#Women Directors
Trailer Watch: Jennifer Lopez Leads “Hustlers” to the Bank
Jennifer Lopez has scamming down to a science in a new trailer for “Hustlers.” She tells her fellow strip club employees that the Wall Street bros they’re targeting should be...
TIFF 2019 Women Directors: Meet Unjoo Moon – “I Am Woman”
Born in South Korea and raised in Australia, Unjoo Moon has directed and produced many award winning short films, music videos, commercials, and documentaries which have screened internationally at...
Venice Film Fest Hosts Gender Equality Seminar
Historically, Venice Film Festival has not seemed to give a shit about gender parity or inclusion. Artistic director Alberto Barbera has said he would rather quit than set gender quotas. In the wake...
TIFF 2019 Women Directors: Meet Neasa Hardiman – “Sea Fever”
Neasa Hardiman is a BAFTA-winning director and writer whose work spans film and television, including BBC/Netflix’s “Happy Valley” and Netflix’s “Jessica Jones.”...
Lisa Langseth Has a Netflix Series on the Way
Lisa Langseth is bringing “Love & Anarchy” to Netflix. The streamer has commissioned the eight-part Swedish drama from the “Euphoria” filmmaker, Deadline...
TIFF 2019 Women Directors: Meet María Paz González – “Lina from Lima”
María Paz González was born in Temuco, Chile. She studied journalism at the Universidad de Chile, and specialized in screenwriting and filmmaking. She’s worked in different roles of film...
Halina Reijn’s “Instinct” Is The Netherlands’ Pick for International Feature Film Oscar Race
Halina Reijn’s “Instinct” is joining the Oscar race. The Netherlands has selected the award-winning psychological thriller as its submission for the 2020 Academy Award in the...
TIFF 2019 Women Directors: Meet Sarah Gavron – “Rocks”
Sarah Gavron’s previous credits include “Brick Lane,” which earned her a BAFTA nomination and The Alfred Dunhill Talent Award at the London Film Festival, and the Dennis Potter...
TIFF 2019 Preview: Feminist Anthems, Tales of Teen Girlhood, Harriet Tubman, & More
The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival kicks off Thursday and the fest’s schedule is packed with women-centric and women-made projects we can’t wait to catch. As usual, Women and...
Weekly Update for August 30: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Official Secrets – Written by Sara Bernstein, Gregory Bernstein, and Gavin Hood Based on world-shaking true events, “Official Secrets” tells the gripping...
Trailer Watch: A “Tall Girl” Learns to Stand Tall and Proud
Jodi (Ava Michelle) is 16 years old and six-foot-one-and-a-half. And that about sums up her identity, as far as most of her peers are concerned. A trailer has dropped for “Tall Girl,” a...
Venice 2019 Women Directors: Meet Isabel Sandoval – “Lingua Franca”
Isabel Sandoval is a New York-based Filipina filmmaker. Her feature directorial debut, “Señorita,” premiered in competition at the 2011 Locarno Film Festival, and won the Emerging...
Exclusive: Kitty Green’s “The Assistant” Teams Up with The New York Women’s Foundation
Set to make its world premiere today at Telluride Film Festival, Kitty Green’s “The Assistant” follows one day in the life of a recent college grad and aspiring filmmaker who finds...
Venice 2019 Women Directors: Meet Manele Labidi – “Arab Blues”
Manele Labidi is a French-Tunisian writer-director. She has written and directed different projects for theater, radio, and television. Her first short film, “A Room of My Own,” is a...
Venice 2019 Women Directors: Meet Marie Grahtø – “Psychosia”
Marie Grahtø graduated from the independent film school Super16 in 2014. She has travelled to festivals around the world with her short films “Daimi” (2012) and “Yolo”...
Trailer Watch: A Doctor Takes on Local Politics — and Sexism — in “The Perfect Candidate”
The protagonist of Haifaa Al-Mansour’s “The Perfect Candidate,” a young female doctor in Saudi Arabia, is getting fed up. She’s not receiving the funding she needs at her...
All 10 of the 2019 WBTVG Directors’ Workshop Grads Have Booked Directing Gigs
The seventh annual Warner Bros. Television Group (WBTVG) Directors’ Workshop is boasting a 100 percent job-placement rate. According to a press release, all 10 Class of 2019 graduates have secured...
