#Festivals
NewFest 2021 Women Directors: Meet Emily Branham – “Being BeBe: The BeBe Zahara Benet Documentary”
Emily Branham is a filmmaker captivated by artists, performance, and identity. She directs short documentaries for art and corporate organizations including Lincoln Center, AT&T, and JP Morgan,...
NewFest 2021 Women Directors: Meet Cristiane Oliveira – “The First Death of Joana”
Cristiane Oliveira is a Brazilian writer and director. Her debut feature, “Nalu on The Border” (“Mulher do Pai”), premiered internationally at the Berlinale 2017 and has...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Nathalie Biancheri – “Wolf”
Nathalie Biancheri is an Italian writer and director based in Dublin. Her short films have won awards at several international festivals such as SXSW, Edinburgh, Galway, Rhode Island Flickers Fest,...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Camille Griffin – “Silent Night”
Camille Griffin is a writer, director, and co-producer. She originally trained in the camera department and worked for 13 years as a Clapper Loader, and has since written and directed seven short...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Laura Santullo – “The Other Tom”
Laura Santullo is a Uruguayan filmmaker and author based in Mexico. She is an internationally recognized for her work as a screenwriter, collaborating with film director and life-partner Rodrigo...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Agustina San Martín – “To Kill The Beast”
Agustina San Martín is an Argentinian filmmaker, screenwriter, and colorist who has also worked as a screenwriting professor at her alma mater, the University of Buenos Aires. Her short films...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Darin J. Sallam – “Farha”
Darin J. Sallam is a Jordanian writer and director who has five award winning short films including “Still Alive,” “The Dark Outside,” and “The Parrot,” all of...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Laura Samani – “Piccolo Corpo” (“Small Body”)
Laura Samani was born in Trieste, Italy. In 2016, her short film “The Sleeping Saint” premiered at Cannes Cinéfondation and has since gained international acclaim and awards from several...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Kamila Andini – “Yuni”
Kamila Andini is a mother and filmmaker based in Jakarta, Indonesia. She released her debut feature film, “The Mirror Never Lies,” in 2011 and her second feature, “The Seen and...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Haya Waseem – “Quickening”
Haya Waseem is a Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker. An alumna of the Director’s Lab program at Norman Jewison’s Canadian Film Centre, Weseem began her career as a documentary editor. Her short films...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Kate Dolan – “You Are Not My Mother”
Kate Dolan is an Irish writer and director. She wrote and directed “Little Doll,” a short film that premiered at the Berlinale in 2016. Dolan’s next short film, “Catcalls,”...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Mounia Akl – “Costa Brava, Lebanon”
Mounia Akl was born in Lebanon. She completed an MFA in directing at Columbia University. Her directorial credits include the shorts “Beirut, I Love You (I Love You...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Shasha Nakhai – “Scarborough”
Shasha Nakhai is a Filipina-Canadian filmmaker. Her directorial projects include documentary shorts “Thirty Eight Minutes,” “18 Roses,” “Paruparo,” “The...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Ruth Paxton – “A Banquet”
Ruth Paxton is a Scottish filmmaker and writer. Her short film “Paris/Sexy,” a grim tragedy about a young caregiver and her brain-damaged father, premiered at the 64th Edinburgh...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Ana Lazarevic – “The Game”
Ana Lazarevic is a writer and director born in Belgrade, Serbia. She holds an MFA in Film from Columbia University. Her short film “The Runner” premiered at the New York Film Festival....
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Aga Woszczyńska – “Silent Land”
Aga Woszczyńska is a director, scriptwriter, and anthropologist. Her short films have screened and won awards at numerous film festivals — including Cannes, Helsinki International Film...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Neus Ballús – “The Odd-Job Men”
Neus Ballús is a Catalan film director and scriptwriter. Her first film, “The Plague,” premiered at Berlinale Forum and was nominated for the European Film Awards, LUX Prize, and Goya...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Tea Lindeburg – “As in Heaven”
Tea Lindeburg wrote the TV series “Equinox” for Netflix, as well as the podcast “Equinox 1985” for DR, which was nominated for the Prix Italia 2017. She’s also directed...
