#Women Directors
The World of #MeToo: Crowdfunding Picks
Originally used by social activist and community organizer Tarana Burke, the term “me too” has become prolific in recent months, following the many exposés of sexual abuse allegations made...
Women Who Persist: March’s VOD and Web Series Picks
This month we find ourselves especially inspired by the determination of women — perhaps because it’s Women’s History Month, and we’re feeling particularly conscious of the struggles...
Under the Radar: “Almost Heaven” Is a Winning Portrait of a Teen Girl Surrounded by Death
Under the Radar is Women and Hollywood’s newest feature. Published monthly, the post offers a chance for us to highlight works by and/or about women that haven’t received big releases or...
Autonomy and Me: Crowdfunding Picks
Whether fighting the system, combating societal prejudices, or coping under the weight of a parent’s expectations, women all around the world struggle with maintaining their autonomy. This...
Fall 2016 Film Preview
By Rachel Montpelier and Kate Gardner Summer might be over, but the impressive array of fall movie releases guarantees you won’t succumb to the back-to-school and work blues quite yet. The fall...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Elizabeth Wood – ‘White Girl’
Elizabeth Wood, an Oklahoma City native, moved New York City to study writing at The New School. After a few years of making experimental and documentary films, Wood received a screenwriting...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Frankie Shaw – ‘Too Legit’
Frankie Shaw is an actress/writer/director from Brookline, Massachusetts. She graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University with a degree in English literature. She wrote, directed and...
The Investigative Fund Names Inaugural Doc Award Winners: Lyric R. Cabral and Elizabeth Lo
The Investigate Fund, a New York-based award-winning nonprofit journalism organization, has unveiled the winners of its inaugural documentary film contest. Directors Lyric R. Cabral...
Watch: New ‘Wonder Woman’ Footage Offers Peek of the Superheroine We’ve Been Waiting For
We finally have the chance to see Wonder Woman as the star of her own film. And from the looks and sounds of it, our long-awaited superheroine is everything we could hope for. Warner Bros....
Berlinale 2016’s Complete Competition Lineup Announced: Only 9% Directed By Women
The 2016 Berlin Film Festival has released its full competition lineup. Now that we can take stock of all the directors screening films in the festival’s most prominent category, we...
Guest Post: The Aerial Cinematography and Fearless Living of ‘Sunshine Superman’
As I write this, my documentary "Sunshine Superman" has been out in the world for a little over a year. We have played at over 40 festivals worldwide and had a limited theatrical run...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Liz Garbus – ‘Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt & Anderson Cooper’
Oscar-nominated director Liz Garbus is one of the most celebrated American documentary filmmakers working today. Her films have been acclaimed worldwide and have garnered multiple Academy...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Milica Zec – ‘Giant’
Milica Zec is a New York City-based film and virtual reality director. Raised in war-torn Serbia, Zec’s work is deeply rooted in issues of conflict, identity and the human struggle. Highlights of...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Maggie Greenwald – ‘Sophie and the Rising Sun’
Writer, director and producer Maggie Greenwald is an award-winning filmmaker who began her career as a picture and sound editor. Her 1987 film "The Kill-Off," a noir thriller based on a...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Penny Lane – ‘NUTS!’
Penny Lane was named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2012. Her debut feature-length documentary, "Our Nixon," world-premiered at International...
A24 to Release Andrea Arnold’s ‘American Honey’
Andrea Arnold’s "American Honey," a coming-of-age tale about a girl (Sasha Lane) who joins a group of roving, law-flouting teenagers, has been acquired by A24. Co-starring Shia...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Siân Heder – ‘Tallulah’
Siân Heder writes and produces on the acclaimed Netflix series "Orange is the New Black," for which she has received multiple WGA nominations. Her first short film,...
Sundance 2016 Women Directors: Meet Nanfu Wang – ‘Hooligan Sparrow’
Nanfu Wang is an independent filmmaker based in New York City. Wang was born in a remote farming village in Jiangxi Province, China. Realizing that she wanted to help tell the stories of people who...
Sundance 2016 Preview: Eagle Huntresses, Toddler Kidnappers, Other Festival Gems By and About Women
January hasn’t been a great — or even remotely good — month for films by and about women in theaters, as our January Film Preview proves. But tomorrow marks the beginning of the...
