#Films
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Vera Drew – “The People’s Joker”
Vera Drew (she/her) is an accomplished LGBTQ+ director and editor who has worked in TV and film for nearly a decade. She recently directed Season 12 of Tim Heidecker’s “On Cinema at...
Trailer Watch: Essie Davis Will Go to Any Lengths to Get Her Kids Back in “The Justice of Bunny King”
Described by director Gaysorn Thavat as “a social justice action film about motherhood,” “The Justice of Bunny King” sees the titular character (Essie Davis, “The...
Pick of the Day: “True Things”
I love stories that give their female characters the space and compassion to be messy, stories that are unconcerned if, on paper, they’re flirting with the misogynist “crazy woman”...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Selcen Ergun – “Snow and the Bear” (“Kar ve Ayı”)
Selcen Ergun is a director and screenwriter from Turkey. She began her career as an assistant director, working on many national and international productions. Her short films...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Malou Reymann – “Unruly”
Malou Reymann is a director and screenwriter who graduated from the National Film and Television School in England. Her debut feature, “A Perfectly Normal Family,” which premiered at...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: V.T. Nayani – “This Place”
V.T. Nayani is a director, producer, and writer. She is a recipient of the UN Women Yvonne M. Hebert Award for filmmakers and photographers. Most recently, she completed her residency in the...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Sinéad O’Shea – “Pray for Our Sinners”
Sinéad O’Shea is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Her first feature documentary, “A Mother Brings her Son to be Shot,” premiered at CPH:DOX 2018 where it was nominated for a...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Laura Baumeister – “Daughter of Rage”
Laura Baumeister was born and raised in Nicaragua and trained at Mexico’s Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica. A sociologist as well as a filmmaker, Baumeister has directed the...
Quote of the Day: Viola Davis & “The Woman King” Cast on Being Black Women in the Biz & Building Sisterhood
The stars of Gina Prince-Bythewood’s highly anticipated “The Woman King” — Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim, Thuso Mbedu, and Adrienne Warren — speak frankly...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Alice Winocour – “Paris Memories”
Alice Winocour directed her first feature film in 2011, “Augustine.” It was selected for Cannes’ Critics Week and nominated for a César Award for the Best First Film. Her second...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Nisha Pahuja – “To Kill a Tiger”
Nisha Pahuja is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in Toronto and Bombay. Her credits include the critically-acclaimed “Diamond Road,” “Bollywood Bound,” and “The World...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Carolina Markowicz – “Charcoal”
Carolina Markowicz is a screenwriter and director based in São Paulo, Brazil. Her short films have won many international awards and have played in more than 200 festivals worldwide including TIFF,...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Gail Maurice – “Rosie”
Gail Maurice is a fluent Cree/Michif-speaking actor and an award-winning independent filmmaker and Arts Laureate. She is a recipient of the Hnatyshyn Foundation Indigenous Award for Excellence in the...
TIFF 2022 Preview: Indigenous Icons, Women Warriors, Heroic Sisters, and More
Summer is winding down just as chatter about awards contenders is starting to heat up. The 46th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is nearly upon us, and the fest’s...
TIFF 2022 Women Directors: Meet Sophie Jarvis – “Until Branches Bend”
Sophie Jarvis studied at Simon Fraser University, where she made her short film “The Worst Day Ever,” which premiered at TIFF in 2012. Since then, she has gone on to direct primarily...
Pick of the Day: “Loving Highsmith”
“Loving Highsmith” assumes that you are familiar, to some degree, with the work of author Patricia Highsmith — or at least the numerous screen adaptations of her novels, such as...
September 2022 Film Preview
The festival scene is heating up this month, with Venice, Telluride, and Toronto premiering a bevy of potential awards contenders. Thankfully, there’s also plenty to look forward to screening...
Venice 2022 Women Directors: Meet Georgia Oakley – “Blue Jean”
Georgia Oakley is a screenwriter and director with a particular fondness for convention-defying, female-led narratives. Her shorts have screened at dozens of international festivals, including SXSW,...
Trailer Watch: Anna Diop Is a “Nanny” Who Is Being Haunted in Nikyatu Jusu’s Debut Feature
“The spirits are trying to warn you. Do not ignore the signs,” Anna Diop is told in a new trailer for “Nanny.” Nikyatu Jusu’s award-winning feature debut sees the...
