#Films
NFMLA Will Spotlight Female-Directed Films to Celebrate Women’s History Month
NewFilmmakers Los Angeles’ (NFMLA) Monthly Film Festival for March will recognize women’s stories. The org announced that on March 16, in honor of Women’s History Month, it will...
Marianna Palka’s “Egg” Among Women in the Arts & Media Coalition’s Collaboration Awardees
The Women in the Arts & Media Coalition has named the honorees of its 2019 Collaboration Awards. Set to be held March 30 — Support Women Artists Now Day — at New York...
Weekly Update for March 1: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Greta No good deed goes unpunished in “Greta.” The campy thriller sees Chloë Grace Moretz playing Frances, a kind young woman new to New York City. One fateful day...
Exclusive: An Eco-Activist Faces a Huge Decision in “Woman at War” Clip
Halla (Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir) has wanted to be a mother for a long time. The protagonist of “Woman at War” applied for adoption years ago and — while waiting and wondering if...
“Made in NY” Women’s Film, TV & Theatre Fund Presents $1.5M to 63 Projects
The first round of “Made in NY” Women’s Film, TV & Theatre Fund grants have been awarded, a press release has announced. New York Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen and the Mayor’s Office...
March 2019 Film Preview
March is Women’s History Month! There are lots of ways to celebrate — learning about important women in history, honoring your favorite women leaders and artists, and, of course,...
Reshaping Spaces Together: VOD and Web Series Picks
There have long been discussions surrounding the spaces women can safely and comfortably occupy in society. The rise of the Time’s Up movement, for example, has emphasized workplaces as spaces rife...
Priya Swaminathan and Tonia Davis Named Co-Heads of Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions
Another reason to get excited about Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company: it will be run by women. According to Deadline, producers and film execs Priya Swaminathan and...
BAM to Host Claire Denis Retrospective
BAM will close out Women’s History Month with a celebration of César-nominated filmmaker Claire Denis. According to a press release, the Brooklyn venue will host “Strange Desire: The...
Guest Post: What “Roma” Gets Right About Motherhood
Guest Post by Cristina Escobar “Roma” became the first film from Mexico to win the “foreign” language category at the Oscars on Sunday, and also nabbed best director and cinematography...
Weekly Update for February 22: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Firebrand – Written and Directed by Aruna Raje (Available on Netflix) “Firebrand” follows the life of a successful lawyer who herself is a sexual assault victim...
Guest Post: The Enduring Legacy of Joan Micklin Silver’s “Between the Lines”
Guest Post by Maya Montañez Smukler Joan Micklin Silver’s 1977 film “Between the Lines” captures a precious moment when 1960s social idealism struggled against 1970s careerist...
Trailer Watch: Elisabeth Moss Is a Self-Destructive Rock Star in “Her Smell”
Becky Something is, by her own admission, a persona and not a person, a user, and a deadbeat. A trailer has arrived for “Her Smell,” and it sees the punk rock superstar, played by...
Study: 31 Percent of 2018’s Top-Grossing Films Featured a Female Protagonist
“2018 may be remembered as the year in which things were not quite as they appeared for female characters,” Dr. Martha Lauzen said of her analysis of women’s representation in last...
Trailer Watch: HBO Doc “The Inventor” Exposes Elizabeth Holmes’ Fake Medical Revolution
Elizabeth Holmes’ dream is that “less people have to say goodbye too soon to people they love.” She reveals this aspiration in the new trailer for “The Inventor: Out for Blood...
Awards Roundup: Angela Shanelec Wins Berlinale Prize, WGA Honors “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
With the Oscars less than a week away, awards season is winding down. Women have nabbed several prestigious honors throughout the 2019 awards circuit, including at the Berlinale and WGA Awards this...
Weekly Update for February 15: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING The Breaker Upperers – Written and Directed by Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami (Available on Netflix) Fifteen years ago, Mel (Madeleine Sami) and Jen (Jackie van...
