#Films
Learning to Heal: Crowdfunding Picks
Loss is a form of trauma that is universally felt yet difficult to describe. Because of this, countless creators and artists have attempted to depict it onscreen. Perhaps by doing so, we as viewers...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Maryam Keshavarz – “Viper Club”
Maryam Keshavarz is an Iranian-American writer and director. While pursuing her MFA at NYU, Keshavarz’s short film “The Day I Died” won the Gold Teddy and Jury Special Mention Prize at the...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Caroline Poggi – “Jessica Forever”
Caroline Poggi’s credits include “Toys on Fire” and “Chiens.” With Jonathan Vinel, her credits include “After School Knife Fight” and “As Long As...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Veena Sud – “The Lie”
Veena Sud created “The Killing,” which was nominated for six Emmys. She also created “Seven Seconds,” an ensemble drama centered around the hit and run of a young black teenager by a...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Dominga Sotomayor – “Too Late to Die Young”
Dominga Sotomayor’s first feature, “Thursday Till Sunday,” was screened at over a hundred festivals, and won the Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2012. In 2013 she...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Nicole Holofcener – “The Land of Steady Habits”
Nicole Holofcener has written and directed six feature films including “Enough Said”and “Friends with Money.” She also co-wrote Marielle Heller’s “Can You Ever Forgive...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Chanya Button – “Vita & Virginia”
Chanya Button is a director, writer, and producer whose diverse work spans film and theater. Her debut feature, “Burn Burn Burn,” was nominated for the BIFA Discovery award. Her shorts...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Amma Asante — “Where Hands Touch”
Amma Asante made her feature debut with 2004’s “A Way of Life.” The film earned her the Most Promising Newcomer prize at the 2005 BAFTA Awards. She was also honored with the BFI London Film...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Michal Aviad – “Working Woman”
Born in Jerusalem, Michal Aviad is an award-winning feminist filmmaker. Her films include “Acting Our Age,” “Jenny and Jenny,” “Invisible,” and “Dimona...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Astra Taylor – “What Is Democracy?”
Astra Taylor is a filmmaker, writer, and political organizer. Her book “The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age” won the American Book Award in 2015. Taylor is a...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Tuva Novotny – “Blind Spot”
Tuva Novotny has an extensive acting background, and has appeared in films like “Eat Pray Love,” “A War,” “Borg vs McEnroe,” and “Annihilation.” “Blind Spot” is...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Nino Zhvania – “Parade”
Nino Zhvania graduated from the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in 2011. Her previous work includes shorts “Excuse Me, My Friend” and “My Friend Iliko.” “Parade” is her first...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Ritu Sarin – “The Sweet Requiem”
Ritu Sarin was born in New Delhi, and completed her MFA in Film and Video at California College of the Arts. She has directed several films with Tenzing Sonam, including “Dreaming Lhasa,”...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Darlene Naponse – “Falls Around Her”
Darlene Naponse is an Anishinaabe Kwe from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, Northern Ontario. She is a writer, film director, and a video artist. Her previous feature, “Every Emotion Costs,”...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Rosanne Pel – “Light as Feathers”
Rosanne Pel received her master’s degree at the Netherlands Film Academy. She directed the award-winning short films “Ult Zicht,” “Newroz,” and “Heraut.”...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Alejandra Márquez Abella – “The Good Girls”
Alejandra Márquez Abella’s made her feature debut with 2015’s “Semana Santa.” Her other credits include shorts “5 Memories” and “Perra,” as well as the documentary...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Annabel Jankel – “Tell It to the Bees”
Annabel Jankel was born in London and began her career directing music videos for artists such as Talking Heads, Miles Davis, and Elvis Costello. Along with her partner, Rocky Morton, Jankel directed...
Weekly Update for September 7: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING I Am Not a Witch – Written and Directed by Rungano Nyoni (Opens in NY; Opens in LA September 14) When eight-year-old Shula (Maggie Mulubwa) turns up alone and...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Laura Luchetti — “Twin Flower”
Laura Luchetti has directed short films, music videos, commercials, documentaries, and theater productions. Her first feature, “Febbre da Fieno,” has been featured at many international...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Genevieve Nnaji — “Lionheart”
Genevieve Nnaji has been a prominent fixture in the Nigerian film industry for over 20 years, primarily as an actor. Her contributions to filmmaking have received several awards and nominations over...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Naziha Arebi — “Freedom Fields”
Naziha Arebi has made short films shown worldwide, completed a series of educational shorts on Libyan reconciliation, and directed a short doc about the assassinated Libyan activist Salwa...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Victoria Stone — “The Elephant Queen”
Director Victoria Stone has worked in Africa for over 30 years telling wildlife stories that have been shown in more than 140 countries with audiences in excess of 600 million. Her previous film,...
Fall 2018 Film Preview
By Keno Katsuda and Antora Majumdar Although 2018 is more than halfway over, there are still plenty of amazing women-centric and women-created films yet to be released. Emma Thompson leads one of the...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Sine Plambech — “Heartbound”
Sine Plambech is an anthropologist at the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Barnard College, Columbia University. For 15 years, Plambech has worked...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Selma Vilhunen — “Stupid Young Heart”
Selma Vilhunen’s latest works as a director include the documentary “Hobbyhorse Revolution,” which premiered at the Tampere Film Festival and won the main prize in domestic...