Venice 2022 Women Directors: Meet Soudade Kaadan – “Nezouh”
Soudade Kaadan is a Syrian director based in London. Her first feature fiction film, “The Day I Lost My Shadow,” was awarded the Lion of The Future for best debut at the 2018 Venice Film...
Trailer Watch: Jamila C. Gray Is a Rapper “On the Come Up” in Sanaa Lathan’s Feature Directorial Debut
“Once upon a time there was a girl named Bri/That’s me,” newcomer Jamila C. Gray informs us, via improvised spoken word, in the trailer for Sanaa Lathan’s Toronto Film...
Teaser Watch: Cate Blanchett Is a Conductor Fixated on Time, Power, and Art in Venice Pic “TÁR”
Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) understands the power she wields — and the power she doesn’t — in an atmospheric teaser for “TÁR.” The Venice Competition title appears to...
“Jane” Director Sabrina Jaglom Talks Depicting Teen Mental Health On-Screen
Sabrina Jaglom is an LA-native writer and director. This year, she released two scripted podcasts — QCode’s Rachel Brosnahan-starring “Listening In” and iHeartRadio’s...
Trailer Watch: Kate Hudson & Jeon Jong-seo Lead Ana Lily Amirpour’s “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon”
Kate Hudson befriends a fugitive who has escaped from the Home of Mentally Insane Adolescents in “Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon.” A trailer just dropped for Ana Lily Amirpour’s...
Trailer Watch: Sandra Alvarez Takes a Look at the “InHospitable” U.S. Hospital System
“Today, what we see is that everyone but the one percent is at risk of financial disaster, from even a relatively minor healthcare encounter,” we are told in the new trailer for...
Pick of the Day: “The Legend of Molly Johnson”
At first blush, “The Legend of Molly Johnson” comes across as a white feminist story. It sets itself up as a Western about a heavily pregnant woman who can shoot as well as any man and...
Trailer Watch: Emily Watson Squares Off Against Her Beloved Son in “God’s Creatures”
The prodigal son returns and sends his mother’s life into a tailspin in “God’s Creatures,” Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holmer’s follow-up to “The Fits.” A new...
Pick of the Day: “Girl Picture”
I wish I had come of age in the world of “Girl Picture.” Alli Haapasalo’s Sundance award winner follows three 17- or 18-year-old young women as they begin to figure out who they are...
Katie Aselton on Directing Diane Keaton & Telling a Grounded Body-Switch Story in “Mack & Rita”
Katie Aselton is perhaps best known for her starring role as Jenny in the FX comedy “The League.” She made her directorial debut with “The Freebie,” which she also wrote and starred...
Pick of the Day: “Emily the Criminal”
“Ingrid Goes West,” “The Little Hours,” “Black Bear,” “Happiest Season,” “Legion” — Aubrey Plaza has delivered some truly smart,...
Films from Kamila Andini and Chandler Levack Picked Up for Distribution
Kamila Andini’s latest film, period drama “Before, Now & Then,” has secured distribution, with Film Movement picking it up for the North American market. Variety broke the...
Amber Midthunder-Starrer “Prey” Sets New Viewership Record on Hulu
It seems the whole Internet has been abuzz with talk of “Prey” and its star Amber Midthunder since the film’s release on August 5 — and now Disney has announced that the film...
Disability Dance Drama “Grace” in Development at Disney, “Run’s” Kiera Allen to Star & Co-Write
Disney is developing “Grace,” a new dance drama that will center on a talented, disabled teenage dancer, with Kiera Allen (“Run”) set to co-write the script and star, and...
Trailer Watch: Marriage & Death Are Equally Appealing in “Catherine Called Birdy,” Lena Dunham’s TIFF Pic
Lady Catherine, who prefers to called Birdy (Bella Ramsey), does not want to get married. Can you blame her? She’s only in her teens and her father (Andrew Scott) just wants her to get hitched...
Women Directed 41 Percent of New York Film Fest’s 2022 Main Slate
The New York Film Festival (NYFF) has lined up titles from Kelly Reichardt, Claire Denis, Alice Diop, Joanna Hogg, and more for its Main Slate this year. Overall, women directed or co-directed 13 of...