Under the Radar: Susanne Heinrich’s “Aren’t You Happy?” Creates a New Feminist Archetype
“Aren’t You Happy?” credits its protagonist only as “the melancholic girl” (Marie Rathscheck), a woman with ever-changing hairstyles that suspiciously resemble those of old Hollywood...
Berlinale 2019 Women Directors: Meet Prune Nourry – “Serendipity”
Prune Nourry is a multi-disciplinary artist interested in science and anthropology. She combines sculpture, installation, performance, video, and photography in her work. Nourry has gained...
Research: 2018 Marked Major Improvement for On-Screen Inclusion in Top Films
Finally, some encouraging stats for women and people of color in film. After concluding, in an earlier 2019 report, that the number of women directors hadn’t budged in 12 years, Dr. Stacy L....
Weekly Update for February 8: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING What Men Want – Written by Tina Gordon Chism, Alex Gregory, and Peter Huyck Inspired by the Nancy Meyers hit romantic comedy “What Women Want,” this film follows...
Trailer Watch: Yara Shahidi Only Has One Day for Love in “The Sun Is Also a Star”
“This is my home. New York is my home,” Jamaica-born Natasha Kingsley (Yara Shahidi) pleads in the trailer for “The Sun Is Also a Star.” But it doesn’t matter:...
Women Dominate Sundance 2019 Awards: Chinonye Chukwu, Nanfu Wang, & More
Exactly zero women are up for Best Director at the upcoming Oscars, and none of the films nominated for Best Picture are helmed by women. Fortunately, the Sundance Awards are here to remind everyone...
Weekly Update for February 1: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Miss Bala – Directed by Catherine Hardwicke “Miss Bala”: Columbia Pictures Gloria (Gina Rodriguez) finds a power she never knew she had when she is drawn...
February 2019 Film Preview
From rom-coms to slashers to dramas, moviegoers have plenty of options when it comes to films made by and about women this February. The month kicks off with the February 1 release of Catherine...
Universal Is First Major Studio to Accept 4% Challenge
Universal Filmed Entertainment Group is following in the steps of Tessa Thompson, Kerry Washington, Jennifer Lopez, Lena Waithe, and many others. The Donna Langley-led company is the first major...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Nanfu Wang – “One Child Nation”
Nanfu Wang is an Emmy-nominated and Peabody-winning filmmaker based in New York City. Wang’s feature debut, “Hooligan Sparrow,” premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. It was...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Jacqueline Olive – “Always in Season”
Jacqueline Olive is an independent filmmaker and immersive media producer with more than a decade of experience in journalism and film. She co-directed and produced the award-winning short...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Bert & Bertie – “Troop Zero”
Bert & Bertie are a female writing-directing duo from London. Their combined backgrounds in photography and performance led them to filmmaking. Their credits include “Worm,”...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Anne Sewitsky – “Sonja – The White Swan”
Anne Sewitsky is a Norwegian-American filmmaker. Her debut film, “Happy Happy,” won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance 2011 and was Norway’s Academy Award entry the same year. Her next...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Janice Engel – “Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins”
Janice Engel is an award-winning filmmaker and showrunner. Engel has made numerous documentaries, non-fiction television specials, and series including “Jackson Browne: Going Home,”...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Britt Poulton – “Them That Follow”
Britt Poulton is a writer and director. After studying International Relations at UC Berkeley, she left politics to pursue film and completed her MFA at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. She wrote...
Weekly Update for January 25: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Ánimas – Written and Directed by Laura Alvea and Jose F. Ortuño (Available on Netflix) When her best friend Abraham’s father is killed in a mysterious accident, a...