TIFF 2021 Women Directors: Meet Jenna Cato Bass – “Mlungu Wam” (“Good Madam”)
Jenna Cato Bass is a South African writer, filmmaker, and former magician. Together with Wanuri Kahiu, Bass co-wrote the coming-of-age romance “Rafiki,” which premiered in Cannes’...
Venice 2021 Women Directors: Meet Dina Amer – “Tu Me Ressembles” (“You Resemble Me”)
Dina Amer is an award-winning filmmaker and journalist. She helped produce the Oscar-nominated and Emmy award-winning documentary “The Square,” which chronicled the Egyptian Revolution...
Venice 2021 Women Directors: Meet Laura Bispuri – “The Peacock’s Paradise”
Laura Bispuri’s first film, “Sworn Virgin,” was presented in Competition at the Berlinale and received the Nora Ephron Prize at Tribeca Film Festival, the Firebird Award at Hong...
Venice 2021 Women Directors: Meet Michale Boganim – “The Forgotten Ones”
Michale Boganim grew up in Israel, in a Moroccan family. Her father was in the Israeli Black Panther movement. She is a graduate of the National Film School in London. Her student film “Dim...
Under the Radar: “Women of My Billion” Examines India’s Long-Standing Gender-Based Social Injustices
How does one deal with the anger and frustration propelled by news of violent social injustices rampant in one’s country? If you’re Srishti Bakshi, you walk it off. Walk the entire length of...
Submit Now: The ¡Tú Cuentas! Cine Youth Fest
Attention, high school and college-aged Latinx filmmakers: the inaugural ¡Tú Cuentas! Cine Youth Fest wants to see your work. The online festival, which will celebrate and amplify young Latinx...
Trailer Watch: Tilda Swinton Can’t Stop Hearing a Mysterious Sound in Cannes Drama “Memoria”
The jungles of Colombia leave a lasting mark on Tilda Swinton in “Memoria,” a Cannes drama about Jessica (Swinton), a Scottish woman who begins experiencing a mysterious sensory syndrome...
Cannes 2021 Women Directors: Meet Kira Kovalenko – “Unclenching the Fists”
Kira Kovalenko was born in Nalchik, Russia. She graduated from Alexander Sokurov’s directing workshop at Kabardino-Balkarian State University in 2015. She made her feature directorial debut in 2016...
Cannes 2021 Women Directors: Meet Luàna Bajrami – “The Hill Where Lionesses Roar”
Self taught, Luàna Bajrami acquired experience through her collaborations with different filmmakers while practicing writing, editing, and directing through numerous amateur short film projects....
Cannes 2021 Women Directors: Meet Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic – “Murina”
Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic is a writer-director born in Dubrovnik and currently based in New York. Her short “Into the Blue” was nominated for a Student Academy Award, and won awards at...
Diversity in Cannes Will Make Its Post-Pandemic Return with Diversity Day 2021
Unless you live under a rock, the following won’t come as a surprise, yet it still bears repeating: Cannes is not overly concerned about diversity or inclusion. Despite pledging to do better in...
Cannes 2021 Women Directors: Meet Nathalie Álvarez Mesén – “Clara Sola”
Nathalie Álvarez Mesén is a Costa Rican-Swedish writer and director. She is an alumna of Columbia University’s Graduate Film Program, the Berlinale Talents, and the TIFF Filmmaker Lab. Alvarez...
Cannes 2021 Women Directors: Meet Sandrine Kiberlain – “A Radiant Girl”
Sandrine Kiberlain is a French actress and singer. She received the César for Best Actress for her role in “9-Month Stretch.” The short film “Smile” was her first film as a director....
Cannes 2021 Women Directors: Meet Mina Mileva and Vesela Kazakova – “Women Do Cry”
After two decades in the British animation industry, Mina Mileva created Activist38 with actress Vesela Kazakova, whose leading roles earned her the Silver George at the Moscow International Film...
Cannes 2021 Women Directors: Meet Anaïs Volpé – “The Braves”
Anaïs Volpé is a self-taught screenwriter, filmmaker, and editor. In 2016, she self-produced “Heis,” a cross-media project which has been screened at international festivals and won the Jury...
