...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Rachel Beth Anderson – “Unschooled”
Rachel Beth Anderson is a Sundance award-winning cinematographer. She began her career filming in Libya, Syria, South Sudan, and Afghanistan for PBS’ “Frontline,” CNN, the Human...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Mariam Ghani – “What We Left Unfinished”
Mariam Ghani is a visual artist whose first feature, “What We Left Unfinished,” premiered at 2019 Berlinale and won the Critics Choice Award at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival....
Ready for Their Close-Up: VOD and Web Series Picks
Marginalized groups — such as women, people of color, and the queer community — have not always gotten the critical attention they deserve. Fortunately, each of the projects highlighted...
Dawn Porter Is Directing a Doc About Former White House Photographer Pete Souza
As former Chief Official White House Photographer, Pete Souza played an integral role in capturing — and preserving — history in the making. Now Dawn Porter is turning the camera on him....
Trailer Watch: Students Demand More Than Thoughts and Prayers in “After Parkland”
A new trailer for “After Parkland” asks how you can “make sense of the senseless.” The doc tells the story of the families of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who are...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Lily Zepeda – “Mr. Toilet: The World’s #2 Man”
Lily Zepeda’s passion for exploring unconventional stories began with a career in Journalism, interviewing subjects ranging from Grammy award-winning musicians to Olympians. Zepeda went from TV...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Monica Long Ross – “We Believe In Dinosaurs”
Monica Long Ross is a filmmaker and playwright, and a co-founder of 137 Films, a Chicago-based documentary production company. Ross co-directed and co-produced the award-winning documentaries “The...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Karin Kainer – “Kosher Beach”
Award-winning documentary filmmaker Karin Kainer is a Documentary Film Lecturer at H.I.T., The Holon Institute of Technology, in Israel, and the director of “Skate of Mind,” and “South Wind on...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Ema Ryan Yamazaki – “Koshien: Japan’s Field of Dreams”
Ema Ryan Yamazaki’s first feature documentary, “Monkey Business: The Adventures of Curious George’s Creators,” premiered in 2017 and won the Audience Award at the Nantucket...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Sara Dosa – “The Seer and the Unseen”
Sara Dosa’s first directorial feature, “The Last Season,” won the Golden Gate Award when it premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2014. In addition to film,...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Mo Scarpelli – “Anbessa”
Mo Scarpelli co-directed “Frame by Frame,” which screened at SXSW, Hot Docs, and BFI London Film Festival, among other fests. It has won over a dozen jury and audience awards....
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Olga Lvoff – “Busy Inside”
Olga Lvoff is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and a member of The European Film Academy. Her feature doc “When People Die They Sing Songs” was nominated for a Student Oscar in 2014...
2020 Cinema Eye Honor Nominees: “American Factory,” “One Child Nation,” & More
Cinema Eye has announced all of the nominees for their 2020 Honors, which recognize excellence in nonfiction filmmaking. Of six titles competing for Outstanding Nonfiction Feature, four are directed...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Francesca Trianni – “Paradise Without People”
Francesca Trianni is an Emmy-nominated senior producer at Time, where her work has been recognized with a World Press Photo award, Pictures of the Year International, and the National Murrow Awards....
Trailer Watch: “Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator” Traces the Rise & Fall of Hot Yoga’s Founder
A trailer has dropped for ““Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator,” a Netflix doc that director Eva Orner describes as “a pre-#MeToo/#TimesUp story being told in a post #MeToo/#TimesUp...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Martha Shane – “Narrowsburg”
Martha Shane is an Emmy-award-winning documentary filmmaker whose credits include “After Tiller” and “Picture Character.” The former won the Emmy for Best...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Shani Rozanes – “Golda”
Shani Rozanes is an Israeli journalist, writer, and filmmaker living in Berlin. A former news editor in leading Israeli media outlets, she currently works at Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Deia Schlosberg – “The Story of Plastic”
Deia Schlosberg made national news in October 2016 when she was arrested and charged with 45 years’ worth of felonies for filming the #ShutItDown pipeline protest in North Dakota. She produced...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Geeta Gandbhir – “Hungry to Learn”
Geeta Gandbhir is an award-winning director, producer, and editor. As director, she won Best Documentary at the News and Doc Emmys for HBO’s “I Am Evidence,” and Best Government and...
Class Is Now in Session: Crowdfunding Picks
A person’s moral center starts developing at a young age, and continues to grow throughout their life — something we’re exploring in this month’s round of crowdfunding selections....
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Cara Jones – “Blessed Child”
Cara Jones is an Emmy Award winning journalist who founded the production company Storytellers for Good. Her short films include “Surfing Possibility,” “Mama Hope,” and...
Trailer Watch: A New Doc Explores Whether “To Kid or Not To Kid”
“Why can’t we talk about not having children?” director Maxine Trump asks in a new trailer for “To Kid or Not To Kid.” The documentary explores the cultural pressure and...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Beth B – “Lydia Lunch – The War is Never Over”
Beth B is a writer, director, and producer of feature-length documentary and narrative films, as well as experimental shorts. Her films have been shown at, and acquired by, the Whitney Museum of...
DOC NYC 2019 Women Directors: Meet Katie Green and Carlye Rubin – “1275 Days”
Katie Green and Carlye Rubin have directed three feature documentaries together: “The (Dead Mothers) Club,” “The Family I Had,” and “1275 Days.” Together, the pair...