Study: Sundance Boasts Impressive Pipeline of Women & POC Directors, But Still Has Work to Do
Sundance 2019 is in full swing but the Sundance Institute isn’t resting on its laurels. Far from it. The org released a study with the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, entitled...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Rachel Leah Jones – “Advocate”
Rachel Leah Jones is a critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker and producer whose work focuses on Israel and Palestine. Her directing credits include “500 Dunam on the Moon,”...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Mirrah Foulkes – “Judy and Punch”
Mirrah Foulkes is an award-winning Australian actor, writer, and director. Foulkes has directed three short films: “Dumpy Goes to the Big Smoke,” “Florence Has Left The...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Alice Waddington – “Paradise Hills”
Alice Waddington’s first short 2015’s “Disco Inferno,” was invited to 65 international film festivals, including Fantastic Fest, where it won Best Director and Best Feature...
Glasgow Film Fest 2019: Over Half of the Films Up For the Audience Award Are Women-Directed
The Glasgow Film Festival (GFF) has announced its 2019 lineup and — in news that’s most welcome considering the Oscars failed to nominate a woman director again — most of the films...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Debra Eisenstadt – “Imaginary Order”
Debra Eisenstadt is a writer, director, producer, and editor. She wrote, produced, directed, shot, and edited the feature film “Daydream Believer,” which won a 2002 Independent Spirit...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Ursula Macfarlane – “Untouchable”
Ursula Macfarlane is an award-winning UK-based documentary filmmaker. Her films include “One Deadly Weekend in America,” “Charlie Hebdo: Three Days That Shook Paris,” and...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Penny Lane – “Hail Satan?”
Penny Lane has previously directed feature documentaries “The Pain of Others,” “Our Nixon,” and “Nuts!” Her work has screened at International Film Festival...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Lulu Wang – “The Farewell”
Lulu Wang is a classical-pianist-turned-filmmaker. Born in Beijing, raised in Miami, and educated in Boston, Wang is a recipient of the 2014 Chaz and Roger Ebert Directing Fellowship, awarded at the...
Exclusive: Women Take the Lead in Trailer for the 2019 Athena Film Festival
“The key to success is to look into the future and visualize what you want to become,” says Geena Davis in an exclusive new trailer for the 2019 Athena Film Festival. The actress and...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Jennifer Baichwal – “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch”
Jennifer Baichwal has been directing and producing documentaries for over 20 years. Her award-winning films include “Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles,” “Watermark,”...
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Kim Longinotto – “Shooting the Mafia”
Kim Longinotto is an award-winning documentarian known for making films about female outsiders and rebels. Among her 20 films, she has followed a teenager struggling to become a wrestling star in...
Oscar Noms 2019: Another All-Male Directing Category
The 2019 Oscar nominations have been announced, and we can still count every woman who has ever been nominated for Best Director on one hand: Lina Wertmüller, Jane Campion, Sofia Coppola, Kathryn...
Sundance 2019 Preview: Films About Late Night Writers, Cliques, Toni Morrison, and More
Sundance 2019 begins this Thursday, January 24, and will be screening plenty of buzzy women-driven and women made films. As always, Women and Hollywood has put together some of the festival...
Trailer Watch: A Stepmother Crosses the Line in Sundance Pic “Queen of Hearts”
Sundance drama “Queen of Hearts” sees Anne (Trine Dyrholm), a happy lawyer, wife, and mother, upending her life and entering into an affair — with her husband’s troubled son,...
Guest Post: Why My Sisters and I Shared Our Story of Childhood Sex Abuse in a Documentary
Guest Post by Desirae Brown In the fall of 2007 we were at the peak of our careers. All five of us, including our brothers Gregory and Ryan, had attended Juilliard, capturing the attention of The New...
Weekly Update for January 18: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Adult Life Skills – Written and Directed by Rachel Tunnard (Also Available on VOD) Anna (Jodie Whittaker) is stuck: she’s approaching 30, living like a hermit in her...
Trailer Watch: A Super-Powered Gugu Mbatha-Raw Can’t Save the World in “Fast Color”
Julia Hart’s new film sees Gugu Mbatha-Raw playing a woman with superhuman capabilities without superhuman ambitions. As someone in “Fast Color’s” trailer phrases...