#Festivals
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Yngvild Sve Flikke – “Ninjababy”
Yngvild Sve Flikke wrote and directed dramas and documentaries for the Norwegian National Broadcasting (NRK) for 17 years before making her feature film debut with “Women in Oversized Men’s...
SXSW 2021 Women Directors: Meet Caroline Catz – “Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and the Legendary Tapes”
A British actor who has worked extensively in television, theater, film, and radio, Caroline Catz is also an accomplished film director and writer. Catz’s films include “A Message to the...
Joana Hadjithomas Talks “Memory Box,” Her Berlinale Drama About Three Generations of Women
Joana Hadjithomas is an artist and filmmaker. She and collaborator Khalil Joreige have directed award-winning films such as “The Lebanese Rocket Society,” “A Perfect Day,” and...
ARRAY President Tilane Jones Accepts Slamdance Founders Award
ARRAY president and producer Tilane Jones won the Slamdance Founders Award, an honor “given to an individual that supports the filmmaker community of Slamdance well into their careers,”...
Siân Heder’s “CODA” Becomes First Film to Sweep Top U.S. Dramatic Prizes at Sundance
“CODA” has made history yet again. After nabbing a record-breaking distribution deal with Apple, Siân Heder’s coming-of-age story about a teen girl who is also the only hearing...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Kristina Lindström – “The Most Beautiful Boy in the World”
Kristina Lindström is a filmmaker, journalist, and author. She has directed highly acclaimed documentaries including “Astrid Lindgren;” “Palme” with Maud Nycander, awarded two Guldbagge...
Sundance Deal: Jamila Wignot’s Alvin Ailey Doc “Ailey” Goes to Neon
Jamila Wignot’s portrait of iconic dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey has found a home. Following its world premiere at Sundance this weekend, Neon acquired “Ailey,” a documentary...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Debbie Lum – “Try Harder!”
Debbie Lum is an award-winning filmmaker whose projects give voice to the Asian American experience and other unsung stories. “Seeking Asian Female,” her feature-length directing debut,...
Natalie Qasabian Wins 2021 Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award
Producer Natalie Qasabian has been honored for her work on psychological thriller “Run.” She was presented with the 2021 Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award for Fiction...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Parker Hill and Isabel Bethencourt – “Cusp”
Parker Hill’s thesis film, “One Good Pitch,” premiered at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival. Her short films “Homing In” and “Sanderson to Brackettville” have...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Natalia Almada – “Users”
Natalia Almada is the recipient of the 2012 MacArthur Genius Award. Her directing credits include “Al Otro Lado” (2005 Tribeca Film Festival), “El General” (2009 Sundance Film...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Marilyn Agrelo – “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street”
Marilyn Agrelo’s directorial debut, “Mad Hot Ballroom,” enjoyed a theatrical run of 24 weeks and became the 25th highest-grossing documentary film. A Broadway version is currently in...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Betsy West and Julie Cohen – “My Name is Pauli Murray”
Betsy West is the Academy Award-nominated director and producer of “RBG” along with Julie Cohen. She is a 21-time Emmy Award winner for her work as an ABC News producer and executive...
Sundance 2021 Directors: Meet Jane Schoenbrun – “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair”
Jane Schoenbrun is a non-binary filmmaker who co-created ongoing touring variety series “The Eyeslicer,” which has screened in hundreds of venues across the world, including MoMA, the Tribeca...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Nikole Beckwith – “Together Together”
Writer and director Nikole Beckwith made her feature film debut at Sundance 2015 with “Stockholm, Pennsylvania,” which earned her a Nicholl Fellowship, Satellite Award, Women’s Image Award, and...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Rintu Thomas – “Writing with Fire”
Rintu Thomas is an independent documentary director-producer based in New Delhi, India. She is a 2018 Sundance Institute, Bertha Foundation Fellow, and a 2019 Sundance Stories of Change Fellow. A...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Salomé Jashi – “Taming the Garden”
Salomé Jashi was born in Tbilisi, Georgia. Her documentary “The Dazzling Light of Sunset” was awarded the Main Prize at Visions du Réel’s Regard Neuf Competition as well as at ZagrebDox,...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Jamila Wignot – “Ailey”
Jamila Wignot is a documentary filmmaker whose directing work includes the Peabody, Emmy, and NAACP award-winning series “The African-Americans: Many Rivers to Cross” (PBS), hosted by...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Siân Heder – “CODA”
Siân Heder is a writer, director, and showrunner. She wrote and produced three seasons of the acclaimed Netflix series “Orange Is the New Black,” receiving multiple WGA nominations for her work....