Trailer Watch: Love Is Rekindled & Secrets Resurface for Sigourney Weaver in “The Good House”
“I feel like myself with you,” says Hildy Good (Sigourney Weaver) in the new trailer for “The Good House.” “Usually I only feel like myself when I have a drink in my...
Mary Harron’s “Dalíland” Set as TIFF 2022’s Closing Night Gala Film
The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival will be bookended by films directed by women. A couple weeks after the fest unveiled Sally El Hosaini’s “The Swimmers” as its Opening Night Gala, it...
Awards Roundup: Honors for Dede Gardner, Sara Summa, and Milena Aboyan
Powerhouse producer Dede Gardner is set to be honored later this year at Austin Film Festival. According to a press release, she will be awarded the Polly Platt Award for Producing at the...
Taskovski Films Nabs Susanna della Sala’s Locarno Pic “Last Stop Before Chocolate Mountain”
More announcements out of Locarno: Susanna della Sala’s “Last Stop Before Chocolate Mountain,” which is due to have its premiere at the fest August 9 as part of the Critics Week section, has...
Camilla Nielsson’s Political Doc “President” Banned in Zimbabwe
Camilla Nielsson’s “President,” a documentary following Nelson Chamisa’s challenge to incumbent Emmerson Mnangagwa during Zimbabwe’s 2018 presidential race — the...
Trailer Watch: A Group of Plus-Sized Women Summit Mt. Kilimanjaro in Ida Rodriguez Joglar’s Doc “Kili Big”
“It seems to me that there is a subtle suggestion that climbing a mountain is the reserve of the gym junkie and smaller bodied individuals,” says one of the women at the center of...
Trailer Watch: Laura Mora Centers a Found Family in Her San Sebastián Pic “The Kings of the World”
Featuring a roster of non-professional actors, Laura Mora’s San Sebastián-bound “The Kings of the World” (“Los Reyes del Mundo”) follows a group of five boys, aged 12 to 19,...
Pick of the Day: “Memory Box”
Family secrets always seem to get spilled during the holidays, don’t they? They definitely do in “Memory Box,” Joana Hadjithomas’ semi-autobiographical drama centering three...
Clio Barnard Considers Her New Film “Ali & Ava” a Joyful Act of Resistance
Clio Barnard’s first feature-length documentary film, “The Arbor,” received The Douglas Hickox Award at the BIFAs, Best British Newcomer and the Sutherland Award at the BFI London...
TIFF: Women & Non-Binary Folks Directed Majority of Discovery, Midnight Madness, & Wavelength Titles
TIFF announcements continue to flood in, and the filmmaker gender stats are getting better and better. The festival has confirmed the 2022 slates for its Discovery, Midnight Madness, and Wavelengths...
Pick of the Day: “Resurrection”
“Resurrection” is an unapologetically gonzo movie that would absolutely not work without Rebecca Hall. But, luckily, Hall does deliver a career-best central performance as Margaret, a...
Awards Roundup: Dolly Parton Receives Philanthropy Medal, Ana de Armas Honored by Deauville Fest
A seasoned vet and an emerging talent will both be celebrated with awards this fall. According to the Associated Press, Dolly Parton will be among those receiving the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy...
Frances O’Connor’s “Emily” to Open TIFF’s Platform Section, Women Directed Half of Overall Lineup
Now this is more like it. Nearly a week after unveiling its Gala and Special Presentation slates — which fell well short of director gender parity — the 2022 Toronto International Film...
You’re Invited: Special NYC Screening of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” Benefitting Abortion Funds
Women and Hollywood is partnering with Rooftop Films, NEON, and more for a special screening of Céline Sciamma’s Cannes winner “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” in New York City, with...
Just Three Features from Women Directors to Screen in Competition at San Sebastián 2022
Laura Mora, Marian Mathias, and Pilar Palomero are the only women who will be competing for the Golden Shell at this year’s San Sebastián International Film Festival. The fest has added 12...
Trailer Watch: A Young Law Student Discovers BDSM in Julia Murat’s Locarno Entry “Rule 34”
Ahead of its premiere at Locarno Film Festival this month, Variety has exclusively shared the first trailer for Brazilian filmmaker Julia Murat’s third feature, “Rule 34.” In it, we...