#Feminism
Debra Messing Opens Up About Being Body-Shamed by a Predatory Director
Imagine yourself at work. You’re sitting (or standing) there, doing your best on the task at hand. Suddenly, your boss comes over and screams, “How quickly can we get a plastic surgeon in here?...
Emma Watts Named Vice Chairman of 20th Century Fox
Another woman is rising through the ranks at 20th Century Fox Film. The studio has promoted veteran Fox executive Emma Watts, The Hollywood Reporter writes. Watts will now act as its vice...
Nicole Kidman Will Produce, Possibly Star in “The Expatriates” TV Series
Looks like Nicole Kidman is making herself at home in the TV landscape. The star of HBO’s upcoming “Big Little Lies” and the next season of “Top of the Lake” has signed on to produce...
WeForShe Announces 2017 WriteHer List
WeForShe has selected the scripts and writers for the 2017 WriteHer List. According to an announcement on the WeForShe website, the list — which industry executives help...
Guest Post: How a Radical Idea from 1994 Finds Itself Right on Time in 2017
Guest Post by Audrey Evans They say timing is everything, but I never dreamed the timing of my lesbian sci-fi dramedy “Genesis: The Future of Mankind is Women” could be so dead-on and accurate...
Producer Cathy Schulman Launches Welle Entertainment
Women in Film President Cathy Schulman is working on yet another project. According to TheWrap, Schulman just launched Welle Entertainment, a production and finance company. Schulman, who stepped...
Mimi Leder to Direct Ruth Bader Ginsburg Biopic Starring Natalie Portman
Ruth Bader Ginsburg: Steve Petteway/ Wikimedia Commons/Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States Finally, some good news about the Supreme Court. The long-gestating Ruth Bader Ginsburg...
Guest Post: Striving for Inclusivity as a Producer One Choice at a Time
Guest Post by Jennica Schwartzman The theater goes black. I’m watching the credits at the end of my latest film. It’s a private debut screening, and my first time watching “Parker’s...
Athena Film Festival Announces IRIS Screenwriting Lab Participants
The Athena Film Festival has announced the participants for its inaugural Athena IRIS Screenwriting Lab. The Athena IRIS Lab, “whose goal is to develop feature-length narrative scripts with bold...
Women’s Media Summit to Develop “Actionable Strategies” for Hollywood’s Gender Problem
While the underrepresentation of women in key positions behind the scenes in the film and TV industry is getting more attention now than ever, the numbers don’t seem to be shifting as...
Meryl Streep Supports The Writers Lab for Women Screenwriters Over 40 (Again)
Once again, three-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep is putting her money where her mouth is. For the third year in a row, the actress is supporting The Writers Lab, a program for women screenwriters...
Women Represent Only 20% of Non-Acting Oscar Nominations
Our sentiments exactly. “Toni Erdmann” Today in news that makes us want to scream, women make up only 20 percent of this year’s non-acting Academy Award nominations, according to research from...
Quote of the Day: Octavia Spencer on Her Dream Role and Diversity
“Hidden Figures” just surpassed $100 million at the box office, and that’s just one of the many reasons Octavia Spencer has to celebrate. Spencer and her “Hidden Figures” costars, who...
A Tough Feminist Conversation at Sundance
There is a story circulating about a star-studded lunch that took place last week at Sundance in honor of women filmmakers and others attending the fest. The hosts were Glamour’s Cindi Leive and...
No Women Directors Included in Walmart’s “Diverse” Oscar Short Films
Today in WTF, Walmart bragged about its involvement in the Oscars this year and boasted about hiring some top tier directors for the gig. Problem is — they are all men. Score one more for the...
Quote of the Day: DP Nancy Schreiber on Opening Doors for Other Women
Nancy Schreiber is set to make history. The veteran cinematographer will be the first woman to receive the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Presidents Award, Variety reports. In fact,...
Trailer Watch: Dakota Fanning Takes on a Dangerous Preacher in “Brimstone”
When women are portrayed in Western films, they’re typically relegated to the sidelines. Rarely do they get in on the action. “Brimstone” is an exception. Dakota Fanning’s character, Liz, is...