Trailer Watch: “Hava, Maryam, and Ayesha” Are Pregnant and Determined to Change Their Lives
A trailer has arrived for Sahraa Karimi’s history-making feature debut. “Hava, Maryam, and Ayesha” tells the story of three women at major crossroads in life. The trio are...
Venice 2019 Women Directors: Meet Mattie Do – “The Long Walk”
Mattie Do is Laos’ first, and only, female filmmaker. Her feature debut, “Chanthaly,” was the ninth feature film produced in the country since the 1975 revolution, the first Lao...
Trailer Watch: Tilda Swinton Rewrites Cinematic History in “Women Make Film”
Women’s contributions to cinema have gone unacknowledged for far too long. “Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema” aims to educate and enlighten audiences, illustrating...
September 2019 Film Preview
By Jenna Dorsi and Camryn Garrett September is an exciting month for films from women with different stories, backgrounds, and experiences. From crowd-pleasers about women turning the tables on...
BFI London Film Fest’s Competition Lineup Is 60 Percent Women-Directed
The Venice Film Festival kicks off today, and the fest’s competition slate is yet again lacking when it comes to women-directed titles. Not all fests are struggling to program films made by...
Trish Sie to Direct “The Sleepover” for Netflix
Trish Sie has lined up her next feature. Deadline reports that she’s locked in to direct “The Sleepover” for Netflix. Penned by Sarah Rothschild, the family pic tells the story of...
Melina Matsoukas’ “Queen & Slim” Will Open AFI FEST 2019
Melina Matsoukas is returning to the American Film Institute (AFI). According to a press release, the AFI alumna’s feature directorial debut, “Queen & Slim,” will make its world...
Ava DuVernay to Be Honored with PEN America’s Voice of Influence Award
A well-deserved honor is coming Ava DuVernay’s way. The Emmy-nominated “When They See Us” creator is set to receive Pen America’s Voice of Influence Award. Deadline broke the...
Eva Longoria Bringing the Story Behind Flamin’ Hot Cheetos to the Big Screen
Eva Longoria is bringing Richard Montanez’s life story to the big screen. You may not recognize his name, but you’re familiar with the deliciously spicy fruits of his labor: Montanez...
Venice 2019 Women Directors: Meet Shahad Ameen – “Scales”
Writer-director Shahad Ameen was born and raised in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Her short films include 2009’s “Our Own Musical” and 2011’s “Leila’s Window.” The...
Jennifer Reeder’s “Knives and Skin” Acquired by IFC Midnight
Jennifer Reeder’s latest has found a home. IFC Midnight snagged North American rights to “Knives and Skin.” The genre coming-of-age pic made its world premiere at the Berlinale and...
Venice 2019 Women Directors: Meet Gitanjali Rao – “Bombay Rose”
A self-taught animator and filmmaker, Gitanjali Rao emerged into the international stage with her animated short “Printed Rainbow,” which premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week in 2006....
Weekly Update for August 23: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Vita & Virginia – Directed by Chanya Button; Written by Chanya Button and Eileen Atkins (Available on VOD August 30) Set amidst the bohemian high society of 1920s...
Rebecca Stern’s “Well Groomed” Lands at HBO
Neon-colored doggos are coming to HBO. The premium cable network has acquired “Well Groomed,” Rebecca Stern’s doc about competitive and creative dog grooming. A press release...
Trailer Watch: Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe Find the Horror in Suburbia in “Greener Grass”
“On the surface, ‘Greener Grass’ is a comedy satirizing suburbia, but to us it’s a horror movie,” writer-directors Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe told Women and Hollywood...
Trailer Watch: Eliza Scanlen Is Transformed by Love in Shannon Murphy’s “Babyteeth”
A trailer has dropped for Shannon Murphy’s feature directorial debut. “Babyteeth” sees “Sharp Objects” breakout Eliza Scanlen playing another disturbed, rebellious teen....
Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Program Surpasses Parity Target, Sets New Goal
In December 2015 Australian state film fund Screen Australia unveiled Gender Matters, an initiative encouraging greater gender representation in film and TV. As part of the program, women would...