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Erin Vassilopoulos – “Superior”
Erin Vassilopoulos is a New York-based filmmaker whose short films have screened at Sundance, the Berlinale, BFI London Film Festival, and Tribeca. Her directorial feature debut, “Superior,”...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Maisie Crow – “At the Ready”
Maisie Crow is a documentary film director, cinematographer, and photographer. “Jackson,” Crow’s documentary exploring both sides of the reproductive health care debate in the Deep...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Karen Cinorre – “Mayday”
Karen Cinorre is a writer/director whose work has shown internationally at such venues as the New York Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, and Opera Centrum Amsterdam. She’s currently...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Mariem Pérez Riera – “Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It”
Mariem Pérez Riera’s first documentary, “Cuando lo pequeño se hace grande,” about the Puerto Ricans who fought against the U.S. Navy presence in the island of Vieques, was...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Sally Aitken – “Playing with Sharks”
Sally Aitken is an Emmy-nominated director and writer, and showrunner of multiple international series. Her award-winning work includes the Camera d’Or-nominated feature documentary “A...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Marion Hill – “Ma Belle, My Beauty”
Marion Hill (she/they) is a New Orleans-based director with roots in Vietnam, England, and France. Her direction of the camera is devoted to the nuances of femme power, queer sensibility, and radical...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Kate Tsang – “Marvelous and the Black Hole”
Kate Tsang is an artist, filmmaker, and Emmy-nominated writer. Tsang’s award-winning shorts have been watched by millions online and broadcast nationally on PBS. Her most notable works are...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Zoe Lister-Jones – “How It Ends”
Zoe Lister-Jones is an actor, writer, director and producer. She recently wrote, directed, and produced “The Craft: Legacy.” Lister-Jones made her directorial debut with “Band Aid,” which...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Frida Kempff – “Knocking”
Frida Kempff’s films have been screened and awarded at festivals including Cannes, Sundance, Telluride, IDFA, London Film Festival, and Gothenburg. In 2010 she won Cannes’ Jury Prize for...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Carlson Young – “The Blazing World”
Carlson Young’s first short film, “The Blazing World,” premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Also an actor, she has appeared in “Scream: The TV Series,” “Key...
Sundance 2021 Women Directors: Meet Prano Bailey-Bond – “Censor”
Prano Bailey-Bond is a Welsh director and screenwriter. Commissioned by Film4 to direct an episode of their Halloween focused “Fright Bites,” Bailey-Bond’s short...
Jiayan “Jenny” Shi on Deviating from Traditional True Crime Docs with “Finding Yingying”
Jiayan “Jenny” Shi is a documentary filmmaker and video journalist who is passionate about social justice issues regarding people of color. She shoots, edits, and produces video stories...
Loira Limbal, Ekwa Msangi, & Shalini Kantayya Among Sundance Institute’s 2021 Momentum Fellows
The Sundance Institute has announced the selectees for its 2021 Momentum Fellowship, a year-long program “of deep, customized creative and professional support for mid-career writers and...
DOC NYC 2020 Women Directors: Meet Katrine Philp – “Beautiful Something Left Behind”
Katrine Philp’s first film, “Book of Miri,” was awarded the President’s Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, nominated at IDFA, and won the European Young CIVIS...
DOC NYC 2020 Women Directors: Meet Rosalynde LeBlanc – “Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters”
Rosalynde LeBlanc has spent over 20 years in dance as a performer, choreographer, and educator. She was a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance...
DOC NYC 2020 Women Directors: Meet Lauren DeFilippo and Katherine Gorringe – “Red Heaven”
Katherine Gorringe is a documentary director and editor whose work has been featured at numerous festivals including SXSW, CPH:DOX, and Lunafest. Her most recent editing work includes the...