Watch: Samantha Bee Discusses the Women’s March on “Full Frontal”
“Hey, how was your weekend?” Samantha Bee asked her audience on last night’s episode of “Full Frontal.” “Me, I didn’t do much — just went for a walk with a few friends.” This...
What Mary Tyler Moore Meant to Me
I’m a bit too young to have had “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” be about me and my life, but I do clearly remember watching, learning, and understanding what this woman meant to the world beyond...
Amid Feminist Protests, Roman Polanski Declines César Awards Position
The past few days are excellent examples of the power women have when they organize. Only three days after the Women’s March, Roman Polanski announced he would not serve as President of the César...
Oscar 2017 Nominations: #OscarsSoWhite Gets a Slight Makeover
The 2017 Oscar nominations are in, and the more inclusive group of actors and films to receive nods suggests that the Academy’s decision to invite a diverse new class of members was, as expected,...
Roman Polanski’s César Awards Honor Inspires Protest from Feminist Groups
Roman Polanski was named President of the César Awards, France’s equivalent to the Oscars, and women are not accepting the news without a fight. According to stories from The Hollywood Reporter,...
CINEMATOGRAPHERS XX Members Make Their Mark on Sundance 2017
Female DPs are making at splash at Sundance 2017. Back in spring of last year, female cinematographers banded together to form a new, supportive group called CINEMATOGRAPHERS XX, which aims to...
Octavia Spencer Named Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year
The year is off to a great start for Octavia Spencer. The Academy Award winner’s latest film, “Hidden Figures,” has dominated the box office two weekends in a row, and now the actress has been...
“American Crime Story” to Tackle Monica Lewinsky Scandal
Prepare to see Monica Lewinsky’s name in the headlines again. Fox 21 TV Studios and FX Productions have optioned the rights to Jeffrey Toobin’s “A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Sex Scandal That...
Sundance 2017 Women Directors: Meet Marianna Palka — “Bitch”
Sundance Film Festival alum, humanist filmmaker, and proud Scotswoman Marianna Palka has previously directed the features “Good Dick” (2008), “I’m the Same” (2014), and “Always Worthy”...
Quote of the Day: Blake Lively Emphasizes the Value of Women’s Stories
It’s hard to remember a time when Blake Lively wasn’t a movie star. The actress first came on the scene in “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” an ode to the importance of female...
Courtney Moorehead Balaker’s “Little Pink House” to Open Athena Film Festival
The Athena Film Festival announced today that “Little Pink House,” written and directed by Courtney Moorehead Balaker, will screen on Thursday, February 9 as the fest’s Opening...
Amy Poehler Buys Rights to YA Book About Teen Riot Grrrl
Amy Poehler in “Parks and Recreation” Amy Poehler is working to bring a feminist teen character to the big screen. Hers and Brooke Posch’s Paper Kite production banner has acquired the film...
AFI Announces the 25 Female Directors Selected for Fox Filmmaker Lab
The American Film Institute (AFI) recently announced the 25 female directors selected for the 2017 Fox Filmmaker Lab, an initiative designed to increase the number of women directing major studio...
TCA Update: Lifetime and FX Make Strides Towards Gender Equality, Inclusivity
It’s TCA time again, when presidents and CEOs of major networks — who are mostly white men in their fifties or sixties — make bold, sweeping promises about how this is the year when...
“Shots Fired’s” First Season Features Equal Number of Male and Female Directors
In addition to bringing the Black Lives Matter movement to the mainstream media, Gina Prince-Bythewood is also working to bridge the gender gap. “Shots Fired,” the upcoming Fox event series...
Maren Ade and Sandra Hüller Discuss Nudity and Feminism in Oscar Favorite “Toni Erdmann”
“Toni Erdman” is one of the most lauded films of 2016. It was won many critics awards and was named best film of the year by multiple international critics associations, including Sight &...
2016 Celluloid Ceiling Study Shows Us That Women Still Aren’t Making Progress
Jennifer Yuh Nelson, co-director of “Kung Fu Panda 3,” 2016’s highest-grossing film with a woman director: channelAPA — Asian American Entertainment/ YouTube We here at Women and...