Chicken & Egg Pictures Announces Recipients of Its Inaugural Breakthrough Filmmaker Award
Documentary filmmakers Kristi Jacobson, Julia Reichert, Yoruba Richen, Elaine McMillion and Michèle Stephenson have been named the five recipients of Chicken & Egg Pictures’...
Quote of the Day: Marielle Heller on How Male and Female Directors Are Perceived Differently
Marielle Heller recently received some well-deserved love from the DGA for her critically acclaimed directorial debut, "The Diary of a Teenage Girl." Heller, who also penned the script for...
Anne Hathaway’s Next Two Sci-Fi Action Films to Take Place During Baby Shower, Nervous Breakdown
Anne Hathaway is making a big move into genre both on screen and behind the scenes. The Oscar-winning actress and writer-director Jac Schaeffer are close to making the sci-fi action-comedy...
Rutina Wesley to Star In Ava DuVernay’s TV Series ‘Queen Sugar’
Former "True Blood" star Rutina Wesley has landed a starring role in Ava DuVernay’s upcoming OWN series "Queen Sugar." The drama, based on a novel of the same name by...
Anxiety and Alzheimer’s on Film: January 2016’s Crowdfunding Picks
This month’s crowdfunding post focuses on filmmakers tackling topics rarely discussed in mainstream film. “From Away” highlights racism in an idyllic town, “MNSTR” dramatizes the feeling of...
Juliet Stevenson Set to Star in Polly Steele’s Intergenerational Drama About Mothers and Daughters
Four-time BAFTA nominee and theater vet Juliet Stevenson will likely star in Polly Steele’s "Let Me Go." The drama, an intergenerational story about mothers and daughters tracing back...
Trailer Watch: Sarah Jessica Parker Reconnects With an Italian Ex in ‘All Roads Lead To Rome’
Sarah Jessica Parker is back with another rom com. A trailer has been released for writer-director Ella Lemhagen’s "All Roads Lead To Rome," and as the film’s title suggests,...
2016 Oscar Noms Announced; ‘Brooklyn,’ ‘Room,’ ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ to Compete For Best Picture
2016 won’t go down as the most homogeneous (i.e., exclusionary) year in recent Oscar history. Three female-centric films ("Brooklyn," "Room" and...
2016 DGA Nods for Angela Bassett, Jill Soloway, Amy Schumer, Dee Rees, Sofia Coppola, and More
A handful of familiar names — among them Angela Bassett, Amy Schumer, Jill Soloway and Sofia Coppola — received DGA Awards nominations for their directing work this year. Also nominated...
Netflix Buys Sian Heder’s ‘Tallulah,’ Starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney
Sian Heder’s feature directorial debut "Talluhlah" has found a home prior to its world premiere at Sundance just over a week away. Netflix is reported to have spent somewhere in the...
Alliance of Women Film Journalists’ EDA Winners: ‘Carol,’ ‘Mad Max,’ Kristen Stewart and More
The Alliance of Women Film Journalists has unveiled the winners of the 2015 EDA Awards. As expected, "Carol" won big. The period romance, written by Phyllis Nagy and starring Cate Blanchett...
Trailer Watch: Julia Roberts and George Clooney Take On Wall St. in Jodie Foster’s ‘Money Monster’
A trailer has arrived for Jodie Foster’s much anticipated "Money Monster." The star-studded drama focuses on a TV personality, financial guru Lee Gates (George Clooney), who is taken...
Zeitgeist To Release Marcie Begleiter’s Doc About Artist Eva Hesse
Marcie Begleiter’s directorial debut, a documentary about sculptor Eva Hess, has been acquired. Zeitgeist Films will distribute "Eva Hesse." The film chronicles...
Trailer Watch: Elaine May’s PBS Portrait of Director Mike Nichols
One of Mike Nichols’ best-known collaborators has helmed a documentary about the Oscar-winning director and one of his most beloved films. Elaine May has directed an "American...
Study: Women Directors’ Ranks Increased in 2015, But Only to 1998 Rates
Female filmmakers enjoyed a slight bump last year in their representation in the film industry, with women directors and those in other key roles (writers, producers, executive producers, editors and...