DOC NYC 2020 Women Directors: Meet Cheryl Dunn – “Moments Like This Never Last”
Cheryl Dunn is a New York City-based documentary filmmaker and photographer. Since the late 1980s she has spent a large part of her career documenting city streets and the people who strive to leave...
DOC NYC 2020 Women Directors: Meet Petra Epperlein – “The Meaning of Hitler”
Petra Epperlein makes documentaries with her husband Michael Tucker. Epperlein was born in Karl Marx City, GDR, and began her professional life as an architect. Her credits include “The Last...
DOC NYC 2020 Women Directors: Meet Raquel Cepeda – “La Madrina: The [Savage] Life of Lorine Padilla”
Raquel Cepeda’s features include “Bling: A Planet Rock,” about American hip-hop’s obsession with blinging and how that intersected itself into the decade-long blood...
DOC NYC 2020 Women Directors: Meet Marianne Hougen-Moraga – “Songs of Repression”
Marianne Hougen-Moraga has directed a number of short documentaries including “Returned” (2011), which premiered at CPH:DOX, and “Sea of Sorrow – Sea of Hope” (2017), which...
DOC NYC 2020 Women Directors: Meet Abigail Child – “Origin of the Species”
Abigail Child has been at the forefront of experimental writing and media since the 1980s, having completed more than 50 film/video works and installations, and written six books. Her most recent...
DOC NYC 2020 Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth Lo – “Stray”
Elizabeth Lo is an award-winning filmmaker who was named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine. Her shorts include “Hotel 22,” “Bisonhead,” and...
DOC NYC 2020 Women Directors: Meet Loira Limbal – “Through the Night”
Loira Limbal is an Afro-Dominican filmmaker and DJ based in the Bronx. She is the Senior Vice President of Programs at Firelight Media, an organization that provides mentorship, funding, and industry...
Study: The Number of Women Writers & Directors Screening Indie Films at Fests Continues to Rise
Women keep reaching new historic highs as writers and directors of indie films screening at major festivals. A new study from Dr. Martha M. Lauzen, of the Center for the Study of Women in Television...
Warsaw 2020 Women Directors: Meet Lili Horvát – “Preparations to Be Together For an Unknown Period of Time”
Lili Horvát grew up in Budapest. She studied audio-visual arts at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris and film directing at the University of Theatre and Film in Budapest. “The Wednesday...
Quote of the Day: Isabel Coixet Encourages Emerging Filmmakers to “Embrace the Fog” in Awards Speech
The Spanish Ministry of Culture honored Isabel Coixet with its National Cinematography Prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival last month. While accepting the prestigious award, which recognizes...
NYFF 2020 Women Directors: Meet Heidi Ewing – “I Carry You With Me”
Heidi Ewing’s documentary credits include “Jesus Camp,” which received an Oscar nomination, “One of Us,” and “Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You.” She...
TIFF 2020 Women Directors: Meet Aisling Chin-Yee – “No Ordinary Man”
Aisling Chin-Yee is an award-winning producer, writer, and director based in Montreal, Canada and Los Angeles, California. She made her feature directorial debut with 2019’s “The Rest of...
TIFF 2020 Women Directors: Meet Roseanne Liang – “Shadow in the Cloud”
Roseanne Liang is an award-winning New Zealand-born Chinese director and screenwriter. Her autobiographical feature film “My Wedding and Other Secrets” was the top-grossing New...
TIFF 2020 Women Directors: Meet Farnoosh Samadi – “180° Rule”
Farnoosh Samadi is an Iranian award-winning director, writer, and member of the Academy. Samadi’s “The Silence” was nominated for a Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2016, and her short film “Gaze”...
TIFF 2020 Women Directors: Meet Mayye Zayed – “Lift Like a Girl”
Mayye Zayed is an Egyptian filmmaker, director, producer, director of photography, and editor, and the founder of Cléo Media. She is the recipient of Film Independent’s Global Media Makers...
TIFF 2020 Women Directors: Meet Suzanne Lindon – “Spring Blossom”
Suzanne Lindon is a French director, writer, and actor. “Spring Blossom” is her first film. “Spring Blossom” will screen at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival, which is taking place...