Natalie Portman Says Ashton Kutcher Was Paid 3x More on “No Strings Attached”
Sexism strikes again. During an interview with Marie Claire UK, Oscar winner and “Jackie” star Natalie Portman revealed that her “No Strings Attached” co-star, Ashton Kutcher, was paid...
Athena Film Festival Announces its 2017 Lineup: “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Fits,” & More
The Athena Film Festival has released its seventh annual lineup. The 2017 edition of the fest, which is dedicated to celebrating female leaders in the real life and the fictional world, will feature...
Glamour Releases First Issue Produced Entirely by Women
Glamour magazine is trying to put its masthead where its mouth is. “Gender equality is on all of our minds. It’s really important to me that Glamour not just talk the talk about female...
Gender Discrimination Lawsuit Hits Palm Springs International Film Festival
The Palm Springs International Film Festival has kicked off, but not without a touch of scandal. Mere days before the festival began, The Desert Sun reports, the former acting director, Helen Du...
Disney’s 2017 Slate Lacks Both Women Writers and Directors
Looks like another major studio will be lacking in female representation this year. After Women and Hollywood reported that 20th Century Fox has zero female directors on their slate through 2018,...
Women Made Up 23% of the Protagonists in 2016’s Top 250 Grossing Films
Female-led films scored the top two spots at the domestic box office in 2016. A blue tang fish and a heroic rebel proved to be the most lucrative characters of the year. “Finding Dory,” whose...
Best of 2016: Another Male Director With Little Experience Given a Big-Budget Project
Women and Hollywood is off this week. Please enjoy one of our top posts of the year. This piece is from June 21, 2016. In today’s dose of “Are you fucking kidding me?” another male director...
Best of 2016: Renee Zellweger and Why It’s Still Not Ok to Talk About Women’s Faces and Bodies
Women and Hollywood is off this week. Please enjoy one of our top posts of the year. This piece is from July 1, 2016. Here’s a thought: how about we, as members of the media, cease to write...
The Most Feminist Moments and Exciting Developments of 2016
Viola Davis in “How to Get Away with Murder” In many ways, 2016 was a terrible year, and with President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence en route to the White House, the...
Women Directed Ten Percent of 2016’s Top Grossing Films
2016 wasn’t a great year for female filmmakers at the domestic box office. Women directed or co-directed 24 of the top 250 highest grossing films in the U.S. this year, amounting to about ten...
BAFTA Introduces New Rules to Exclude “Non-Diverse” Films
The BAFTA Awards are getting a makeover. According to The BBC, The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is changing eligibility rules for films competing in its annual awards as well as...
Women Film Critics Circle Nominations: “Hidden Figures,” “13th,” & More
“13th” Ava DuVernay’s “13th,” Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women,” and “Hidden Figures” are among the films to be honored by The Women Film Critics Circle (WFCC) this year. The...
Feature Film in the Works on Fox News’ Roger Ailes Sexual Harassment Scandal
If you haven’t been following the scandal surrounding the sexual harassment charges against Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, you’ll soon have a motion picture that will fill you in on all of...
Why Isn’t Casey Affleck Being Asked About Sexual Harassment Accusations?
Casey Affleck in “Manchester by the Sea” The Golden Globe nominations were announced yesterday and just as expected, Casey Affleck scored a nod for his role in “Manchester by the Sea.”...
Watch: Madonna Gives Inspiring Speech as Billboard’s Woman of the Year
“I stand before you as a doormat,” Madonna said on stage at the Billboard Women in Music Event, before continuing, “Oh, I mean a female entertainer.” The line drew laughs during her speech,...
“The Daily Show” Co-Creator Lizz Winstead to Release Pay-Per-View Special
Lizz Winstead, co-creator of “The Daily Show,” has announced that she’ll broadcast an end-of-year wrap-up on December 31, The A.V. Club reports. The pay-per-view special will be titled...
Four White Men Put on UK Channel 4’s Board While Minority Woman Rejected
There has been uproar in the UK over the course of the past week when it was announced that four white men were approved as board members for Channel 4 while a fifth candidate, a minority woman, was...