Agnieska Holland’s “Mr. Jones” Acquired by Samuel Goldwyn Films
Samuel Goldwyn Films has snagged North American rights to Agnieska Holland’s latest, “Mr. Jones.” Variety confirmed the news. Penned by Andrea Chalupa, “Mr. Jones” is based on...
Trailer Watch: “Sister Aimee” Is an Evangelist With a Hell of a Story to Tell
“I’m just an entertainer, that’s all,” says Aimee Semple McPherson (Anna Margaret Hollyman, “20 Weeks”) in a new trailer for “Sister Aimee.” “I...
Women and Hollywood’s Picks of the Week for August 22
Note: Picks of the Week will be going on hiatus until mid-September. We hope you have a great end of the summer. Picks of the Week offers Women and Hollywood’s top recommendations —...
Germany Adds “System Crasher” to the International Feature Film Oscar Race
“System Crasher” may be heading to the Oscars. A press release announced that Germany has selected Nora Fingscheidt’s debut feature as their submission for Best International...
Lena Dunham Launches Production Company and Announces a Slew of New Projects
Lena Dunham, “a voice of a generation,” continues to make a major mark on pop culture post-“Girls.” The Golden Globe-winning multi-hyphenate has launched a new production...
Lana Wachowski to Write and Direct a Fourth “Matrix”
A whole new generation will have to decide between red pills and blue pills. Neo and Trinity are headed back to theaters. A fourth “Matrix” installment is on the way with the...
Exploring Trauma: VOD and Web Series Picks
In media, women’s pain is usually used to motivate men. So there’s a real demand for nuanced portrayals of female trauma, which looks at what women are actually going through — as...
“Varda by Agnès” Gets Release Date, Will Coincide with Touring Retrospective of Varda’s Work
Agnès Varda’s final film has a release date. Janus Films will release “Varda by Agnès” November 22 in New York at Film Forum and Film at Lincoln Center with a national rollout to...
Trailer Watch: Gitanjali Rao Tells an Epic Love Story in “Bombay Rose”
Variety has dropped a trailer for Gitanjali Rao’s feature debut, “Bombay Rose.” The musical romance is slated to kick off the 2019 Venice Critics’ Week on August 28. Set on the...
Mati Diop to Receive Inaugural Mary Pickford Award at TIFF 2019
Mati Diop made history at Cannes this year as the first black female filmmaker to screen a feature in competition at the fest, where she took home the Grand Prix for “Atlantics,” her feature...
Exclusive: Rosine Mbakam’s Features to Make Joint Theatrical Premiere
Cameroonian director Rosine Mbakam’s first two features are set to make their joint theatrical premiere. Women and Hollywood can reveal that “The Two Faces of a Bamileke Woman” and...
“Finding Farideh” Is Named Iran’s Submission for the International Feature Film Oscar
“Finding Farideh” is an Oscar hopeful. Co-directed by “From Iran, a Separation” collaborators Azadeh Mousavi and Kourosh Ataee, the documentary has been selected as Iran’s...
Trailer Watch: Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon Reinvent “The Morning Show”
“Good morning. I’m bringing you some sad and upsetting news. And while I don’t know the details of the allegations, Mitch Kessler (Steve Carell), my co-host and partner of 15 years...
Weekly Update for August 16: Women Centric, Directed, and Written Films Playing Near You
FILMS ABOUT WOMEN OPENING Where’d You Go, Bernadette – Written by Holly Gent, Richard Linklater, and Vince Palmo Based on the beloved novel by Maria Semple, “Where’d You Go, Bernadette”...
“Blow the Man Down” Acquired by Amazon Studios Ahead of TIFF Premiere
The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival is still a few weeks away, but one of its titles has already found a home. According to a press release, Amazon Studios has snagged the worldwide rights...
Crystal Moselle & Lesley Arfin’s “Skate Kitchen”-Inspired Comedy Receives Series Order at HBO
An all-girl skateboarding crew is coming to HBO. The Hollywood Reporter confirms the network ordered Crystal Moselle and Lesley Arfin’s “Betty,” inspired by the former’s 2018...
Phoebe Waller-Bridge Writing a Feature Film with Plans to Direct
Phoebe Waller-Bridge won’t be breaking the fourth wall on her next project — she’ll be stepping behind it. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the “Fleabag”...