Cannes 2021 Women Directors: Meet Teodora Ana Mihai – “La Civil”
Teodora Ana Mihai was born in Bucharest, Romania, during the Ceausescu Regime and moved to Belgium in 1989 with her parents. She went to film school in New York. She started working in Belgium as a...
Cannes 2021 Women Directors: Meet Anita Rocha da Silveira – “Medusa”
Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Anita Rocha da Silveira has written, directed, and edited three short films: “The Noon Vampire,” “Handball,” and “The Living...
Tribeca 2021 Directors: Meet Giselle Bailey and Nneka Onuorah – “The Legend of the Underground”
Giselle Bailey is a producer working across TV and commercial production. Her career started in contemporary art where she worked on public performance pieces aimed to disrupt reality. She went on to...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Bernadette Wegenstein – “The Conductor”
Bernadette Wegenstein is an Austrian-born linguist, author, and documentary filmmaker living in Baltimore. She is a professor at Johns Hopkins University. Her films and books bring together her...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Macha Colón – “Perfume de Gardenias”
Macha Colón is Gisela Rosario Ramos, an undisciplined artist currently based in Puerto Rico. Her award-winning short documentary “El Hijo de Ruby” has been shown in international...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Corinne van der Borch and Tone Grøttjord-Glenne – “Sisters on Track”
Corinne van der Borch is a Dutch artist and award-winning documentary filmmaker based in Brooklyn. Her feature length documentary “Girl with Black Balloons,” about the oldest living resident of...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Maya Cueva and Leah Galant – “On the Divide”
Maya Cueva is a Latina award-winning director and producer with a background in radio and podcast producing. Her short documentary “The Provider” premiered at SXSW and was nominated for...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Andrea Nix Fine- “LFG”
Andrea Nix Fine is an Oscar, Emmy, and Peabody award-winning filmmaker. In 2021, she, along with her husband and partner Sean Fine, launched impact studio Change Content to develop true stories into...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Shannon Post – “Building a Bridge”
Shannon Post is a queer documentary filmmaker from Florida. She attended college in Orlando, and Pulse nightclub was a safe place for her and her friends to have fun and be out and proud. Her first...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Chanel James and Taylor Garron – “As of Yet”
Chanel James, also known as Dinosaur Hawk, is a director, writer, editor, and pop archivist who aims to create stories that highlight gradients of the human experience, encourage understanding, and...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Lauren Hadaway – “The Novice”
Lauren Hadaway is an LGBTQ+ writer and director with a background in sound editing and mixing. She briefly worked as a Dallas-based reality TV editor before moving to Los Angeles in 2012 to pursue a...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Suzanne Joe Kai – “Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres”
Suzanne Joe Kai received two Emmy Award nominations and was named Best Woman News Reporter while a broadcast journalist at San Francisco’s NBC affiliate KRON-TV. She worked at KCBS Radio (CBS) and...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Nana Mensah – “Queen of Glory”
Nana Mensah is a Ghanaian-American actor, writer, and director. This summer, she will appear in a series regular role opposite Sandra Oh and Bob Balaban in Netflix’s “The Chair” and this fall,...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Laura Fairrie – “Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story”
Laura Fairrie previously directed “The Battle for Barking,” an observational feature documentary about the far-right in Britain that screened at The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Jessica Kingdon – “Ascension”
New York-based Jessica Kingdon is a Chinese-American director and producer. She was named one of the “25 New Faces of Independent Film” by Filmmaker Magazine and selected for the 2020 DOC NYC...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Geeta Malik – “India Sweets and Spices”
Geeta Malik is an award-winning writer and director whose accolades include the inaugural Academy Gold Fellowship for Women and the Academy Nicholl Fellowship. Her short film “Beast” played at...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Heather O’Neill – “No Ordinary Life”
Heather O’Neill is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker. She produced “Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi,” which screened at the Hot Docs International Film Festival...
Tribeca 2021 Women Directors: Meet Samantha Aldana – “Shapeless”
Samantha Aldana is a New Orleans-based director and writer. Her work is heavily influenced by the storytelling traditions of her multicultural upbringing in the American South and the Caribbean....