#Film Criticism
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...
Women Write 28.5% of Film Reviews Across Europe, According to New Study Presented at Berlinale
Le Collectif 50/50 is expanding upon the research it conducted on gender representation among film critics. Last year the equality collective released a study revealing that women represent 47...
Rotten Tomatoes Added Over 600 Critics in Past Year, 55% Are Women
Last summer Rotten Tomatoes overhauled its critics criteria in an effort to be more inclusive, and added more than 200 writers to its ranks. It seems that forward momentum has not slowed down over...
Six Critics Orgs Join Forces to Promote Women, POC, and LGBTQ Voices in Film Journalism
Six national critics organizations are forming a coalition in order to champion marginalized voices in entertainment journalism. According to a press release, Critics Groups for Equality in Media...
Thumbs Down Report 2019: Women Critics Still Outnumbered by Men Two to One
The gender gap in film criticism is, unfortunately, holding firm. Dr. Martha Lauzen and the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film have released their annual “Thumbs Down”...
CherryPicks to Award Inaugural Female First Feature Prize at SXSW
CherryPicks, a review aggregator site and digital brand for women in film criticism, will be honoring a debut film from a female director at SXSW 2019. According to a press release, CherryPicks and...
Rotten Tomatoes Updates Audience Rating System, Combating Trolls
Rotten Tomatoes is taking on the trolls. The review aggregator site announced that it is revamping its Audience Rating System, specifically its comments section and “Want to See”...
Subject, Not Object: The Revelatory Sex Scenes in “If Beale Street Could Talk”
In November 2016 in Washington, D.C., I caught a preview of Barry Jenkins’ soon-to-be Oscar-winning film “Moonlight.” This was way before White audiences had caught on to the movie, and those...
Apply Now: New York Film Festival’s Critics Academy
If you’re hoping to break into the film criticism field, this workshop is for you. The Film Society of Lincoln Center (FSLC) and Film Comment magazine are now accepting applications for the...
New Review Aggregate of Female Critics Launches at SXSW
According to a 2016 report from The Center for the Study of Women in Television & Film, women comprise just 27 percent of top critics on Rotten Tomatoes and men 73 percent of these individuals....
Best of 2016: The Dudeocracy of Film Writers
Women and Hollywood is off today. Please enjoy one of our top posts of the year. This piece is from May 5, 2016. Yesterday, Owen Gleiberman was appointed chief film critic at Variety. We...
2016’s Need for Female Film Critics
“Lemonade” by Kiva Reardon, cross post from TIFF Here are the positions people assume I hold when I meet them at film festivals: personal assistant, girlfriend, publicist. Sometimes, if I’m...
This Year’s Class of New York Film Critics Circle Members Are All White Men
It seems insane that, with all of the warranted uproar these days over diversity, inclusion, and representation, that a prestigious film critics association would completely ignore what’s been...
“Nocturnal Animals”: First Reviews and Twitter Reactions (Updated)
Amy Adams was on double-duty this Venice as the female lead in both Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” (see reviews and reactions here) and Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals.” Her festival...
“Arrival” Festival Reviews and Twitter Reactions (Updated)
Starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, Denis Villeneuve’s brainy sci-fi thriller “Arrival” is receiving strong buzz after its premiere at the Venice Film Festival. Following “Sicario,”...
“La La Land” First Reviews and Twitter Reactions (Updated)
August 31 marked not only the end of an overly heated month (both on and off the web), but also the beginning of this year’s fall festival season. That’s right. It’s Venice (#Venezia73) time....
The Importance of Gender Parity in Critics Polls
On Monday, BBC Culture published “The 21st Century’s 100 greatest films,” a list that polled 177 critics worldwide for their top ten films of this century (2000 onwards). Out of those 177...
New BBC Film Poll Sorely Lacking Both Women Directors and Critics
BBC Culture has released a list titled “The 21st Century’s 100 Greatest Films,” for which it polled 177 film critics from around the world. The resulting list of films is unsurprisingly,...
Apply Now for New York Film Festival Critics Academy
Attention aspiring female film critics! Are you ready to break the glass ceiling that is the dudeocracy of film writers? Are you ready to change the dismal numbers of female film critics out there?...
Trolls Flood “Ghostbusters” IMDb Ratings, But Female Film Critics Fight Back
“Ghostbusters”: Sony As we continue our celebration of “Ghostbusters” this week, the film, which opens this Friday, July 15, faces yet another foe: phony IMDb ratings. In a move that comes...
Proof the Dudeocracy of Film Writers Exists Thanks to Latest Study of Top Critics
When we here at Women and Hollywood published The Dudeocracy of Film Writers, we were basing our theory on observations of the film writing industry, and what we saw going on around us. But now,...
The Dudeocracy of Film Writers
Yesterday, Owen Gleiberman was appointed chief film critic at Variety. We congratulate him on the position, and consider him a great writer, but his hiring has capped off a bothersome trend we’ve...