Susanne Bier’s TV Adaptation of ‘The Night Manager’ Changes the Protagonist From a Male to a Female
"We have to start stealing the men’s roles," urged Helen Mirren back in August 2015. Angelina Jolie’s role in 2010’s "Salt" was originally written for a man, as...
Elite Zexer’s Sundance Competitor “Sand Storm” Acquired by Beta Cinema
Two weeks ahead of its world premiere at Sundance 2016, the Israeli family drama "Sand Storm" has landed a distribution deal. Written and directed by first-timer Elite Zexer, the...
BAMcinématek Launches 18-Film “Witches’ Brew” Program
The Brooklyn Academy of Music will devote its late February programming to exploring cinema’s witches. The 18-film "Witches’ Brew" series will span decades, genres and...
HBO to Air 17 Docs in Spring 2016; Subjects Include Nora Ephron, Mavis Staples, Gloria Vanderbilt
Writer Nora Ephron, filmmaker Laurie Anderson, singer Mavis Staples, heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, Cuban LGBT activist Mariela Castro (Fidel’s niece) and a 18-year-old Pakistani woman...
Apply for the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Directors Fellowship
The Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center will accept applications for its 18-month fellowship for early-career theater directors on January 11-15. The National Directors Fellowship is the...
2016 BAFTA Noms: Female-Centric Films Well-Represented, Women Directors Sorely Lacking
The BAFTA nominations are in. The good news: A female-centric film, "Carol," is tied for most nominations (with "Bridge of Spies"). The romance about a floundering shop girl...
‘Mustang’ Among Strongest Contenders for France’s Lumieres Awards
"Mustang," France’s 2015 submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, is also racking up nominations across the Atlantic. Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s directorial...
‘Inside Amy Schumer,’ ‘Broad City,’ ‘Being Mary Jane’ and More Women-Centric Shows Renewed
Breathe a sigh of relief: lots of your favorite women-centric shows are coming back. Comedy Central has renewed "Inside Amy Schumer" for a fifth season, a seriously no-brainer...
Quote of the Day: ‘American Crime’ Writer Julie Hébert on Why Diversity in the Writers Room Matters
"American Crime Story," the limited series that explores issues of race, class and justice through the lens of one story per season, received 10 Emmy nominations for its debut...
Disney Announces Five Female-Centric Pics for 2016, Only One Directed By Woman
Disney currently has 13 films scheduled for a 2016 release, and at least five of them will feature a female protagonist: "Zootopia," "Alice Through the Looking Glass,"...
Jennifer Lawrence on Planned Parenthood Shooting: “It’s an Attack on Women”
With her career-shifting Lenny letter about equal pay, Jennifer Lawrence announced that she’d become one of the biggest feminist voices in Hollywood. The actress has followed...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Ryan Coogler
Although the issue of Hollywood’s egregious lack of women directors has gone mainstream, we still don’t have very many prominent male filmmakers willing to speak out on behalf of their...
Watch: A Celebration of the Top-Grossing Women-Directed Films of 2015
Women and Hollywood is proud to unveil an original video celebrating the work of 2015’s highest-grossing women directors. The video captures some of the year’s most memorable moments in...
Directors Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos on Challenges and Misconceptions About ‘Making a Murderer’
Since its debut on Netflix last month, the ten-part documentary miniseries "Making a Murderer" has dominated the water-cooler conversation. Below, we rerun an interview with directors Laura...
Crosspost: The Difficulties of Juggling Diversity Activism and a Directing Career in Hollywood
The following has been reposted from Lexi Alexander’s blog with permission of the author. Our version below includes minor edits. 2015 was an interesting year for me. After finally getting back...
Julie Delpy’s Romantic Comedy ‘Lolo’ to Be Released By FilmRise
Julie Delpy’s sixth feature will be distributed by FilmRise. The romantic comedy "Lolo" — which Delpy wrote, directed and stars in — will open March 11. The film...
Guest Post: From the Oscars Stage to Directors Jail: This Is What Sex Discrimination Looks Like
The following was originally posted on composer Michael Levine‘s Facebook page. It has been slightly edited below. Recently, I went to a screening of a 30-minute film called...