Trailer Watch: Harassment Makes a Woman’s New Job a Nightmare in TIFF Film “Working Woman”
“The administrative manager is my right hand,” Orna’s (Liron Ben-Shlush) new boss tells her in the trailer for Israeli drama “Working Woman.” She assists him at his...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Ash Mayfair — “The Third Wife”
Ash Mayfair was born and raised in Vietnam, and received her MFA in filmmaking from NYU. Her short films — including “The Silver Man” and “No Exit” — have been screened at...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Nandita Das — “Manto”
Nandita Das has acted in more than 40 feature films in 10 different languages. She made her directorial debut with 2008’s “Firaaq.” Das also acted, wrote, and directed the 2012 play...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Carmel Winters — “Float Like a Butterfly”
Carmel Winters is an award-winning writer and director for the screen and stage. Her debut feature “Snap” won Best Irish Feature and Best Director at the Dublin Critics’ Circle...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Marielle Heller — “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Marielle Heller began her career in front of the camera, appearing in shows such as “Spin City” and “Single Dads,” as well as in movies like “MacGruber” and “A Walk Among the...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Jasmin Mozaffari — “Firecrackers”
Jasmin Mozaffari’s student thesis film, “Firecrackers,” premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to screen at numerous other fests across Canada and Europe....
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Carolina Hellsgård – “Ever After”
Carolina Hellsgård is a writer-director born in Sweden and based in Berlin. Her critically acclaimed debut feature film “Wanja” premiered at the Berlinale in 2015 and was nominated for...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Marija Kavtaradzė — “Summer Survivors”
Marija Kavtaradzė’s short film “I’m Twenty Something” won best student film at the Lithuanian Film Academy Awards in 2015. Kavtaradzė also co-wrote the feature film “The Saint,”...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Natalia Meschaninova — “Core of the World”
Natalia Meschaninova made her feature debut with 2014’s “Hope Factory,” a coming-of-age drama set in Russia. “Core of the World” will begin screening at the 2018 Toronto...
Trailer Watch: The Right to Choose Is On the Line in “Reversing Roe”
“Life is winning again,” Vice President Mike Pence gloats in the trailer for “Reversing Roe” — but women’s rights are not. As Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Carol Morley — “Out of Blue”
Carol Morley’s credits include “The Alcohol Years,” a BAFTA-nominated film about her scurrilous teenage past, “Dreams of a Life,” which went behind the anonymous newspaper headline about...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Camilla Strøm Henriksen – “Phoenix”
Camilla Strøm Henriksen was born in Oslo and studied directing at the London Film School. She has appeared on and directed numerous Norwegian television shows. Henriksen previously directed the...
TIFF 2018 Women Directors: Meet Wanuri Kahiu – “Rafiki”
Kenyan director-producer-writer Wanuri Kahiu’s first feature, “From A Whisper,” was based on the real-life events surrounding the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in...
Weekly Update for August 31: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS MADE BY WOMEN OPENING Let the Corpses Tan – Written and Directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani (Opens in NY and LA) After stealing a truckload of gold bars, a gang of thieves...
“Crazy Rich Asians” & “The Wife” Among 22 Films to Receive ReFrame’s Gender Equality Stamp
ReFrame has bestowed its stamp of approval to 22 more films. Introduced earlier this summer, the stamp is given to films and TV projects that hire female-identifying individuals on both sides of the...
Trailer Watch: An Army Vet Brings a Malevolent Force into Her Home in “Lost Child”
“These are the Ozarks woods,” a family friend reminds Fern (Leven Rambin, “True Detective”), an army veteran who has just returned home. “These people around here, they...
Weekly Update for August 24: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING The Bookshop – Written and Directed by Isabel Coixet (U.S. Release) (Opens in NY and LA) England, 1959. Free-spirited widow Florence Green (Emily Mortimer) risks...
Sharon Horgan to Make Her Feature Directorial Debut, Has Yet Another Show in the Works
Sharon Horgan is squeezing two more projects into her jam-packed schedule. Deadline confirms the “Catastrophe” star and co-creator will direct her first feature film, and is teaming up...
Under the Radar: Yoko Yamanaka’s “Amiko” Is A Raw Coming-of-Age Story
High schooler Amiko (Aira Sunohara) is in love. The object of her affections is Aomi (Hiroto Oshita), a cool, counterculture guy with whom she bonds over their shared love of Radiohead. Despite his...
Trailer Watch: NYC’s “Queen of the Night” Is Celebrated in “Susanne Bartsch: On Top”
Susanne Bartsch, the legendary fashionista and party hostess, is known for accepting, supporting, and honoring marginalized communities, and LGBTQ folks in particular. She “was the one who...
Weekly Update for August 17: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING The Wife – Written by Jane Anderson (Opens in NY and LA) After nearly 40 years of marriage, Joan and Joe Castleman (Glenn Close and Jonathan Pryce) are complements....
Trailer Watch: Maika Monroe Hears an Unusual Pickup Line in “After Everything”
Mia (Maika Monroe, “It Follows”) isn’t impressed when Elliot (Jeremy Allen White, “Shameless”) starts chatting her up at subway stop in the trailer for “After...
Weekly Update for August 10: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Crazy Rich Asians – Written by Adele Lim and Peter Chiarelli (Opens August 15) “Crazy Rich Asians” follows native New Yorker Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) as she...
Why Are the Only Two Women-Directed Studio Films of the Summer Opening the Same Day?
On the surface “The Spy Who Dumped Me” and “The Darkest Minds” couldn’t be more different. One is an action-comedy about best friends (Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon) who...
August 2018 Film Preview
If you’re looking for a respite from the hot summer days, August is looking to be an excellent month for movies helmed by women or led by women characters. One of the most highly anticipated...
Weekly Update for July 27: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING THIS WEEK Snapshots – Directed by Melanie Mayron; Written by Jan Miller Corran and Katherine Cortez (Opens in LA) Three women. Three generations. Two summers. 50 years...